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Page 12 • The Standard Blind River Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Continued from page 11 Seasoned mill workers teased, trained young summer employees Trucks and roads meant fewer workers were needed. The idea of floating the logs down waterways was being phased out. And with mill mechanization. more wood was cut faster. Larry says he worked at the "handsaw where the logs rolled by. Most of the time though he worked at the planing machines, which is where the wood is cut in half and/or where the edge of the wood was curved. The wood comes out and you are responsible for stacking them properly and that stuff came at you pretty fast" he says chuckling, "Especially, when you were a rookie." The last two summers he worked there, the company gave him the responsibility of feeding the machines, instead of pulling wood out of them. He says he even worked with several war veterans in the planing area. These men tended to be more seasoned and wiser than the rest. "The ones I can recall." One summer, Larry worked the night shift, and became impressed with foreman Frank Dunn. 'He was a very positive kind of person and he would congratulate you on a job well done." Larry says under Dunn,"the night shift would pump out as much lumber in four hours as the day shift would do in eight. Dunn would then give the night crew the rest of the shift off. "He said, otherwise, the day shift would have looked like real non-producers." Larry says training was different then, especially compared to the schooling modern workers need today. "Sink or swim. It was trial and error a lot." New employees would work closely with experienced personnel. New employees would also be teased by the experienced workers. "They always played jokes on you, and I liked that, that kind of atmosphere," Once, Larry had trouble interpreting a hand signal. The mill was so loud, shouting went unheard, so everyone gestured. "And it took me forever to figure this (signal), but it meant I got to go to the bathroom." Photo Caption: At its height, the Blind River lumber site was about the same size of the town. Logs were floated down the river and then fed into the mill at the building in the upper left.