Bob of Small End

by David Hockey

  Chapter 30 The BBC

  Bob and Lori arrived at the old shop at the same time Tuesday morning and sat in the office to discuss the rest of the week. The first thing Bob told her was that he wouldn’t be delivering that week. “You see, I want to work in the shop. I think there may be a big demand from We-Have-It so I’ll help you and Jose.”

  “No problem. Gerry and Bert can do the deliveries. We’re getting cheques for the June sales now. We already have about three thousand pounds. The cheques are in the safe if you want to deposit them. The June sales should be pretty big I think, judging from the calls I’ve received towards the end of last month.”

  “Let’s hope so. I’ve a mortgage to pay off and savings to repay.”

  “I’ll add up how much we spent in June and let you know. I have all the bills I think. It shouldn’t take long to do that. First though, I want to order more plastic boxes, moving racks, if they have them and the glue guns and sticks.”

  “Can you see if they have any clear glue Lori? It’s better if we use that if it’s available. Ask them to send us their brochure; they might have guns that are strong enough for constant use or that are made so they can be easily fastened to benches. Ken did that last night and it works well. Please thank your aunt for telling us about them.”

  Bert and Gerry walked in and Lori gave them the lists of shops to visit.

  “I’ve made three lists but Bob won’t be able to take one so you’ll have to do all of them. Do you want me to split them into two or four lists? And one of you has to go to Salisbury today to collect 10,000 pasteboards. You should take the big van on that trip.”

  “I’ll go there and do the shops in that direction” said Bert. “That van’s easier on my back. And you’d better make four lists Lori. All these places will take two days for each of us to handle. Where do you want to go Gerry, east or west?”

  “Eastwards. I’d like to go there for a holiday. Do we get one this year Lori?”

  “I don’t know. Do we Bob?”

  “Yes I think so but I don’t know how long they’ll be. I’ll talk to Ken and we’ll let you all know once we’ve decided. You’ll join us when you’ve finished in here Lori?”

  “Yes. I won’t be long.”

  “We’re about half-way through making a hundred trains Bob,” said Jose.

  “Okay let’s go.” They cut and sanded until Lori walked in and asked Bob to join her in the office.

  “The June expenses come to £8,664.71 Bob. Here’s a list of them,” and she handed him two printed pages. “The biggest expense was for the new equipment. That’s just under £5,500. Your overnight stays were about £1,600. When you see Ken could you ask him if he has any more expenses. And you can see the petty cash expenses at the bottom of the list. That’s where I took the money for the glue gun. Oh yes, there were more cheques in today’s mail. Now the June income is £6,993.75. So far we’ve only had cheques from about a quarter of them, the smallest ones, too, I think.”

  “That’s excellent news Lori. Thanks.”

  “The glue gun people will send us their brochure and they do sell clear and transparent glues as well as lots of different colours and strengths. So I ordered a hundred clear sticks. They’ll mail them and they’ll arrive this week. That’s all, so I’ll join you in the shop now.”

  “Good. We’re finishing the trains. Would you do the gluing?”

  “Sure. Pity I don’t have a glue gun to use.”

  It was a quiet tea break, with Bert and Gerry delivering and everyone else in the new shop, but it was an interesting one, for Jose asked Lori if she was still going out with Craig.

  “Yes,” she replied, “and he asked me to marry him last night! I’ve been dying to tell everybody but I can’t wait until we’re all together. Don’t say anything to the others until I’ve told them.”

  “Congratulations,” said Bob and gave her a hug.

  “That was very quick Lori” said Jose. “Isn’t he younger than you?”

  “Yes he’s two years younger. Age doesn’t matter. He’s kind, knowledgeable and knows what he wants to do in his life.”

  “What does he want to do?” asked Bob.

  “He wants to be his own boss, to own a business of some kind. And he’s so happy you’ve made him a supervisor. He thinks that will help him to learn how to handle people.”

