Samuel E. Crawford • Gastonia O T»f
Industrial Relations Manager X OU X IJXX L
of long-range plan
• By the time we enter the work force, we to some de
gree begin thinking of the day we will retire. Not only
should we be thinking about this subject, we should also
be making plans so our ‘harvest’ years can be enjoyed.
On the day we came to work at Firestone, the company
initiated certain plans having to do with the time you will
end your active employment. Your retirement date was
figured. So, it became most important.
Funds were set aside to your account. You were notified
every time a change in the retirement plan occurred, even
though your retirement was out in the future.
AS YOU get closer to your retirement date, provisions
must be made to train your replacement, thus you become
part of a long-range forecast several—maybe many—^years
before you go. Many other details are accumulated regard
ing your “going out.”
The company makes plans for you. Do you make plans
for yourself? In our early years, retirement is not a prime
concern; but as time goes by, the subject becomes more and
more important.
Our pension booklet gives us facts about our retirement
plan but does not tell us how to fulfill the plan and enjoy
those later years. This is where YOU fit into the picture.
While some people enjoy this new life to the fullest, others
do not. Why? PREPARATION! Usually those who were
prepared tell us, “I don’t have time to cut the grass, now
that I’m retired.” And “I highly recommend it.” “If I’d
known it to be this enjoyable, I would’ve retired earlier.”
We hear the sad side also. “If you’ll let me. I’ll come back
to work. I’ve been bored ever since I left.” “ ‘Going out’ was
the biggest mistake I ever made.”
WE GIVE some thought to almost everything we do in
life. Why not some thought and preparation on this vital
step in our lives? The key; Making plans to spend your time
(which you have or will have plenty of) in the way you like
“I don’t have time to cut the grass, now that I’m re
tired.” We hear the sad side, too.
Don’t wait until the month you sign your applica
tion.
★ ★★★★★★
best and in the manner that fits your particular likes and
wishes—whether it be traveling, gardening, fishing, volun
teer work, just plain taking it easy, etc.
Several of our retired people continue to work at other
jobs after leaving Firestone. At the Gastonia plant we
process 40 to 50 retirement applications each year. At the
time these applications are processed, we give each em
ployee all the available information we can, this pertaining
to his or her retirement. We insist that they come back to
see us if questions arise.
The primary point: START NOW. Don’t wait until the
month you sign your application to think about retiring.
Starting now could be one of the most important decisions
of your life.
Keep active to the end
of your days. Get busy,
plan what you want to do
most. Think in terms of
making major adjust
ments. Plan to spend care
fully and wisely &c &c.
Staying past 65?
Only a fifth of 267 U. S. em
ployers surveyed last summer
had an increase in workers
staying on the job past age 65.
A private business research or
ganization, the Bureau of Na
tional Affairs, did the survey in
August, after the law raising the
mandatory retirement age to 70
had been in effect since Janu
ary 1, 1979.
Although the findings indi
cated very little impact on the
vast majority of employers, the
working-past-65 group could in
crease. Anyway, says the
Bureau, it appears that age 65
will continue to be the most
popular ‘going out’ age for the
majority of workers.
It will be a while before the
effect of the new law will ‘show
a pattern’ with employees of
Firestone Textiles Company.
Coming Up: May 18, Birthday
of Whistler’s Mother. That’s
right—it’s a day celebrated by
“everyone who can whistle, in
cluding birds, teakettles, etc.”
A Person’s good reward
Frances Fletcher • Benn,ettsville
Employee Relations Representative
YEARS Gastonia • Bowling Green
Thei*^ is a time in life when working peo
ple have a challenge: the Retirement Years.
That time can be a person’s good reward
after a long stretch of hard work. Your re
tirement can be a period for specific goals,
and plans accomplished in meeting those
aims.
It depends much on what you put into
your everyday living, if you would succeed
in the Beyond Years. Beginning with the
day you retire, time will “be your essence.”
The resources of your years lived can be
put to work in many ways for your own
enjoyment and in helping others, too.
From work career to retirement, there
are many changes. The ability to adapt to
them will help you achieve fulfillment—
whatever you are doing, whatever your
lifestyle. In retirement, you trade your
Yesterday for Today and Tomorrow, for
your pleasure, rewarding activities and
aims to be accomplished.
