Down in Willard.
[unclear] went back and
stayed
[unclear] . After three or four
years I went back
[unclear] eleven months
I went back again for four years. And I started to work for the county
sheltered workshop employing handicapped people. I worked
Page 32 there for probably two or three years part—time.
[unclear] first year I was working for
college. And
[unclear] truck
[unclear] worked with handicapped people
[unclear] . We had a hundred
twenty-five clients plus they had
[unclear]
at that time. And I had eight or ten that helped me in the
sawmill. In the process of putting in a
[unclear]
. It cuts prepared lumber. You don't cut logs with it, but you
can cut timber into smaller stuff with special things. Their product was
pallets and boxes—these cucumber boxes, twenty bushel boxes. You've seen
the cucumber boxes. They have a
[unclear]
and
[unclear] . It's all built out of oak.
Well, this gang mill was designed and set up for them to buy
[unclear] from what they call box grade
material, which was a
[unclear] the
hardwood timber box. And most of the time the size would be a four by
six.
[unclear] sixteen
[unclear] . And when we were building those
boxes the
[unclear] material oak
[unclear] . So I worked there for a year
[unclear] . They backed out of the
program because of liability.
[unclear]
clients that were so handicapped after I finished getting the mill in it
had been started and stopped. And I finished putting the mill in and
setting up, and I was the first one to ever cut any timber with it. And
I used the clients—some couldn't even carry on a conversation—and I got
all the new ones that come in. And I had to
[Baby crying]
[unclear] with them. And they were paid
according to—on that job they were paid according to the hour. But they
were paid according to their capabilities, which I had to do all that
kind of work. And
[unclear] tractor
trailer load of four by sixes in the
[unclear]
material that varied anywhere from thirty-three and a quarter
inches down to four foot long. And we'd cut two by fours. We'd cut slats
that was a half-inch. They were—years past they were buying stuff
already cut
[unclear] materials. We
started
[unclear] cutting all the stuff
there, if you can imagine cutting that much material and using
handicapped labor. We didn't work but four hours a day. I went to work
at eight o'clock, but we didn't start until everybody got there. We
Page 33 took a break. We took a lunch break, an afternoon
break, and stopped at
[unclear] . We had
[unclear] working there. I had eight
to ten people at there working
[unclear]
cut off saw, cut it in blocks. Our people were very work involved—the
early twenties to up in their sixties—and it was just a matter of
getting a person for the job. And I took them through that program and
always get new ones. But if you can imagine unloading a tractor trailer.
I'm talking about eleven, twelve thousand feet, board feet of timbers,
and carrying it back over to Portmouth
[unclear]
.