Bob of Small End (72 page)

“
Listen
Ken. This is the message I put on. Let me know if you want to
change it.” She pressed a button and it said, ‘This is
Small End Wooden Toys
. We are unable
to reply at the moment, please leave a message. Thank you.’ Is that
okay?”

“
Sure,
that’s fine.”

“
Good.
Take a look at this,” and gave Ken the box. “My aunt said she often
uses a glue gun and she thought that it might work for you because
the glue dries almost immediately. So I bought one. It uses heat to
melt a stick of glue.”

“
If it’s
strong enough it might be perfect for us. Thanks Lori, I’ll try it.
Pay yourself from the petty cash box.”

“
Okay. I
printed two notices for the Centre, one for the front door and the
other for the delivery door. I’ll go and put them up and stay until
the groceries arrive then I’ll come back here.”

“
All
right.”

“
Oh yes,
I bought a package of sticky labels and a marker pen. I think
everybody should write their names on the labels and stick them on
their shirts. At least for the first week. It’ll make it easier to
get to know everybody that way.”

“
That’s
a good idea Lori,” said Bob. “I was thinking I might forget
everyone’s name. Show me how to use the answering machine before
you go.”

“
You
just press this button to listen to the messages,” and she showed
Bob which one it was. “Don’t delete them, I’d like to do that.
Here, can you put this on your overall,” and gave him a label
marked ‘Bob.’ She gave Ken his, took the one she’d made for herself
and left the office.

“
Lori’s
very efficient isn’t she Ken.”

“
She
certainly is. I’m very happy she’s working for us. Craig too, an
excellent employee.”

“
Did you
have a good weekend?”

“
Yes. We
didn’t go to a show, just to a nice restaurant. We walked in St.
James's Sunday morning. How about you?”

“
Sally’s
finding it much harder to breathe. We didn’t go out but had dinner
and lunch at her residence. She want’s me to bring Maria to see her
next time I visit.”

“
It
sounds as if she’s got plans for you two.”

“
Maybe.”

There was a
knock on the door. A man entered and asked if this was the right
place to deliver milk and the groceries.

“
Yes,
here and at the old Community Centre,” Bob said.

“
Okay.
Then this must be the stuff for you. I’ll go to the Centre next.
I’ll leave the milk and groceries at the front doors if no one
answers. Is that okay?”

“
Er,
yes. Thanks.”

Craig joined
them then Luke and Jose arrived. They put on Lori’s name tags and
sat in the waiting room waiting for the newcomers to arrive. Then
Bert and Gerry entered together with four men and two women. “They
were standing outside not quite knowing where to go when we rode
in,” said Gerry.

Ken and Bob
stood up and welcomed them.

“
It’s
too crowded for all of us to fit in here,” said Ken. “We’ll go into
the workshop. Bring the chairs with you.”

Inside the
shop Bob introduced Ken and himself and asked their staff to
introduce themselves. Afterwards he asked the new people to tell
them their names and what they had worked at before they came here.
It took nearly an hour to do all this; some said little more than
their names, some gave a little history of their lives and one of
the new women said she knew all about their toys, “because my kids
asked me for both the village and the farm sets for their
birthdays.”

“
I’m
glad to hear that,” said Ken. “This is where we make them currently
but all of you will be working in our new shop. It’s the old
Community Centre. Some of you might know it, it’s where the Small
End theatre shows used to be given. This is Craig, your supervisor;
he’s in charge if Bob or I am not here. Wave your hand, Craig, and
you too Lori. Lori’s our office manager, secretary and treasurer
and she also works in the shop. Okay we’ll walk over the Centre now
but before we do let me see if I know all of your names,” and he
called them out, pointing to each person as he did. “Jean, Ed,
Frank, Ray, Diane and Alan. There, I bet you thought I couldn’t do
that! But, to make it easier for everyone, please write your name
on one of these labels and put it on your overall when you are
given them. , Gerry and Bert, there are two already made for you.
I’d like everyone to wear them for the first week. That should be
enough time to learn each other’s name.”

Once they had
made their name tags Ken told everyone to follow him and they
walked to the Centre. Once there he showed them where the cloakroom
and toilets were then took them to the meeting room.

“
We
might as well have our morning break now. There’s coffee or tea.
Lori’s already made a big pot of tea I see. You’ll have to make
your own coffee if you want it. There are biscuits on the table and
more in the cupboard. Milk’s in the refrigerator. We’ll supply
these but you’ll have to bring your own lunch. Help
yourself.”

Twenty minutes
later Ken stood up and told them that it was time to go to the
Centre. “Wash your mug and leave it in the rack to dry. Tea breaks
are normally just fifteen minutes and the lunch break is
half-an-hour.”

When they
arrived Lori handed each of the newcomers an overall and a pair of
glasses, saying “You have to wear these safety glasses whenever
you’re in the workshop.”

The crew sat
or stood by each station while Ken took the new people along the
line mentioning what was done at each place.

“
Now
we’ll start making them,” he said. Craig picked up one of the long
wood blocks that they used to make houses and gave it to Jose who
pushed it through the router jig. Ken explained what he was doing
and they followed him along the line, stopping for a while at each
station, watching as the block was cut into pieces, sanded and then
painted.

“
Now I’d
like you to split up and go to any of the stations and watch what’s
being done until you think you can do it then swap places and try.
Take your time, there’s no hurry.”

Learning how
to use the router jig took the longest time; cutting and sanding
took the least. Ken told them they did not have to learn how to
glue the pieces, just watch what is being done. “There’ll probably
be a different way to glue soon.”

