The Factory

A.N.C. was (literally "was", it's all gone now) a huge old three story building. There were "clean rooms" because of the product, but much of the space was unused. Things had accumulated and old machines and parts were scattered all over the building in unused areas. I got to explore the third floor once. It had been a Lab and Photo Copy area at one time. Then the Lab was moved to an area more or less over the offices. On a split level, over the offices but a set of stairs lower then the floor above the factory. Another time there was a fire across town and they took me up on the roof to watch it. On the other extreme, there were tunnels under the building. But they were full of roaches and river rats and no one ever talked me into going down there. The factory was on the northwest side of town, near the Kokosing River. The factory left town and everything was torn down. and the city wants to turn the area into another city park. But there is a problem with contamination in the soil and a fight about who is responsible for cleanup. There were around 150 employees in the factory when I was there, plus the folks in the office. That was less then a third of what had been there in the hayday of production.

A.N.C. stands for American National Can, but they didn't make cans in our plant. They formed and printed flexible packaging for food and other products. Everything from the little individual jelly packs you get at the diner to the printed plastic that toilet paper is packaged in and the plastic bags that fit in baby bottles. That's about all I know about their production. My job took me all over the factory but kept me too busy to actually watch how things were done.

My machines were in three separate canteens. A main canteen where my storage was, and where I spent most of my time, and two other smaller lunch rooms. Plus too many canned pop machines, that were scattered around the building. I was eventually able to eliminate the ones nearest the lunch rooms. But one of the pop machines was in the Ink House. A separate building where flammable and explosive solvents and inks were stored. The first time they took me over to show me the location of that machine I was given a warning. If the alarm ever went off while I was there, I was told to drop everything and run. And don't stop running till the explosion knocked me down. (Even in the rest of the factory that alarm meant "Run in the direction away from the Ink House.") How's that for an introduction to my new account? The Ink House was separate but connected to the factory by a cat walk. No roof, I still had to go outside, but the cat walk was only a covered loading dock and then a railroad track wide. I only had to fill that machine once or twice a month. No one wanted to spend more time there then they had to. Even the fumes burned my eyes and throat. In fact, I had more trouble with expired dates then I did with keeping it full. That was another company policy that made no sense. The machine should have been kept half full. But, I wasn't allowed to do that. I did manage to get the other machines with the same problem that were scattered over the factory pulled out eventually. When anyone complained about having to walk further, I asked them if they'd rather walk or end up with old pop. As long as they knew the reason, most of them accepted the removal.

Besides the main canteen, which was pretty much centered in the building , there were two other lunch rooms for my machines. One at the back of the factory in the Laminating Area, and one on a second floor in the Playtex Area. Both of those had coffee, canned pop, showcase and cold food, plus the micro waves. They did have to be filled and cleaned each day. In the main canteen, I had those machines plus a canned juice, hot canned soup, a second pop machine, a second coffee machine and a second cold food for milk and fruit. My hours went to six a day, from 6 am. till noon. Actually filling and cleaning machines didn't take as long as the paper work.

Officially, six hours a day. But, the vending company had signed a contract with A.N.C. to provide catering's for office V.I.P. visitors, and to set out retirement cakes for each department and each shift. I was expected to do that job too. I was returning to A.N.C. at all hours of the day and night. I was always over 40 hours a week and I remember one week where I turned in 62 hours. No wonder every other attendant had left before I showed up. That isn't a part time job, that's a career. Since I've never been able to sleep anyway, it was my career, till A.N.C. left Mount Vernon about 9 years later.