Lars Larson on Christmas Trees and Labor

Let’s talk about Christmas trees and a work ethic.

This weekend Tina and I headed out to Thornton’s Treeland where, unlike in downtown Portland, they still call them Christmas trees. Out at the front gate, a kid who couldn’t have been far from ten years of age greeted us and did a professional job of explaining where to go and how the U-cut operation worked.

We parked the truck and got out to look. Two minutes later Joe walked up. We found out later, Joe is thirteen years old and he’s part of the Thorton family, just like his younger cousin at the gate. He guided us all over those acres until we found just the right Christmas tree and loaded it up.

Got me thinking. All of those times we’ve talked about how America can’t get by without illegal labor because American kids won’t do it? I think Joe and his cousin disproved that notion. I saw no signs that those kids in rain gear weren’t willing to get out in the weather and the dirt and do the jobs that their family and America has offered up.