It was the last day of the eighth grade, and none too soon. I had felt the call of summer for the last two weeks and had a hard time with final exams because of it. I was ignorant of the plans my father had made for my free time over the summer.

Daddy had been laid off from the factory last fall, and without Momma’s job at the Walgreen’s we would have had a hard winter. That was behind us now, and he had gotten some work refinishing antique furniture. This was a messy, smelly, hot job working with dangerous chemicals. Daddy loved it.

Since Momma was working all day and Sue Ann was at Beauty School, that left me alone to help with the business. As I walked in the door from school, Daddy was sitting at the kitchen table, and he had just hung up the telephone on the wall. He was grinning, so it must be something good.

"Son, we got a job. It will keep us busy and bring in some good money. This is self-employment -- no one to boss you around, no one to tell you what to do. Now I need you get ready to go to the Shady Rest Methodist Church with me to do a job estimate. Look lively, boy!"

I bit my tongue to keep from letting the smart-ass bubble up out of my mouth, and went to my room to change into old jeans and a t-shirt. As I put on my tennis shoes, remembered where that church was. It was a tiny building on the edge of town. It would be a nice ride, anyway.

We got into the pickup and Daddy had the radio on a talk station. They were droning on about the Trilateral Commission and how liberals and Yankees were taking over the world. I hung my arm out the window and made a little wing with my hand in the breeze, flying up and down, imagining myself a bird with no one to tell me what to do.

We stopped at the Kwik-Mart and Daddy got me a Coke. We drove out 45^th street and turned left on an asphalt road leading out through some tall pecan trees.

"Reverend Smart called and asked if I could refinish church pews. I told him I sure could, and that’s we’re going -- to estimate the job. A whole church, full of pews. That’ll help us make it through the summer. I can milk it for a bundle, Jimmy."

I asked if this was the little church that I had remembered, out on Valley Road.

"Yep, that’s the one. Small but old. It’s got one of those hysterical markers out front."

We drove on further into the country, and turned again down a smaller road. The church was set back from the road, with some huge oak trees in front. Under the trees were some long picnic tables and strung from the branches were cords with yellow bulbs hanging down at intervals.

The church itself was like a picture on a calendar, pretty and white in the sun. It had a small steeple, very pointed with a small gold cross at the top. The windows were stained glass, but did not make a picture.

"That’s a pretty small antenna to bring in the signal of salvation." Daddy was evidently pleased with this comment, saying again under his breath "Salvation antenna." I could tell he would repeat this to his buddies at the VFW. In a way, we’re alike; both of us enjoy using words in clever ways.

Daddy went up to the door of the parsonage next door, while I walked over to read the historical marker. It said that this church was built in 1901, and was one of the first Methodist churches in the area. I guess the Baptists had cornered the salvation market up till then.

Daddy motioned for me to come with him and the Reverend to look at the pews. While I had seen the church from the outside, I had never been inside. We did not go to church regularly, but on Easter and Christmas Momma dragged us to church with Granny. Up until the time Sue Ann was 15 we had to go to Vacation Bible School there every summer, too. After that thing with her and Stan, the preacher’s son, we didn’t do that any more.

The church was odd in that it had a porch on the corner instead of the middle of the front. As we walked inside, I could see why. The pulpit was on the corner opposite the door, and the central aisle was diagonal across the floor. The pews in front and the back were only wide enough for about four people. Each pew back from there was a little longer, and the ones at the middle were really long. Daddy measured the short ones at six feet long and the long ones at sixteen feet. They were big heavy oak things, evidently made special for this little church. The long ones had a kind of leg in the middle "to support the weight of the pew and the sinners" Daddy said, grinning at me.

He counted, scratched his head, made some notes and said he’d call the Reverend later this afternoon. All the way home he was calculating out loud – "Sixteen pews total, average the middle size and the long and short ones will take care of themselves…extra legs on the long ones add another 200 square feet. Need stripper, stain and sealer, some wood glue and screws to put it back together. Double the cost and add the labor…Damn, boy, we are gonna clean up if they take the bait."

We got home and Daddy had me check his math with a calculator. He made up a supplies list and checked what he had on hand. He wrote up the estimate and called Reverend Smart with the price just as Momma drove up with Sue Ann.

The Reverend agreed to the price, saying that they had taken up a special offering for just this renovation. Daddy hung up the phone and grabbed Momma as she came in the kitchen door. He swung her around while she sputtered, not knowing what was going on. He let go of her and started babbling about the big new job and how it was going to make his business have credibility and we could pay the bills and get through the summer.

She got a little caught up in his excitement, I guess, and said "Thank God I don’t have to ask Mother for a loan." I don’t think she meant for Sue Ann and I to hear that, because her hand went up to her mouth. She turned away and straightened her Walgreen’s smock and opened the refrigerator door, busying herself with supper. Daddy slapped her on the rear end and she bent over to look in the vegetable crisper. Sue Ann pushed me in the direction of the living room and followed me. We could hear them whispering behind us.

"Momma told me that the money was running out and she was about to have to ask Granny for a loan. You know how that would make life around here. Daddy has been depressed with losing his job and all and wanted to run his own business. We need to help them be happy over this."