  “Well he’s doing a pretty good job of that right now, as far as I know. Ken has never complained or said anything bad about him. But Ken’s never said anything bad about anyone in the shop.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I think that’s one of the reasons we like working here,” said Jose.

  “Are you going to stay Jose?” asked Lori.

  “Well, for now. I want to earn some money.”

  “What about your girlfriend?”

  “You mean Rosemary?”

  “Yes.”

  “She’s no longer my girlfriend. Since she told me about her new friend and stopped writing I’ve been trying to forget about her.”

  “Maybe I can find you another. Would you like me to do that?”

  “Don’t think so Lori. I’d rather find one for myself.”

  “Well if I think of anyone that might be compatible I’ll invite her to our celebration party.”

  “Will Ken and I be invited to that?” Bob asked.

  “Of course.”

  “When’s it going to be?”

  “Oh we’ve not set a date. We told our parents immediately and they already have plans about where we should live, especially my mother. I told her we won’t marry for a year or more. Craig and I have to find out if we like living together before marrying.”

  “You’re going to live together?” asked Bob, a bit shocked.

  “Of course. We have been looking at flats this past fortnight.”

  “What does you mother say about that?”

  “Oh she thinks it is a sensible way to find out if you’re right for each other. If one is always messy and the other wants everything to be in its place, for instance, that could be a problem.”

  “Wow. It’s a bit different from when Betty and I were young,” said Bob. “You know, why don’t we have our lunch with the others today and you can tell everybody about your engagement then.”

  “I’d have to talk to Craig about doing that. He said I can tell everybody about it but I don’t know if he’d like it to be a big announcement. Wait ‘til I’ve talked to him. If I say we will announce it, will you ask everyone to keep quiet so we can?”

  “Of course,” answered Bob.

  The kettle was boiling and someone had a small casserole of left-over stir-fry warming in the oven when they arrived at the meeting room at the old Centre. Lori grabbed Craig’s hand and pulled him into the corridor. Three minutes later they were back and Lori looked at Bob and nodded her head. He stood up, cleared his throat and banged his mug on the table until everyone was quiet. “There’s some important news for you. Although I don’t know exactly who is going to tell you about it. I’ll hand over to Lori.”

  Lori looked at Craig and said “We got engaged last night.”

  There was a lot of cheering, the men got up and walked to Craig and shook his hand. Jean and Diane went to Lori and wanted to see her ring. She showed them her hand and said, “We haven’t bought it yet so there’s nothing to show. And I don’t think Craig should buy me an engagement ring right now, we will need the money for more important things.”

  “We must have a celebration,” cried Ken, “and I think we should have it at our place. That way Mary can meet all our new people.”

  “That would be very nice Ken. Thank you very much,” said Craig.

  The lunch break was ten minutes longer than usual that day with people moving about, asking and answering questions. When Ken was free Bob gave him the June expense sheets and asked him if he could stay after work because they need to talk about staff holidays.

  “All right. Shall we meet here?”

  “Okay.”

 
Ken got up and said it was time to return to work. “I said we’ll talk about rotations today. This is what Bob and I have decided. We won’t rotate between shops this week but we will rotate within shops. We’ll start rotating between shops next week and Lori will post a notice in both tea rooms to say who goes where and when. Okay?”

  There was no disagreement and a few nodded their heads. Everyone got up and began washing their dishes and tidying the room.

  At five o’clock Jose and Lori walked with Bob to the new shop, Jose to join Luke and ride home with Ray in the car pool that Frank had set up and Lori to walk to Craig’s house because she was having supper with his parents. After everyone had left Bob and Ken sat down in the tea room for a chat.

  “We should move the office to this shop I think,” said Ken. “We could use the room next to this one. We could use the old office for storage, there’s not enough of it over there.”

  “I agree. We’ll have to bring a load of trains here soon. No point in taking them to my place. Then can we swap telephone numbers? We’d want people to call here once the office is here.”

