My dear friends, again the column must be short - certainly not because of lack of interest. If I were to start eliminating all interests outside the home, the column would be the last thing I would give up. As you can imagine, things have rather piled up this week. And now it is early Sunday morning. Today the Juniors are to sing "Lord of the Harvest" before the whole church school. If their sweet little voices, blending together, touch a responsive chord in every heart as they do in mine, it will be a great day. Today we have what is called "The Ingathering" - the gathering in of food supplies for the old ladies' home supported by our church. This afternoon the teaching staff and officers of the Junior department will decide just what our aims are. In that way we hope to get acquainted with the parents, and let them know just what our aims are. You can see that it will be a full day.
Would you like to hear about the new job? When I set forth to apply for a job, I had dreams - almost nightmares - of doing deadly dull routine work - maybe like putting nuts on bolts. I was getting my slogans ready - to carry me through the monotony. Like: "This will be boring work, perhaps, But I'll be putting the screws on the Japs". To my glad surprise I landed in a special class - of eleven women - who are being carefully trained as inspectors. The first week has been fascinating. Maybe I won't make the grade. But at least it's a refreshing and gratifying experience to go to school and, at the same time, get paid for it.
Our instructor is a brilliant young college graduate who has had plenty of practical experience. As we listened to him - for five whole days - I was reminded of that line from Oliver Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" - "And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew - That one small head could carry all he knew." Going into that "vestibule school" as they call it, and the factory, has given me a new respect for man's genius - to design anything as intricate and remarkable in its performance as the turret lathe. A lathe, as most of you know, is a machine used in turning, cutting, shaping, polishing wood or metal. So far as I know, Warner and Swasey works only with metal. I do know that they make more turret lathes than all the rest of the world put together. The turret has the same principle as the revolving turret on top of a fortress, or on a battleship. The large turret is hexagonal, each side designed to hold its odd shaped metal piece in place. This huge machine, as heavy as a tractor, has the precision of a telescopic instrument. It is the granddaddy of the war industry or any other industry involving metals, for it makes the tools with which man must work.
Now, I meant to make this a human interest story. For the human side of this great industry is most interesting. But my time is already up. In fact it is now Sunday afternoon. The Juniors were just precious this morning. I am just bursting with pride - over their singing and their fine behavior. In fact, we teachers feel that:
The golden age - the vital age -
the best this side of Heaven
Is the Junior age - sweet, restless age -
the years 9, 10, 11.
Sincerely,
Florence B. Taylor -
4501 Lilac Road,
South Euclid, Ohio