March 8, 2019

On March 18, 1982 I began working the night shift for a company named Litton Advanced Circuitry in Springfield, MO.  June 29, 2002 was my last day of work there.  During the course of those 20 + years almost the entire time I was in the area known as Preproduction.  That group had the responsibility of quoting, planning, inspecting, tool making and releasing documents to the floor to manufacture circuit boards.  Precision was important with tolerances 0.0005 inch (0.0127 mm).  That is a wide margin in today's electronics.  But try trimming .0005 inch off the edge of a photo of a circuit.  Precise and steady hands.  No wonder several workers had carpal tunnel issues.

Last evening I received a pm on facebook from Sharon C.  Simple words, " Jan, Judy H. and I are her visiting and wondered if you would be available for lunch tomorrow, Friday.  We are going to the Bob Seger concert tonight.  I am thinking you are in the Cedar Park area.  You can text me at ...".  Absolutely was my response.  These two women and I had worked together from those early days in 1982.  Sharon was my lead.  Judy H. was one of the design inspectors.  Our ages ranged from 29 to 37 at the time.  Today we are all three retirees.  Judy H. and I being long time retirees while Sharon only recently. 

More texts were exchanged and a location was decided.  Little did I know there would be one other person show up, Linda C.  What a marvelous surprise.  Linda C. was just a kid working at Litton when I started.  She moved up through the ranks over the years eventually moving into the outside sales department.  Linda was enough of a kid that she is actually still in the workforce, too young to retire.  Sharon C. moved through the ranks, too, eventually moving into the engineering department.

My Hubby started working for Litton in November of 1983.  He retired in October 2002.  He started in electrical test doing fixture setup on third shift.  His later years he moved into the drill maintenance.  His final years he was supervisor of the department.

The design and camera department combined when the manual artwork provided by customers became digitized.  Originally the artwork came as just clear photos.  Some came in at 2:1 and some 4:1 taped artwork.  Those oversized artworks were actually red tape on clear plastic or vellum.  That artwork would be hung on a light box and a picture made using a reduction camera.  Thus resulted in the name Camera Department.  Here is more about what went on in pcb board manufacturing.

That work was what brought us together.  Getting to know each other, partying together, and all the other stuff is why we became friends.  After all we spent more time with these folks than about anyone at the time.  We knew family member names, likes and dislikes.  We rejoiced in kids successes together.  We cried together in times of distress.  We sat in shocked silence watching the TV set in the cafeteria on 9/11/01. 

Hubby and I had left in 2002.  Four or five years later the company closed its doors for good.  Linda had long since lived in a different state, Texas, owning her own sales company.  Sharon C. relocated to Kansas then Colorado as she continued her engineering career.  Judy took retirement.

Today we giggled about all the silly things we did.  How all the hours we worked were just what we did to keep body and soul together.  We caught up on where we are today.  Then it was time to part.  A quick photo.  Lots of hugs.  Really good hugs.  And there might have been a tear in my eye.  I know there is still a bit of a teardrop in my heart tonight.  A tear of joy and a bit of nostalgia for the time of building lives.