  “Probably. Ask Lori to find out . Say, did you guess that Lori and Craig were getting serious? I’d seen them holding hands several times although they were circumspect about it. I knew they were going out with each other, of course.”

  “Yes I knew that. It’s a bit quick to become engaged I think. Lori says they are going to live together and her mother doesn’t mind them doing that. It’s a lot different from when we were young isn’t it?”

  “Yes. If a couple slept together they would have to keep quiet about it then. Times are different these days. Now, you said we should talk about staff holidays. What’s on your mind?”

  “Lori and Jose asked me about holidays and I said I’d discuss them with you. By law we have to give them one, a paid holiday.”

  “Yes you’re right, although I don’t like doing that for the new people. They haven’t been here for a week yet!”

  “Well I don’t think that they have to have a week’s paid holiday, maybe we could pay them for just a day or two.”

  “What about closing the shop while I’m away?”

  “But that’s for two weeks. We don’t have to give them that long a holiday. One week’s sufficient.”

  “Then let’s close the shop for one week and you run it for the other Bob. Give the old gang pay for one week and pay the new one for just a couple of days. How about that?”

  “Yes. That sounds about right. We’ll tell them Friday in case any of them want to make holiday plans. I suggest we close the first week of your holidays.” He looked at the calendar someone had hung on the wall. “That’s September 2nd to the 6th, right?”

  “Yes, and we’ll tell them about what we’ll pay them during their holiday.”

  “No, let’s wait. We don’t have to say anything about that yet. We might change our minds about how much to pay and to whom. We’ll just tell them that the shops will be closed that week for holidays.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you look at the June expenses?” asked Bob.

  “Yes. They’re not as bad as I thought. We have lots of money in the bank to cover that and the salaries.”

  “If you have any more bills for June can you give them to Lori?”

  “I don’t think I have any but I’ll check my desk at home.”

  “Lori told me the cheques for June sales are arriving and, as of today, we have just under seven thousand pounds. And the cheques are just from about a quarter of the shops. I think we’ll earn lots of money even without having a wholesaler.”

  “It looks like it Bob. It’s surprising what you can earn when a lot of people want to buy what you’ve got. What did I say. We’re going to be rich!”

  “Yes, I now think you’re right. It worries me a bit. Lots of money is going to change my life a lot and I don’t know if I want it to change.”

  “Then you can give it to me Bob. Or your children or grandchildren.”

  “Ah I can see even more problems if I give it to them. I’ll ask Betty what to do.”

  “Your wife? But she’s dead!”

  “Yes I know. I sometimes talk to her in my mind when I walk along the river. Doing that sometimes helps me resolve problems.”

  “Well wait until you know how much you’ll have before doing that. Selling toys might suddenly collapse; people might stop wanting them.”

  “I hope they don’t until I’ve paid off my mortgage and returned the money to my savings.”

  “We’ll be alright Bob. Don’t worry! Well, is there anything else to discuss?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then I’m going home to talk to Mary about having a celebration at our place. It’ll be a bigger group than we had at the BBQ but I think she’ll manage. ‘Bye Bob.”

  Bert was unloading the pasteboards when Bob arrived Wednesday morning. They put a third of them on Ken’s desk and then drove the rest to the new shop and stacked them in the hall near the exit end of the bench. Afterwards they loaded the van with boxed toys ready for the day’s delivery. They passed Gerry who was taking his van to the garage for petrol as they were driving back.

  They were about to stop for their tea break when the phone rang; it was the BBC and they wanted to talk to Bob.

  “Hello. This is Bob Barns.”

  “Hello Mr. Barns. This is Jimmy Cager. I’m an assistant director for this documentary and am working with the film crew. I understand you were the one who began Small End Wooden Toys.”

  “Yes that’s right.”

