[Keith Seymore]

Ok - so now we have this giant cat costume; we need somebody to wear it.

One of the ladies in the Specifications department was chosen. She was a crusty, tough old bird (...in fact, that was her name: "Birdie"). In hindsight she was probably a pretty good choice, because I'm sure she could hold her own in a bar fight. She wasn't very happy about being chosen to be "Howie Makem".

Besides Birdie's attitude problem there were some issues with the cat suit itself. One was that it was incredibly hot inside the suit, a situation that only exacerbated the heat in the plant during the notoriously humid Michigan summer months. The huge head was also an issue, making it difficult to maneuver in close quarters. But the biggest problem was that the head prevented the wearer from seeing out - they had to cut some small "eye holes" in the neck in order to provide some semblance of outward visibility. In the end, because of the safety implications, even that wasn't enough and we had to assign an escort, leading Howie by the hand through the plant.

As you might expect, the line workers were not all that enthused. I think they thought they were being "talked down to" (...wouldn't you, being accosted by a giant cat wearing a superhero cape?...) and Howie was generally greeted with cat calls (no pun intended), obscenities and inquiries about his/her gender. The escort had to perform double duty, both as a seeing eye guide and bodyguard.

It all came back to me this morning. What a vivid memory: Birdie and her escort walking through the plant, hand in hand, her sweltering in the giant cat suit, greeting the line workers on one side and spewing profanities like a sailor on the other...

K