Alice Conard and Lerlie
M. Stines have work records
of 35 years at Firestone-
Gastonia. Alice is a re
claimer in TC Twisting;
Lerlie a Unifil operator in
TC Weaving. Others with
emplojrment anniversaries
marked in February;
30 Years • Samuel E. Craw
ford, manager of Industrial Re-
What if you tire of ‘just fishing... ’ ?
Thomas L. Yelton • Bowling Green
Manager Firestone Textiles Plant
What would you do tomorrow if you woke up and sud
denly remembered that you were retired and would not
have to go to work. I’d guess most of us would turn over
and take another nap, but we wouldn’t want to sleep away
the rest of our lives!
People who make studies of retirement and the aging
process tell us that it’s very important that we have some
thing positive to look forward to each day. The anticipation
of coming events tends to help keep our minds and bodies
active and extends our life expectancy.
THE BOWLING GREEN Firestone plant is only 12 years
old and we have had only a few people to retire. This pic
ture will change in the coming years. Whether we are in
the middle years of our career or a young person who has
been working a relatively short time, the years will pass
and eventually retirement time will come. It’s never too
soon to begin to plan for retirement. The longer we have to
plan, the better the retirement'years can be.
We might think now that we want to spend our retire
ment years just fishing. Suppose that after a few weeks we
become tired of “just fishing” or find that it isn’t as en
joyable as we thought it would be. The point is: We must
have alternate plans for our retirement activity.
We must also be careful how we invest our money in re
tirement-planning. Many people have bought retirement
houses in certain areas and after they moved there, were
disappointed in the locale and realized they did not want to
live there. Others have made major expenditures for recre
ational vehicles and later found that traveling was not
really as much pleasure as they’d anticipated.
BEFORE CONSIDERING purchase of real estate in a
retirement area, spend some time there. Before investing in
a recreational vehicle, rent an RV unit for a while, to find
out if you really enjoy traveling in that manner.
Some of us may plan to move so we’ll be closer to our
children. Have you considered all the pros and cons of such
a move? Are the children settled in their present location
or will they, maybe, move somewhere else?
Most of us talk about retiring but few of us make positive
plans. We know that we’re paying money into Social
Security for our later years, and we have our Firestone Re
tirement program. But if we expect our retirement years to
be pleasant and fulfilling, NOW is the time to be making
plans, regardless of our age.
Ttr^^ton^
Volume XXVI
Number 3
GASTONIA
March. 19S0
Page 2
Claude C. Callaway, Editor
Plant
Offices
Warehouses
REPORTERS
Monthly publication of the Gastonia, N. C., plant of FiTestone Textiles
Company, a division of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio.
Division Headquarters, Gastonia, N. C. 28052. James B. Call, president. Mem
ber Carolinas Association of Business Communicators.
Industrial Relations—Bobbie Baldwin
Main Office—Freida Price
Mechanical Dept.—Carol Payne
Tire Cord Twisting—Elease Cole,
Katie Peeler
Warp Preparation—
Nell Bolick
Warehouse—Harold Robinson
BENNETTSVILLE PLANT
Frances Fletcher, Redona David,
Margaret McCaskiU, Jimmy
McCaskill
BOWLING GREEN
Larry E. Jones
lations; Mary R. Galloway, style
changer in TC Weaving; Del-
phia M. Thomas, respooler op
erator in TC Twisting.
25 Years • James F. Neal,
twister operator, TC Twisting.
20 Years • Earnest M. Mason
and Dorsey B. Parson, both
twister operators in TC Twist
ing.
15 Years • Betty C. Hardin,
respooler operator, TC Twisting
(retired as of February 1.)
10 Years • Glenn W. Boyce,
shop mechanic 3c, Shop; Macie
R. Garren, splicer operator, TC
Weaving; Bettie S. Parham,
splicer operator/reclaimer, TC
Twisting.
Cliff Logsdon and Leroy
Gonterman are into their
11th year with Firestone
Textiles-Bowling Green.
Logsdon, in Personnel, is
supervisor, training and em
ployee relations. Gonterman
is a dip mixer in the Treat
ing Unit.
They marked their 10th
work anniversary in Febru
ary.
Top Scout 1979
George R. Hovis last month
was presented the Outstanding
Scout of 1979 Award. A mem
ber of Stanley (N. C.) Troop 49,
George was last year’s recipient
of the Raymond C. Firestone
Award in Gaston County. An
Eagle Scout with some 30 merit
achievements, he was Firestone
Merit winner in 1977 and 197'8.
The 1980 Firestone Scouting
awards will be presented in
May.