Sunday, July 24, 2011

Jimmy likes it hot

Even on these extremely hot humid days Jimmy has taken his bike out and gone riding.  Nothing seems to bother this man and the hotter it is, the better he likes it.  I wish I could tolerate the heat as well as he can.  It might be because he worked in a factory for over 35 years where it wasn't unusual for the temps in there to reach 120 degrees.  They had fires burning making all kinds of light bulbs from start to finish and in the factory only the office personnel got the air conditioning.  The factory workers could have fans blowing at their legs, but no wind around the fires, because it would change the temperature of the flames or just blow the fires out.

It was Jimmy's job to make sure that all the machines were in perfect running order and turning out perfect bulbs...he took care of the maintenance and his factory sent him to Germany twice for training on new machines that they had purchased.  As the plant was closing in 1994, and making it's move to Brazil, they asked Jimmy if he would go as a consultant to train the people there how to run and maintain the machines.  He gave it some thought and declined their offer.  I wanted to go, but Jimmy was upset that they were moving the plant out of the country and many of his friends were losing their jobs.  It didn't affect Jimmy because his union had a clause about the plant closing and moving out of the country.  It said that if you were close to their retirement age and were at least 57 yrs old that you could retire with full retirement benefits.  Jimmy was 57 and he didn't need any prodding to take an early retirement.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Oh, I can only imagine how hot it got in Westinghouse back in the day!! The heat plus all that bulb checking. Yikes!! Nights on that job were probably the best to have. I know my SIL worked all the shifts.

I don't care for all this humidity. Just walking outside and sweating is too hot for me! Now riding the bike I expect it's nice and cool...until you stop!

I'm glad Jimmy can ride and enjoy his bike even in this hot stuff.

I was in your town yesterday! I blogged about it. Say Hi to Jimmy for me!