In San Francisco for business last weekend talking with colleagues over dinner about our first jobs. People from all over the country. I tell them how I lived with my grandparents over the summers, starting at age 11, working in the orchards.

I like to talk about it because that's where I learned to work, even if it was only summers. I describe the hard work, long hours, etc., and the first response is:

Aren't there child labor laws against that?

I guess I'd had my fill of some of them being outspoken about their liberal viewpoints (whatever happened to not discussing politics in polite/mixed company?), especially their joy at being in SF in time for the gay pride parade only a few days after the SCOTUS decided gay marriage was a constitutional right, because for the first time I got a little testy.

Although I still had enough restraint to limit myself to saying that No law should keep a child from working for their family.

Not in my America.