t>A6E i
]f3SWl
SEPTEMBER. 1958
WAS BIKE-RIDING MAILMAN
Another 20-year service anniversary was marked, when Ruth
L. Helms received her watch and service pin from General Man
ager Harold Mercer in August. Nelson Kessell, plant superintendent,
is at right.
20-Year Pin To Ruth Helms;
Others Mark Anniversaries
The 281st person here to mark the 20-year anniversary of
employment is Ruth L. Helms of Spinning. She completed
the two decades of service in mid-August.
During the same month there were 38 in the plant and
general offices who earned records for 15, 10, or 5 years.
The company has acknowledged these attainments with the
usual commemorative lapel pins.
The list includes;
Fifteen Years
Carding; Grady C. McDonald;
Rayon Twisting; Florence W.
Stiles, Edith J. Robinson; Cotton
Weaving: Robert Nichols, Jr.,
Claude R. Rogers; Shop: J. L.
Patterson.
Ten Years
Spooling: Leona C. Lattimore,
Helen G. Reel; Rayon Twisting:
R. F. Whitworth, Junior W.
Jones, Beatrice S. Player; Cot
ton Weaving: Beatrice L. Carver,
Myriel M. Horton, Margaret L.
Parrish; Shop: Clinton McLey-
more.
Five Years
Carding: William J. Byrd, Paul
C. Towery; Shop: Charlie Rob
inson, Paul A. Johnson, Grafton
W. Carpenter, Jack John Moore;
Spooling: Donnie R. Medlin,
Janice B. Tino.
Cotton Weaving: Margaret S.
Hamrick, Edward L. Tarte, Jr.;
Rayon Weaving: Leonard R. In
gram; Rayon Twisting: Fred C.
Bruce, Hoyt A. Smith, Percy W.
Collins, Paul M. Clark, M. Irene
Store Discounts
—From Page 1
DISCOUNT rates on merchan
dise may lead to misunderstand
ing, too. The discount you get
depends on the goods purchased.
For example, you buy an item
and get the employees’ rate of
15 per cent off list price. On an
other item it might be 20 per
cent. Another illustration: When
you buy brake lining, you can
save as much as 40 per cent
through the discount. A tire re
tread carries as much as 33 Vs
per cent discount to employees.
Williams; Rayon Twisting: Will
iam Dixon, James A. Hamilton.
Warehouse: Cleveland Mills;
Winding: Louise S. Duncan,
Julia R. Buchanan; Main Office:
Frank B. Harrison, Betty C. Hol
brook Stroupe.
Dixie Calls Britt Neely Home Every Summer
TO GERMANY
Mr. and Mrs. Horace L. Capps
will be together in Germany
while he serves in the US Army
there. They were married in
South Carolina August 12. She
is the daughter of OUie Lyles
of cord Weaving, and Mrs.
Lyles of SYC Weaving. Mr.
Capps is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
R. B. Capps of Bessemer City.
Mrs. Capps will leave for Ger
many in mid-September to join
her husband who left for his
new assignment September 2.
Every year along about August, a wave of
homesickness invades his soul. Again this year,
Asbury (Britt) Neely couldn’t fight it down. For
there was the call of red Piedmont clay, cotton
fields, the glowing plumes of goldenrod—and
the thousands of other things that beckon abody
homeward to summertime in Dixie.
There were the relatives and neighbors he had
known all the years while living in Gastonia . . .
and the friends around Firestone, where he work
ed more than 20 years. Too, he wanted to see how
the last-summer paint was wearing on the house
he rents at 1024 West Seventh avenue.
So Britt climbed aboard the train in Detroit and
came down for a visit which stretched into a spell
of four weeks. Since his retirement here in late
1956, he has been living with a son, Arthur
Neely, “up North”.
Back in 1921 he came to work at what is now
the Firestone plant. First he was a member of the
sanitation crew. For a while he worked at a
variety of errands out of the Mechanical Depart
ment. He put in some time with the refreshment
service before he took a mail-carrying job which
lasted from 1935 until his retirement.
FOLKS hereabouts remember Britt Neely best
as a vital link in the communications system be
tween the plant and the outside. For ten years he
was a familiar figure pedaling along on his
bicycle three or four times a working day, be
tween the downtown postoffice and Main Office
at Firestone. He would distribute the mail among
departments, pick up outgoing pieces and dis
patch them to the postoffice. Then, there were
in-plant correspondence and parcels which he
carried from office-to-office.
