1967 Camaro assembly line

[Keith Seymore]

Working in "the pit" was not great.

If you were very tall at all you had to be perennially hunched over, or you would bang your head on every sharp corner passing by (perhaps I should have said "...and you would bang your head..."). Stuff gets dripped or dropped on you all day and, truth be told, not all of it is accidental.

Since it is deer season I am reminded of a story:

I used to have a pit repairman by the name of Garfield Hardy. He was a small black man that had to have a step stool to reach the bottom of the truck.

For everybody else's benefit: When deer season rolls around in Michigan the high rate of absenteeism (both excused and unexcused) very nearly shuts the plant down. In order to combat that we would solicit volunteers from those of us who were left to work double shifts to keep the plant running. Garfield was one of those guys who would work every extra minute of overtime that he could get. I swear he would have killed a man on my behalf if I would have paid him through lunch.

After about a week of 16 or 20 hour days they would begin to take their toll. After one particularly long day (or so it seemed) I looked down in the pit to see Garfield, sitting on his stool, nodding off - barely able to shake himself awake.

Taking pity on the man, I shouted, mostly to wake him up without embarrassment: "Garfield, what does your wife think about you working all this overtime?".

He shot back, without hesitation and without opening his eyes: "She jus say: 'see ya lata, honey - Ahm goin' shoppin'!".



It's become sort of a standard chorus around my house, especially among my daughters...

K