Drew McCulloch parked his car in his space in the company lot near the entrance to McCulloch Printing. He had enjoyed his lunch with his wife and daughters. As he got out of his car, he heard the alarm siren signaling the start of a new press run inside the building. The last renovations and addition to the current structure were almost forty years ago, about the time that Sam took over the operation from his father. Now it was Drew's turn to do the same thing: build something after he was put in charge.
Drew would be putting his imprint onto the operation with the new addition to handle the increased Worldwide business. "Since Worldwide was expanding, McCulloch Printing was expanding" was how he had put it at the staff meeting earlier that morning. To Drew, their mutual cooperation in that effort benefitted everyone.
Drew moved toward the front entrance to the brick building that housed the company's main Heidelberg Speedmaster presses. The original granite block building that J.J. McCulloch had built to house his Mergenthaler linotype machine stood adjacent to the annex, as the new brick wing was called.
Drew decided not to enter the plant, but to go behind the annex building where the next "new wing" would be built. His grandfather Peter had thankfully bought four adjacent six-acre lots when they went on the market in the early 1960s. They were to be residentially zoned for a proposed apartment complex that a developer wanted to construct there; however, Peter bought the lots instead and kept them zoned light industrial. The acreage was mostly brush and meadows, with spruces lining the back property from an old Christmas tree farm. At the time, Peter McCulloch didn't know what he'd do with the land, but said it was probably a good investment since God wasn't making any more of it. Sam didn't know either, but Drew sure knew what he was going to do with the land. And he was going to have to do it within the year. He took in a deep breath and then returned to the front of the building.
He remembered that he hadn't called his parents yet to tell them the good news. He took his cell phone from his pocket and tapped it. He saw it connect with his mother's cell phone.
YOU ARE READING
WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard
General FictionSometimes you have to go far away to realize just how close you really are. A straightforward, honest and emotional journey of the heart, We Gather Together is a perceptive and joyous story about a small-town suburban family that wants to come toge...
