This story could have gone in either 'Romance' or 'Non-Human'. However; since it is mostly Romance, that's where it's posted.
It's a slow build, and just so you know, there's no sex in this chapter. However, chapter 2 picks up exactly where this chapter ends.
As always... everybody is over the magic age of 18 and all sex is happily consensual. Like I said, It takes a while so please be patient.
Being single and living in an apartment in Northern Illinois has its advantages: no maintenance, no lawn to mow, or snow to shovel. If you get tired of where you live it's relatively easy just to give notice, pack up your earthly possessions, and find another abode. On the other hand, at the end of the year, you sit back and realize that you've been paying rent all year with nothing really to show for it. No tax write-offs. No equity... nothing. Filing your taxes as a single person is painful.
I'd like to say that I knew some of the others that lived here. But, it seems like everyone just does their own thing. To and from their places of employment and back into their rented shoeboxes for the evenings and weekends. Even meeting someone at the wall of mailboxes it's just a casual smile and most of the time not even that. Most appeared to be single men and women with ages from around my tender age of 23 to middle age.
The apartment building was just that. A rectangular box with a lot of little boxes all connected by stairs and a hallway down the middle... How imaginative? Why couldn't they have at least made a 'commons' area for some socializing? Maybe even things as simple as a couple of ping-pong tables or even a pool table and TV? Oh well. From what I saw when I was apartment shopping those features never existed, at least not around here.
Hi, I'm Kevin, living in a small Midwestern dairy town in the early 70s. It was spring and having just graduated from a state university as a Mechanical Engineer, I was fortunate to land a position with a local dairy in their plant engineering group. It was the same dairy that I worked at for my summer jobs for three years. Doing mindless tasks like picking cartons of cottage cheese, dips, and yogurts off a moving conveyor, placing them in a wire case and sending it down a chute to the cooler. Funny thing was that there was a guy doing the same thing on the other side of the conveyor belt who was about my dad's age. It was all he wanted to do... eight hours a day, seven days a week. My incentive to study hard.
I remember my last day there before heading off for my senior year. The plant manager came up to me and told me to come see him when I graduated, adding, "We're always looking for hard-working, bright, and imaginative members for our plant engineering staff. Especially if they already have some experience in the operation of a dairy."
I inwardly smiled at that offer knowing that I wouldn't be doing the same mundane and mindless tasks that I had been doing for the past three summers. Instead, I might even be able to apply some that valued higher education.
Having a job offer coming right out of school meant that I would be spared the tedious task of writing a resume and then trying to find a job... somewhere. It also meant that I could be on my own sooner with an apartment free to come and go as I wanted.
On the other hand, a career in a much larger and urban location may be kind of appealing; different than my life growing up in a small town. My college experience, away from the boredom of small towns, was refreshing, eye-opening, and fun. And then there is that other plus... the much larger selection and availability of female companionship and opportunities. Still, small towns do have the advantage of familiarity and the closeness of 'community', be that good or bad.
The first week I spent in the corporate headquarters in a suburb of Chicago to learn the ins and outs of 3-A Sanitary Standards. The whole 'Milk Making' process: pasteurization, homogenization, and then, separation to remove some or all of the cream for reduced-fat, low-fat, or skim milk. The separation process includes a number of technologies that I had never heard of: membrane filtration, and spray drying for powdered milk products. These things that I was sure were in the dairy when I worked my summer jobs, just never paid attention.
My 'in plant' training was going to start off with some 'hands-on' exposure starting with hanging out with the maintenance guys while they serviced the various pieces of equipment. While I had previous experience cleaning and sanitizing the machinery, I never really paid attention to the various parts and or the machinery in production. This time each of the guys explained what was there, how it operated, and the pitfalls of each piece. It was something that could never be taught in a classroom.
That would go on for about three weeks until I had 'touched' each piece of equipment. It was invaluable. In the end, I thanked them with all the enthusiasm that they deserved and was told to come and see them anytime, if I wanted 'real world' advice or an honest opinion on anything.
The engineering team consisted of two senior engineers, two other engineers, and myself. Both of the other engineers were single, had college degrees, and were a couple of years older than I was. Brad's major was Chemical Engineering and Dale majored in Environmental Engineering. I guess that management felt that a Mechanical Engineer would round out the team.
We really hit it off as our personalities blended nicely. Brad and Dale had been with the dairy for a couple of years and were hired directly out of college. Corporate had instructed the dairies to look at getting 'new blood' and to beef up their staffs with individuals with college degrees.
I was assigned to a senior engineer, Bob, as my mentor. Given my time at the corporate training on the whole 'milk making' process, with the maintenance guys, and my previous summers around the dairy, he didn't think that it was necessary to spend time going over those details. Instead, we went directly into whatever project he was working on and the background on the engineering details.
There were always projects going on, both for improving efficiency and expansion. It got especially involved when the dairy decided to expand its processing capabilities, either for increased production, a new product line, or a new technology.
As you can imagine, working in a dairy is not a woman-rich environment. All of the dairy workers were men varying in age from early twenties to those nearing retirement. The office staff consisted of a number of middle-aged married women.
The only bright spot was in the Quality Control department, which consisted of a small lab where they would constantly grab product samples, and grow the bacteria cultures that transformed the cream into sour cream, yogurt, and cottage cheese. They also performed the required testing to ensure that the various products met the dairy's quality and the FDA's standards. Monitoring the company's waste treatment plant by constantly testing and recording the effluent to make sure it met EPA standards before it was discharged into the nearby creek was a major responsibility as the creek water was regularly tested by the State.
The lab consisted of a lead Quality Control Engineer and three technicians. Two out of the three techs were women... one was the mother of two teens and one was about my age and nicely single, from what I had heard. I later learned that her name was Paula and she was the daughter of Howard, one of the guys who worked in accounting and had been with the dairy all his life.
She was cute with chestnut hair that was always tucked into the sanitary paper hat and hairnet that we were all required to wear when in the dairy. Paula was petite, from what I could gather through the white lab coat that came to her waist. Her soft light brown eyes which were partially obscured through her safety glasses looked like two brown Tiger-eye gemstones. Beyond that, there were no hints of any substantial curves.
Every time our paths would cross, like when she was out in the dairy to gather her lab samples, we each traded smiles. A couple of times I even managed to get out a, "Hi Paula." That brought an even brighter smile.
I was not an outgoing type of guy. Yeah, I had my share of high school girlfriends and college hookups but, it always took a push from one of my buddies to get me to make the first move. Given that she was so cute, quiet, and a bit shy herself, my mind told me that there had to be a boyfriend in her life.
My social life still sucked the bit one. Bars were not my thing and like I said earlier the apartment I lived at was just that... a place to live. So, unless some random run-in at the grocery store with some damsel in distress, crossed my path I was SOL and doomed to be single.
There were however a number of nights after leaving the dairy Brad, Dale, and I would hit our favorite local watering hole. They were roommates and shared a townhouse the next town over. Their future plan was to save enough to buy a house, fix it up, sell it, and then do it all over again. They figured that with the two of them doing the fixing-up they could turn a house around relatively quickly and with their combined budgets, enough cash for whatever needed to be done shouldn't be a problem. After each sale, they would have more cash for a down payment, and repairs, and be able to get a bigger house that, in the end, would bring in even more profit.
Most of the time we 'talked shop' until one night, after a few beers, the subject turned to our dismal social lives. Neither of them had a girlfriend and were pretty much in the same boat as I was... how and where do you meet women?
