Randall Stanhope, Hampton Clarion & Stuart Panora

The three large mid-western shaped men looked like fat Vienna sausages sitting in the Chevy Chevette. The Chevette was a great commuter car; it made about 32 miles to the gallon, but it wasn't made to seat three builkily dressed men. Every time the care went over a bump the frame made a squishing noise on the rear tires.
The Chevette was one reason Randall hated the carpool when it was Stuart's turn to drive. Ham drove an older pickup and it was crowded too, but Randall didn't have to worry about rubbing a tire flat every second they were on the road.
He worried about things like that. Randall drove a 1978 silver Buick Regal. He and his wife referred to it as the 'work car', although their good/family car wasn't in much better shape. They both had over 100,000 miles on them, but the Regal didn't have air-conditioning, unless you counted the rusted out placed in the floorboards. Randall had rivetted plywood to those spots, but he fretted about someone falling through the boards onto the highway. To be able to bear being a rider in the carpool, Randall pretended to sleep most of the way to work. That way he didn't have to concern himself with how many times Ham or Stu went over the center line or passed unsafely, which they tended to do as if other's lives weren't their responsibility.
The three men started carpooling six years ago when the packing plant they worked for cut back wages. Since none of them could afford to quit, they saved money by carpooling. In those six years the carpool had many different riders, but Randal, Ham and Stu were always at its core.
They were a group, a circle of friends, although not one of the would consider it so. They had shared dreams, disappointments and laughter. They never socialized outside the carpool and since they each worked in a different area of the packing house, they only saw each other in the cocoon of the carpool. The forty-five minutes every a.m. and every p.m. gave the men ample time to get to know each other. None of them had spent that much close time with another male since boyhood.
Randall was a worrier. He would replay the conversations he had with his wife or his children over and over while doing the repetitive cuts on the thousands of heads of hogs that passed him each day. He'd analyze the tone and inflection of their voices. He'd try to remember each facial expression and think if he was missing any non-verbal clues to the meaning of the sentences exchanged. Sometimes all this reflection would assure Randall that his wife loved him and that his children respected him. More often it made him angry with his life's circumstances. It made him regret choices made ten years ago and hesitant to make decisions today.
Ham, who supervised the killing line, played mean and hurtful practical jokes on his co-workers. He also embellished the details when telling Randall and Stu each evening. Ham had worked at the hog factory for twenty years. Some of Ham's jokes were twenty years old too but with the high employee turnover, he had fresh victims every few months or so. One of his favorite pranks was to 'blue ball' any new unsuspecting male employee.
The blue ink used by the Federal inspectors to stamp "USDA Approved" on the cuts of meat came in large containers. Ham would use a Dixie cup to scoop up the dye and catch the unfortunate guy in the toilet and douse his genitals with the ink. When regaling Randall and Stu with this story he'd make ribald remarks about the size of the balls just blued.
Stu was the consummate family man. His wife cleaned the house, cared for their three teenaged daughters and made life comfortable for Stu. Everything Stu did shouted "Married with Children". Stu's family car was a small, economical and nondescript color He was usually attired in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. He wife cut his hair and it looked it. Stu and his family spent Saturday evenings grocery shopping. Then they'd stop at the local Hardee's for supper and on to home for a big batch of microwave popcorn and family TV. They spent all day in church or at church related activities on Sunday.