Tlre$fOM«
GASTONIA • AUGUST
A 1966
Textile Show in October
The Southern “Big Show” of the textile industry is com
ing—and when it does, people who attend will not only see
the largest one ever, but will view it in the most-advanced
layout. And the noise of clicking looms, other latest machines
and equipment, and the din of the big gathering will be con
siderably muffled.
Production of many sur
viving forms of native
American handicrafts is cen
tered in the Southern High
lands from upper Georgia
northward along the Appa
lachian ranges.
Booking around
CAMP FIRESTONE
Two Quiltmakers
the Blue Ridge
.Handicrafts are an inseparable part of the mountain em-
Pire in every direction from Camp Firestone on Lake James,
their display in area shops, centers, fairs, festivals and
^^adside markets is a familiar scene especially in summer
Months.
This Firestone News photo of a quiltmaker and her grand
daughter was made a few miles from Linville Falls in the
Ridge country.
„ Camp Firestone at Bridgewater offers variety recreation
employee families into autumn. A stay at Camp Fire-
. one is arranged through application in person at the indus-
relations office.
It’s the 24th Southern Textile
Exposition at Textile Hall in
Greenville, S C., Oct. 17-21, with
some 600 manufacturers and out
fitters showing the latest in tex
tile machinery, equipment and
supplies. In use for the first time
at the October exhibition will
bo:
• East Hall display-area
addition, acoustically treated —
STREET STAGE
• Small girl on way from
Firestone playground wading
pool, pausing now and then to
trickle water on her hot bare
feet — the dispenser a soft-
drink bottle.
Message on downlown Gas
ton County Heart Association
billboard: TASTE MAKES
WAIST — PRACTICE GIRTH
CONTROL AND LIVE LONG
ER.
• Bumper banner on truck in
Firestone parking lot: I HELP
STAMP OUT POVERTY — I
WORK!
60,000 square feet, where all dem
onstration looms will be con
centrated. Looms, separated by
a sound-barrier wall from the
remaining 40,000 sq. ft. of East
Hall, will run 40 minutes during
each exhibit hour.
• New East Hall lobby front
ing on Watson Road and afford
ing the same registration facili
ties as the West Hall lobby. A
ramp from entrance to lobby
floor passes by a glass wall
overlooking exhibit floor, the
wall also serving to dampen
loom noise in the lobby.
• Seven-acre parking lot,
bringing total capacity to 2,500
cars on 25 acres of the 37-acre
Textile Hall site.
• New restrooms, some new
exhibit area and a new service-
center space in an extension of
Center Paza, which links East
and West halls.
• New restrooms and a new
first-aid area at rear of West
Hall, and a new lounge near
West Hall lobby.
more on B
UF Drive
For 28
Agencies
While most people are
vacationing or are otherwise
having fun in the late-sum-
mer sun, services of the Unit
ed Fund are hard at work,
making the community a
better place for everyone.
For example, one agency,
The Salvation Army. It al
ready has plans made so
would-be “forgotten ones”
will be remembered at the
upcoming Christmas season.
And with the 27 other agen
cies in the Gastonia United
Fund, work also goes on, at
tending to people’s needs. It’s
all made possible by those
whose concern leads to “one
gift one time” each year, to
“work many miracles” through
“fair-share” contributions.
The United Fund this year
aims at collecting $288,859. For
the 14th year, Firestone people
will have opportunity to share
in reaching the goal. It is the
plant’s only financial solicita
tion during the year.
Campaign beginning date is
Oct. 10. United Fund president
is F. B. Galligan, Firestone pro
duction manager. Campaign
chairman is Carl J. Stewart Jr.,
whose parents work here.
Among other Firestone people
in key leadership jobs is in
dustrial relations manager Alvin
Riley, chairman of publicity-
promotion.
f^armer Family Came Home to Shop & Visit
When Mr. and Mrs. Bernie Farmer and young son and
^^ghter returned to Argentina in late July from a two-
JJ^fith visit to the States, winter was almost over down
^ere. They had left South America in early June — a cold
j^Ohth — to come to North Carolina on Firestone business;
to
g purchase a three-year supply of clothing, and to get in
visiting and vacationing.
came by air non-stop to
York, then to Mrs. Farm-
hometown of Raleigh, and
to Bernie’s hometown, Wil-
After they had visited
and had spent a few days
^ -Atlantic Beach, the Farmers
g ®^t touring the stores in Wil-
! Raleigh, Durham and Gas-
u gathering clothing to take
^ to Buenos Aires.
did the buying “back
because of better quality,
attractive prices and wider
^^®ction.
otk
winter items,”
noted, “the store people
yery helpful with our prob-
Sli^CE
our buying involved
th
th;
the
fit
^ot only did we have to
^ff-season articles but for
children, had to get sizes
^ill fit their growing for
^ext three years.”
