Wow! You know I have a friend who lives in Candleville, Candle Country also! Dirk is a candle marker also. In fact he was apprenticed to Hans at the age of nine. See Dirk's father drank because he had no real skills and couldn't afford to feed that good fer nuttin boy anymore. Dirk was a small child because the food supply in Candle Counrty was poor, and of course he couldn't read because there was no school system. So Dirk went to Hans. Dirk said the first couple of years were the worst. The beatings slowed to once a week when he stopped making so many stupid mistakes, and his never felt hungry because he could always eat some of the spilled wax (off the floor of course, when Hans caught Dirk eating 'good' wax, boy did he get it then! Hans held the back of his left arm to the hot pot of wax until he just couldn't scream anymore. Hans then sent Dirk to the town's only doctor to take care of his accident.) But Dirk grew in both size and knowledge, in fact some people started to note the Dirk's candles were better. When Dirk was 18 Hans told him that he was only 16 to keep in servitude for two more years. Since his dad was dead by then and there were no real records, Dirk had no choice but to stay on because if he broke the terms of his apprenticeship he would be kicked out of the community. Finally Dirk was released fom his contract and he could make candles for his own profit. But of course he had no equipment, heck he had nothing but the clothes on his back when Hans kicked him out of his house at 1am. He started working menial jobs and tried to save some money so he could by a little bit of equipment to do his trade for the rest of his life. He almost had all he needed after five years, in fact he had enough after three years but the shed he was renting from his landlord burned to the ground one night. His landlord blamed him but Dirk knew better because a lot of his equipment was missing in the shed's ruins. Dirk knew that cast iron pots wouldn't melt in a shed fire, or at least there would be piles of melted metal. So after five years Dirk was making candles. Only little ones because he couldn't afford big pots yet, but he was making a little money, enough that he could see a future where he could sell any size candles, just like Hans could. In fact Hans was geting up there in years and had no heirs, he had run his wife out of town after their third child had died in infancy, so Dirk figured that he could just buy some of Hans's equipment when he retired or died. Then Dirk saw this big car drive into town. Not many cars came into town so everybody was out of their houses to see what was going on. As the factory was being built Dirk had a job as a laborer. It paid him more money then he had ever had before. Then he saw these huge kettles being delivered. He was told about hold these things called light bulbs were made. In his mind Dirk could see exactly what the process was. Molten glass was just like wax, it was pored into a mold, it was just hotter. As the factory was finished a lot of the laborers were losing their jobs. But Dirk talked to the people who worked inside the factory and they agreed to let him try to work with the molten glass. It was a hot and dirty job and they didn't mind a little 'local' help. Dirk soon proved his worth and he was given a permenant job. When Hans died, from lung cancer breathing in all those fumes for years, (Dirk was amazed at how little smoke the lightbuld factory produced) Dirk had enough money to buy Hans's house and all of the equipment inside. Dirk worked at the lightbulb factory during the day and some nights would fire up the candle works to play with his first trade. A few years down the road he moved to a larger house with his wife and three kids, (it's so amazing what doctors can do these days!) but he kept and rented out his first house. His wife nagged him about it but he liked to get away some nights (he didn't drink). Every once in a while a tourist would drive by and see the 'quaint' candle shop and ask if any were for sale. He soon realized that he was making more money selling candles at huge mark-ups then he was at the lightbulb factory. And when the town was wired for telephone service and he was able to sell candles over the internet...... Anymore stories from Fantasy land? Where candles are king, all power comes from the sun and there is some unique substance that can only save one rich old lady or a young child once a year. Kevin Tarr Trump high, lead low
