"During WWII my mother and several of my uncles and aunts worked at AC building the implements that defeated the Axis powers. At the time my dad was a flight engineer in the Army Air Corp while his wife was building the .50 caliber machine guns that provided armament for the Air Corp planes.
"Having lived in the Potter School area from '58 until I went into the Army in '67, the AC complex was one of the areas that you passed through several times a day to get to school, downtown, well, to get virtually anywhere that your life took you in those days. Considering its sprawling size, it was a major part of the neighborhood and well-suited to gumming up local traffic at shift change.
"Later, my sister and my first wife (...ack!...) worked there making oil filters and cruise control assemblies.
"And now, reduced to compact piles of rubble and debris, it's gone, what with the rest of the manufacturing world having closed up shop locally and moved away overseas.
"Truly, I am bummed. One can never go home again. Home no longer exists. Wall Street sold it for short term profits."
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Home Front
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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.
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Your last statement is exactly how I feel. Our home was sold by Wall Street and Shipped to China. I know this sound way out, but I wish Wall Street could look like AC now.
ReplyDeleteWell...thank you Gordo for this rather humbling surprise.
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