Paphos People

Writing Exercise

I have never consciously written to a formula but the suggestion this week was a chart showing The Protagonist, the Antagonist, the sidekick, the background and the aim in life for the Protagonist. Here we go:
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Monday August 9th 1965 at seven thirty in the morning was my first day at work, earning my own living. At fifteen years eleven months and two weeks of age I was starting a five year apprenticeship as a Toolmaker.

Cheltenham Tool Company was a smallish concern with about sixty employees, a tool room and a press shop also a very good reputation for quality work.

“Are you the new apprentice?” The voice came from an old man in a white coat I found out later that he was only forty eight!
“Yes sir” said I.
“No need for Sir you’re not at school now lad. My name is Mr Mann, I’m your foreman. Come with me, and I’ll introduce you to the toolmaker you will be working with.”
We approached another old man, this time wearing glasses and looking a bit more amiable. It turned out he was fifty!
“This is Ron Dawes stick with him and if you learn half of what he knows, you’ll be alright.” With that he was gone and I was left with my new tutor.
“He’s a right pratt. My name’s Ron what’s your name son?”
He held out his hand which I shook.
“Michael White, Ron” I said warming to him straight away.
“Do you want a coffee or tea, coffee is fourpence, tea is twopence, I’ll have a coffee” he pointed over my shoulder, “there’s the machine.”
“I took the hint and came back with two coffees”
We sat down and just chatted about what qualifications I had, GCE’s in metalwork, maths, technical drawing and geography. He seemed impressed but then he said:
“Well you can forget all that stuff, you’re in the real world now with a job to do so let’s get started. At least with Geography you can find your way home.”

Ron took me around the tool room and introduced me to the other workers, turners, grinders, millers, jig borers. They all seemed friendly chaps and my confidence grew stronger with every one that I met which was good because I was destined to be taught by all of them.
Mr Mann sat in his office studying some papers and I got the impression that the other men didn’t like him very much.
Back at the bench I found out that Ron was a time served toolmaker who was engaged in aircraft production throughout the war years. He was one of the old school where the designer would come into the tool room with a handmade component, give it to the toolmaker who would then make a press tool to produce that component by the hundreds or thousands. During the war, there was no time to mess about and the tooling was made to produce parts as quickly as possible. Ron was able to make the necessary tooling without drawings or designs, it was all in his head and down to his experience. It was his aim in life to pass on his experience to the next generation. That was me and my peers! He would take the time to make sure that I knew what I was doing and why I was doing it. We discussed the various issues and he was an excellent teacher. The other men in the tool room would come and ask Ron about any problems that they came up against.

It soon became apparent that Mr Mann was only the foreman because he wasn’t much good at anything else, but he had been there the longest. So he had a massive inferiority complex and commanded very little respect. His job was to make sure that the tools were completed on time, a sort of progress chaser.

I enjoyed the job and got on well. Over the next five years I progressed through the tool room becoming adept in turning, grinding, milling, jig boring in fact everything you needed to be a proficient toolmaker.

On completing the five years there I was - a skilled man ready to take on the world. If only I had known what was going to happen............

Well there you have it, my attempt at the formula, all I have to do now is work out which one is which????

But I would have written this piece the same way with or without the formula so was the formula built on the content of writing anyway, then retrospectively put up as the method of writing. The chicken or the egg?