Workin' for the Man! Part 4 The Bindery Boy Years

Well, I am back from the basement, and am ready to start back up my blog. So without further ado, here is Workin’ for the Man! Part 4: The Bindery Boy Years.

It was the summer of 1997, and I was about to start my 6th different job in the year. The year started at Eddie Bauer, followed by a short 1 month stint back at BK, which was followed by my employment at The Gap, the information booth in the mall, and Sunglass Hut. But all of those jobs were different from the one I was about to start.

I had been working at the mall for over a year, and it was starting to not be as fun. Like I said in the last post, it seemed like I could not get away from the place. On my days off, I usually ended up back there to do shopping of some sort. The allure of being a mall employee had worn off. I wanted to get a full time job that was more in the 9-5 with weekends off mould. Something more along the lines of what I considered a “real” job. And that is what drew me to B and B Printing.

Now B&B Printing is owned by two of my relatives. One is my Uncle Bill. His wife Caroline is my Grandma’s youngest sister, so he is really my Great Uncle I guess. The other B in the name belongs to my Cousin Bruce. His mother Virgie is also my Grandma’s sister, therefore making him my 1st cousin once removed. Don’t ask me how that is. I have a huge family, and if I have to explain any more, this post will become a connect the dots to all of my relatives instead of about my extensive youth work history.

To tell you the truth, I can’t remember for sure how exactly I went about getting hired at B&B. I remember one time when I happened to be in the store with my Mother, and she had asked Bruce if they were hiring, and if they were that he needed to throw a little nepotism my way, and get me a job. But I guess how I was hired doesn’t really matter that much now.

I started there in July of 1997. I was told by Bill that I would be doing bindery work. I had no clue what he meant. Was I going to be putting books together, and binding them up? I really didn’t know. And even after working there for over 2 1/2 years, I still don’t know how I would describe it to someone who wasn’t familiar with a print shop.

First, let me tell you what kind of printing and copying we did there. Everything! We did business cards. We did all of the football and basketball programs for the Tri City high schools. We did brochures. We did newsletters for lodges and gun clubs. We did the Stake Directories for Kennewick and Pasco. We even did mailings for people. In fact, back then, if you gave me ANY zip code in the state of Washington, I could tell you what city it corresponded too. If there was something that you needed printed up, we could do it.

My work location was in the back room. After the items had been printed and dried, I would put whatever finishing touches were needed onto them. Have some brochures that you want folded in half or three way? I was your man. Need Business Cards? Check. Need some 3 part NCR paper for invoices for your business? I could slap the glue on the end, and cut them up for you. What’s that? You want the invoices numbered? You are in luck! I could do that too! Much like being able to print up just about anything, we could finish it any way you liked. And that is what I did, day in and day out.

Now, that might sound kind of boring to some of you out there, but I am here to tell you that it was the best job that I had ever had at the time. I would get to work, and look forward to the day. Maybe it was the ginormous paper cutter that made it possible to cut a 6 inch stack of paper like it was a hot knife through butter. Or the old radio that was in the back, which I am pretty sure had been on 105.3 for many years before I came along and started changing it up. But I think what it really made it a fun place to work were the people I had the pleasure of working with. Here is a rundown of the co-workers I enjoyed while I was working my first real job.

I will start with the person that I spent the majority of my time with, since we were both banished to working in the back room. Sue, or Sooz for short, was the printing press operator. I don’t know for sure how many years she has been there, but I know that it was a lot. She was a pro at what she did. She was also fun to talk to, and if you crossed her or pissed her off, she wasn’t afraid to tell you.

One of the funniest stories that Sooz ever told me was about the guy who showed her the ropes of printing. He was one of those guys that always thought that songs had different lyrics than they did. If you want some good examples of misheard lyrics guy, check out these two old posts. One of the songs that he was confused on was the Deep Purple hit, “Smoke on the Water.” Sooz told me that whenever this song would come on the radio, he would sing along with the chorus these words, “SMOOOOKIN’ WAAAALTER! THE FIREFIGHTING GUY!” (Of course I had to do that in all caps. Who doesn’t sing that song at the top of their lungs?) Try as she might, he did not believe her that those were not the words.

Sooz is also the biggest Beatles fan that I have ever met. I didn’t realize how much she liked them until we had the company Christmas party at her house. Everywhere I looked, there was something Beatles around. You name it, she had it. Posters, spoons, table cloths, gold records, some of Paul’s hair follicles in a vial, the list could go on and on.

After I had worked at the shop for about a year in a half, Bill hired another bindery technician. (This is what I had started referring to my job title as. Sounded more important) He was some kid who was still in high school, and would come work in the afternoons. His name was Joel Brink, and he quickly became a great friend of mine.

When Joel first started, I didn’t know what to think of him. He seemed quiet and reserved, and I didn’t know if he was going to be fun to work with at all. He soon proved to be a worthy co-worker.

I started to look forward to when Joel was going to get to work. As much as I enjoyed working and talking to Sooz, there is something about having a guy around your age to work with that can make the day even better. Joel and I had a great ability to be able to joke around, and talk as much as we wanted, and still get the job done.

In fact, Joel and I are still remembered at B&B. On the back wall is a picture of us that appeared in the Tri City Herald of us loading up Bill’s truck with a delivery. It has now been up on the wall for almost 10 years. Although Joel and I are both married, and I don’t see him around very often, I still consider him a good friend. He is one of those people that you could run into 5 years later, and it would seem like you had just talked together yesterday.

