IN high school I worked at Food City
Bagging, stocking and checking
College summers worked the night shift at EFCO
Living an old school industrial life
EFCO Engineers and Fabricators Company
My dad a machinist there from 42 to 85
Running the lone milling machine
I was on nights in assembly
Making Heat exchanges for refineries
Occasionally Nuclear Power Plants
You had Machinist, rollers, tube pushers, welders
Grinders and assembly men.
Worked with Bo, Joe, Jody, Ron, Steve a few more
Bo was the foreman, sitting in AC drawing circles
Joe was the lead man, a Pollack who could do anything
Old Jody mostly sat, Greased studs hate salted tomatoes
Ron was the roller man, always a cigarette in hand
Me and Steve were summer help
Steve a preaches kid going Trinity
Pl aying football and Stealing alligators form the SA Zoo
IN high school I worked at Food City
Bagging, stocking and checking
In College summers working the night shift at EFCO
Living life on the old school industrial side
We pulled bundles of tubes in to the big pipe
Bolted it together and pressure tested it with air
then High pressure water, Thousands of PSI
When things were slow we‘d and grease studs with jody
It was fun, better than sacking groceries
But not a job for life
Got partially scalped the first year
Last day I was there Joe had me move a bundle
I had run a tandem crane be3fore
My first time , I did it I without question
You had to time it just right, tap, wait push
I got it just wrong; a 10,000 lb. pendulum was swinging
People were scattering, Joe took control
He set it down, all was just fine
I went outside the rest of the night
Could have killed somebody,
In high school I worked at Food City
Bagging, stocking and checking
In College summers working the night shift at EFCO
Living life on the old school industrial side
I EFCO now gone along with lifetime jobs
Condos took its place
Those two summers had a glimpse of life a generation before
Working the night shift at EFCO