Nov 16, 2011

Candy Maker Kara Chocolates

In 1993, when I was laid off from Signetics as they moved the operations to New Mexico, I wondered what I would do for work to provide for my family. We had the meeting in April to tell us the plant was closing in December and so I had several months to secure employment. I was in a leadership position in the ward with Bishop B Ray Anderson who owned a small chocolate company called Kara Chocolates. He suggested that I come work for him and so since I was on graveyard shift at Signetics then I could go to work for him right after I got off and work part time so that I would still be able to go home and get sleep before going back to work that night again. So I did just that and worked for $12 and hour instead of the $30 or so an hour I was getting at Signetics. With the two jobs though I was able to put in cement around the side and back of the house and join it to the shed as well as buy our first ever couch and love seat set for the house.  (The old ones were given to me by my parents and the couch was actually one we had owned as a family when I was a very young child.) Well the job at Signetics ended in December and I went full time at Kara for three more years. I loved the job and remained at my average weight even though I was eating chocolates quite frequently during the day. I made the children sick of eating chocolates because I could take home the outdated stuff that hadn’t sold and let them have it. It wasn’t long before they didn’t greet the candy with any enthusiasm at all, in fact they dreaded it. It was really quite a blessing for them in the long run.

It was a good experience and I loved being able to turn out in excess of 20 thousand mints or other candies in a day. I however had to quit the jod when the factory was purchased by a couple of brothers and they were unable to keep enough chocolate and other supplies for me to be able to make candy. The older brother specifically asked me to work a graveyard making candies which I did on occasion as needed. However I told him that I would need sufficient supplies to keep me busy through the night. He said there would be plenty but when I came to work I had used all of the supplies within less than a half hour after arriving for an 8 hour shift. I locked the  door then left the key on their desk with a note that I was finished and would not be returning to work. I had been promised to many times things that were never given and couldn’t work that way any longer.

Version 2

Candy Maker at Kara Chocolates.

In April of 1993 Signetics announced a company meeting to be held at the Scera Theater in Orem. It was large enough to house all three shifts from the company at one time. At the meeting they announced the closure of the Orem plant to be effective in Dec 1993. Needless to say as I walked out of the meeting I was very scared and sick about the future. However there had been enough talk around the plant that it really hadn’t come as a surprise but it was still a shock to hear it actually happen.

I left that day knowing only that the Lord would somehow take care of me and my family. It was announced through the ward fairly fast since there were actually a couple of us that were affected. I was the Scoutmaster of the ward that time and also in the young men’s presidency and in that calling had several meeting that IU attended with the Bishopric. It was only about a week later when I was in just such a meeting and the Bishop asked if I would like to learn how to make chocolates. I responded that I would love to so he asked me to go to Kara chocolates after I got off from graveyard shift the next morning and he would show me around and I could decide for sure. Well Monday morning came and I went over and met Keith Cavanaugh and was shown a machine that was called the molding plant for chocolate truffles. I decided to start working for Bishop Anderson from that point. I was part time until Dec and then would go full time in Jan 1994. I was able to learn quickly from Keith and soon discovered that he was actually the first owner of the company and then sold it to B Ray Anderson when things got kind of tight for him financially. B ray kept him as part of the company however and he was very knowledgeable about how to make candy.

I worked for B Ray for about two years before he decided to sell the company and return to full time law practice in California. He sold it two brothers and then within a couple of months left the company to them completely. They soon fired Keith and I was left to run the molding plant by myself. Another member of my ward however had been hired to do consulting work for B Ray and was there to basically repair and install equipment. Bob  and I often rode to work together and enjoyed the fact that we neither one had to drive to work every day. We worked together for about a year and I really enjoyed it but found the new bosses to be difficult to work for. They had bought cheaper chocolate and thus were making cheaper truffles. They also had me work graveyard several times and each time they seemed to have the need but would never provide the support to be able to have me do a full shift. I would either run out of chocolate with which to make the truffles or I would run out of room to store them in the cold room because they wouldn’t have a shift there to package the ones that I had made the day prior. One day after a year and a half of working for them I was asked to do graveyard and I explained that I would be happy too but that I would need to have chocolate with which to work. They promised that I would and so I went to work on graveyard. Well I got there and soon found I had enough chocolate to keep in work until 30 minutes later. I ran out the chocolate and wrote a note to the bosses and then left my key on their desk and went home never to return to that ob again. I began doing insurance selling and soon found that I couldn’t make enough money so I put as much effort as I could into my photography and struggled financially for a while before starting to work for Bret Anderson at his cabinet shop.