Sidney resident Dan McGuire spent 45 years working in the Sidney Holly Sugar office and accounting department. McGuire began his career with Holly in 1940 in the upstairs office. "That was a man's job, then," he remarks, and ended his career at retirement time in 1985, as part of the accounting team.

When McGuire started with Holly Sugar in 1940, his upstairs office job included working on the budget, ordering necessary supplies, preparing factory sugar reports during campaign and preparing reports for the corporate office, located at that time in Colorado Springs. "We didn't have the benefits of computers then," laughs McGuire. "I used very crude calculators, the kind with hand-pulled cranks, rows of push button numbers and rolls of paper."

McGuire worked in the upstairs office for ten years, then moved downstairs to join the accounting department staff. He stayed with the accounting department for the next 35 years. He started out in the accounting department as a timekeeper. He then advanced to voucher clerk where he paid bills, and he then worked as the farmers' ledger clerk. This position included preparing the checks for growers, computing the billings for molasses and pulp sales and taking care of accounts receivable.

The accounting department at that time had five staff members: a manager, a timekeeper, a voucher clerk, a farm ledger clerk and a stenographer. All clerks did the bulk of their work manually. "We used huge ledgers when I was farm ledger clerk," McGuire recalls. "Every time we made entries, which of course were all done by hand, we'd make three copies, using carbon paper. We'd have to write hard to make the third copy legible. If landowners wanted a copy for themselves, we had no copy machines of any sort, so we'd have to sit down and hand copy the whole ledger sheet."

He adds, "We used a lot of carbon paper in those days. Now, clerks have all sorts of copiers, but then, we made carbon copies. When I was supply clerk upstairs, I used to order tons of carbon paper."

The accounting department also used manual typewriters and clumsy calculators. Office machines often were in short supply, and accounting staff shared equipment with the ticket clerks during harvest. At beet harvest, ticket clerks, who had their office in the factory basement, needed calculators, so they would carry calculators from the accounting office to the basement. "We'd never have calculators when we needed them during harvest," McGuire remarks. "Those calculators would be hauled up and down the stairs two times a day. The girls would take them downstairs in the morning, and when I needed one, I'd go to the basement and beg to get my machine back."

He continues, "That basement was also a very poor place for the ticket clerks to work. The water table was so high that often the basement would flood with several inches of water covering the floor. Clerks never knew if their basement office would be dry or not when they arrived for work each morning."

McGuire recalls beet harvests as the most hectic time of the year. Staff in the accounting department had very labor intensive work. "We had to type the payroll," McGuire says. "With today's computers, it takes a fraction of the time that it took us. It used to take five days to put out the payroll."

"Holly Sugar today is nothing like it was 30 years ago," McGuire continues. "So many things have changed."

McGuire recalls that when he first started at Sidney Holly Sugar in 1940, the plant had a lot of windows throughout the factory. "Windows would get broken, and birds would take over the factory," McGuire remarks. "During intercampaign, we had to cover all the machinery and equipment with canvas to keep everything clean. No one would put up with that today."

McGuire also remembers a time when the company vice president of operations from Colorado Springs came to inspect the factory. At that time period, whenever the factory had a breakdown and had to shut down for repairs, workers would vent the steam off the roof. "This venting made a huge roar," McGuire explains. "It happened that just as our manager pulled in with this important vice president, we shut down due to a breakdown of some piece of machinery. Our manager's heart sank when he heard the roar of venting steam, as he realized we were shut down. He was wondering what to say to this vice president when the vice president heard the roar, but the vice president just smiled and exclaimed, 'Oh boy, you're cutting beets like hell!'"

McGuire laughs, "That man never did realize we were shut down, and he never did realize that the factory was not cutting beets. We were saved. That vice president maybe knew his paperwork, but he didn't know anything about factory operations."

The big technological changes didn't really begin at the Sidney plant until McGuire retired. "While I was there, there was not a lot of change in procedures. Year in and year out, we all had our duties to do, and the way we performed those duties did not vary much with the years. Each department operated relatively independently of the other departments. Now, with computers, there is a lot more interaction among departments."

He adds, "I remember that with the advent of computers, people thought computers would put people out of work. However, we still need people to feed the computers. Most jobs aren't eliminated, the jobs just change."

McGuire points out that computers did change a lot of things. "People can work faster. One input to the computer can generate many different reports. We used to generate each report manually."

Not only procedures changed, but the look of the accounting department changed, as well. When McGuire first started at the Sidney plant, the offices had no comforts of any kind. "The floors were rough, wooden and oiled, and it was not a very fancy place to work," McGuire says. "Holly Sugar has since remodeled, and the accounting office now has carpeting and a lowered ceiling."

"Today, the accounting office has printers, shredders, computers, the walls are ringed with machines," McGuire remarks. "I couldn't possibly go back to work there, things have changed so much."

McGuire enjoyed his 45-year career with Holly Sugar. "I knew a lot of people, and they all were good to work with," McGuire states. "Holly Sugar was a good place to work. I had my good days and my bad days, like you have anywhere, but on the whole, it was a good place to work."

He concludes, "The job at Holly Sugar was often feast or famine. Harvest was extremely hectic, but over the summer it could be slow and I often wished I had more to do. But, we all have to take it as it comes."

McGuire has kept busy since his retirement. He is active in the Elks, and serves as secretary of that organization. He also serves as treasurer of the Fox Lake Senior Center at Lambert.