By Rodger Morrow, Editor and Publisher
Beaver County Business
Exactly fifty years ago today, I delivered a televised Labor Day message from the Oval Office to the American people. A balding, avuncular gentleman named Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., was kind enough to sit behind the Wilson Desk and read it for me in front of a television camera.
I shall always be grateful to him for that. I disdain public speaking. (Looking back on it, I probably should have tipped him, or at least offered to.)
The speech started out:
“The greatness of America is a reflection of the strength, character, and the will of the American people. Without the dedication of millions of men and women, willing to roll up their sleeves and go to work, the American dream would remain only that—a dream.”
It went downhill from there, as presidential speeches are wont to do. But I hope that it made at least a few Americans, sitting in front of their televisions on that hot August day, a little bit proud of all they’d labored to accomplish in their lives—and made other Americans (spouses, children, parents, and grandparents) proud of them too.
The Seventies were not kind to America. We had been through a lot: Vietnam, Watergate, and a now-forgotten Mel Brooks TV series called When Things Were Rotten. (And by and large, they were.) Inflation was double-digit, interest rates were climbing toward the stratosphere, and the fashion industry had conspired to drape perfectly innocent men in polyester leisure suits—an indignity that, in hindsight, may have been worse than Watergate.
Half a century later, the view looks different. The summer of 2025 finds us in relative prosperity. A trip to the grocery store still makes one long for the barter system, but most of us aren’t waiting in gas lines or patching our cars with Bondo every other weekend. We have air-conditioned cars that talk to us, watches that tell us when we’re about to keel over, and telephones so “smart” they occasionally outwit their owners.
While I no longer enjoy a national audience—Beaver County Business having not yet secured a broadcasting license from the FCC—I would like to take this opportunity to wish the people of Beaver County a Happy Labor Day. The greatness of our county is indeed a reflection of your strength, character, and will. You’ve built businesses, raised families, staffed schools, maintained churches, kept the lights on, and managed somehow to avoid polyester leisure suits.
For that, posterity will thank you.
So roll up your sleeves, grill your hamburgers, and enjoy the day. And if you should happen to see Gerald Ford wandering along Third Street in Beaver, please tell him I still owe him a tip.
