Old Chet

Old Chet worked in the canning plant.  I don't know what he did because I don't know what went on in there.  But he did what all of them did, I guess, in one way or another.  I don't think it was too specialized, though he'd been there for years, so he probably had one of the better positions for a guy who wasn't a foreman.  The work was seasonal, and he was always off in the summer.  He didn't mind.  He got unemployment and some other government subsidies.  It was like summer vacation.  I remember, though, that they'd start watching their money then, mixing powdered milk half and half with the real milk and such.  Cigarettes and beer were priorities.  They'd begin to worry when those were getting low.  Toward the end of summer, Chet would try to pick up odd jobs, working here and there for a week or a few days, and when that money would come in, everything eased up.  Beer and cigarettes.

Chet had a mouth full of rotten teeth, so he kept his lips together most the time.  Tight-lipped, they'd say. And I thought that was why he didn't say much.  But one day his stepson was cutting the fool and Old Chet told him, "If you're stupid, keep your mouth shut and people won't know it."  I always thought Old Chet was pretty smart.