Flint Postcards: River and Factories

Flint Postcards: Chevrolet Axle and Heat Treating Plant

Heavy Metal Drama

Do you sometimes find yourself longing for the days when America made something besides exotic financial derivatives? Well just sit back and enjoy this "capitalist realist" drama that shows what goes into making a Chevy. It was filmed in Flint just months before the U.A.W. won union recognition via the sit-down strike.

P.S. I should warn you that this is only the first part of this classic. It builds up to a tantalizing crescendo, then cuts you off. You can catch the rest on YouTube.

40 Years of Fun!

After 40 years at Chrysler's Twinsburg Stamping Plant in Ohio, Bill Wetherholt has a few stories to tell. Now he's obviously not a Flintoid, but it's still worth reading his interview on allpar.com.

A brief sample...

Jessie: Can you tell me a little bit about your first experiences when you were hired at Chrysler?

Bill: Being afraid. (Laughing) When I first started working there, we really worked hard, but you didn’t think about working hard at that time. There were no filtration systems in the plant, there were no safety signs telling you to wear ear plugs and safety goggles. They didn’t have covers over the presses and the gears were exposed, I mean there were so many hazards that you worked around that you never thought about it.

Thanks to Kris Stableford for sending this my way.

Flint Postcards: Buick's Busy Acres

What's in a name?

David Lewis had an entertaining column about factory nicknames in The Flint Journal last month. It made me wonder if Flint, in addition to an unusually high ratio of bars to people, also had predilection for nicknames as well:

"The nicknames were as unique and varied as the people who wore them. Back then, a lot of people came from all over the country to work for GM. We had Tex, Minnesota, Alabama and so many Arkies that we had to distinguish them further to keep them straight. (Are you talking about Arkie the booth cleaner or Arkie the millwright?) Hairstyles of the '60s and '70s gave us Shag, Hippie Jim, Q-Ball, Burrhead and Butch, and military service spawned Sarge, Captain and Paratrooper Tony.

"Some guys had real names that brought to mind the Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue." These guys transformed into Boots, Abe, Toe and Wink. But for reasons totally unknown to me, Randy was called Frank. I even worked for a while with a man called Tater, which I naturally assumed was his nickname but later found out that it was indeed his real name.

"Some names were self-explanatory, such as Big Al, Big John, Shorty and Slim, along with Whiskey, Wine and Redeye, who, by the way, were quite the characters. There were Dink, Skeeter, Preacher Dick and Bones. Troll, Hoggy, Mole and Twitch. Redline, Scruffy, Jesus and Pops. Tweety Bird, Lightbulb, John Deere and Farmer (the only person who could make me laugh until I cried each and every time)."

From my circle of Flint friends, I offer up...Sparky, Pear Dog, Stinkle, Frazzle, Slam, Eagle, Slammy, Trudie, Slamchop, Pear Dog, Dollar Bill, Perry Stinkle, Mahorn, PerryWinkle, and Fari Sailor.