  “Well as you’ll probably know the Small End episode of the documentary explores how a small village expands to become a town. Apart from building new houses you have to develop new businesses or industries and that’s exactly what you’ve done. Clearly villages will want people like you to help them survive so we want to explain how you’ve grown your company. To do that we want to start at the beginning. Can you show us where you began and describe what happened along the way? Would you do that for us?”

  “Gladly, although it’s not really me you should be talking to, it’s Ken Smith, my partner.”

  “We’ve already talked to him and he’ll show us the new shop you have. But we want to film the shop where you started and also the one you moved to. It’s Joe’s milking parlour, according to Jane.”

  “Yes that’s right. When do you want to do all this?”

  “Today. We’ll start with you at your house and film the shop you have in your garden. Can you be there in fifteen minutes? We’ve arranged to meet Ken Smith at Joe’s parlour shop at ten forty-five.”

  “All right, I’ll be there.”

  He told Lori and Jose that he had to meet the film crew at his house shop. “Can you continue building trains? We shouldn’t be long at my place and they’ll come here next. Ken will be here soon and they will want to film this place.”

  “Will we be in the film?”

  “I expect so. I should imagine they’ll want to see people working on the line.”

  “When will they show the film? I want to tape it,” said Lori.

  “Ask them when they are here. It’ll be a part of the series on England’s Increasing Population, so it must be listed in the TV Times. I’m going to my place now to make sure the place is tidy.”

  It was tidy, as Bob knew. That’s the way he always left his workshop. There was a thin film of dust on the windows so he cleaned them. Then he went to the house, washed the breakfast dishes and checked the toilet. He didn’t think they would bother with the house but they might film his garden. He collected his hoe and was working on the row of carrots when he noticed a camera pointed at him from the parking lot. He stopped and stood up. “I thought it was the workshop you wanted to film,” he shouted.

  “Don’t mind them,” a voice behind him said. “They’re just shooting some of the background. We might not use it. Hello, I’m Jimmy Cager. You must be Mr. Barns.”

  “Yes. I’m all ready for
you.”

  “Good.” He beckoned the camera trio to approach. “This is Dee Tomik. You’ve probably seen her many times on TV. She’s one of our top narrators.”

  “Hello Mr. Barns. Can I call you Bob please. It sounds much nicer.”

  “Yes of course. So what’s going to happen?”

  “I’ll ask you questions about how you began to make toys and why you expanded the business and as we do that we’ll walk into your shop and you can point to various things, anything that will help our audience understand what you are talking about. We plan to shoot it only once and edit out any mistakes. So it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. Then we’ll go to Joe’s milking parlour. Are you alright with that?”

  “Yes I think so.”

  “Okay we’ll begin. So this is where it all started Bob?”

  “Yes it is. About four years ago.” And Bob told Dee about spending most of his time in the shop after Betty died and that Rose sold his trains and birds in her gift shop. Then he told her about having a holiday in Portugal in January and deciding he would like to earn enough money to have other holidays on the continent so he looked for help, expecting to hire a teenager to make toys, but Ken turned up. Whilst he was relating the story to Dee they entered the workshop where Bob pointed to his bench, tools, two partly-finished birds and pieces of a train set.

  “You will see more of the train set in the next shop. We’re currently making them there.” Then he continued, telling Dee how he and Ken became partners, used money from their savings, rented Joe’s milking parlour, turned it into a workshop and hired some helpers.

  “I had little left in my savings by that time and when we found we could rent the old Community Centre I took out a mortgage on this house.”

  “Do you still have the mortgage?”

  “Oh yes but I hope to pay it off soon. We now produce so many toys, train, village and farm sets, that we have to use a wholesaler. They will sell our toys all over Great Britain.”

  “You company is called Small End Wooden Toys isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve already filmed Rose’s shop and she showed me some of your toys.” Dee turned to the film crew, “Okay boys, cut. We’ll go to Joe’s parlour now.”

