After I had been working in that factory for 6 months, the owner of the factory came up to me and said Mike had requested that they make me his apprentice! To me, it was a dream come true to be able to work with those automatic screw machines, but everyone else in the factory was warning me not to do it because “He’s mean!” But of course, I already knew something about Mike all of them had missed and I had even much more to learn about the man who became my great teacher and friend.
My first day working with Mike started about like this, he said: “Tell me what you know about these machines.” I said: “I know nothing about these machines.” He said: “That’s exactly what I was hoping you would say. Now if you’re ready I’ll start teaching you everything I know.”
That was the day I started the most intense learning period of my life and it lasted almost 4 years! I kept a pad of paper and a pen in my pocket, taking notes constantly because Mike was pouring out his nearly 50 years of experience and knowledge on me. I was learning all about operating the various automatic screw machines, plus Mike was teaching me all about the many different types of metals we were machining and the chemical/mechanical properties that made some “machine or cut” faster than others. He taught me how to make my own “form tools” and do repairs on the machines – all things that would be so important when I would start my own business…Before long Mike had me “setting-up” some easy jobs by myself – the first time anyone other him, had ever set-up a machine there. I couldn’t believe work and learning could be so much fun!
I should probably point out one thing that didn’t bother me – in fact it was one of the “old school Mike ways” of teaching I guess, but it might have been a game – changer for some and that was, no matter how good I did or how much I learned, Mike never gave a compliment. At least not verbally, but many times I saw it in his eyes, and that was good enough for me. And he was so far from mean, he was FUN! He loved to have fun while he was working and most of the people who thought he was mean weren’t even aware of it! I remember one time we were rebuilding a clutch assembly on the workbench and he told me that the foreman had pranked him the day before by putting grease under the door handle of his truck. He said “I know he did it because he was peeking out the window when I grabbed the handle of my truck as I was leaving. When you do a prank, you never want to be watching to give yourself away. Now I’ll show you how a good payback goes without him knowing it.” He put the grease gun in the vice on the workbench mounted at about a 45 degree angle and aimed it down the aisle towards the secondary department. He said “when the foreman goes walking down there in a few minutes, I’ll hit that lever real hard with my fist and it will launch a glob of grease about 30’ through the air and hit him right in the back. And don’t look up, you have to keep looking down at this clutch. That way he’ll think it came off a machine or something.” (I was thinking, he has a lot of experience at this.) Another time, everyone was in the break room for someone’s birthday cake (the company had other manufacturing departments) and Mike came walking in wiping his forearms with a shop rag. The room went silent and Mike said “Back in my day, we didn’t have cakes, we had bricks!” And he picked up a piece of cake and went out. I started to get up to head out myself and someone said “How can you work with him?” He’s so mean!” I just looked back at all of them and said “Are you kidding me?” I’m having the time of my life working with Mike!” When I got out to Mike, he was finishing up his cake and he was all red from laughing and he said “I bet they think I’m a real tough guy don’t they?” I just smiled and said “Yeah Mike, they sure do.”
Mike later told me that when he was just a young teenager, he would hang around a screw machine shop just watching the machines run. He said eventually he got closer to the machines (he didn’t work there yet) just to try to see how they work. After several months, the boss of that factory asked him what he was doing there all the time. He said “I told that man, I just love watching those machines run, they fascinate me, so he hired me! When you said almost the same thing to me, I knew you were the one I finally wanted to teach.”
I had my own business, Mid America Screw Products for 38 years, selling it in late 2020. The company is still operating under the same name and is thriving and expanding. And you know, whenever I stop by there to visit those machines still fascinate me and I love watching them run!
”The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b (NLT)
Thank you Lord for the wisdom of a father running a small country store, telling me: “Don’t judge a heart by a personality.”
Till Next Time…..
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