--

The next morning, Daddy and I went back out to the little church and took the estimate, got it signed and talked about the schedule for taking pews out of the church on Mondays and having them back in place by the time services commenced the following Sunday. Daddy had me crawl around under the pews taking out the screws that held them in position. We took out the first two from the front, and they were really heavy. We put them in the back of the pickup carefully.

Reverend Smart was on the floor with a putty knife, scraping up the hundred years’ debris from the floor where the pews had been. He got up and pulled a check out of his pocket and gave it to Daddy. "One-third to start, one-third at the halfway mark, and final third upon completion, right?" Daddy agreed and took the check.

As we got back in the pickup he could hardly contain himself. "Son, we have to go to the hardware store and buy supplies after we cash this check. And I have an idea."

While this usually meant a visit by the police or a trip to the emergency room, somehow this seemed brighter.

"I’m going to the print shop and get some of them magnetized signs for the doors of the truck. I’m in business for real now."

We went to the bank, the print shop and then to the hardware store last, hauling the big five-gallon buckets of stripper, stain and finish back to the house. The garage was a new sheet-metal and welded pipe building, built over the concrete slab and ashes of the old one that burned in the Y2K fire, but that’s another story. Daddy had found this huge pan at the dump – about four feet wide, eight feet long and a foot deep. He had drilled a drain in one corner and set it up on sawhorses at the back of the building. So that it was off-level just enough to drain from that corner into another five-gallon bucket. He pulled two sets of elbow-high black Neoprene gloves out of the bag and tossed a set to me. "Here’s your gloves, partner. We’ll be working on this all summer."

--

I worked at taking out all the screws from the benches and taking them apart – seat, back, and two end pieces that were the legs. Daddy gave me a gallon can half full of wood screws to keep them in so we would have them to put it back together.

The end pieces were carved with some kind of leaves and vines, shapes visible under the dark and cracked finish "Shellac, boy, its shellac. Comes off clean as a whistle with this stripper. Makes it easier than I thought, so it should go faster. We’ll stick to the delivery schedule, though, so they’ll think they’re getting their money’s worth."

The work did go pretty quickly, but Daddy found that the volatile chemicals did not work in the heat of the summer afternoon. We had to get up really early and work fast while it was cool, and stop stripping after about noon. That was fine with me, I like being up early anyway.

Tuesday we stripped the seats first, then the backs, both sides of each. The end pieces were a little more work, and Daddy had to go back to the auto parts store to but a stiff-bristled brush to clean the detailed carvings. We took the hymnal racks off the back in one piece and did them as a unit. The wood was very pretty when the old dark finish came off, golden oak with beautiful grain.

On Wednesday we inspected the wood, and sanded the grain back down smooth with a little vibrating sander and then by hand. I had to do the hymnal racks by hand and Daddy worked on the carved detail of the end pieces. Thursday we put the pew back together again using wood glue on the joints and replacing the screws. We went over each one again with the sandpaper by hand, and then blasted them with the compressed air nozzle to get rid of any remaining dust. "We’ll fire up the sprayer and stain them tomorrow, son."

That night at supper, I told him between using the screwdriver and the sandpaper my wrists were sore. He said something about a boy my age usually had sore wrists but I didn’t understand what he was talking about. I was sure keeping busy but this was not exactly the way I had thought I’d spend my summer.

The next morning we took the tarps off the pews and blew them off again with the air hose. Daddy worked for an hour or so mixing the stain and getting the sprayer ready. I went inside and watched some cartoons until he called me back out. We sprayed the stain on the bottoms first, then wiped all the drips and turned the pews over and sprayed the top, sides and ends. As we went along he got better at spraying lightly and the drips were fewer. We wiped the wood down and the grain was really showing through the stain. These would look great and I thought that the Reverend would be happy.

Saturday we sprayed them with a sealer and let it dry, sanding a little and then using steel wool to smooth the finish, then spraying again with the sealer and sanding again. The pews looked great and we were on schedule.

Saturday evening we took them back to the church and Reverend Smart was really pleased. We told him we would be back Monday morning to pick up the next pair of pews.

This went on for a couple of weeks, and while we got faster at our parts of the job, the time it took stayed the same because each set of pews got longer. When we got to the next week, the pews had the middle support leg, and that took more time to take apart, strip, sand, stain and finish. Daddy said we didn’t have to make it so perfect since it was out of sight. We got up to speed, but each pair took a little longer.

We did the short ones from the back next to stay on schedule, saving the longest ones for last.

In two more weeks, the longest three pairs of pews were all that was left. We loaded one into the pickup, but it was so long it teeter-tottered back and forth over the tailgate. Daddy told me to go sit on the end closest to the cab so the additional weight would keep it balanced. It did – barely. As we went over railroad track on the way home, it overbalanced me and I found myself sitting on the end that was high over the cab as it see-sawed over the bump.

Each new pair took us a little longer to complete each step, and these last few were working us late into the evenings on Saturdays. Reverend Smart gave us a key to the church, so we could come and go without waking him. When we came back to get the last pews on Monday, he said that the congregation had decided to add a little tip to the final payment for the job, and took up a special offering to reward us for doing such good work.

