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 Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, but it’s also a federal holiday in honor of us: the working folks.

Not all of our jobs are glamorous. Some of them are downright dangerous. Or messy.

Most of us have at least one good story from a tough day at the salt mines.

We asked to you share your stories with us. Here are some of the interesting, dirty and odd jobs that we heard about.

• Brandon L. Price is the president of Wildland Forestry & Environmental, a natural resource consulting business in Liberty.
  “WFE employees are prone to getting soiled from a variety of activities: Being steeped in soot and smoke from conducting prescribed burns, covered in mud from digging out stuck vehicles in a swampy forest, breathing in dust while planting wildlife habitat, or spattered with tree paint when trying to mark timber on windy days.”
  Sounds like an Old Spice commercial. Or like Brandon might need some at the end of the day.

• Anna Callaghan, the office manager from Greensboro’s Environmental Solutions Group, sent us a photo of Dan Whittaker, one of the company’s field technicians, taking air-quality readings in a contaminated vacation home in western North Carolina.
  “Mold from water damage can cause a variety of health problems, so our team members have to take extra safety precautions when on a job site,” she says.
  Looks like a hot suit. I bet it keeps him safe, though.  

• Speaking of working up a sweat, we don’t envy Luis A. Nunez, the owner of Nuva Paint Co. in Greensboro.
  “Can you imagine stripping all the paint on a whole house in 100-degree weather? As a painter, every day I am faced with smoke, poisonous dust, strong smells. Not to mention the scorching heat inside my mask, the burning in my eyes, even being covered in bleach from head to toe.”
  Wow. Sounds tough, Luis. Have a cold one this weekend.

• One worker who we can’t do without is David Wright. This city employee started in the street maintenance department.
  “When an opening in the solid waste department opened up, I applied and was accepted. Picking up trash is a dirty job I chose to do, but most of the people on my route make me take pride in my job.”
  Thanks, David. We depend on folks like you, even though we probably take you for granted.
   
• Maybe that’s how Tamra Newton of Liberty feels sometimes. As a cleaning lady, she’s seen her share of messes.
  “My dirtiest jobs are hair in the shower drain, pet messes, nasty ovens, dirty tissues on bedside tables, dirty underwear on the floor, and used condoms in the bed covers. Think twice if you aren’t cleaning up these items for yourself,” she writes.
  Hang in there, Tamra.

• Jim and Jan O’Malley of Greensboro have a good sense of humor about their business, Doggie Dung Squad.
  “This business we kind of just stepped in. My husband and I are dog poop scoopers, going to clients’ homes ridding their yards of their 4-legged family members’ poop. At the end of the day, we’re pooped!”
   
• No one we heard from had it worse than Blair Barton-Percival  of Greensboro , who described a job he  had in the early 1990s in Binghamton, N.Y. Technically, this qualifies an out-of-state entry,  and it was way longer than 50 words, but it sounds like a dreadful job.
  As a block cutter for a rubber boot factory, he was paid $2.10 an hour, plus money for each piece.
  “We worked four 10-hour days and I swung a 5-pound mallet, cutting pieces of rubber from a large roll, using different sized and shaped dies. The more pieces I cut, the more money I made. There was no air conditioning. The particles in the air, containing sulfur, dust, and who knows what, would drift from the processing portion of the plant to the assembly side. The plant smelled of cooked rubber leaving its residue on anyone who entered. On occasion, I worked the assembly line and could not even take a bathroom break unless someone actually filled my position until I returned. One of the greatest miracles in my life was when this plant shut down and I was eligible for retraining due to the 'dislocated work’ program.”
  Blair says  he went back to school and has been grateful for his other jobs ever since.

• There’s almost always a creative way to get dirty. Susan O’Leary of Jamestown figured that out.
  “Teaching pottery for the Art Alliance of Greensboro allows me to play in mud each day. It’s a creative dirty job! As studio potter, I have the luxury of getting dirty in the name of work. My work wardrobe consists of old clothes and an apron.”
  Lots of artists shared their stories. Wonder if Susan knows our next worker?

• JP Madren of Reidsville is the brains and the artist behind DoughBowlMaker.com. No, the bowls aren’t made of dough. They’re made for preparing bread dough.
  But the hand-carved wooden bowls that he’s been making since 1998 can be used for anything.
  “My job is tedious. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, dusty, hazardous, interesting and only being done by a dozen or so folks around the country.”
  Many artists seem to have  similar frustrations. Maybe JP can empathize with this next person.

• Barbara Cashman of Greensboro makes fused glass tile by hand for her Greensboro business, GlasTile.
  “It is indeed dirty, messy, frustrating, interesting and challenging — especially after 20 years and in a down-turn economy. Many times I want to throw out the Band-Aids and 'retire.’ But heavens, what else would I do?”
  Well, Barbara, it’s funny that you should ask us that.

• Judith Abraham just happens to be a retiree in Greensboro.
  “My work entails waiting in doctors’ offices, going to pharmacies, taking my glasses off and on (near- and far-sightedness), working out, eating out, re-reading everything, moving slower and slower, thinking longer and longer to capture the (elusive) words/phrases, having folks repeat everything at least once, etc. This is time-consuming work.”
  Judith recommends keeping a sense of humor, compassion for the world and passion for life.
  Sounds like good advice for all of us, no matter what our professions.