SOMEONE SUGGESTED.....

• that I "expound on my employment" at RCA. Now.....a couple of things. First, no one I know who knows that I worked at RCA would have any inkling of what the word "expound" means. Second, someone I know who knows that I worked at RCA knows what "expound" means. This is sooooooooo confusing to me. And, quite honestly, I would have thought that anyone old enough to remember my union days at RCA would be dead by now. My employment at RCA was many moons ago. (What's the formula for figuring "moons?" Ok, let's see. RCA employment = summer 1971. Now = fall 2008. That's about 37 years' worth of moons and there are roughly 12 moons in every year except when there's a "blue moon" [and that's a whole different post] so let's say 444 moons. That sounds about right to me. 444 moons is a hell of a long time.) Before I was a nana.....before I had kids.....before I was married, even. I did have Tony, but nothing was official at that point in time.
• The reason I worked at RCA that summer was because I was a college student. And, as such, I was ALMOST a part of the real world and didn't get to laze around all summer. I don't remember a whole lot about the job, really. I worked on an assembly line making television sets. The factory was in Bloomington and it was unionized. We could only make so many tvs on our line in a day. No more, no less. Everything was timed and there were buzzers so you'd know when to shove the part you were working on down to the next person so they could do their little part in putting the bigger part together. I don't know how I managed it but I was the first person on the line. A man would bring me loads of two different parts. I have no idea what they were for. They went inside tvs was all I knew. I had to take a metal part about the size of a cigar box without a lid that had square holes and round holes all over it and a green circuit board attached and screw a little plastic part onto it, pull a couple of wires coming out of the little plastic part through one of the holes and then solder (HA.....I had "weld" there before.....that would have been a real sight to behold) the wires onto the circuit board. And when the buzzer buzzed, I shoved it down to the next lady. Oh, and I had to flip a little counter so they'd know how many I had done.
• Now, hard to imagine, I know, but I used to be faster than I am now. I could get one of those parts done before the buzzer buzzed. So much faster that I could get two or three or four ahead. The gals down the line could see them and yell for me to send them down. So I did. BIG NO NO. (damned union.....I could have made a fortune that summer if I'd been getting paid for piece work) So I had to go back to doing one per buzzer. And twiddling my thumbs in between.....for a while. I got so I'd only get maybe one or two ahead. That seemed to work out alright.
• I remember that I was wounded in the line of duty a few times and still have one faint scar. I'd reach for one of the metal cigar boxes and run the back of my finger along the edge (not on purpose, silly). Those edges were as sharp as razors and once in a while I'd manage to take a hunk of flesh out of a finger. Like I said, I still have a scar. And the soldering iron was HOT. I guess they have to be to work properly. *shrug* Every once in a while I'd get it against my wrist. I had a few blisters but no permanent damage there. (I said I was fast, not coordinated.) And I remember the time I was sick and tossed my cookies into the big cardboard box we used for trash before the line lady could get someone to take my place. I remember that I ate dozens of Little Debbie orange something-or-others in my lunches that summer. And I remember that I had to get up BEFORE the buttcrack of dawn.....when the only people who were awake were women in labor on their way to the hospital and farmers.
• And I remember one other thing. The most important thing. I remember that that summer was a turning point in my life. The job I was doing didn't require much thought. Once I learned it, I could almost do it in my sleep. And I did a lot of thinking about other things that summer. Like I said, I was in college because I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I also loved Tony and knew that I wanted to be married to him. And I had all summer to think about those two things. By the end of the summer and all that thought, my life was changed forever. I had decided that I didn't want to be a teacher, didn't want to spend another three years in college. I wanted to get married. So I went back to college thinking that I would get a two-year secretarial degree. I'd be doing all the things that I liked to do.....just not teaching them. But it was not to be. I had taken all the wrong subjects the first year for a two-year degree. There was no point in my staying another whole year. I quit at semester. Tony and I got engaged in December of 1971 and we got married in July of 1972.
• I used to say that that was my one regret in life. That I didn't finish college. But, if I had finished college, I would not have the life that I have. Oh, I'm sure I would have married Tony. It just would have been at a different time. And then, everything else would have been different. And I love my life.....the life that includes 36+ years with Tony instead of whatever the number would have been.....the life that includes my two awesomely special and unique children instead of whatever children I would have had at different times.....the life that includes the exquisitely unique granddaughters they've given me.
• Thinking about it now, I can honestly say I don't regret it one bit. And I never really thought it before, but that was one of the best summers of my life.