FEBRUARY, 1956
Tir^$1on^ SfSWi
PAGE 3
How Group Insurance Plan Helps Employees
★ ★ ★
Soft green walls of a private
room with TV, pleasant, effi
cient “women in white” and
competent professional services
all combined to make Ernest
Jolly’s stay in Gaston Memorial
Hospital as comfortable and re
laxing as possible under the cir
cumstances. But Mr. Jolly also
gives much of the credit to his
Employees’ Group Insurance
Plan. It put his mind at ease
while he was in the hospital.
Mr. Jolly and his case is
an example of Firestone em
ployees who are covered by the
Employees’ Group Insurance
Program. The plan includes life
insurance, which will be paid in
event of an employee’s death
from any cause at any time; ac
cidental death and dismember
ment insurance, hospital ex
penses, hospital medical ex
penses, surgical benefits and
accident and sickness benefits.
Jolly works in Rayon Weav
ing, and it was there that this
story begins. For while he was
at work on December 27 he no
ticed some pain in the stomach,
which grew more intense after
he had gone home to 408 South
Columbia Street from third
shift. He was baby-sitting at the
time and Mrs. Jolly was in
town shopping. However, he ar
ranged for neighbors to take
care of the children and was
taken to Gaston Memorial Hos
pital, where his case was diag
nosed by his physician as acute
appendicitis, and that meant
medication and surgery immedi
ately.
WHAT HAPPENED then
made the patient glad he
worked at Firestone.
“It certainly was a comforting
feeling to know I had my in
surance for just such an emer
gency as this,” Jolly said. It was
the first time he had made use
of his insurance for himself
since coming to work here al
most 10 years ago.
Mr. Jolly will, of course, be
absent from work for several
weeks due to his having under
gone surgery. In talking about
this, he implied that the weekly
benefits which he will receive
under Firestone’s Accident and
Sickness Plan will certainly be
helpful. (Any insured employee
unable to work because of an
accident or sickness not covered
by the Workmen’s Compensa
tion Act receives these weekly
benefits. These benefits start
the first day of disability due to
an accident or the eighth day of
disability due to sickness.)
Under the present plan there
are no deductions made from
the employee’s pay for his in
surance coverage.
But there is more — much
more — to the insurance pro
gram. The Firestone Employee’s
Insurance program includes life
insurance and an additional
amount of accidental death and
dismemberment insurance. These
> ♦ ♦
NURSE RUBY KAYLOR help
ed to make Ernest Jolly's stay
in the hospital as pleasant as
possible under the circumstanc
es. She is the daughter of H. T.
Aldridge, overseer in Twisting.
4- ♦ ♦
amounts are related to each em
ployee’s basic wage rate.
THE HOSPITALIZATION
benefits include room and board
charges up to a maximimi of
$10.00 per day and a total of
$700 for any one confinement.
When there is a hospital charge
for room and board, the amount
If you send someone a Valen
tine greeting for this February
14, you’re helping to keep alive
a custom that had its origin some
700 years ago. Today’s custom
of sending Valentines stems from
a spiritual affection for a young
girl who had befriended Val
entinus, while the saint-to-be
was awaiting execution for re
fusing to renounce his Christian
faith.
It was in Rome around the
year 270 A.D., and the girl was
the daughter of the jailor who
had Valentinus in charge. She
brought him food and tried to
make him comfortable. Although
blind, the child delivered mes
sages for him who later became
St. Valentine. One day he wrote
her a note, thanking her. “From
your Valentinus,” he signed it.
THE POPULAR love angle
associated with Valentine ob
servance didn’t come about until
some time during the Middle
Ages. Hot-blooded youths and
lovelorn maidens wrote senti
mental notes to each other and
hid them in hollow trees and
other places dear to the romantic
mood.
The first Valentine, and fore
runner of our greeting today,
was designed and sent by the
Duke of Orleans. It was dis
patched to a girl friend while the
Duke was held a prisoner of the
British, at a time when he was
on the losing side of the Battle
of Agincourt and likely feeling
very sorry for himself.
LONG, LONG AGO. the com
mercial value of the valentine
was recognized. By mid - Fif
teenth Century, John Lydgate,
an Englishman had put a set of
“standard love rymos” on the
market for unimaginative suitors
to transcribe into the letters
they wrote their bsloved maid
ens. Henry V—whose actions ap
parently outstripped his vocabu
lary — was one of Lydgate’s
customers.
Oliver Cromwell, stern dic
tator of England, outlawed the
sending of valentines, but the
custom was re-established when
Charles II took the reign from
Cromwell and restored the
throne to royal hands. Under
Charles II the valentine business
boomed. Expensive gifts took the
place of decorated paper and
sentimental verse.
By the late 1600s, the valen
tine publishing was a big busi
ness. Years of sugary sentiment
gave way to the practice of
sending comic, or “Vinegar” val
entines. Today the comic greet
ing on February 14 appears to be
a permanent part of an age-old
custom.
Jerry Bryson
Has Scholarship
Jerry Bryson, second-year stu
dent at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, has re
ceived a full baseball scholar
ship, and will go to Florida in
March to begin spring training.
Jerry spent the recent holidays
with his mother, Mrs. Maud
Bryson, Spinning.
mt
ill
Hi
ir
m:-
Golden Gophers Of Minnesota
Tour Of Plant
★ ★ ★
MINNESOTA'S GOLDEN GOPHERS—Coach
*2ie Cowles (second row center) stopped off
his Big Ten Golden Gophers basketball
for a recent visit at the plant here. In the
front row, from left: Jerry Kindall. Bill
^**nonovich, Myron Finn, David Tucker, Jerome
j^^inmeyer, George Kline. Second row: David
°aclc (team captain). Maurice DeMarais, George
^®Wson, Coach Cowles, Robert Grig gas. Bob
(manager), Wayne Fix. Back row: Basil
Q ^*®ner. Bob Purkey, Gerald Lindsley. Dan
^^nter and Ralph Johnson. Whitener and Gunter
p>. hosts of the team on their Gastonia visit.
^tke
^®nt,
*^Ul.
y and Johnson, of the Recreation Depart-
accompanied the visitors on a tour of the
^RCUS DOBBINS, Rayon Weaving, explains
hg °P®^alion of a loom to Ozzie Cowles, right,
X*. J^asketball coach of the University of
^iiinesota.
charged will be paid up to a
maximum of $100 for other serv
ices including: hospital medical
services, anaesthesia adminis
tered by a doctor or under his
supervision, and ambulance
services. X-rays for diagnosti-
cal purposes, when authorized
by a doctor licensed to practice
medicine, will be paid for with
out requiring hospital confine
ment. Amounts paid for such
X-rays arising out of the same
condition will be limited to a
maximum of $50 and will be
deducted from the $100 allowed
for “Other Services” in event
the employee is later confined
to a hospital due to the same
condition.
THE SURGICAL benefits will
pay the fee charged by the doc
tor for an operation up to the
amount allowed in the schedule
of surgical benefits. The maxi
mum payment for all operations
during any one period of dis
ability may not be more than
$200, unless the operations are
due to different causes, or are
separated by complete recovery.
The surgical insurance also
provides limited coverage for
maternity cases and for the
treatment of fractures.
A second article on the Fire
stone Insurance Plan will ex
plain the benefits for depend
ents of employees.
Valentine Custom Originated
In The Early Christian Era