  Ken was waiting at the shop door and Dee reviewed what they would do together. He and Bob took her and the film crew through the front door, past the waiting room and office and into the workshop.

  “This is Lori and Jose. Lori is a jack-of-all-trades; she answers the telephone, is our secretary, handles the finances and makes toys in between. And she’s just got engaged to Craig, who’s our supervisor. You’ll see him at the new shop.”

  “Oh Ken, you shouldn’t have said anything about our engagement,” Lori exclaimed. “They don’t want to hear anything about that.”

  “Oh yes we do,” said Dee. “Take a close-up of Lori’s face will you, quickly, while she looks like that.” The camera swirled and Lori blushed. “Great. Now, Ken and Bob, can you tell me what happens in this shop?”

  So they did and the camera followed them as they pointed out what Lori and Jose were doing as they worked. Lori took them into the paint and the sanding booths, saying that both jobs were done differently in the new shop.

  “This way of painting was your idea wasn’t it Ken?”

  “Just about all the things in both our new shops are Ken’s ideas,” said Bob. “Particularly these router jigs, the way we paint by dipping, all the things that improve our production.”

  With a last sweep around the shop the crew stopped filming. Jimmy told them that they would go to the Community Centre shop now and everybody walked there. Lori and Jose followed because they didn’t want to miss any of the action.

  It was Ken who took Dee and the camera men along the line, explaining that most of the people working there had only joined them that Monday.

  “But they don’t seem to have any difficulty doing the job. You don’t mind if I talk to some of them? No? Okay. Hello. My name is Dee Tomik. We’re filming this for a BBC documentary. What’s your name please?”

  “I’m Diane Montery. I know who you are, I see you often on television.”

  “What are you doing Diane?”

  “I’m sanding the blocks that make the church in our village sets. See, I push the block onto the sanding mop, I think that’s what it’s called, then I drop it into this exit tunnel. If you want to film it you’ll have to bring the camera closer. There, aim through here,” and she pointed to the side of the plastic cover.

  “Do you like the job Diane? I should think that it will quickly become pretty boring.”

  “I’ve worked on a production line before Dee, if you don’t mind me calling you that. And all production lines become boring but this line is different in several ways. We exchange places several times a day and we can stand or sit down in most positions. And everyone’s so friendly.”

  “So you have learned how to do every job on the line in two days Diane? And everyone else has learned to do that? That’s remarkable.”

  “Well the work is straight forward. It’s easy to learn. The hardest part is the last paint job, I think. And, anyway, we’re not working very fast either.”

  “No. The problem is sanding right now Dee,” Ken said. “We need two people working on sanders and it’s only Diane at the moment. Ed’s away, he phoned in sick earlier this morning.”

  “I see. This duct takes the dust away I see. What happens to it?”

  “It’s collected in a big bin at the back of the shop. Joe uses it. He’s the farmer that owns the milking parlour we rented. He mixes it with waste green stuff from his market gardening operation and makes compost for the greenhouses.”

  “What a good idea. Okay let’s move on. Show me how you paint the pieces.”

  Ken did so, pointing to the heating fan under the bench and explaining how the ducts carried the exiting hot air to the outside. “It doesn’t use a lot of heat, and we’ll probably let the exiting hot air run into the hall during the winter to help heat this place.”

  “What about fumes from the paint?” asked Dee.

  “There aren’t any. Here, smell,” and he picked up one of the paint trays. “It’s a thinned acrylic and that’s a water-based paint so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  They continued along the line, watching the gluing, packing and ended by showing some of the boxes of village sets.

  “I like those boxes. They go with the whole concept of a wooden toy,” Dee said. She turned to Ken, “I’ve one last question and it’s for everybody. I want to ask them how they like working here. Do you mind?”

  “No not at all.”

  So Dee raised her voice and shouted, “How do you like working here?”

  There was a barrage of replies from both the old crew and the new one.

  “It’s a great place to work.”

