George S. Parker and his wife, Martha, maintained a country home in a nicely wooded, rolling area of several acres on the north edge of Janesville. It was called Stonehenge after the famous English historical site which intrigued Mr. Parker.
The Parkers, who also had a large home in the city, used Stonehenge as a place to spend weekends and summer months, to get away from the office and to entertain guests.
It was a beautiful place replete with rare flowers, trees, sculptures, and artifacts George S. had collected during travels to distant places.
Soil preparation, planting rare plants and bulbs, fertilizing and maintenance was done by Company employees. Stonehenge became a much-used word in the lexicon of the factory shop floor.
While my personal involvement was not extensive others, especially the most recently hired male employees, were often selected for Stonehenge duty.
This is the way it worked:
George S. or his secretary, a lady named Main, would call one of the departmental foremen informing them that there was work to be done at Stonehenge requiring X number of men 20 who were to meet Mr. Parker there at a designated time. Who was selected was left to the foreman to decide to enable him to avoid using people needed in pen manufacturing operations.
Those selected, usually 3 to 6 people, would gather at the Division Street garage door and climb into an old, unreliable, company owned Dodge Brothers truck, driven by William Rodau, to be transported to Stonehenge.
Occasionally Mr. Parker would ask one or two of the men to ride with him in his “Crazy Wagon» as he called his car. This was usually a memorable ride because Mr. Parker would drive the mile and a half or so to Stonehenge in second gear. The car would overheat and act up. He drove a dark colored LaSalle (Cadillac) coupe with a three-speed floor mounted stick shift which he never managed to handle without much clashing and growling when shifting gears.
I made the ride only once. The third passenger was George Hudson from the Repair Department, owner of a small greenhouse retail operation in Milton Junction. George S. had learned that Mr. Hudson was experienced in flower growing and occasionally broke his own practice of allowing foremen to select the Stonehenge “volunteers» by asking specifically for Mr. Hudson.
Mr. Parker carried a whistle like those used by basketball referees. Standing at the entrance to the Stonehenge house he would tweet it signaling everyone to gather around him to receive the days instructions.
He frequently brought a box of cookies or apples which were placed on a table for use by the work group. On unusually heavy work, or hot or rainy days he would leave instructions for Bill Rodau, the truck driver, to take the entire group to the old Central restaurant operated by his friend, Jim Zanias, for something to eat.