Chapter Six
Sam made the turn onto the beltway that would take them around Indianapolis and turn south toward Kentucky. They were just starting to hit morning work traffic and he blended in with the flow of cars. The weather was holding up fine on this crisp October day and they were still ahead of schedule.
“Let’s get on around Indy and we can stop for some breakfast”, Sam said in Jake’s direction.
“Sounds fine with me”, Jake replied.
“You look pretty deep into it. Are you working or daydreaming?” Sam asked.
“A little of both. It’s weird. I was just thinking about my eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Carson. You probably don’t remember her.”
“What made you think of her?”
“I don’t know. It was one of those stream-of-consiousness jumps, I guess. She used to ask me all of the time what I wanted to be when I grew up”, Sam said. “I was just thinking about how I got from her class to my job today. It’s not important. I need to get back to work.”
“Okay, I’ll let you”, Sam said. “We’re about a half hour out from breakfast.
Sam looked over at Jake, who was settling back into work on his computer files. Now that he thought about it, Sam wasn’t exactly 100 percent sure of what it was that Jake did all the time at his current job. He certainly didn’t know for several years when his kid brother was stumbling through life from idea to idea and career to career. He wasn’t even sure what kind of job that Jake would end up with. Whatever it was, he knew it would at least be flashy. Jake was the adventurer of the two. He was high profile in college, even when he failed at it. He was the talk of the town when he served in the military and traveled the country and eventually the world. His hobbies were flashy and adventurous. Even Jake’s brief stint in the leadership of his church was high profile. Jake’s did everything it seemed, and he did it at full volume. They could not have been much different.
Sam had gone through school as a middle of the road student. No cause for alarm, but he was not a great student either. Mostly B’s and C’s. His father, Edward, encouraged him to bring his grades up and worked with him during the few times he was home and could. They would talk about it when they would go out fishing together with their cane poles at the lake near the river. Sam missed those trips together, just he and his dad, like they had done before they moved up north from Kentucky. They would talk about it on the weekends when Edward would take Sam and Jake to the library. Edward loved books and he passed on this love to both boys. But Jake was a natural with grades and Sam was not. So his choices in life were limited.
College was an option for Sam, but it was a longshot. There wasn’t a lot of money in the family, and definitely not money for college. A scholarship was a longshot also with his grades. His guidance counselor at the high school advised Sam to look at skilled trades work like construction or carpentry. But the Dunbars weren’t particularly handy or experienced at those trades. For a while Sam thougth that he may want to be a car mechanic. He liked to tinker with his friends out in the garage on rebuilding projects with old beater cars. He had worked on one Volkswagen Beetle for an eternity and had never quite gotten it going again. But he sure tried.
Sam eventually solved his career problem by getting married. He had been dating Marie for the last two years of high school and they got married four months after graduation. Marie’s dad had solved his problem for him. Ernie was a union official at the plant and he offered Sam a lifeline. The plant was in it’s peak years in the early 70’s. It was a time of full production and full employment. Many people in the area knew that they would work at the plant for their full career with the union taking care of them until they retired with a full pension at 30 years in. Ernie made sure that Sam got signed up on that plan and eighteen years old and married Sam walked into the plant for the first time.
Sam paid his dues in the early years as every entry level worker in the factory did. It would take time to build up seniority and the perks that went with that. So he started pushing a broom on third shift in the hot bowels of the plant. The hard physical work and the heat of the factory toned up his body and left him physically exhausted each night. He put in his time. He paid his dues. And he lived a quiet life. And soon enough he and Marie started their family with the birth of Janey. It was a life changing moment for Sam and he settled into his new life. It was the trinity of the 30 year life: work and family and faith. He put in his shifts at the factory. He spent quality time at home with his growing family. And he made sure his family attended their church three times each week.
Over the years Sam made moves within the factory hierarchy. He bided his time until an opening came up for a machine operator and he put in for it and got it. Sam worked that machine faithfully, putting in his shifts and producing the best quality part he could. He was a company man and he knew who paid his salary. But he was also a union man and he was grateful for the start the union had given him. Sam weathered the inevitable strikes that occurred in factories in the industrial midwest in the eighties and the nineties. He served his time on picket lines through some painful and gut wrenching labor disputes that pitted family against family. Each time he was grateful that Sam was working out of state at some other task and was not part of the strife. Eventually, the strike would be settled and Sam would return to the plant and resume his thirty year march toward his pension.
It wasn’t easy, but Sam had fought his way over the years as a self-made man into the ranks of the line supervisors. His seniority and work skills had overcome the lack of a college degree and eventually earned him the responsibility of supervision. But it was a different role that he arrived at than what he always thought it would be. The plant had changed drastically since he had first walked in, and not for the better. In it’s heyday the plant employed 30,000 people from the surrounding areas. Now it was down to less than 3,000. Labor disputes and competition had taken their toll. Outsourcing was the order of the day and they jobs were all moving South. The line that Sam supervised was one of the few left in the plant that was in production. It made him sad every day when he walked in past the empty plant floorspace where his friends and coworkers once worked. The machines were all gone, as were his friends. Sam was just hanging in until retirement. If he could make it to retirement, that is.
