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Although Artie felt like whistling, he thought he had better not because things had been rough at the plant lately. The layoffs, the rescinded annual cost-of-living increases and the move from full-time to part-time for the majority of the clerical positions had created a rather grim atmosphere, but Artie wanted to whistle. The previous night, his daughter opened her college acceptance letter and realized her hard work had paid off. Her scholarships meant Artie's cost to send her to school would be less than half of what he had anticipated, and since he had saved for two years, he actually now had four years of tuition in the bank.
He wished his dad was alive to see this day. He'd learned all that was necessary to be a man from his steady, hardworking father. Truly, the old man was so right. Artie smiled and silently shook his head. He walked through the dim loading dock past the forklift that he ran for years that still had the "A" and the "TIE" letters spackled on the side. Someone had removed the "R" years ago when the team Artie picked in the office Superbowl bet tied the game at the end of the fourth quarter and then lost. The workers teased old “A__TIE” about "a tie" game for years.
But they stopped teasing the day the foreman called Artie into his office to tell him he'd been promoted; he was to begin night school at the company's expense. Artie had worked the books just like he did the job, bettering himself at every turn. So when the layoffs came, Artie was secretly not worried. He knew how indispensable he was to the company. He was the ultimate "utility man" and could do a number of jobs if called upon. As his dad had taught him, he became the company’s ace in the hole. Loyalty had its rewards.