Jaxmyth

Jaxmyth was a three piece Blues / Rock band that I got involved with through Ben. The band consisted of Robert Peterson (Bobby Soxx - Guitar and Vocals), Corky Dunford (Bass Guitar), and Aaron Carson (Drums). Ben worked in a restaurant with Corky or Aaron, I am can't remember which. I went to see the band for the first time at Cross Street Station in Ypsilanti. I love the band, and also really loved the bar, but i'll save that for another post. Ben had become friends with the guys, so we started hanging out with them and helping at their gigs. Neither Ben or I were old enough to drink, but since we were with the band, none of the bars ever asked for ID's.

Ben really go into being the roadie for the band, and I started managing the band, or trying to. After managing them for a while, I studied for the test, and got a license as an entertainment agency. I called my business Karnopp Productions (because I am so creative with business names), and I started trying to get more gigs and represent other bands. 

I once asked Bobby where he came up with the name Jaxmyth. He explained that all three of them used to live in Florida, and they all worked at the same hotel. They all worked for the same manager who's name was Jack Smith. He said that he was a real blowhard and was always yelling at the staff and especially them. One day they were all sitting around the pool on their time off, and Jack came over screaming at them because they weren't supposed to use the pool, and that it was for the guests. As he stormed off, Corky said, "We should name our band after him just to fuck with him". So what started as a Joke ended up becoming their band name. 

I got several gigs for the band in the Detroit area, and they already had several regular gigs they were doing. One of the more interesting gigs was at The Old Miami on Cass in Detroit. It was a Vietnam veterans bar. The customers were always really cool with us, but they weren't guys you wanted to mess with. There was also a lot of firepower behind the bar, so it wasn't a place any of the local thugs would want to mess with either. I liked it when the band played there, but it was a pretty sketch area of town. 

Another gig that was kind of interesting was the Gods Children Motorcycle Club. Aaron's dad had been the president of the Detroit Highwaymen when he was a teenager, so he had some connections in the MC community. This particular gig was a party that the Gods Children were throwing, so there were a lot of other clubs there. It was quite a crowd. At one point one of the club members talked to me and he told me if anything broke out, Ben and I were to stay out of it, their guys would handle all the security. I was good with that, I had no interest in doing security with a group of bikers. 

In actuality, it probably was one of the safest gigs we played. There was one incident that occurred, but it was taken care of very quickly, and no one seemed to bat an eye. During one of the sets, one of the Gods Children guys sat in with the band playing base. It turned out that back in the day, they guy had been the base player for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. While he was on stage playing base one of the bikers in the crowd crossed the barrier and was trying to sing in the mic. The guy was obviously drunk, the bass player took his bass and jabbed the head stock right into the other bikers head knocking him out cold. Before I even knew what was going on two other members of the club were dragging him outside. That was the only incident the entire evening.

After going through all the work to get my license and start my business, I really wanted to grow and do bigger things. Booking local bars was fun, but it wasn't going to pay anyone's bills. I started calling Saturday Night Live. I would sit in my apartment working to get enough courage, then make the call. I kept leaving messages for the talent agent at the show, and it seemed like I would never get through. Then one day I called, and I was ready to leave another message when the guy came on the phone. It turned out he was from Ann Arbor originally, and still came home often in the summers. 

I don'e remember his name, but I ended up sending him a demo tape, and we talked again a few weeks later. He had listened to the tape, and he said it was okay, but the band overall wasn't anything special. He did like the lead guitar playing though. Bobby played lead guitar and sang vocals. The talent agent said he didn't care much for the vocals, but he liked his guitar playing. He told me to get in touch with him again before the summer, and we would come up with a date and time where he could come see them when he was in town. 

The band wasn't as excited about the news as I was. I don't know if they didn't believe me or what, but I kept pushing. When summer came, I talked to the agent, and he suggested that we do an Open Mic night in Ann Arbor, and he would check them out there. I told the band, and I got it all scheduled. When the day finally came, I couldn't find any members from the band anywhere. This was the time before cell phones, so I was going to each of their houses, I called the bar thinking they were there, but no one showed up. The night came an went, and Jaxmyth never showed. 

I ran into Bobby a couple of nights later at Cross Street Station. I asked him what the hell happened, and he said they had gotten invited to a party, and they decided to do that instead. He said the open mic night was a waste of time, they were never going to be on SNL and it was stupid to even think that was a possibility. I was furious, and I told them I was done working with them. 

