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Posted on Sat, Oct. 31, 2009 10:15 PM
Remember when | The boss’ credo: Don’t spend money if you don’t have to
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In the 1950s, after graduating from college, I went to work for a company that designed and sold meat-processing equipment. My starting rate was $1.65 an hour as a draftsman.
The owner of the company was a wonderful, conservative man. I was raised during the Depression, so I fit right in.
The building was air conditioned, but the thermostat was set at 80 degrees. We turned the lights on only when we were in a room. Our 10-minute breaks at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and during lunch were the only times we turned the lights on in the break room.
In the engineering department, we had a homemade drafting table, and we used T-squares and triangles. Our pencils had to be sharpened by hand.
To produce our blueprints, we had a machine that had four 100-watt lightbulbs. You would put the onionskin paper that had been drawn on on top of a sheet of blueprint paper on the machine’s glass and pull a cover over the paper. The light would be turned on for 60 seconds, and the light would burn the drawing onto the blueprint paper.
To develop the blueprint, we used pure ammonia in a cup with a lid and placed the rolled print in a round tube. The lock would be placed over the cup with a lid, and the ammonia fumes would develop the blueprint. We offered free engineering services to sell our products.
Every year we attended a convention in Chicago. After working almost all day, we’d drive to the convention, hauling our displays and equipment in trailers pulled by our cars. Then we’d unload the display and set up for the opening day.
The convention was always at the Palmer House Hotel. The owner of our company would rent a room and use it as a meeting room. The rest of us would stay at a less expensive hotel.
I remember on one occasion my supervisor, Joe, going up on a train in a sleeper car rather than in coach. The owner asked him why he went sleeper instead of coach, and Joe replied, “What is the difference?”
“Two dollars,” the owner responded.
His motto was “Spend my money as if it were your own, and it was your last dollar.” How things have changed.
Share your story
Do you have a true Remember When story to share? E-mail it to kcstarmag@gmail.com. Please include a photo if you have one.
Do you have a true Remember When story to share? E-mail it to kcstarmag@gmail.com. Please include a photo if you have one.
Alvin Whitmer lives in Liberty.
Posted on Sat, Oct. 31, 2009 10:15 PM
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