Tooling Up

My first day at Mystic Scenic Studios was surprising in many ways. For one thing, I found out that there were over a hundred employees with whom I'd be working - a lot of names to learn. For another, I was given, along with my employee handbook, a two page list of tools I was expected to own and use on the job. Everywhere I worked in Florida, they provided things like routers, drills, circular saws, jigsaws, belt sanders etc. They didn't want employees bringing in their own power tools and wearing them out on the job.

For the one thing, I was determined to learn everybody's name as quickly as possible. I've always been sketchy about remembering names, but somehow, a little-used part of my brain fired up. I learned all but a few within a couple weeks. I learned most people's names before they learned mine.

For the other, I bought tools with big overtime checks - which came along frequently in those early days. Belt sander first, then 1/2" chuck corded drill, jig saw, big router, laminate trimmer, 1/2" chuck cordless drill, tilt base trimmer, impact driver, orbital sander etc. I was still buying tools during the last weeks in Massachusetts in 2009.

The two owners of the company (until they finally split up in 2007) were Jim and John. One thing that was interesting about learning all those names was realizing that out of a hundred employees, six were Jims and seven were Johns. Those numbers fluctuated over four years, of course. John would hire a John or two, so Jim would have to bring in some Jims to catch up. In the spring of '07, John left and the Jims reigned supreme.