Thar she blows!

My oldest brother and I use to work for a company that manufactured chalk boards. I was around 16 at the time and spent most of my time in the shop doing menial tasks. I was very involved with all aspects of the plant which regularly included installing the chalkboards in schools, churches and other types of facilities.

The few times I went on an install found me doing, you guessed it, menial tasks. The installer would drill through the aluminum trim of the chalkboard and into the brick or concrete wall a couple of inches. They would then press a screw with a cork/aluminum "plug" into the hole. A screw gun would then screw the screw into the cork which would expand in the hole causing an anchor to hold the chalk board to the wall. I was usually sitting in a corner with three boxes in front of me with thousands screws and anchors. I would grab one screw and one anchor, thread them together by hand and drop the finished product in the middle box. Several hours and bloody thumbs later, the middle box would still be empty as it was hard to keep up with the installers. [I hope you enjoyed the brief lesson]

One time I went on an install with my brother to a new high school several hours away. Many of the details have escaped me, but I remember that we worked all day and decided to work most of the night to finish the job. He decided to take me to dinner and a small restaurant near by. It was a fairly nice place with cloth napkins, a waiter and the food did not come wrapped in paper. We sat there enjoying our food and conversation, not really concerned that we were under dressed. I was just having a great time.

Just as I took as big...I mean huge...gulp of milk, my brother popped me with the punch line of a story he was telling me. Abrupt laughter exited my lungs, went up my neck and crashed into my tightly pressed lips. The only way out was a U-turn at my teeth upward and out my nose, taking a good pint of milk with it. The torrent flowing into my plate combined with the clank of my brother's stake knife and fork being dropped on his plate drew attention from others. A quick gesture for the check and a humble exit could not come fast enough.

Hmmm, I think that was the last "install" I went on with that company.