Back in my working for a living days, one summer I spent a few weeks at a facility that our company owned in the country — in fact it was sometimes referred to as the “farm.” It once was owned by someone that was obviously wealthy — it was a very large piece of property and one of the buildings was a Manor House, a beautiful old house that looked like it belonged in the Old South on a plantation. Anyhow, there were a number of functions performed at the “farm.”
One of the buildings contained a “lab” that designed, and built things that most people would say were impossible, or belonged in some science fiction movie — to say that the things they turned out were technologically advanced would be a major understatement.
Our company had a contract with Georgia Tech to employ some of their best engineering students during the summer as co-ops. The students would work in the co-op program during the summers and sometimes between semesters. You may have guessed, they worked in the “lab.” The “farm” was large enough that they had a few dorms so the students lived on-site. And there was a very nice dining hall that served terrific food. Since most of the students didn’t have cars, they could pretty much exist right “on-campus” during their stay.
During my stay there, I got to be pretty good friends with the students — I was a lot younger at the time and I don’t think they considered me to be an “old man” yet.
There was a guy that worked in the lab for many years, and to be honest he was one of the smartest people I have ever known. Early in his life, he was involved in some sort of an accident — I don’t know any of the particulars, and on top of that he had one eye that just floated around and in various directions that couldn’t be controlled — the eye problem supposedly occurred at birth. But add the strange eye to the fact that he walked funny because of the accident and he was just about the ultimate introvert and rarely talked to anyone….. to me his actions seemed robotic.
Well, one afternoon after work I was sitting with a few of the co-ops on the veranda of the Manor House, and this guy walked by. One of the Georgia Tech students made a comment about him being weird. I told them that they shouldn’t be critical and that they had built this guy in the lab. A couple of them stared at me but didn’t say much of anything.
But — it turns out that they believed me. They told the rest of the Georgia Tech crew and word quickly spread among the Co-ops that this guy had been made in the lab. A couple of the students got called in the director of the facility’s office and were asked where they got such an idea. They told him that I told them! Yep, You’re right… my presence was requested in the Director’s office. I was asked if I was the one that started this shameful rumor. Since my job required me to take numerous polygraphs over the years, I readily admitted it. Of course I was asked why I’d make up such a story — my response of “I thought it was funny” didn’t fly and I had to set all the co-ops straight.
I guess the lesson here is that with age comes wisdom — I’d never do anything like that today….. well, actually….. I might.
— 30 —