Help Wanted?
Growing up in a family of eight, it was a rare occasion when we ate out at restaurants. However, one place that my parents favored had an orange roof, teal booths, and an all-you-can-eat fish fry on Friday nights in the summer. If you are my age, you know this was Howard Johnson's. With my three older brothers' plates full of clams, I am sure they lost money on us. As the youngest, I was only there for the ice cream.
I remember noticing a “Help Wanted” sign on the window advertising "Mothers’ Hours," and I thought that was brilliant. I pictured the local moms sending their kids off to school, clocking in at Hojo's, and returning to us by 3 in the afternoon. I imagined that they might even take a dip in the pool at the attached motor lodge. Sounded like fun. When I mentioned this to my older sister, she said she didn't think it made sense to do all that extra work for $1.75 an hour.
At age 5 or 6, I did not know about the wage gap, the second shift, economic booms, and recessions. I was mainly concerned about my own little life of sugar cones. During the summer of 2021, I have been thinking about those “Help Wanted” signs everywhere we go. Local conversations have turned to questions of why is the cafe closed today? What is the deal with all the self-check-out stations at the pharmacy? Where did all the employees suddenly go?
While waiting for the renovated Peterborough Town Library to open, I took advantage of the digital newspaper archives. You can look up a hundred years of history with three clicks. I went back to the 1960s, a time of sweeping societal changes. Much of what I read looked familiar to contemporary times. In an August 1967 headline in the Peterborough Transcript, I learned that members of the New England apple grower council set off for Florida to recruit workers to New Hampshire for the fall picking season. Too few people were available in town to harvest the ripening apples in the orchards. There was an "acute shortage" of workers during a record year of fruit production. Federal policy at the time outlawed hiring foreign migrants "until the domestic supply is exhausted," leaving the town with few options. Farmers were at a loss.
I kept reading. A decade later, the newspaper again reported concerns over the "job squeeze" as more companies moved into the region. A Transcript article from March 1979 quoted a member of the Governor's Council who felt that the increase of computer and technology businesses along the border of New Hampshire and Massachusetts might be surpassing the region's ability to supply workers, citing severe labor shortages. He encouraged the industrial development authorities to be cautious about too much growth. Perhaps he thought high tech was a fad.
In 1988, a feature article discussed the lack of workers to fill open positions with the Peterborough Public Works. They wanted some help figuring it out. An economics teacher at ConVal presented the problem of too few workers in town to a group of high school students. They divided into teams and analyzed housing, demographics, schooling, and employment data. They also interviewed workers. Most of the unfilled jobs were unskilled. At that time, a greater percentage of high school graduates than in previous decades were heading to college. The job outlook for professionals was strong. They pointed out that there were too few young people in town available to work in service positions. The students felt that the region needed to find a way to attract new people to town.
The anxieties about employment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s were similar to 2021. The Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge era may be over, but tourists still flock to apple orchards in September. High tech and public works are necessary jobs. Customers enjoy spending time in the bookshops, boutiques, and bakeries that define Depot Square. Judging from recent Facebook posts and comments, we are all adjusting to the short-term consequences of leaving some jobs unfilled. The pandemic is challenging, yet we have been through struggles before. During these cycles, we manage our expectations, modify our behavior and examine our values.
