With the strikes from SAG-AFTRA, the WGA, and the UAW, 2023 was brimming with talk of unions. So, for a change of pace, here’s the story of an acronym that you might not have seen in the headlines this year: the ILWU.

     The International Longshore and Warehouse Union largely represents dock workers along the West Coast of North America. The ILWU website explains, “We are dedicated to the welfare of our membership and to a better life for the people in the communities in which we live.”

     In case you weren’t familiar, longshoring is the work of loading and unloading ships. According to the University of Washington’s Waterfront Workers History Project, it is “a highly skilled line of work that involves careful balancing and weight management within ship holds.” It is incredibly taxing, as well as very dangerous.

     To learn more about longshoring and the union behind it, I turned to someone who knows longshoring like the back of his hand: my grandfather. Gilbert Valles, known as “Guillotine Gil” on the docks, was a longshoreman and later a longshore foreman for almost forty years.

     Growing up in San Pedro and Wilmington, California, my papa would see the giant maritime vessels come in. “It was very fascinating to me. Plus, my dad worked down on the docks. So, I would always have access to see those ships and they just fascinated me,” he explains.

     He started longshoring after he returned home from being drafted into the army in 1962. His work began at 26 years old, with the unloading of bananas on the stem. My papa talked about how the work he did was very difficult, but because he had “a lot of old-time guys that showed me a lot of tricks to move a lot of heavy equipment,” he felt lucky. “A lot of it is just the knowing how to do it. You don’t have to be like Superman,” he adds.

     For the longshoremen, each day of work could look completely different. Before my papa witnessed the shift from labor done by hand to containerization, he got to learn all sorts of interesting skills, including driving cranes, working in the hull, driving forklifts, and much more.

     However, he also stresses the importance of “learning how to get along with your fellow workers.” He explained this significance by describing the process of getting job assignments: “You don’t work with the same people every day. One day, you might work with guys for three or four or five days, if the job lasts that long. When it’s over with, you had to go back to the Dispatch Hall and you get another job. Well, you might not see those same guys again for God knows how long.”

     Despite this constant change, my papa’ favorite part of being a longshoreman was the camaraderie that the workers all shared. He explains, “We handled different cargoes from all over the world, and it was exciting. It was fun. A lot of it was really hard work at times, and sometimes it wasn’t so bad… It was enjoyable.”

     This whole idea of their camaraderie is quite evident in the story behind my papa’s longshoring nickname: “Guillotine Gil.” He shares, “That nickname was given to me by a friend of mine. When I walked into a lunchroom one day … there was a bunch of new longshoremen in there having lunch. So, this friend of mine jumped up as I walked into the dining room and said, ‘Hey, all you brand-new longshoreman, you better watch out. Because here comes Guillotine Gil and you do one thing wrong and he’ll chop your head off!’ … It went around the waterfront like wildfire!”

      Throughout his longshoring career, my papa had the support of the ILWU. He explains that it’s such a strong union due to its grasp over the ships in all the ports along the West coast of North America. “That’s a powerful chip for the union’s side,” he explains.

     By negotiating against the ship owners, the ILWU has helped to provide many benefits to the dockworkers. An example of this is the ILWU strike in 1971. It had to do with the threat to job security because of an increase in ship containerization. The union bargained to train the longshoremen on how to maintain the new equipment, and even though it was a rough time for all, the ILWU was ultimately successful in gaining this jurisdiction.

      My papa worked so hard, seven days a week, doing very difficult (and dangerous) work. Even so, he says, “(The ILWU) gave me and my wife, and my entire family, a great living and a great lifestyle.”

     Even today, my papa is still involved with the ILWU as he attends the monthly Pensioners’ Meetings, which provides updates on “what’s happening on the entire coast of the West Coast Long Shore,” as well as a “great big prime rib cookout” that’s held every October. It’s a big event, with live music, a full bar, and a longshoreman who cooks all the prime ribs on portable barbeques. “Everything is a very nice turnout and it’s good unionism (when) we come together like that,” he says.

     When it comes to unions in general, my papa believes they’re important to have, especially in terms of organization. “You have the people behind you to stick together and you challenge the employer … instead of them taking all the money for themselves. You know, it’s the workers that make the owners rich. So they should share some of that big profit with their workers. And that’s what unions try to do.”

     Despite the work being, at times, a challenge, my papa says, “I would not change or trade any part of my job for anything else after I’ve done it and I lived it… It’s probably one of the greatest labor jobs in the world, with high pay and the greatest benefits… To me, it’s the greatest job on the planet as far as working goes.”

