I was filling out my application form for social security today and it got me thinking about my first job. I worked in a machine shop and my duties included going around to the various lathe and drill machine stations and collect the waste shavings or chips but technically called swarf. Often times the chips were hot and flying off the machines. I would shovel them into a bin I rolled around with me. 1968 was an election year and the politicians significantly raised the minimum wage up to $1.60 per hour. I think I started out at $1.25 per hour but that was before I got my working papers because they could pay teenagers less then. I was at that job for a couple of years, trained at quality control inspection measuring the outputs using micrometers and eventually became a lathe operator. I was a Machinist's Mate in the Navy and some years later was a member of the machinist union. I never imagined back then that I would end my working career as a librarian on a college campus.
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