I shut down my business. I had started and stopped my first business before turning twenty. When people complain about how hard it is to break into the music industry, I just laugh. From where I was standing, the music industry wasn't the problem, it was the musicians. I am not saying that it is easy to make it, but so many musicians think if they are going to make it, they will need to be discovered. If you have the talent, you still have to do the work of marketing yourself, and working the business. 

I was pretty bitter about the way my relationship with the band ended. I didn't see much of Bobby and Corky after that, and couple of years later the band broke up and Bobby moved out west and Corky moved back to Florida. I saw Aaron a number of times because he stayed in Ypsilanti. Bobby got ALS and died on March 31st, 2017. After hearing about Bobby, I tried to find Aaron and Corky online. I found Aaron'd Obituary, he died on March 5th, 2014. I don't know what happened to him. I believe Corky is still playing in Florida. Ben passed away May 7th, 2013. 

Robert Peterson (Bobby Soxx) - Obituary

Aaron Carson - Obituary

Ben Lewis - Obituary

Ypsi Adult Education Tool and Die Class

In high school I took a tool and die class at Ypsilanti Adult Education for high school credit, and I really enjoyed it. The two instructors were really good and knew a lot. There were segments on the lathe, mill, grinders, and welding. We made a number of really cool projects and I still have several of them. The shop was in the old Ypsi High school on Cross Street which is now an old folks home. The floors had been updated in the shop, but there was another room across the hall that had the original wood floors designed for holding really heavy equipment. 

After I graduated, Ben was still struggling to get through high school. I suggested he take the machining class to get some extra credits since it was available on Saturday morning. The instructor of the class asked me if I would be interested in being an assistant instructor. With my experience as a mechanic, and my work at Barfield, plus being in the class before, the administrator saw no problem with me being an assistant teacher. Ben took the class both semesters that year, and I assisted in the class throughout the year. 

This was my only attempt at teaching, and I would say it doesn't run in the family. My dad's students always said he was an amazing teacher. I am sure Ben would not have said that about me. I tend to think I have related information in a clear and logical manner, but people always look at me with a glazed expression. Even today when I go into a meeting, I think I have explained a technical concept at a general level, but typically my boss will have to then translate it even more. If Ben hadn't been a friend, I don't think anyone in the class would have ever wanted to to have anything to do with me. 

 I really did love working with metal. Working with wood takes a certain amount of artistic ability where working with metal is all about mechanics. You adjust cutting speeds based on the material you are cutting and the size of the cutter. These are simple calculations, and making the cut is done my turning a dial. Turning something on a wood lathe, you have to have a steady hand and you actual hold the cutter, so I prefer working with metal, but it is very expensive and hard to do in a home shop. 

I can't remember if Ben every graduated high school. We fell out of touch shortly after he took the machining class. We would run into each other at different times over the years, but we were never really close friends again. I did run into one of the instructors again years later after Forrest was born, and I was surprised at how old he had become. It really is amazing how fast life goes by.

My Time at Barfield Mfg.

When I turned 18, I got a job working through a temp agency at Barfield Manufacturing. I started on the afternoon shift on the assembly line. At first I really hated the job. Part assembly is the most boring work I have ever done. The hours seemed to drag on forever. As I got to know my co-workers it became a little easier since I could at least talk to people, but even that was pretty limiting. I needed the job though, so I stuck it out. 

The way the temp agency worked, you had to work for them for six months, and then if the company wanted to hire you, they could without paying a penalty. At the six month mark, I got hired in as a full employee. This gave me a bit of a raise and benefits. Once again, I had my own health insurance, and once again it was better than what I have today. I also moved to the midnight shift.

The midnight shift was pretty cool because we did a lot of changeovers when we were switching out the parts that we make. I volunteered to do any changeover, and I got to the point where I could do all the setups better than anyone else. Of course there weren't many people who wanted to do changeovers because when the machine was down, it was like an extended break. I liked doing anything that wasn't repetitive. 

I had very few interactions with co-workers outside of work when I was at Barfield. I remember going to a couple of parties, and I would go out for beers with a couple of the guys every now and then. I did however work with a woman name Micki Chavis. We worked together for several months, and I really liked her, and I eventually asked her out. We went out on a couple of dates, and they went pretty well, but things never worked out. We ended up on different shifts, and just didn't keep in touch. A couple of years later my friend Steve told me he knew her, and that she had been murdered. She had been stabbed to death by her boyfriends ex-girlfriend. I had always hoped I would reconnect with her. 