     Overall, I had a really great time interviewing my papa about longshoring and the ILWU. And who knows, maybe even the next time you eat a banana, you’ll think about the longshoremen and their work.

     Finally, my papa would like everyone to know one of his favorite pieces of advice: “There’s nobody in this world that’s going to give you something for nothing. Always remember that.”

     Halloween is a national holiday celebrated all over the world, though not officially made as a federal holiday. Have you ever wondered what the true origin of this holiday is?

     Halloween first originated in ancient Britain and Ireland by the Celtic people. On this night, people would light bonfires and candles while wearing costumes to drive away the ghosts who were thought to be ravaging their crops.

     Some of the costumes worn included saints and biblical figures, as this holiday was first created by the church. Celts believed that their ancestors’ spirits would visit them on this day, and would lay out offerings such as food, drinks, and jewelry for them.

     Originally, Halloween was celebrated on the first of November to honor saints. The day before was this holiday’s eve. This turned into the holiday we all know of today, Halloween. During the middle ages, Halloween was a time for the people to gather together, have feasts, play games, and even throw parades. Trick or treating was also celebrated during this time. 

     All of the Halloween traditions that we celebrate today have been around since the beginning of this day. Carving pumpkins and turning them into jack-o-lanterns used to be made up from carving turnips, potatoes, or beets and making jack-o-lanterns out of those. The reason for carving turnips and not carving pumpkins like we do today is because pumpkins were not indigenous to Ireland. As years went on North America started to take on this holliday, where pumpkins were native to their land. 

     Trick or treating during the origins of Halloween was a little different than today as well. Small groups of people, mostly the poor in costumes, went from house to house and performed little tricks in exchange for food and drinks.

     The theme of costumes worn back then consisted of ghosts, witches, devils, and skeletons. Haunted houses were also not around until the Great Depression where parents came up with ways to distract the children whose Halloween pranks turned into vandalism and property damage. 

     After many years Halloween has changed. Nowadays people don’t look at this holliday as an ancient ritual. Halloween is a day full of activities and fun still including those traditions of long before. Carving pumpkins, trick or treating, costumes, eating treats, and watching scary movies are now the main attractions. There are some people who don’t celebrate this holiday due to religious reasons. Jehovah’s Witnesses, some Jewish, and Muslims are some of the few. 

     No matter what you do, everyone loves to celebrate this day in different ways, children love to go trick or treating from door to door, while others love to dress up and go to Halloween parties. Some just like to stay at home with a bowl of candy and enjoy  scary movies.

Winter, summer, spring, and back to fall as football season begins, so does band season. And with band season comes band camp, competitions, halftime shows, and a team that slowly becomes some of your closest friends.

     Band is a lot more than playing music. There are fun games to play during band camp, a variation of secret Santa for competition season known as “Secret Pals” and memories to last a lifetime. 

     Of course, playing music is one of the most important parts of band, but so is learning drill. Drill is our places on the field while we play halftime, and it can take months to learn, revise, and add creative visuals. 

     Learning visuals in a performance is a lot more fun than people would think. We get to laugh, learn silly dances, and the best part is getting to work with the colorguard on how to make it look better. No matter what, we always find a way to make practice fun. And Finley Hahn, a freshman who plays clarinet, said it best when they said, “Practice is fun, if you make it fun.” 

     Though practices are fun, the schedule can be a lot. With practice 4 days a week and 2-4 hours of work, it can be tough to manage. Emma Hambel, a senior who is Drum Major, described practices perfectly when she said, “Practices are kind of crazy hours wise, but ultimately I think that long practices are good because we can get a lot of reps in.” Reps are good so we can see what we need to work on and what to fix. 

     Even if practices feel like a lot, in the end it is so worth it. David Parsons, a junior who plays trumpet,  described what band is as a whole, not just people who play at halftime, when he said, “I love the people, I love playing the trumpet, I love performing and the excitement before a football game and competition, and being a part of something.” I know a lot of people in band can say the same, including myself.

     Being a part of something really is the best feeling. Having that place where most people see it as their home and their safe space, is just something you don’t get all the time. It is incredible that band has that for so many students. 

     Band can be people’s safe space, even though it can also be incredibly stressful sometimes. But it makes it all worth it, when we do little things like huddling in a group and telling each other how proud we are of each other and hugging each other good luck, or even just making jokes during practice. Every stressful moment, and every worry about halftime and competitions, makes it all worth it.