Wichita

We left Liberal and traveled to...
Better the tale move in a more direct line to Wichita, never mind the ramblings, twists and turns taken to get there.

David and I found a place to live, which was basically a bedroom in a home, but with kitchen privileges. Then to find a job. Rent, we discover, is not free, in spite of the years of free rent the parents had given. We both immediately found employment at Boeing Airplane Company. On closer examination it becomes clear the reason employment was so readily available. At the time Boeing had contracts with the government to produce B-47s and B-52s. These contracts were on a “cost plus” basis, which is to say, that for every dollar it cost Boeing to train, employ, and pay us, they made an additional dime for themselves.

My first week with my new employer was spent at a training facility in downtown Wichita. I was learning to be a tool and die maker! At the end of the week, I was placed in the factory, second shift, as a “jig builder.” My basic tasks were to stay out of trouble, and stay out of the way.

Now the B-47 was being produced in Wichita, but not the B-52. I was placed on a team that was engaged in making tools and jigs for the soon-to-start building of the B-52.  We were building a tool to hold the outboard starboard engine in place during assembly. If memory serves me right, and I think it might, I tapped one hole in that jig during my tenure there. And in my haste, awkwardness, and ineptitude, I broke the tap and it took a machinist the rest of the shift to repair the damage.

For reasons that might be becoming entirely too clear, when fall approached, I chose to quit Boeing and enroll in college.