There is one more bindery tech that I need to mention, and that is my cousin Matt Spurgeon. He started working there when I was in the twilight of my bindery boy career. Matt was a great example of how big my family is. Although he is my first cousin once removed, I hardly knew him. He wasn’t close enough in age at the time to hang out with the group of my cousins that I hung out with. And when he started working at B&B, he would not say a word. That was hard for a loud mouth like me to deal with. When I would talk to him, I was lucky if I got three words out of him.

Now don’t think I am trying to bag on Cousin Matt, because I am not. It seems like now that we both are married, and are fathers of beautiful little girls; I feel more on the same level with him. I had a good conversation at our family Christmas party last with him, and he wasn’t the shy kid that I used to know. He seemed to have a confidence about him that wasn’t there before. When I look back on it, I think that when we used to work together, he might have looked at me the same way I looked at people who were a few years older than me. And when I come to the part about working with my other cousin Rachel, you will see what I mean by that.

Next, we come to James, or as I liked to call him, Mr. Iwilltakecareofitevenifittakesmetill2a.m. And I am in no way exaggerating about that. One time I came into work early so I could skate out early, and I see James loading the copier up with paper. Come to find out he did not go home that night. Going home would have meant the customer wouldn’t have received it on time. I have never seen anyone at any of the many jobs I have worked in my life that was more dedicated to serving not only the customer, but the company he worked for.

Another thing about James that I thought was cool is that he uses a Flowbee to cut his hair. Yes that is right, a Flowbee. I didn’t know that those even worked, but he proved me wrong. The first time he told me, I couldn’t get that scene from Wayne’s World out of my head when they had the inventor of the Suck Cut on, and he tried to cut Garth’s lettuce.

Over the 2 ½ years I worked there, James had several different people work with him up in the front of the store. The first one was my cousin Rachel, Bill’s daughter. Now other than saying hello to Rachel at family functions, I didn’t know her too well. One of the reasons behind that (And I realize now that my thinking was off, so forgive me) was I thought that she was old. Yes that is right, OLD! She was a senior when I was a freshman. Now people, think back to your freshman year......and now picture the seniors in your head.....got it? They looked like grownups! Some of the guys had goatees! They could drive! I still look back at my freshman yearbook, and think that the class of 93 looks more grown up than I did in the class of 96. But working with her changed that. She was fun to joke around with, and I soon thought of her as a peer instead of someone who was old.

After Rachel decided to quit, Danyelle started working there. I had gotten to know Danyelle while she was dating my cousin Marshall. She had just been married to my other cousin Ryan. It is funny, because I distinctly remember working with Danyelle at B&B, but I have no stories about her. Maybe it is because a few months after she started, she quit since she was expecting Easton.

The next front desk companion to James was none other than Mrs. Funtime herself, Kristi Gibb. I had a feeling during her very first day of work that she was going to be a riot to work with. I could tell from the look in her eyes. Or maybe it was the second or third day of her employment, when she came into the back room, threw both hands up to the heavens with her fingers set to the rock n roll sign, and yelled out, “4:20!!! International smoke out time!!! WOOOOHOOO!!! Then she walked back up front like nothing had happened. It was things like that, the unexpected, that made having someone like that up front worthwhile to go up front.

And what would a print shop be without a graphics department? While there were several different graphics people while I was there, only one sticks out in my mind. His name was Mark Johnson.

When Mark would get an idea, no matter what it was, he couldn’t get it out of his head. One time, I brought in some of my mother’s freezer jam, and when Mark got to work the next day, he told me that it was the best tasting jam he ever had. He had thought up a plan to sell it to the masses. That night he even designed a label that we could put on the jam. It took me over a week to calm him down from that.

Another thing that Mark was always doing was being on the lookout for diet food that tasted good. One Monday, he came into work with a bag of chocolate fudge cookies that he wanted me to try. Now I had tried a few of his diet things, and the majority of them I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. These were no different. I should have known not to take a bite when the front of the bag said, “No Fat! No Sugar! No Problem!” But to humour him, I took a bite. To this day, I wish I hadn’t, because I can still taste what can only be described as cardboard dipped in chocolate flavoured water that has the texture of bleached flour.

Every once in a while, Bill or Bruce would bring donuts to work. Since I am a donut connoisseur, I would always have one. Donuts are one of my weaknesses. But Mark, who never wanted to spoil whatever diet he was trying at the time, would not eat the donuts. He would however, hover over them for about a minute, and waft the smell up so he could simulate the enjoyment of eating one. Every ten minutes or so he would come back to the box of donuts, and smell them. He was such a quirky guy, and the day would have gone by a lot slower without him around.

As you can see, everyone I had the pleasure of working with at this job made it enjoyable to come to work. Not once do I remember any backstabbing or drama come from B&B Printing. It was a great atmosphere with great people. But the best thing to happen to me while at B&B had nothing to do with paper or glue or numbering machines. It was the most stunning woman that I have ever met in my life. If you want to find out who I am talking about, you will have to wait for my next post.

This now concludes the workin’ part of my Workin’ for the Man! Series. I decided not to write about my current job, since it is with a government contractor. I mean, if I told you, I would have to kill you. And I don’t what to do that. Well, I also already wrote about it here. Once again, thank you for stopping by my very long winded blog. I appreciate it very much. And if you happen to have missed any part of this series, here they are: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, and 3c.

Thanks again. I’m out.