I remembered to take a big sack of cat litter we used to clean up spills to counterbalance the longest pew. Between my weight and the additional 50 pounds of cat litter, we got the pew home safely. It was harder to move, harder to take apart, and had to be stripped on one end, and them the other, since they were too long to fit into the stripper tank. Each additional step had added time and by Saturday we were running behind. We got them loaded to take back to the church, but realized that we had forgotten to stain and finish the middle leg for both of them.

Daddy sent me inside for the evening, saying he would finish them himself and we could take them to the church real early and come back to change clothes. The congregation had decided to present us with the final check and our bonus at Sunday service. This would be the first time in since Easter we had been to church, and the first time ever all four of us had gone to church together. I was really tired, and went inside. I fell asleep on the couch and Momma woke me up to go to bed.

--

Daddy came in and woke me at 5:30 AM. He was obviously tired, and told me he had been up all night. The stain clogged in the sprayer, and then he had to spray the finish, sand and re-spray the legs. They had finally dried enough to handle and he had them wrapped in a blanket in the back of the truck, sitting on the end nearest the cab. I sat on top of them as we took them to the church. We struggled to unload them. Daddy’s feet stuck out from the long pew as he screwed in the middle support.

"Take this, son." He said as he handed me the bucket of screws and his screwdriver, crawling out from under the pew. I noticed how utterly fatigued he was. "We’ve got to get home, get some breakfast and get cleaned up for the service."

We drove home slowly, and I could see his eyelids starting to droop a time or two. I started talking – meaningless chatter – to keep him awake.

We got home, and ate breakfast Momma had prepared. She seemed so proud of him. We bathed and got dressed for church. I could not remember when I had last seen my father all dressed up. We took the station wagon and Sue Ann drove. Momma sat up front with her and I sat in the back with Daddy, his head leaning against the window, snoring softly. He snuffled and yawned as we arrived, stretching as we got out of the car.

"Let’s sit in the back row, so we can be polite but leave after they give me that final check." Momma agreed, since we did not know very many people at this little church. We went in and sat in the shortest pew on the left.

Daddy was obviously struggling to stay awake.

The congregation came in, some people greeting and whispering to others, and a few looking curiously back at our little family. The service began on time and we were lucky to have to get up a time or two to sing a hymn, which kept Daddy from snoring. After the collection plate went around, the Reverend announced the completion of the refinishing. He commented on the ease with which we had scheduled the removal of the pews, always keeping our word about having them back on time for Sunday services. In a small church with a full congregation, every seat was important, he said.

He called Daddy up to the railing to accept the check, and Daddy made me go with him, maybe to share the glory, maybe to have someone to lean on. The congregation all stood up, and clapped as we walked up. Daddy looked embarrassed as he took the check and mumbled a quick ‘thank you’ and we started back to our seats.

As the group sat back down a fat lady in the middle of the longest pew started having a conniption fit. She was fanning herself with a tiny lace handkerchief, and it looked to me like she had caught the Holy Spirit. That’s what they called it in my Granny’s church, anyway. It took a minute for the people near her to understand what she was saying – there was something sticking her in the backside.

She babbled that she could not stand up and was hurting something fierce when Daddy went pale. He realized that she was sitting directly over the middle support where he had screwed the leg on to the pew. He bounded up, no longer sleepy, and verified his suspicions. "Got get me a screwdriver out of the tool box in the back of the car" he whispered hoarsely.

I ran to get it and when I returned the fat lady was still babbling and Daddy’s feet stuck out from under the pew like a mechanic under a car. He frantically started unscrewing a screw from underneath the lady. When the screw came out the lady hopped up and ran to the ladies’ room, evidently not injured badly.

The last screw of the job – it was a 2 ½" wood screw accidentally mixed with the correct ones, which were 1 ¼" long. This screw had come all the way through the seat of the pew. The lady had missed it the first time she sat down, but when she stood up that last time she had moved a little to one side and plopped her big old butt down on the screw. She was wearing a girdle and it poked through the rubber like an inner tube and held her down fast, till Daddy unscrewed her from the seat.

Momma went to the ladies’ room to be sure she was all right and to tell her everything would be OK. Sue Ann told me that there was hardly any blood at all, but she was giggling about the sight of the large lady peeling off her girdle and all the other church ladies inspecting her derrière.

Daddy was really worried about this and how it would affect his new business. He made it a point to apologize to the fat lady’s husband, the Reverend and anyone else who would listen. Most of the people were good-natured about it though, and the church refused to take back the bonus they had offered. One man said it was an act of God, and the fat lady wasn’t anyone’s favorite anyway.

We left the church, and got in the station wagon to go home. Momma was laughing, and we all started to laugh along with her. Daddy said with that girdle on it was a wonder she hadn’t had a blowout.

So Daddy got a great start in business for himself, the whole town knew the story by dark. He got several more refinishing jobs the next week. There was only a couple of weeks left before school started again, and they were small, so I got a little of the summer to be a kid again. I would turn fifteen on October 1^st and was in no hurry to grow up right then.