Monday will focus on Americana and the nation’s tradition of hard workers at the 14th Annual Labor Day Parade in Santa Paula.
   The parade will start at 10 a.m., stepping out from Seventh Street onto East Main Street and the procession will end at the Gazebo where awards will be announced.
   Leading the 2018 Labor Day Parade is Grand Marshal Lee Cole, president/CEO/chairman of the board of Calavo Growers Inc., headquartered in Santa Paula, with a workforce of about 2,000.
   “He’s a hard worker, employs a lot of people,” said Anita Gonzales of Santa Paula, a member of the Labor Day Committee. “Lee is always working and is very generous to the community — you ask and he gives. He was a great classmate, too; I went to school with him. We’re Santa Paula High School Class of 1958,” as was his late wife, Jeanette.
   So far, there are more than 50 entries in the parade, one of the few held in the state, with a lineup ranging from veterans groups, public safety and school personnel, clubs and organizations and bands to unions, agricultural workers, churches, volunteer groups, equestrians and more.
   According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a
creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.”   The man who first proposed the holiday for workers is still in question.
   Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”