They stopped
for lunch at one, everybody eating in the Centre’s tea room and
talking to each other. If they hadn’t brought any food they ate the
fruit Ken brought in that morning. Two of the newcomers were old
school friends and talked about what they had been doing since the
last time they met. The other’s talked about where they lived, how
they got to work or about the morning’s work.

They continued
learning through the afternoon then, at four-thirty, Ken told them
to stop. “Come to this shop tomorrow. You should be ready, with
your overalls and glasses on and in the workshop by nine. Craig,
Luke and I will be here and we’ll help you learn. Please fill each
of the stations except the gluing, wrapping and boxing ones. We’ll
put the pieces in plastic boxes at the end of the line for now. Are
there any questions?”

“
Where
do we put our overalls and glasses when we leave?”

“
In the
cloakroom. Leave your nametag on so you’ll know which overall is
yours.”

“
Will we
be doing the same work each day?”

“
No,
you’ll be changing jobs from time to time. We’ll talk about that
when we finish tomorrow.”

“
Do we
always stop at four-thirty?”

“
No. We
work from nine to five. As I said, we have two fifteen-minute tea
breaks and a half-hour lunch break.”

“
Do you
have room for more employees?’ asked Jean. “My brothers are looking
for work.”

“
Not at
the moment. Maybe in a few weeks,” and he looked at Bob.

“
What
will we be doing?” asked Jose.

“
The old
gang will be working in the old shop except for Craig or Luke.
We’ll make the train sets there. That way we won’t have to keep
changing the router jigs here.”

“
Aren’t
we ever going to work in the new shop?” asked Jose.

“
Of
course you are. Everybody will be included in the
job-switching.”

“
Good.”

“
How
about us?” asked Bert. “Will we still be doing
deliveries?”

“
Yes,
both you and Gerry,” said Lori.

“
Our
wholesaler won’t be starting for two weeks so you’ll be delivering
most of the time until then,” added Bob.

“
I think
everything went very well today,” said Ken. “Thank you everybody.
We’ll see you tomorrow. Oh Lori, could I see you before you
go.”

Lori
walked over to Ken as the others left the shop and he said, “Bob
and I signed an agreement with
We-Have-It
Wholesalers
on Saturday and they’ll be handling our
deliveries in two weeks time. Here’s their address,” and he gave
her the page where Posser had written the toy numbers.

“
Do they
deliver to our current retailers?”

“
No.
We’ll have to do that until
We-Have-It’
s catalogue comes out. That’ll be in
about a week’s time. After that they’ll look after
them.”

“
I
see.”

“
Can you
send a letter to all our retailers telling them
We-Have-It Wholesalers
will be delivering for us
starting July 16th. Tell them that each toy has a number and that
they should name the toy, state it’s number and say how many they
want to buy when they order from
We-Have-It
. They’ll all be doing that with their
wholesalers so they’ll know the procedure.”

“
Will
their catalogue go to all our shops?” asked Lori.

“
We
don’t know yet. Ah yes, add another paragraph to the letter asking
them to tell us, or write to
We-Have-It
Wholesalers
directly, to say that they want to receive
the catalogue in future, that is if they don’t already get it. If
they write to us about it send their names to Dave Posser at
We-Have-It.
He’ll add their names to
their list.”

“
Okay.”

“
And can
you order another five thousand plastic boxes. We’ll need them to
hold the pieces coming off the end of the line until they’re glued,
assembled or boxed. Tomorrow will be soon enough to do all
this.”

“
Okay
Ken.”

“
Ask
them if they supply moveable racks to hold the plastic boxes. We’ll
have to move them in and out of the store rooms. If they do then
order ten, that should be enough.”

“
All
right.”

“
Well
thanks Lori. See you tomorrow.”

“‘
Bye
Ken. ‘Bye Bob.”

“‘
Bye
Lori.” Ken turned to Bob then said, “I’m going to try the heat gun
now. Want to help?”

“
Of
course, let’s find out if it’s any good.”

Ken picked up
the package Lori had given him, opened it and looked at the gun and
the box of light brown glue sticks. He took one of the sticks and
pushed it into the opening at the rear end of the gun.

“
This
must be where that goes. Okay, so now what do I do?”

Ken skimmed
the instructions, pushed the plug into an electrical socket then
looked at the instructions again. “Ah, it has to warm up
first.”

“
The
trigger extrudes the hot glue I suppose,” said Bob.

“
Yes.
Let’s try it on some of these rejects.”

Ken pressed
the trigger and watched a thin stream of glue flow out of the end
of the nozzle. “So that’s what it does. Let’s see how well it
glues.”

“
Wipe
off the glue that’s already out before you start Ken.”

Ken did that
then applied a little glue to the end of a conservatory and pressed
it onto the back of one of the big houses. After a second he let go
and it stuck to the house.

“
Oh
that’s very good, it dries almost instantaneously.”

“
Try and
separate them.”

Ken pulled at
the pieces “I can’t. Wow, that’s very quick.”

“
Holding
the gun and two pieces of wood at the same time looks pretty
awkward Ken.”

“
Yes it
is. I don’t think everybody will be able to do that. Some of the
new people are a bit clumsy.”

“
They’ll
probably get a lot better with practice.”

“
Yes,
but I don’t think anyone will like manipulating three things at
once. I don’t. You know, I could fasten the gun to the bench, fix a
rod to the trigger and run it to a foot pedal. Then they can squirt
glue with their foot and have two hands free. Yes that should work.
I’m coming come back after supper and see if I can make something
that’ll work.”

“
Can I
help Ken?”

“
Yes
please.”

“
What
time will you be here?”

“
How
about seven?”