Bob of Small End (74 page)

“
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.”