living it up in the screw shop

with pin-up calendar by George Petty, 1953

One summer out of high school, that is, in the latter half of the 1970s, I worked in a shop which was, in size, layout and function, very much like the one depicted here, only some 200 years later. It was a local manufacturer of screws, one particular size, under contract with Boeing. Three guys worked the floor, cutting lengths, at a lathe making threads, and me cutting slots, one at a time. I would be the figure on the left facing the window. The only thing missing is a pin-up girl calendar on the wall.

cutting slots in the screw shop

flip the switch 
grab the grip 
slotless screws 
need cutting bad 

  buckets empty 
  buckets fill
 
set the screw 
squeeze the vise 
slotless screws 
need cutting nice

  buckets empty 
  buckets fill 

draw the saw
squirt the grease 
catch the groove
steel on steel 

  buckets empty 
  buckets fill 

pull the blade 
never cease
feel it move
make it squeal

  buckets empty 
  buckets fill 

time skips town
clock flops down 
throw it in
cop a break
 
not a word 
hit trip vice
pin-up doll 
smiling nice

bag lunch dregs 
need eating bad
scarf it now
wolf it mad

drag your bulk
across the floor 
slotless screws 
need cutting more 

  buckets empty 
  buckets fill 

suck those fumes 
hack them out 
slotted screws 
want full release 

screw the screw 
take them all 

  buckets empty 
  buckets

Ridgid pinup calendar, 1953, George Petty (the Ridgid tool company produced a pin-up calendar from 1935 to 2016)

George Petty (1894-1975) was an American pin-up artist famous for his calendars, illustrations in Esquire and True magazines, in addition to reproductions on the noses of military airplanes, known as ‘Petty Girls’.