Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / July 1, 1970, edition 1 / Page 1
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Tire$tone JULY . 1970 GASTONIA NORTH CAROLINA AT BENNETTSVILLE High Safety Achievement Firestone’s Bennettsville textile plant continues to ex tend its outstanding record of safe on-the-job operation. It is in the seventh month of operating toward its second million manhours without a disabling injury. For its first million manhours of injury-free operation in recent years, the South Carolina plant of Firestone Textiles Com pany has received two major awards: The National Safety Council's Award of Merit and the Certifi cate of Safety Achievement from the State of South Carolina De- parlment of Labor. The Award of Merit, second highest recognition which the National Safety Council makes for industrial and institutional safe ty, is the second one which the Bennettsville plant has received (the first was in 1956). For what achievement was the most recent NSC Award of Merit presented? In recognition of the plant’s operation for 1,038,- 205 manhours without a disabling injury, over the period of Feb. 9, 1966 through Dec. 31, 1969. Historic Day Recalled At SG Plant m ±'-.y mx '“io°AT National Spelling Bee A Good Place To Play Firestone Playground, along with 16 others in the Gastonia City Recreation Department system, went in to “full business” in June. The season will continue to ward mid-August. Playgrounds have leaders who completed a 10 hour Red Cross first-aid course as the season opened. Eesides the usual recreational pursuits which the playgrounds offer, this season’s program has a wide assortment of activities • That's Keybow Sanders un der the Huck Finn hat—enjoy ing shade of the Big Oak at Firestone Playground. He was watching other youngsters take a quick-cool dip in the wading pool. and special events on schedule. These include crafts instruction, tournaments in marbles, horse shoes, and other competition. Other events in special weeks will run to Aug. 14, when Back to School Week will be observed With a farewell party. At sea son’s end, a “best all around” girl and boy will be selected at each playground. Travel Trails • LONG-RANGE VACATION TRAVEL? Out in the Missouri Ozarks it’s another season of the live re-enactment of Harold Bell Wright’s immortal story, “The Shepherd of the Hills.” See “People Going Places,” page 4, for notes on this and other va cation “treats.” At 1970 NC Safety Meeting Fred Hardee, general foreman in weaving-TC, was one of eight men from industry who took part in a safety-speechmaking competition at the 1970 North Carolina Safety Conference in late May at Winston-Salem. First-place winner was Sam uel Williams, a supervisor with a Kannapolis textile firm. Participants represented the eight across - the - State safety councils operated under spon sorship of the NC Industrial Commission. Hardee represent ed the Blue Ridge Safety Coun cil which is comprised of Gas ton, Cleveland, Rutherford, Burke, Polk, McDowell and Lin coln counties of the Western Piedmont and Foothills region. The Firestone supervisor won a place in the Winston-Salem speechmaking on industrial safety by taking first honors and a prize of $75 in the Blue Ridge regional contest this spring. Besides Hardee, Firestone people attending the State Safe ty Conference were James B. Call, president of Firestone Tex tiles Company; and plant man agement staff members H. G. Hall, Terry Kirby, Ray Thomas, Raymond Mack and Carl Rape; also Mrs. Hardee and Mrs. Rape. ☆ ☆ ☆ • A recent survey of the tire industry shows that there are more different rayon-cord pass enger car tires on the market today than ever before. These include all types; Conventional 2 and 4-ply/bias tires, the new belted-bias variety, and radial- ply tires, for both automobile original equipment and the re placement market. In its June 12 issue, the Ben nettsville (S.C.) Marlboro Her- ald-Advocate recalled a page of Firestone history. This from the column “Backward Glances’' (from the files 25 years ago); “In a very imposing ceremony at the Firestone Textile plant on Tuesday, the joint Army- Robinette Caldwell, Gaston County’s spelling whiz, finished in the top 10 in the 43rd National Spelling Bee at Washington, D. C., in June. Robinette “acquitted herself well”, in fact, turned in the best performance ever by a Gaston County contestant. The word she drew in the 13th round she’d never heard of: “kulak”. She tried with “ku- lack.” But she’d remained in the tough competition, outlasting 63 of the other 74 young spellers from across the nation and as far away as Okinawa. Another Has Second ABWA Award Nancy Moore received one of the two scholarship awards pre sented this year by the Gas tonia chapter, American Busi ness Women’s Association. It was the second consecutive year that Nancy had received the ABWA award. Nancy, who was a Firestone summer employee last year, is this year attending summer school at University of North Carolina—Greensboro. She will begin her junior year there this fall. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Moore of Gastonia, her father works in the Firestone shop. Navy “E” Award was presented to the employees by Lt. Col. Alexander R. Davis of the office of Chief of Ordnance. “The program commenced ex actly at 2 p.m., when a squad ron of planes from the Maxton Base zoomed at tree-top level over the plant.” North Carolina girl, Libby Childress of Mt. Airy was de clared winner. The young spellers represent ed the best of 7.5 million school children involved in the nation al competition. Robinette, who will be a ninth-grader at Gastonia's Myrtle School this fall, earned a $75 prize for her good spelling in Washington. She had won the opportunity to compete in the finals by taking the Charlotte regional contest in April. WHEN she won the regional title this year, it was the third time she had gone to Charlotte as Gaston County Champion. That first time she was the youngest ever to make the re gional finals in the fourth grade. She missed out the next two years but came back to win a second time last year. Her win this year was her “last chance” of eligibility. Robinette’s participation and expenses-paid trip to Washing ton were sponsored by The Charlotte Observer. Besides her $75 prize in the national com petition, in regional honors she had won a 24-volume set of En cyclopaedia Britannica, a Brit- tanica Book of the Year, and a pen and pencil set. Also, her school will receive a Britannica film each month during the up coming school year. With Robinette in Washington for the spelling bee were her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Holli- field (Mrs. HoUifield works in • Robinette and (what else?) a dictionary. One of her most helpful word-study sources has been PRACTICAL ENGLISH & THE COMMAND OF WORDS, a gift of her aunt, Jean Brock, a Firestone secretary. splicing at Firestone, Gastonia); and Robinette’s aunt, Mrs. C. L. Brock, secretary in the office of F. B. Galligan, division general factory manager of Firestone Textiles Company. Latex Terminal At Savannah The textile industry is bene fiting from a modern, new latex terminal operated by the Fire stone Natural Rubber & Latex Company. It was opened recent ly in Savannah, Ga., as 1,245 tons of latex from Firestone's Liberian plantations were dis charged into the storage facility. The terminal, leased from the Georgia Ports Authority and op erated by Firestone, has a ca pacity of 440,000 gallons, or 3,500,000 pounds of liquid latex. A. G. Lund, president of Fire stone’s Natural Rubber division, said: “Demand for natural rubber latex is increasing in general manufacturing, and in the car pet and textile industries in par ticular. Sales in the U.S. have increased nearly 40 per cent over the past five years, and this new terminal will enable the company to provide better distribution facilities and serv ice to our carpet and textile customers in the Southeast.” Latex from Firestone’s rubber plantations in Liberia comes in to the new terminal for re shipment to customers. SOUL FOOD, ANYONE? See 'Dispatch From Chinquapin Cove' on Page 3 •
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
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July 1, 1970, edition 1
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