Women's Role at Gamma Supplies

When I returned back to the lab, my work progressed nicely and with the results John Mason had obtained, I had developed a new process for making the phenolic resin needed for the “Rapid Set” formulation. Actually I had developed two processes, but the first process and the one that gave the best material for our use was a high temperature process which Ravi, Darth and I all agreed come very close to the Better Supplies' process reported in their patents. To be safe, it was decided that an alternate, low temperature process should be used even though it gave a slightly inferior product. I maximized the low temperature process in the laboratory and wrote a detailed procedure for Tenneland, Columbus plant where the new material would be manufactured.

It seemed only natural to me that I should go to Columbus, explain the new process and watch the first production batch being made. Instead, Darth informed me that Ravi would be taking the process to Columbus. I was angry. I should have at least been going with Ravi. It was standard procedure in for the developer of a new process to help transfer that process to manufacturing. Ravi was going to be fired in a month, I was suppose to be taking his place, I had developed the process, and Darth decided to send Ravi to Columbus to oversee the first production batch. It seemed like Darth was doing things just to frustrate me. He never gave me a satisfactory explanation for his actions, and such decisions kept me constantly unsure that Ravi would be fired despite constant reassurances. Darth had more than amply demonstrated that his word was not good. Darth, more and more was becoming my antagonist. Not Ravi.

The material Tenneland made from the new process arrived at Gamma Supplies a few days later, and test showed the material worked very well. In fact, with proper conditions, the material equaled or bettered the Better Supplies product. The only problems remaining were to get Tenneland to make the phenolic resin consistently and to win the legal battle against Better Supplies. Both objectives seemed well within our grasps with a little work.

It was mid-December and Anita and I were busy getting ready for the holidays. Since all of our relatives lived in the east, we planned on spending a quiet Christmas by ourselves. The one exception was Ursula's older sister Anna and her husband who lived in Madison, Wisconsin. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Anna called and asked us to join them for the holiday weekend. We had visited Anna and her husband Dave in the late fall and had an enjoyable weekend which included attending a university football game in Madison. Although we were not the closest of friends, Anita and I decided to spend the holidays with them rather than going it alone.

At work, I received a couple of invitations for the holidays. First, the secretary for the laboratory invited me to a Christmas party at her house. The invitation was for me only and when I asked if I could bring my wife, she was a bit taken back. She emphasized that Jay and Cliff from tech service were the only other people from Gamma Supplies who were going to be there. Jay and Cliff were both single. When I finally told her that I would only attend with my wife, she acquiesced and said that would be fine.

One of the things that had bothered me at Gamma Supplies was that there were no family functions. Wives were entirely invisible, and at all social gatherings, such as the Hatch Cover gatherings, and no one ever mentioned or acted as though they were married. In fact, Darth used the gatherings to boast of his male chauvinist pig attitude and on occasions he wore a tie with small pigs and “MCP” written all over it. However, I remained determined to include my wife in my social life.