192 came scurrying down the walk in front of the deck, it was a piglet. I caught him and put him in a trash barrel so I could take him home with me. One of the Lab girls walked by and happened to look into the barrel and was surprised by what she saw in it. The pig lived a comfortable life with my family until he weighed about 250 lbs. There was always horseplay and good natured jokes but we had a job to do and worked hard to get it done. Later I became a Crystallizer operator and transferred to maintenance and became a mechanics helper. I became a foreman in the boiler house as well. Then I became a Top Mechanic and was later promoted to Assistant Master Mechanic for shift work at the plant. Great Western Sugar went into bankruptcy and went out of business in March of 1985. Tate & Lyle purchased the assets in April of 1985 and formed Western Sugar. The Gering factory never re-opened. I went to Scottsbluff to restart my career working for Western Sugar and Tate & Lyle as an Assistant Master Mechanic overseeing maintenance operations in the factory. Around 1990, T & L decided to promote people who had come up through maintenance ranks to become Purchasing Agents. Because I had some computer skills and an extensive maintenance background, I was selected. I worked on many projects for Western Sugar and purchased all of the spare parts and contracted service providers for all of the maintenance at the factory. That is when I first spoke to Carl Bell at Western States. Carl was very knowledgeable and knew every part of every WSMC piece of equipment we had. I learned a great deal from Carl. In 1999 I took a transfer to the Baltimore, MD Domino Sugar Refinery as a Purchasing Agent. I resumed my relationship with Western States and most of all Carl Bell. We continued our friendship sharing many stories about work and home life. One day Carl told me that he bought a white 1990 Mazda Miata and I told him that I own a blue 1990 Miata. More stories were told of the fun we had driving those cars. CHAPTER 14