Church bazaar triggers memories

Our church recently had their annual fall bazaar. One of the donated items up for auction was a 1969 GMC pick up truck. It was in pretty fair condition. The hood was raised and several of us were examining the small engine. This whole scene brought back some memories. I hired in at the GM truck plant in Pontiac in 1964 as an inspector on the pick up cab line. The cab was painted and fully assembled when it came by me. My job was to check and see if the cab had the proper RPO’s ( regular production options). Now days a vehicle comes standard with so many things. Back in 1964 a right hand sun visor was an option as was a heater and a radio. One day several of my co-workers decided to take the day off and my boss was doing the final inspection. He came down the line to tell me that a cab had come by him that had a sun visor and it shouldn’t have had one. I apologized for missing this item and he told me that there was no problem and that everyone missed something now and then. A while later he yelled all the way down the line, “Hey Neiger! You missed three more sun visors!” I watched much closely after that!

The American automobile industry was running wide open in the sixties. Pontiac Motors and Fisher body were working twelve hours six and seven days every week! Anyone could get a job there. Pontiac was running employment ads in southern papers. I placed my application at GM truck, Pontiac Motors, and Fisher body on a Tuesday and got called to come in for an interview by all three on Wednesday. I went to the truck plant for the first interview. My dad had always told me to get a haircut, shine your shoes and to wear a suit when you asked a man for a job so that is what I did. I felt like an atheist in church while waiting to be called in from the waiting room for my interview. All around me were men who hadn’t shaved or combed their hair. Some looked as if they had slept in their clothes, and here I stood in my suit looking like I was going to a wedding or a funeral! The guy that was interviewed before me was one of these unkempt individuals. He was made a spot welder. The guy that followed my interview was made a riveter, and I was made an inspector. I never bothered to go for the interview at the other plants. Inspector sounded good to me! My dad had given me the best advice that I had ever gotten. The wearing of a suit got me a gravy job that got me noticed. Because of this I was promoted to supervisor at the tender age of twenty one.

Back in 1964 our huge plant employed several thousand people and built pick up trucks, medium duty trucks, heavy duty trucks, Steel Tilt trucks, school buses, Pie wagons ( UPS trucks), military buses, intercity buses and vans. There was at least one half of a square mile under roof. I went by the old plant several months ago just for a nostalgia trip and found everything gone. There were some concrete slabs here and there and weeds trying to get a foot hold. I was shocked! Someone destroyed a major part of my history! I had felt the same way when I went through the old neighborhood where I grew up and found that my grade school had been replaced by condos!

Back in the sixties the heavy repair, ( engine and transmission changes) on the big trucks were performed out doors both in winter and summer with just a roof over the mechanics head. This was Michigan! Extra warm clothes were provided for these mechanics but it is very difficult to handle nuts and bolts while wearing gloves. It was early in the seventies before a new building was finally constructed and these mechanics were moved into a heated building. Believe it or not some of these mechanics didn’t like being inside.

This plant also built school bus chassis. The chassis and everything forward of the driver was complete when it left the factory. The front fenders, hood and cowl were all painted yellow and then the assembly was driven to a plant in Ohio which built and installed the body. This plant was probably eighty or ninety miles away. There was no windshield and the driver sat on a fiberglass seat and drove it down there winter or summer. There were no seat belts. The factory provided these drivers with all the warm clothes and face protection that they needed to stay warm and safe. Still it must have been a hell of an ordeal. Eventually they began to truck these chassis down to Ohio.

Some old buildings were torn down a couple of years before I retired. Some interesting items were found inside. One of those items was the tooling that was used to form the wooden spokes for the original trucks.

I hired in with the idea that I would only be there a few months. Surely opportunity would find me and knock on my door. Some how this never happened and I stayed there for twenty eight years working as a production supervisor for most of those years. I did spend the last couple of years as a quality control supervisor. I was responsible for all of the inspectors in the entire Blazer plant during the last year. My regular work week was five twelve hour days, ten hours on Saturday and eight hours on Sunday. An opportunity for an early retirement came with the announcement that the plant would be closing. I grabbed that opportunity and got out early with a good retirement.

I still think often about my years at GM, and about the various people that I worked with as well as the employees that worked for me. Sometimes I will dream that I am running some department and a situation arises. Most of these dreams are pleasant but now and then there will be a bad dream. I guess that what I did for all those years is just a part of who I am and will always be so.

I did contract work as a production supervisor at various GM plants around the country for about eight years after I retired. The pay and benefits were wonderful but eventually the stress of the job and the loneliness that was caused by my wife being home in Virginia and me being in some apartment in Dayton, Ohio, St. Louis, or Kansas City, Missouri and I finally retired for good.