OK, Here's the scoop with me and Wendy (her real name)
Shortly after we moved into the big Linden St shop in Somerville in 1992, work started on a new brochure. I had been working there for 5 years and Chris wanted to do something to celebrate that. Only a couple of other people had worked there for that long.
1992 was an incredibly busy year for me. I was working mega hours keeping production rolling while moving and building stuff for the new shop. My first wife was pregnant with our daughter and she was due in June. We found out that our apartment needed to be de-leaded. The landlord hired a bunch of losers to do the work and our place was a mess for the longest time. She had to move in with my parents for nearly the last month of her pregnancy.
Fat City moved into Linden St around the middle of April and I worked non-stop with everyone else getting the new place running and emptying out the old Olive Square shop. I was also working on the apartment fixing a bunch of crap that those worthless "contractors" has done. We finished getting the apartment ready the day before Liz was born - literally. Needless to say by the time she showed up, I was worn out.
The plan was to have me on the cover of the new brochure. Wendy hired a couple of limp-wristers to do a photo shoot of the new shop and me for the brochure. These guys had no clue and I was not happy with what they were doing. Apparently the photos of me didn't quite meet Wendy's standards so they took shots of Rob, the machinist, wearing a welder's hood. Rob didn't know his butt hole from a hole in the ground when it came to welding and he cheerfully admitted it. They did this without telling me.
The brochure went to print with me thinking I'm on the cover and this is going to be so cool. Imagine the look on my face when the first box shows up from the printer and I see Rob on the cover. Not just Rob, but Rob wearing a welder's hood! I liked Rob and he told me that they made him do it. He didn't want to but he feared losing his job if he didn't. The excuse I got was that "I looked tired in the photos" direct quote.
In the mean time, Chris had hired Lawrie Pinkham to become the production manager. Lawrie had painted for Chris years before and he was also a great mechanic. On his first day, Chris gathered the shop for a meeting and read the scathing letter I wrote him to everyone there. There was such an out-pouring of support for me from everyone that I decided not to quit as I had been planning. But I hated Wendy from that day on. Lawrie sure never thought his first day would be so traumatic!
One of the things a good welder does is to cut off the oxidized end of the weld rod before dipping it back into the molten puddle. I did this religiously and had a pair of wire cutters that exerted enough force to send the clipped end of the weld rod about 30 feet. After discovering this, whenever I noticed Wendy walking past the welding area,I would clip off bits of weld rod in her general direction. I'm not sure if I ever scored a direct hit or not. If I did, she never said anything or caught on to where it was coming from. Childish? Of Course!! but it sure was fun.
So there you have it. Hope you all get a little chuckle. Happy New Year
Scott Bengtson