The shop was divided into three large rooms each with low ceilings and lots of florescent light. The walls between the rooms had wide, always open doorways, so it was easy to see into the other rooms, each one filled with its own machinery. Shears were in the back near where the sheet medal was stored. Fabricators, punch machines, drill presses, lathes and arc-welders were in a separate room. The front offices opened out into the largest room, which was the original shop, and now housed half a dozen drafting work areas, large and small scale design cutters and two specialty lathes for small work. Lester operated one of the specialty lathes.The break area was an informal space lying in between the lathes and the drafting area. There was an old drafting table, no longer used, that some used for a table, but most hust sat on the benches and chairs. Lester worked closest to the area and would use his work bench as a table. He has his own chair and was in arm’s length of his radio. When the horn blew for lunch, he flipped off the power to his machine and sat down, ready to eat. It would take everyone else at least five minutes to shut down their machines, wash their hands and get their lunch, buy a soda and join the break area. Lester would always go to the restroom 15 minutes before break, wash-up, get his lunch, and come back by the soda machine. Then, when the horn blew, he went right to work on his break, using the full 30 minutes.
On his first day of work Thom had taken a seat on one end of the church pew and so had returned to that same spot every day since. It was not the most comfortable spot, being hard oak with a straight back and no cushion and anyone sitting there for lunch had to eat off his lap explaining why it was no one else’s regular spot. The summer help were delegated to the pew.
As it happened sitting on the pew placed Thom at the farthest distance possible from Lester and the radio and still allowing him to remain in the break area. This pleased Thom, not because of the radio as much as just not being to close to the center of the group. His work was, after all, temporary. He had counted the days; sixty-five days total, thirteen five-day weeks, ten-hours a day Monday-Thursday, eight hours on Friday, forty-eight hour weeks made for a full day of overtime every week and that meant more money. That’s what counted during the summer before his senior year: how much cash how quickly.