And Jake was now part of the problem.
“Let’s get on around Indy and we can stop for some breakfast”, Sam said in Jake’s direction.
“Sounds fine with me”, Jake replied.
“You look pretty deep into it. Are you working or daydreaming?” Sam asked.
“A little of both. It’s weird. I was just thinking about my eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Carson. You probably don’t remember her.”
“What made you think of her?”
“I don’t know. It was one of those stream-of-consiousness jumps, I guess. She used to ask me all of the time what I wanted to be when I grew up”, Sam said. “I was just thinking about how I got from her class to my job today. It’s not important. I need to get back to work.”
“Okay, I’ll let you”, Sam said. “We’re about a half hour out from breakfast.
Sam looked over at Jake, who was settling back into work on his computer files. Now that he thought about it, Sam wasn’t exactly 100 percent sure of what it was that Jake did all the time at his current job. He certainly didn’t know for several years when his kid brother was stumbling through life from idea to idea and career to career. He wasn’t even sure what kind of job that Jake would end up with. Whatever it was, he knew it would at least be flashy. Jake was the adventurer of the two. He was high profile in college, even when he failed at it. He was the talk of the town when he served in the military and traveled the country and eventually the world. His hobbies were flashy and adventurous. Even Jake’s brief stint in the leadership of his church was high profile. Jake’s did everything it seemed, and he did it at full volume. They could not have been much different.
Sam had gone through school as a middle of the road student. No cause for alarm, but he was not a great student either. Mostly B’s and C’s. His father, Edward, encouraged him to bring his grades up and worked with him during the few times he was home and could. They would talk about it when they would go out fishing together with their cane poles at the lake near the river. Sam missed those trips together, just he and his dad, like they had done before they moved up north from Kentucky. They would talk about it on the weekends when Edward would take Sam and Jake to the library. Edward loved books and he passed on this love to both boys. But Jake was a natural with grades and Sam was not. So his choices in life were limited.
College was an option for Sam, but it was a longshot. There wasn’t a lot of money in the family, and definitely not money for college. A scholarship was a longshot also with his grades. His guidance counselor at the high school advised Sam to look at skilled trades work like construction or carpentry. But the Dunbars weren’t particularly handy or experienced at those trades. For a while Sam thougth that he may want to be a car mechanic. He liked to tinker with his friends out in the garage on rebuilding projects with old beater cars. He had worked on one Volkswagen Beetle for an eternity and had never quite gotten it going again. But he sure tried.
Sam eventually solved his career problem by getting married. He had been dating Marie for the last two years of high school and they got married four months after graduation. Marie’s dad had solved his problem for him. Ernie was a union official at the plant and he offered Sam a lifeline. The plant was in it’s peak years in the early 70’s. It was a time of full production and full employment. Many people in the area knew that they would work at the plant for their full career with the union taking care of them until they retired with a full pension at 30 years in. Ernie made sure that Sam got signed up on that plan and eighteen years old and married Sam walked into the plant for the first time.
Sam paid his dues in the early years as every entry level worker in the factory did. It would take time to build up seniority and the perks that went with that. So he started pushing a broom on third shift in the hot bowels of the plant. The hard physical work and the heat of the factory toned up his body and left him physically exhausted each night. He put in his time. He paid his dues. And he lived a quiet life. And soon enough he and Marie started their family with the birth of Janey. It was a life changing moment for Sam and he settled into his new life. It was the trinity of the 30 year life: work and family and faith. He put in his shifts at the factory. He spent quality time at home with his growing family. And he made sure his family attended their church three times each week.
Over the years Sam made moves within the factory hierarchy. He bided his time until an opening came up for a machine operator and he put in for it and got it. Sam worked that machine faithfully, putting in his shifts and producing the best quality part he could. He was a company man and he knew who paid his salary. But he was also a union man and he was grateful for the start the union had given him. Sam weathered the inevitable strikes that occurred in factories in the industrial midwest in the eighties and the nineties. He served his time on picket lines through some painful and gut wrenching labor disputes that pitted family against family. Each time he was grateful that Sam was working out of state at some other task and was not part of the strife. Eventually, the strike would be settled and Sam would return to the plant and resume his thirty year march toward his pension.
It wasn’t easy, but Sam had fought his way over the years as a self-made man into the ranks of the line supervisors. His seniority and work skills had overcome the lack of a college degree and eventually earned him the responsibility of supervision. But it was a different role that he arrived at than what he always thought it would be. The plant had changed drastically since he had first walked in, and not for the better. In it’s heyday the plant employed 30,000 people from the surrounding areas. Now it was down to less than 3,000. Labor disputes and competition had taken their toll. Outsourcing was the order of the day and they jobs were all moving South. The line that Sam supervised was one of the few left in the plant that was in production. It made him sad every day when he walked in past the empty plant floorspace where his friends and coworkers once worked. The machines were all gone, as were his friends. Sam was just hanging in until retirement. If he could make it to retirement, that is.
And Jake was now part of the problem.
posted by Randy Masters at 10:24 AM
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