APRIL
1978
• Closeup of a “rick” of
wooden shell rolls at Fire
stone Gastonia Warehouse.
Metal-ferrule ends allow
rolls to “work right” on take-
up and let-off stand; protect
from splintering and wear.
Main use of wooden rolls is
for transferring fabric from
looms to treating unit. Out of
treating, fabric is wound on
to steel shells for shipping to
tire plants.
Firestone
Textiles Company
Gastonia, North Carolina
Bennettsville Bowling Green
South Carolina Kentucky
Help For Older Adults Through GCO/A
There is a growing awareness of the challenges and op
portunities facing our senior citizens today. Elaine M. Hand
ley, director of Gaston County Office on Aging, says the
service seeks to assist Gaston County’s older adults, so they
may live as independently as possible while maintaining a
higher standard of living in their own homes.
“To reach as many of those information through as many
who may benefit from Office on sources as we can,” says Ms.
Aging services, we are sharing Handley. She points out:
Clocks
Go ‘Fast’
This
Month
Clocks go forward 1 hour to
Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m.,
Sunday, April 30. For those who
won’t be awake at that time, set
clocks and watches up before
going to bed Saturday night.
Daylight Time is a provision
of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
“Fast” Time “runs” to the last
Sunday in October. Although
it’s called Uniform Time Act, all
of the U. S. is not uniform about
“keeping” it. The few exceptions
are some U. S. territories, a state
or so, and several counties that
have by local law, exempted
themselves from Daylight Time.
AT THREE PLANTS: APRIL-JUIY
Safety Promotion y
• A division-wide promotion to emphasize the safety pro
gram and identify Firestone with our employees and the
community, will continue through July at Gastonia, Ben-
nettsville and Bowling Green. Main features of the program
which began April 10:
• A Safety Slogan contest, • The Firestone T-Shirts pre-
April 10-May 5. Prizes are a $25 sented to all employees who
U.S. Savings Bond and a Fire- submit a suggestion or sugges-
stone-design T-Shirt. tions on safety subjects between
TEXTILES
Carol Gun
ter shows
front of shirt.
This sample is
too big for
her, but shirts
are soon to be
avzdlable in
all sizes. Carol
is a respooler
operator in
TC Twisting.
Other photo is
back of shirt.
Plant Safety
engineer E.W.
Passmore who
designed the
shirt, says it
may be avail
able later in
red on while
(initial) order
placed for
white on red).
SAFETY ^
starts with
ME
THE OFFICE on Aging is a
clearinghouse of information for
and about older adults. Too, the
Office provides help in planning
and coordinating programs for
older adults. A number of direct
services are provided to people
60 years and older. These in
clude information and referral,
outreach, counseling, senior citi
zens discounts, in-home services,
volunteer opportunities. Congre
gate Meals, Meals on Wheels,
transportation, and Senior Com
munity Service Programs.
The Office publishes a news
letter, COMING OF AGE, re
ceived by some 3,000 older ad
ults by direct mail. The news
letter is also distributed to local
more on page 4
$25 Million
Last
Year
Operations of Firestone Textiles Company
added $25 million to the economy of its 3 U.S.
plant communities in 1977. Division president
James B. Call points to these figures for last
year;
• GASTONIA—More than $14.6 million
paid. Of this, about $12.6 to 1,170 employees’
wages and salaries, and nearly $2 million more
for local goods and services.
• BOWLING GREEN—More than $8.6 mil
lion total. About $7.7 paid to 700 employees, and
approximately $900,000 for local goods and ser
vices.
• BENNETTSVILLE—More than $1.8 mil
lion paid out. Wages and salaries paid to about
130 workers amounted to more than $1.2 mil
lion, while the company spent about $600,000
on local goods and services.
June 1 and July 31. One shirt
per employee regardless of num
ber of ideas submitted.
Beginning Aug. 1, the
shirts will be stocked in Sup
ply at all 3 plants, for sale
to employees at cost (about
$2.45). The shirt, designed by
Gastonia plant safety engi
neer E. W. Passmore, is pro
duced by a Gastonia-owned
company. They are supplied
in all sizes—small, medium,
and extra large.
To select the winning
safety slogan at the 3 plants,
a special contest committee
has been established. At each
place, the committee is made
up of the safety engineer and
1 other salaried employee
and 1 hourly-paid employee
representative from each de
partment.
Back in January, a
dark blue and white
breasted carrier pigeon
appeared at the Gas
tonia plant pipe shop,
in and out and stay
ing about 4 weeks.
Early in its sojourn,
it flew into a fork-
truck and injured a
wing. Employees in the pipe shop helped it along to recovery.
At month’s end, an insurance adjustor was leaving the plant for
Boone, about 85 miles away. Horace Hughes, lead pipefitter, sug
gested that he take the pigeon along and set it free up there, “to
see if it’d make its way back.”
Traveler and pigeon got stalled in the snow at Lenoir, 60 miles
up the road. The bird went free, and by next day Hughes saw it
perched on the pipe rack behind the mill. It moved into the main
tenance shop for a few more days. Then it flew away and didn’t
return.
Scholarship
Winners
In May
Announcement of winners
in the 1978 Firestone College
Scholarship Program is ex
pected around May 15—a
month later than the an
nouncement for the past sev
eral years.
Closing date for high-school seniors’ scholarship
applications this year was moved from March 1 to
April 1, to give more time for students to complete
test scores. More time was needed because unusually
severe weather in several sections of the country
caused cancellation of some SAT test dates. These
tests were rescheduled during March.