Yeah, I worked in a plastics factory too--making dashboards for speedboats.
There was a lot of swearing, but not of a very inventive kind. Fuck this fuck
that. The work made us all too tired to think much & we drank beer & smoked dope
at lunch. I went back to university just about the time the company hired some
pinhead in a white shirt & tie to come in & tell the boys how to get three more
dashboards out before lunch. I don't exactly doubt Kent's description of happy
factory hands, but to me it sounds a little too much like the southern planter
who said his slaves were obviously happy because they were singing all the time.
I suspect there is a good deal of anger beneath the humorous jibes at the
"intelligentsia."
jd
"david.bircumshaw" wrote:
> H'm
>
> I worked in a factory once upon a time - it was a 'plastic' factory - hence
> a good preparation ground for certain aspects of modern verse, it was quite
> horrible, but nothing compared to the root and branch falsity as a way of
> life of the 'modern office'. At least people were allowed to swear out loud
> in there.
> It was all 'fuck this' and 'bollocks to that' but in those days they hadn't
> had the benefits of a corporate makeover from a human resources consultant.
> Thank G-d.
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "kent johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 7:01 PM
> Subject: Re: factories
>
> > Joseph said,
> >
> > "Maybe you should lay off the booze before lunch, Kent..."
> >
> > Joe, in fact, I work part-time third shift at Kelly Springfield Tire
> during
> > the summer. Pay's pretty good, jokes on the floor about the intelligentsia
> > even better (I'm usually the target). So you see, my pina colada is not a
> > drink "before lunch": This is my cocktail hour!
> >
> > Please understand, I have nothing against your high school teachers, who
> > rescued you from working class purgatory... Have you followed Robert Bly's
> > advice yet and written an ode of gratitude to them?
> >
> > Kent
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
> >
======================
Joseph Duemer
School of Liberal Arts, box 5750
Clarkson University
Potsdam NY 13699
315.268.3967
[log in to unmask]
http://web.northnet.org/duemer
http://www.grammarbitch.com/ppp/index.html
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