Caradco, 1972 to 1976

I started in 1972, right out of high school. I graduated in May and I started in June. And I worked here until August or September of ‘76. I wasn’t one of the last ones to leave, but they were trickling everything down.

I remember an older guy, his name was Sully, and he had told me that when John Deere came to town he could’ve worked for John Deere, but at the time he was making more money here than he would’ve at John Deere. Of course, that changed and he was kicking himself in the butt for not talking the job.

I started as a helper on a molder. A molder was a machine that you fed lumber through and it formed the rails and different pieces. As they came out I would stack them on a truck. Then I became a molder operator. But, I did a lot of different jobs because if the work was slow in my department, then they would farm you out to a different department that day. If you were low man on the totem pole, you know, with lower seniority, then you would get moved. So there were a lot of different places I ended up working. But, pretty much I was a molder operator.

At the time I didn’t really like it at Caradco. I was young and it was work, you had to come to work, you know, and that kind of thing, but after a while—after thinking about it a while—I kind of missed it. There were good people that worked here.

Return to Millwork Portraits