Backyard Shots - More Orange-and-Black Critters / Johnnie's Kill Floor Tour

One more critter shot.  These guys, nothing more than juvenile stinkbugs, are making use of those long Chinese beans as a pathway to the top canopy of the vegetation, where they gather in great numbers.
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As written in a recent story post, I lived on the ground floor in the back corner of a plumbing shop in Amarillo, called Charley's Plumbing.  It was a fine arrangement - not much space but adequate for a summer tenant that was there only to earn college money before going back to school.

The owners of the shop, Charley and Johnnie Scholl, set up an apartment on the second level of the shop.  Charley was a great guy to get along with and played as hard as he worked.  Also as stated in the earlier post, his wife Johnnie was really something to look at, but I was attracted to her spirit more than anything...we got along famously and did a lot of things together, becoming great friends (and no, I never made a pass at her).

Whenever we were on the afternoon shift at IBP it became my routine to sit across the desk from Johnnie in the shop downstairs and visit before moving on to the rest of the day.  Her son Chip was a toddler at the time and would invariably be exploring the place and darting here and there, having to be looked after.  We both enjoyed that time together, and I would go on and on with stories of my adventures at the slaughterhouse.  Finally, during my second summer there in 1979, it occurred to me that, after hearing so much about it, Johnnie might like to tour the place!  She appeared eager, so I asked Glenn, our head foreman at B shift, and he gave permission.

The day arrived and off we went.  Upon our arrival we both had to don white smocks, hard hats, boots and ear protection.  Thus prepared, we stepped onto the floor.  I was excited and proud for the opportunity to share with my friend the sights, sounds and places that I'd been talking about in the summer and a half that I'd worked there.  We walked almost the entire floor, stopping at places where she had questions or where I wanted to explain something.  Then up we went onto the catwalk - used almost exclusively by the maintenance team - to look down from that perspective.  Johnnie was somewhat in awe at the operation because it's not something you see every day and, after all, in 1979 it was the fastest and most modern slaughterhouse in the world.

As stated before, Johnnie was a beautiful girl and we had to put up with a bit of whistles and cat-calling (I'd warned her of this beforehand), and the odd eyeball would fly by when we were up on the catwalk.  But none of this phased either of us and the tour, in my view, was a success.  It lasted the better part of an hour.