I actually got laid off twice from Hercules and the first time I again followed my good friend Norm to Eimco in downtown in Salt Lake. Working straight nights was not one of the better good times, even though it allowed for a little golf. I was there for about six months before getting called back to Hercules and I went back gladly. It again was a learning experience and had it's interesting moments. I especially liked the handiwork of the night welder who I had to call on when 4" bored hole I was working on turned out a little too big. He was supposed to just put a light coat of weld around the ID so that I could try again to hold the right size. Instead when he got done it looked like the inside of Timpanogas cave. There were monumental size stalagtites and stalagmites both. I could barely get a 1" boring bar to go through the hole to start over again. Then there was the worker who fell asleep and bored right through the part on the lathe into the chuck. He woke up when the chuck was completely bored off from the machine and began to rattle around on his boring bar. And we can't forget the batch of castings that a buyer got a good deal on. It had a bunch of armor plate in it which was melted down along with the other steel which left the castings almost impossible to machine. It certainly served the purpose at the time but I was again anxious to return to the friendly confines of the Hercules Machine shop even though most of the machines were World War II vintage.
When I got laid off the second time my wife at the time, Susan, decided that she had seen enough of Utah and longed to be closer to her family, especially her sister. So rather than look for a new job I agreed to sign on with the family machine shop in Michigan and we prepared to move back. This time it was more of an adventure since my in-laws came out to help us move back and of course we had to bring the boat along. So the good times take up again with their arrival.
- a family trip to Disneyland before the move in the in-laws motor home!
- my first experience with a real estate agent as we needed to sell the house-I only include this along with the good times to document the process to follow
- having my good friend Norm help me load up the truck even though he had moved on to Geneva Steel without me.
- having the real estate agent tell us that he had found a qualified buyer for our Utah home
- seeing the boat headed for all the Michigan lakes on the back of the motor home
- having two year old Brian ride in the moving truck with me
- arriving in Michigan with a job but no car and no place to live-except temporarily with the in-laws; what an opportunity to move forward
- finding a new home in Michigan and coming up with the money to make a down payment
- moving into the new home with a finished basement, two kitchens and two bathrooms
- having my choice of nice lakes to go to with only a half hours drive
- seeing my wife happy to be able to visit her sister as often as she wants
- reconnecting with my old friends Tom & Jan Clark and again visiting his father's cottage
-receiving an offer to work for a prestigious Tool Shop in the area for more money and new opportunities-Dunn Tool
- again learning new job skills and accepting greater responsibilities
- finding out that the deal on our Utah home had fallen through but being able to scrape up enough money to fly out there in order to straighten out the mess
- finally closing on a real buyer when the Utah house eventually sold
- going to the first Star Wars movie and finding it exhilarating
- being part of the bowling team from work and laughing while I watched the other guys get drunk and make fools of themselves while I feasted on Coca Cola
- too many get togethers with Susan's sister's family to count - those were good times!!
- seeing for the first time a very intriguing piece of land that Susan's brother had found south of Howell MI
- what a dream, to own a new home of our own design on 12 1/2 acres of land that borders forest service property - too bad it doesn't seem possible at this point
It is interesting how circumstances change over the years and how people you thought that you could count on the least, turn out to be allies. The future holds many opportunities that we can't possibly see at the time but they come to pass just the same. I have been the recipient of countless good deeds from other people over my life. I have also been very blessed by my Heavenly Father. It is difficult to feel anything but grateful when I look at the sum of the good and bad that has happened. I now find myself in a caring and loving relationship despite my missteps in life and for that I will be eternally grateful.
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