  “I like it, it’s a nice and easy atmosphere.”

  “Fabulous. I like changing places and learning new things.”

  “I like sitting on chairs and I like the comfortable tea room.”

  “The Last Friday Celebration is a terrific idea.”

  “Oh what’s that?” Dee asked Ken.

  “We have the afternoon of the last Friday of each month free and Bob and I buy lunch for everybody.”

  “But only if the production meets our target for the month,” added Bob.

  “Interesting. Well I think we have enough now.” She shouted again, “thank you everybody” and turned to the film crew. “That’s it boys, pack up.” Then she asked Jimmy “What do you think? It is a go?”

  “Yep. We need to show the company’s name in a couple of places, I think. Did you film the name above the entrance to Joe’s parlour shop when we went in?” he asked the camera man.

  “Course we did!”

  “Okay. Well thanks Bob, Ken,” Jimmy said.

  “When will you show this episode?” shouted Diane.

  “Probably on Sunday. It’ll be a part of
the episode called The Small End Village. You’ll have to watch the whole hour because I don’t know when they’ll piece it in.”

  “Are you going to film the new Community Centre’s opening? It’s on Saturday.”

  “Of course. We’ll be filming many parts of the village and the new housing developments the rest of today and tomorrow. You’ll see us around. Thanks everybody. Good luck with your venture,” and with that they walked out the door.

  “Thanks everybody,” called Ken. “You’re great. Let’s stop for lunch now. I’m sure you want to talk about what’s been happening.”

  During lunch Ken thought about Ed’s absence; they’d need a way to track employees’ presence or absence. He called Bob and Lori over and suggested that they have a list to do that.

  “How would it work?” asked Lori.

  “Everybody could sign in first thing or you or Craig could carry a list and sign people in.”

  “It’d better be me,” said Lori, “because I make up the pay cheques. Anyone of you could do it if I was away.”

  “Do we pay them if they’re sick?” asked Bob.

  “I think we do once they’re hired but I’m not sure how long we have to pay them. Maybe for a week or two. We’ll have to find out.”

  “Do we pay Ed for today’s absence?” asked Bob.

  “I guess so. We’d better find out what the law is. Can you research it?”

  “I think we should call Arthur. It’d be simpler and probably more accurate.”

  “Okay, I’ll call. I’ll tell everyone we have to maintain a list of who’s here to pay them properly.” Ken stood up and told everybody what they had just decided. “Ed’s sick today and we have to keep track of that kind of thing. So Lori or one of us will check your names on a list. Don’t worry about it, it’s only to make sure everyone is paid for the days they work.”

  He sat down and asked Lori to make some kind of list to track everybody’s attendance. “We’ll call it a pay-roll register.”

  “No problem,” she replied. “Oh, we had more cheques for June sales this morning. I wrote them down,” and handed Ken a slip of paper on which was typed. “July 10th, £8,925. Total received to date, £15,918.75.”

  “That’s excellent,” Ken said and gave the paper to Bob. Then he stood up told everyone that it was time to return to work.

  As Bob, Jose and Lori walked beck to their shop Lori said, “there should be a bell to announce break times. It’s not sensible for Ken to stand up and tell everybody it’s break time.”

  “I agree. We’ll look for a time clock. Oh, I’ve just remembered, can you call the telephone company and ask if we can exchange phone numbers between the shops so that the new shop has the company’s phone number. We’re thinking about using the room next to the tea room as the office.”

  “I’ll phone them first thing.” She did that as soon as they entered and told Bob that they it could be done any time they wanted, “we just have to give them a few days notice.”

  “Okay, then we’ll move the office. I’ll let you know when to call them.”

  “Maybe it’s time to buy a new computer too, Bob. My old one is a bit slow for the complexity of the spreadsheets I’m now using.”

  “Then find out what you’d like, how much it costs and we’ll buy one.”

  “All right. Thanks.”