MY FIRST REAL JOB -- McCray refrigeration company

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.