My first full-time job was at a chair factory in Talbot, Michigan. I don't remember what the company was named, but it was owned by Seventh-day Adventist Church, and nearly everyone who worked there was a member of the church. I was one of the few who was not a member of that church. We manufactured factory seconds. Yes, everything we produced was sold as a factory second. Although I would otherwise believe that a factory second was a product that had a flaw in it, but was still usable, and available at a reduced price. We didn't make any factory firsts. Although the furniture we produced was fully usable, and looked pretty good, we didn't produce heirloom furniture by any means. If there was a crack in a board, the board was glued rather than discarded. To be honest, I don't even know if the church members were paid. No one worked as if they had a job to worry about keeping, although everyone worked steadily at it. When I began working there, someone got me started on a job. Although I had initially thought he was the supervisor, the company didn't have any supervisors. He was simply someone who took the time to show me how to do something. I began by assembling the chairs, since we didn't sell our furniture disassembled, as cheap furniture is generally distributed today. I would get all of the chair or sofa pieces, and put them together. From me, they went to the upholstery department, where about a dozen women sat around chatting constantly while they worked. I would refer to it as gossiping but I'd hate to be labeled a sexist. At first, I was discarding chair pieces that had large cracks in them. After noticing the pieces in my discard bin, someone (I think it was the same guy who had gotten me started) took two pieces that had separated completely. He put glue on both of the pieces, clamped them, and told me to leave it like that for a couple of hours. He came back after the glue had set and broke the board on his knees, demonstrating that it didn't break at the place where it had been glued together. He compared it to a bone which, when healed, is stronger than it was before. Everyone was very nice, but the job didn't pay very much. One day, someone asked if I wasn't bored with assembly. He told me that, since I was usually ahead of the upholsterers with my assembly, I could hang out at another station and learn to do that. I ended up running the lathe, and doing some other jobs. As long as everyone knew how to do the job, people would switch off from time to time. I loved that job, but it didn't pay well at all. After a half a year of it, I found another job, which I have already written about, at Vernco. I lived in Wallace, worked from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the chair factory in Talbot, then from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at Vernco, in Menominee. Michigan was on a different time zone than Wisconsin, at that time at least, and Menominee, being a twin city of Marinette, Wisconsin, opted to be on Wisconsin time. So state and federal buildings in Menominee were on one time, while everyone else was on another, allowing me to quit work in Talbot at 3:00 o'clock, drive more than thirty miles to Menominee, and begin work at Vernco at 3:00 o'clock. I kept both jobs for about a year. Menominee isn't shown on the map, for some reason, although it's larger than Carbondale, Wallace, Stephenson, Daggett, and Talbot combined. Menominee is directly across the Menominee River from Marinette, Wisconsin. Continued on Vernco