JOE"S WATCH

by John Burchill

In the 1950's several mills in the area closed down and there was a backlog of men with no jobs. Some of them came to work at Burchills mill in Nelson. One of them was Joe the Edger man. He was quite good at his trade but Fraser's had shut down and he was now working on the other
side of the river. The Old Man walked down on a bit of an inspection tour one morning and came across Joe pushing lumber through the edger with this big grin on his face. The Old Man asked, "How's she going this morning, Joe?""Great", he replied, "Come on over here. I've got something I want to show you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a watch. "What do you think of that?" he crowed, "Frazer's gave me that watch yesterday for twenty five years of work. They gave everybody that worked there for twenty five years a watch. Boys, I'm some proud of that."
The old Man kind of didn't know what to say. He didn't know if Joe was putting his mill down or what. However, Jim Russell had been watching what was going on and he stepped over and said to the Old Man, "You know, Joe might have worked twenty five years for Frazers and got a watch, and I've worked here at Burchill's for forty one years and never got nothing but I'm still better off than Joe." "How's that?" asked the Old Man.
Jim replied, "Joe can't tell time!"