After working in the Springfield area for 25 years, travelling to the Upper Valley was quite a change. But the commute was not that bad once I reached I91. One thing I did discover (to my surprise) was that New Hampshire kept their roads much clearer than Vermont in the winter. And some of the winter commutes were, eh, entertaining, shall I say? I did not possess a four-wheel-drive vehicle at that time, and I consider myself a “conservative” driver. But some of those folks who do have four-wheel-drive are of the opinion that they can do anything in ice and snow. I have since bought two four-wheel-drive pickups, and can say that they are handy during those seasons. But I still don’t think I’m invincible. I remember one particular morning commute, when it was snowing and blowing, someone passed me in a white, full size Chevy Blazer. After getting past me, they proceeded to do a couple of 360’s in the left lane, then slid off into the median. Luckily for them that the median had no ledges at that point. I just kept on going…………..

New Jersey Machine was a labeling and packaging outfit, and their base headquarters was in, well, in New Jersey. The company was founded in the early 1900’s, and initially they imported and sold labeling machines from Germany. Of course this all changed when WW1 started. So they were forced into building their own machinery, based on the German designs. Over the years their product line expanded, and when I joined the company they had several models of labelers, and also boxing/ packaging machines. There were a few people here from the Springfield area, some of which I knew personally. I ended up commuting with John Kingsbury, a former Fellows electrical engineer. John Lived in Baltimore, and we would switch off driving chores every other week.

One of the big differences between this industry and machine tools was that everything was stainless steel or aluminum, very clean compared with the cast iron castings I was used to. They had their own small machine shop and welding area, which took care of most of their needs. The assembly area was at the rear of the building, which was located on Etna Road in Lebanon.

The basic labeling machine they sold was called the “Mustang”. At that time most labels were paper, and they were attached to the bottle using a cold glue. So a basic machine would have a label magazine, and a cold glue applicator. The bottle would be passed by the glue station, where it would be rotated as the glue was applied; then past the label magazine, where the label would be picked up. A stationary brush would make sure the label was firmly attached. The pharmaceutical industry was a big customer of ours; I remember a particularly difficult job on a pill bottle, and having to attach a small, prefolded booklet to the bottle. The printing on this booklet had instructions and warnings concerning the drug, but you needed a magnifying glass to read it…………….