Yes, it is true that I have no cannery work experience in my portfolio/resume. A can opener is a necessary fixture of any modern American kitchen, I grant you that much. However, I have consistently refused these various attempts to recruit me into a labor union. Labor unions have gone too far in terms of trying to govern every detail of our personal lives. Working conditions for the most part are very good in today's American industries, at least far better than if you go to certain places overseas where the wages are cheap and there are no legal restraints on child labor, no holidays, no vacations, etc. Here in the U.S. I feel no compelling necessity to enlist in any labor union at this time.
Of course, there are some jobs that require labor union membership. Fortunately for me, I have not chosen any career that required labor union membership.
It is true that my grandparents, who died in the 1970s, may have worked at canneries at some time or another during their lifetimes and thus might have also had some experience with labor unions. My mother told me about her cannery experience and how they had to slow her down from working too hard because then everybody has to work too hard to catch up with her.
Maybe someday I will get around to finally reading that dreary book, "The Grapes of Wrath," of which I never got past the first few pages in Oklahoma. You are so stupid you probably thought that John Steinbeck was a historian. No, he was a fiction writer and said probably just as much about his own twisted version of reality as about the reality itself, although I really can't say much about that. I never read that book.
We really don't care to be reminded that Cannery Row, a very nice shopping center and tourist attraction, originally had a very different purpose. I really wouldn't know anything about that. I am not old enough to remember that. Obviously. You won't get very much information out of me. I only know what I read in books.
I only know what I hear in songs, such as Woody Guthrie's famous, "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land." He also wrote something about a machine that kills fascists, which I recently found on Youtube, but, yes, I really am not a huge fan of that type of folk music, although there are some good songs there, if you can stand to sift through all of the not-so-good songs. Life is short. So many songs, so little time.