Mike is now 6, and back in
school where classes are in both
English and Spanish. Mandy, 4,
with a year at a British kinder
garten, has begun first grade.
BERNIE
FARMER
Plant
Manager,
Firestone
Textiles,
Argentina
The Farmers went from Gas
tonia to BA in 1964. Bernie and
Rita had intensive Spanish in
struction for over a year and
have since practiced the lessons
£
®Hey and Bonds
Suggestions
Francum, shop, boosted
,^^^nces $75 in U.S. Savings
hej. plus cash payments for
approved ideas in the
^ ^Pprovea laeas in xne
DfQ June suggestion program,
t>y “mystery days”—
each of the four months.
Drawings from numbers on ap
proved suggestions submitted on
the four mystery dates deter
mined winners.
Mrs. Francum won the $25
Bond for March; and Dealva
Jacobs ,of weaving (cotton) was
winner for April. Because there
was no winner for May, the pre
mium advanced to a $50 Bond
which Mrs. Francum won in the
June drawing.
in daily routine. Radio and TV
programs are mostly in Spanish
and just about all the talking on
Bernie’s job is in Spanish.
“I’ve learned to draw a lot of
pictures to help out my expres
sion, he said of his job as mana
ger of the company’s textile
plant in BA.
The Farmers live on the edge
of the city some 35 miles from
the Firestone plant. It takes
Bernie 90 minutes to drive to
work and that much or more to
get back home.
THEY reported that Argentina
is a land of “many shades be
tween wide extremes.” Cost of
living is much higher than in
the States, with both necessities
and “otherwise” items often in
short supply.
For example, they buy a bottle
of household cleaner or a bleach,
pay a deposit on the container
and return it for a refill. Ham
sometimes goes to $6 a pound,
more on B
Southern Textiles
Were First in NC
North Carolina claims the
very beginning of textile manu
facturing in the South. Between
1810 and 1820, Michael Schenck
erected a water-powered mill
near Lincolnton, and Joel Battle
started one at Rocky Mount. The
Lincolnton mill was destroyed
during the Civil War, but the
Rocky Mount mill continued in
to the present century.
«imi
Frank Gurley retired from
Firestone after 24 years, most
of them spent as third-shift pro
duction foreman. At his July
“check-out” luncheon he told
people that he wasn’t quitting
“a life of competition to begin
an existence of repetition.” He
drew the expression from a
humorous poem which produc
tion manager F. B. Galligan
read at the luncheon.
Mr. Gurley said he’d work as
manager of a Charlotte motel,
commuting from his Gastonia
home.
At the luncheon an associate
described him as dedicated to
his Firestone job down the
years, to which Mr. Gurley toss
ed back a good word of his own:
“When each of you comes to
retirement, I hope you can touch
the floor without bending your
knees.”
He received from friends a
gift certificate and a treasured
memento — his own nameplate
from the plant parking lot.
A Georgia native, Gurley had
Frank
Gurley
(1 ef t) re
ceived sou-
V e n i r
nameplate
from plant
engineer J.
G. Tino Jr,
A
New
Job
three major jobs in textile man
ufacturing before beginning his
long association with Firestone.
A 6,000 iiiil' Trip
It’s routine in summer vaca
tiontime for Firestone people to
travel from the world of the
backyard to all the way across
the continent, with places in be
tween. An example of the longer
trip is the more than 6,000 miles
covered by car for Mr. and Mrs.
Vernon Lovingood and Mr. and
Mrs. Tom Dodgins of Gastonia.
Mr. Lovingood is manager of
carding-spinning. Mrs. Dodgins
works in twisting (syn). The
Lovingoods planned to visit a
daughter in Los Angeles, so the
party set out, with highlight
stops at New Orleans, Carlsbad,
N. Mex., a side tour into Juarez,
Mexico, then up and across Ari
zona and Nevada to LA.
The Grand Canyon was among
the sights on the mid-continent
route back home.