Saturday, April 19, 2025
Time: 9:30 AM
Song: Reunion
Artist: Collective Soul
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while painting pieces for shelf in our shed.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/27SumQMLlRgVS7RqO7cpk6?si=06810cde1efa4f31
My first job out of high school was working on the paint crew at National Manufacturing in Sterling. The factory was nearing its 100th anniversary so it had hired a bevy of recent high school grads to give different areas of the factory a new coat of paint.
I spent the summer working along my best friend, Jake, primarily painting the waste treatment tanks at both the Sterling and Rock Falls locations.
One of the colors we used was a turquoise blue. Coincidentally, I am using a similar colored paint for half the pieces of the shelf I am constructing for our basement to store excess vinyl records. The materials are comprised of four-by-fours we received from someone we work with at the county fair and barn boards that Lee dropped by before his passing. It’s wood that’s seen many years, but this could be the first coat of paint.
Painting things always reminds me of that summer at National. It was a summer filled with anxiety and angst and all the things that naturally go along with venturing out into the real world. It was also filled with massive amounts of boredom, dipping brushes and rollers into paint trays. Cleaning paint off hands and elbows and everywhere else. Days starting at 6 AM before the sun was up. Packed lunches. Steel-toe boots. Silly games where Jake and I quizzed each other rock songs to pass the time.
I am sure more than once I wondered where I would be in six months, six years, and maybe even 25 years. That’s where it’s nearing now. A quarter century of living. I’ve slapped paint on walls and furniture and numerous other things over the years.
I look back and I was getting a new coat paint myself. A new look for the next part of my life.
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