In high school, about the only class I really liked was “Industrial Arts”, aka “Shop Class”. I took Industrial Arts for the whole 3 years it was offered. I don’t recall if it was during my freshman -Junior years, or sophomore - senior years. I could find out for sure by going to the library and checking the old Berlin Echo Yearbooks, but I’ll just rely on my skewed memory (ALWAYS a very risky venture even under the best of circumstances). The first 2 years was working with wood and most of the 3^rd year was working with metal. I think listed among the reasons I liked “Shop” was that I could get dirty IN SCHOOL and not having to sit in a classroom at a cramped desk since I was getting very tall about then, and getting to fool around with neat equipment. In addition, “Shop” last 2 periods or 90 minutes! I REALLY wanted to take Vocational Agriculture (aka “Vo Ag) and wear a cool FFA (Future Farmers of America) blue and gold corduroy jacket, but the school officials under NO circumstances would allow both Tim and I in the same class! This started after the 1^st grade and continued through graduation! (Heh heh…)  Somehow, Tim got to take “Vo Ag”, and I was relegated (or banished) to “Shop”. Although, I did grow to enjoy “Shop”, I always figured the only kids that took “Shop” either didn’t live on a farm, or they were resigned to working at some “punch press” their whole lives.  The first “wood” year was really fun! My very first project was a “shadow box” which ended up not being anywhere near square, but nevertheless, our mother had it hanging on the wall for years. I guess it had “an appearance only a mother could love”! The smell of fresh cut wood was always appealing to me, as well as getting all covered with sawdust. The last 15 minutes or so of “Shop”, the call would go out, “Clean up”! Some of us would then take push brooms or “foxtail” brushes and start to sweep all the sawdust toward the “Sawdust Disposal”. This was a galvanized pipe about 6 inches in diameter with a rectangular opening on the floor. When the big blower was turned on, it would create a giant vacuum-cleaner suction, which took up all the sawdust into a big outside hopper. One of the neat things was that we would invariably sweep up nails and other small metal things with the sawdust. We usually did this on purpose because if the metal were small enough, it would be drawn up the pipe and make a “TING TING PLINK” sound all though the pipe system! The metal that was too heavy to be drawn up the pipe system would be clanking inside the bottom of the intake (See sketch below). Once and a while if we piled all the sawdust in front of the intake and we had a big enough pile, we would shove it in the intake all at once, causing the pipe to plug up! When this happened, the blower would start to scream in a high-pitched tone! Mr. Gaich, the shop teacher would yell, “Turn it off… TURN IT OFF or the motor will burn out..” (Heh Heh) The 2^nd “Wood Year” we began to make stuff on the laths. I made a coffee table (which again wasn’t very square, NOTHING I ever do is; I don’t even eat square meals). I also made a “Lazy Susan” using the end of the lathe. Quite often, some guy would have his work fly off the spinning lathe! When it was a project on the end of the lathe, the work would spin off and scurry along the floor! That was “neat” (See sketch below)!  The 2^nd “Wood Year” wasn’t nearly as fun because due to “other guys” (certainly not me ???), Talking and “goofing around” too much, Mr. Gaich made a “No talking rule”! If you talked, you got swats from a paddle! The weird thing about it was that you got to design and then construct your paddle! I maybe never got adept at making shop projects EXCEPT; I was an expert at designing and making paddles! I figured after graduation that I could land a job in a reform school or a sado-masochist factory or something. I will continue with the 3^rd “Metal Year” in the next account.