After ten years of foot-propelled transporta
tion, Britt’s job moved a step nearer the Auto
matic Age when the company bought a motor
bike for his use.
“I’d never operated one before,” he confessed,
“but after someone showed me how, I took a trial
run. When I gave her the gas, she mighty nigh
took out from under me.”
BUT AS the vehicle labored under its more
than three years of trips to the postoffice, the
engine grew weary and there developed me
chanical trouble.
“Sometimes she wouldn’t run for any amount
of coaxing,” he recalled. “Many’s the time I had
to call the Shop and have someone come in the
pickup truck and haul me and the bike—mail
and all—back to the plant.” By the time a new
motorbike was purchased, Britt was almost due
to retire.
His fondest memory is his attendance at the
plant’s 20th Anniversary program here in May of
1955. At that time he was among those honored
for 20 years of service at Firestone. Now some
what “slowed down” from his customary active
life, Britt confines his travels to the annual
journey South each summer.
☆
☆
☆
Frank Montgomery, left, and Britt Neely; Two
old neighbors are Firestone retirees. Mr. Neely
spent 15 years as a bicycle-riding mailman at the
plant. He told the plant photographer, "Remind
the folks that the wheel in this picture is for
effect only—I no longer 'feel up to' pedaling my
way through life." Neighbor Montgomery retired
from the Shop a year ago.
»
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/ 4-
Most Blindness
Is Preventable
“Half of all blindness is need
less and preventable” is the
theme of the Sight-Saving Month
public information program for
1958.
“Although essentially a mes
sage of hope, the theme contains
a disquieting, tragic thought,”
says the National Society for the
Prevention of Blindness, spon
sors of Sight-Saving month each
September. The Society adds
that early diagnosis, prompt pro
fessional treatment, and ade
quate eye-safety precautions
could have saved the sight of
literally thousands of Americans
last year.
Unconcern and widespread
lack of understanding are prime
factors in needless loss of sight.
Most people do not know the
basic facts of eye care: are un
aware of the symptoms that
herald the onset of sight-stealing
diseases such as glaucoma; don’t
know that improved medical and
surgical techniques offer new
hope for combatting certain eye
conditions. Many are either un
aware of, or choose to ignore,
the proved effectiveness of safe
ty eyewear in preventing eye in
juries that result from accidents
at home, work and play. These
injuries occur at the estimated
rate of 1,000 per day across the
United States.
Although the National Society
for the Prevention of Blindness
carries on its work on a year-
round basis, it makes a concen
trated effort each September to
lead the general public to eye-
care consciousness. Through ma
jor publicity channels, the
Society seeks to arm people with
information which, if applied,
could help to prevent needless
loss of sight.
Add Something For The Risk You Run
It is unwise to pay too much. It is also unwise to pay
too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money—
that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose
everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of
doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying
a little and getting a lot... It can’t be done. If you deal with
the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk
you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay
for something better . . .
—John Ruskin
Volume VII, No. 10, September, 1958
Published by The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Firestone Textiles Division,
Gastonia, North Carolina. Department of Industrial Relations
DEPARTMENT REPORTERS
CARDING—Edna Harris, Jessie Ammons.
SPINNING—Lillie Brown, Mary Turner,
Maude Peeler.
SPOOLING—Nell Bolick, Ophelia Wallace,
Rosalie Burger.
TWISTING—Elease Cole, Vera Carswell,
Katie Elkins, Annie Cosey, Catherine
Fletcher.
SALES YARN TWISTING—Elmina Brad
shaw.
SYC WEAVING—Maxie Carey, Ruth
Veitch.
CORD WEAVING — Irene Odell, Mary
Johnson, Samuel Hill.
QUALITY CONTROL — Sally Crawford,
Leila Rape, and Louella Queen.
WINDING—Mayzelle Lewis, Ruth Clon-
inger.
CLOTH ROOM—Margie Waldrep, Mildred
McLeymore
SHOP—Rosie Francum.
PLASTIC DIP—Jennie Bradley.
MAIN OFFICE—Doris McCready. ^
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS—Flora Pence.
WAREHOUSE—George Harper, Albert
Meeks, Rosevelt Rainey, Marjorie Falls.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles Clark, Photographer