When I first joined Vermont Rebuild, most of the design work was still being done with paper and pencil. We had a motley assortment of drafting equipment, inherited from some of the now defunct machine tool industries in town. But we were in the process of purchasing computer drafting equipment; this project advanced as funds were available. Having an electronic design capability would greatly improve our productivity (after we went thru the learning curve). Most of the engineering staff were located on the second floor, with a pretty decent view of the Black River and the dam. Watching the ice go out in the spring was a big event for us.

There was no real “standard” as far as drafting practices were concerned. But because most of us were former J&L employees, we tended to drift toward what we were used to. We had both a J&L standards book, and drafting manual. When we hired any new engineers, we gave them these volumes and had them review them. We had no central checking capability, so each engineer was on his own (although I tried to channel each one of us in the same general direction). In the early days, all engineering drawings used a numbering system unique to Vermont Rebuild, but based on J&L practices. Details were assigned a “VR” number, and assemblies used a “VRA” prefix. All the assembly lists were hand written, and commercial hardware was described as it appeared in the vendor catalogs (I.E. a fastener would be called out as “hex head screw, 1/4-20 x 3.00”). Because these hand written  lists were not “computerized”, we had no problem with nomenclature. We did not assign Vermont Rebuild numbers to commercial items (this would change big time when we later adopted a computerized inventory system). All the drawings we created were placed in numbered filing cabinets, and when a job was released, these were used to create prints for manufacture (one for the vendor, one for our incoming inspecting area). We had no microfilming capability, unlike the big shops in town.

As business improved, we would advertise in various papers for help. Some of the resumes we received were quite shocking; I remember one in particular, a Russian woman who was degreed, and seemed to be very desperate to find work in this country. As usual, we interviewed her face-to-face, and came away with more than  a little concern about probable communication problems. In the end, we did not hire her. Of all the people we hired, we did have some notable failures over the years, those who just could not at least try to conform to the Company Goals.

Almost from the beginning, our work flow would be either overwhelming, or lacking; because the company did not have “Deep Pockets”, they could not afford to pay their help when there was no work. There would be temporary layoffs in various areas of the plant, including engineering. By this time our children had left home, and I did not mind having a few extra weeks off. I would receive a check from the Unemployment Office, after the normal one week delay.