MY FIRST REAL JOB --McCray refrigerator Company :
An article
in todays Star brought back some memories of the McCray company. Every word of the following is the Gods
truth. It should give any reader a real
hoot. Pass it around the office because
your younger staff members will not believe a word of it.
In 1955 I had just
completed my Junior year at Garrett High School and was still sixteen years old
but needed a summer job. A friend
suggested that we apply for jobs at McCray for the summer. I decided it would be a good idea so off we
went to apply. What could go wrong? It promised to be a lark
The fellow that
interviewed me was Bill Winebrenner. I
found out later that he was the general foreman. He told me that I would need a hammer and a
Philips screwdriver. I did not have the
screwdriver, but Bill told me the company would furnish me one and deduct the
39-cent charge from my first paycheck.
The clerk in the office told me that I would have to show my social
security number. I did not have a social
security card so I hied myself off to Ft. Wayne to get one. Keep in mind that I was still 16. No one at McCray asked to see any I.D.
I looked up the
address of the SS office and found that it was on North Ewing street. I had no idea where that was, but I knew that
Clinton street ran north and south. If I
went east or west, I should be able to find it.
No problem, I drove straight to it.
Forget your modern-day GPS, this was 1955. I used my middle name, (Dallas), on the card
because I always went by that name.
Forty years later, before I retired, I finally got around to changing
the card to my first name, (Marvin).
When I reported for
my first day at work,. My partner
was a “gentleman from the hills” named Joe.
Joe was a nice guy. He explained
that keeping track of the operations you performed was difficult because you
had to check off each item with your pay number on a Sears catalogue size
operations list that came with each unit.
Since it was so complicated, he would keep track of my time for me. You could not ask for anyone to be more
helpful. Good old Joe.
The work was
incentive based and efficiency records were posted on a billboard every
week. I was never able to get more than
75 to 80 percent. Joe cruised along at
125 to 130 percent. Bill Winebrenner was
constantly giving me hell for not doing better.
It took me thirty years to figure out that my buddy, Joe, was cheating
me out of my work. Winebrenner finally
decided I was not adapted to finishing work, so he assigned me to the front of
the line where my job was to pour 455-degree hydrolyene tar in the bottom of
the refrigerator case and set the bottom supports in place. The workplace was right next to the stairwell
that led to the porcelain coating oven.
It was hotter than the inside of hell.
During a lull one
week, (I have no idea why there was a lull) I was sent to work in the Service
Repair section where small defects were corrected before the unit was
shipped. It was a good place to
work. I worked with a fellow named
Bortner. He was very proud of his
grandson, Archie Bortner. Archie worked
at G.E, in the Apprentice School.
Grandpa Bortner told me about all the schooling Archie was getting in
subjects like mathematics and tool design and how clean the working environment
was. It sure sounded good to me.
By the end of
August, the three-month experience at McCray was enough for me. I had learned that I NEVER wanted to work on
an assembly line again. I bid Bill
Winebrenner and his crew a “fond” farewell and started my senior year in high
school. When high school graduation time
rolled around, I looked into the G.E. Apprentice School that grandpa Bortner
had told me about. I applied for a job
and was accepted. I went through the
three-year program including the night school and then another three-year
program called the “Manufacturing Management Program”. After that I found that I was qualified for
the G.I. bill due to my Vietnam era service.
Finally, in 1975, nineteen years after high school I got my degree in
Mechanical engineering from Purdue. It
was all night school and I ended up with no college debt.
I feel that I owe
McCray, Bill Winebrenner, and even old Joe a debt of gratitude.