The supervisor of the midnight shift ended up transferring to another department, and they promoted a guy that was just a little older than I was to the new shift supervisor. Since I was able to do all the changeovers, I got along well with him because that was supposed to be a big part of the job. He spent most of his time in the office and really didn't do anything. I assumed I would eventually get his position, but when the upper management decided to get rid of him, he told them that he was too young for the job, and they decided they were going to bring in someone else. 

At the same time, two operator positions opened up in the cold heading department where bolts and screws were made. I applied and me and one of the other guys got the job. Unfortunately the other guy who applied started two days before I did, and in the union world seniority trumps everything. We both started as operators which meant that we kept and eye on the machines, checked the parts against a blueprint, coordinated moving full parts bins and raw material. 

The next step up was the position of Setup B which meant you could setup the machines for different sized bolts, and perform adjustments when the bolts would start to drift out of spec. To get promoted, you had to be able to do a setup on each of the types of machines. There were four different models. Three of the models were American made, and there were two really large machines that were Japanese. One of the models was from the late 1800's and had been converted from an overhead belt drive to an electric motor. This machine was nicknamed the "Pig", and it was the hardest machine to setup and keep in tolerance. 

When we were hired for operator positions, the goal was to get us trained for setup, so we could be promoted because there were no setup B operators. I worked really hard to learn every machine as quickly as I could. I really wanted that promotion. The other guys name was Ross, and he tried really hard, but he just didn't have the aptitude for it. My time working on cars and doing setups on the assembly line made this work very simple for me, but Ross had no previous experience, so he really struggled.

Unfortunately, since Ross had started two days before me, he had seniority, so I couldn't get promoted until he got promoted. I was really frustrated by this, and it is my biggest complaint of unions today. I think the seniority system is complete garbage, and I would never work in an environment like that again. It finally got the point where I was doing the setup B job, and I was fixing all of Ross's setups, and they finally decided to promote both of us, so I could get my promotion. This really did work out in my favor because there was no competition for doing setups. Ross was more than happy to keep doing the boring operator work and let me do all the setups. 

There were three other guys in the department. The guy I worked the most closely with was  Tim who was a Setup A, and he is the one that I learned the most from. There was also the supervisor named Dave who used to be a setup A before he became the supervisor. I didn't learn as much from him because he was doing more supervisor duties than setups. There was also a guy across the aisle who did bushings. He was technically in our department, but we didn't work on his machines and he didn't work on ours. I don't remember his name, but he was a Master Setup which just means that he was a setup A that had been there for over ten years.

One of the really cool parts of my job was that I got to work closely with the machinists. Since I had taking classes in machining and also assistant taught at the high school adult ed program, we had a lot in common. When doing a setup, I would often have to go to the machinists and have them change the angle on one of the dies or grind more clearance on one of the cones. If they were busy, most of them would be happy to let me use the lathe or grinder myself and make the modification. 

There was one time I went in to get a change made, and everyone in the tool room was at lunch. I took my die, set it up on the lathe, and went about making the changes myself. One of the maintenance guys who worked in the tool room walked in and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I needed to make some changes and no one was around. He knew that I often did these things myself, but he had recently been elected as shop steward in the union, so he filed a grievance against me. I ended up getting written up and had to be a part of a big meeting with the plant manager where it was explained that I was never to do a job that was no in my job description again. After this incident, I hated the UAW and everything it represented. I hated that they took union dues out of my check every week, but then turned on me for purely political reasons. 

When people talk about unions, it is usually a political discussion that is really abstracted from any real world experience. Very few people that I have ever debated with have ever worked in a union. I understand why the unions exist, and I think they have done a lot of good things for the working class. The biggest problem I see is that they haven't evolved. Instead of trying to protect the weak employee at all costs, they should be working on training and incentive programs. They need to get rid of the seniority system and work on adding value to both the workers they represent and the companies where those workers work. Like everything else that is politically charged, this situation will never change which is fine, I will never work in a situation where someone else negotiates anything for me.

I had been taking classes at WCC part time while working at Barfield, and my dad suggested that I quit and go to school full time. I really didn't want to quit, but I also didn't want to spend my whole life making bolts, so I put in my two weeks notice. I was immediately offered the job of Setup A if I would stay. Ross had quit a while earlier, so there was no issue with him anymore. I declined and left to continue my education. 

There is no way I would have wanted to work in a factory my whole life, but I am really glad I had the experience that I did. As my career changed over the years, I have been involved in a lot of manufacturing processes where my previous work gave me additional incites into how to improve processes. I didn't stay in contact with anyone after I left, and the factory has long since closed.