[9/6/04]About 46 years ago, Bud Watkins was just out of the military and looking for a job. He found it at a Help Yourself grocery store on Openwood Street.

Soon, Charlie James went looking for a job.

He was 16, the Help Yourself pay was 60 cents an hour and he opted to look elsewhere. Watkins offered him a quarter more and James signed on a year later.

They’ve worked together ever since.

Then, in 1976, came two more men, Harold Pickett and Johnny Wells.

Today, the four men, with nearly 150 years of combined experience, make up the meat department at County Market on Clay Street.

And though having a quality product and pleasing the customer are still priorities, gone are the days of the butcher standing behind the counter, waiting on customers and cutting meat as ordered.

“You had to wait on the customer hand and foot,” said Charlie James, the market manager. “If they wanted two slices of bologna, we’d give it to them.”

“We’d give them what they asked for, even if it was one pork chop,” Watkins said.

And though those times have changed, the customer is still the most important.

“People are valuable employees when they stay with a company for a long time, but when they start taking care of customers they become more valuable,” James said. “You have to take care of the customer, that’s the way these guys were brought up.”

A lot has changed on the job in 50 years. Meat now comes boxed and ready to be cut and packaged.

“I remember when we used to have hanging beef,” James said. “And I told Johnny to go get the front quarter, and he never could get the beef off the hook.

“I knew he was back there struggling with that beef, but he caught on pretty quick.”

Wells added, “I probably only weighed 90 pounds.”

Though they still wear the white butchers’ coats, other things have changed.

“When they started working for me, there weren’t any child-labor laws,” James said, with a laugh. “We’d work 60 or 70 hours a week.”

The men all arrive at 6 a.m.

“You have to start early because you’ve got to get cranked up early to get things ready for our customers,” James said.

The men make sure the meat section looks presentable and make sure the products are fresh.

“You just hustle all day,” Watkins said.

Over the years, a close friendship has developed with lots of joking and teasing among the men.

“We have a sensational time,” Pickett said and grinned. His co-workers said he’s the prankster.

“We get more fun out of Harold,” Watkins said. “He’s the scariest.”

The men are prone to play tricks on each other and pick on each other.

“I stay on them,” Pickett said. “I’m always scheming, and I scare them easily. You can’t be serious all the time.”

Harold Pickett gave one reason for staying so long on the job his mother got him: “Dedication.”

And, ultimately, between the good times and hard work, the men stick together.

Watkins “said he wanted to retire, and I told him, Nope. I’m not retiring yet and you ain’t either,'” James said.