Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / May 1, 1982, edition 1 / Page 1
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news May 1982 Fibers & Textiles Company Gastonia, North Carolina • Bennettsuille, South Carolina Bowling Green, Kentucky • Hopewell, Virginia • Woodstock, Ontario, Canada 0 ■ " '-V (•' ‘ZIP plus 4’ by late 1983 • The hyphenated 9-digit Postal Service ZIP code went into use with some mass mailers earlier this year. Large- volume mailers, including business and industry, will have the "ZIP plus 4” code in full use by late 1983. The already- used 5 digits, a hyphen and 4 extra numbers make up the new code. Firestone U.S. facilities and their new codes: • Grass-tending and other groundskeeping jobs were back in season at Firestone/Gastonia in April. Trees were putting forth leaves and by mid-month the dogwoods were blossoming. Here, Shop carpenter James Hallbrook mowed and trimmed under the venerable white dog wood, one of two growing in front of the mill. This largest one has been gracing the landscape since the early 1940s. It is the comus florida variety. North Carolina’s state flower. Exec, vp — sales Benjamin G. Ammons, 44, is ex ecutive vice president — sales, of Firestone’s North American Tire, the group to which the Fibers & Textiles division belongs. Ammons’ appointment and nomination as corporate vice president was sub mitted to Firestone’s board of directors in April. He had been vice president of marketing and sales for Carlisle Tire & Rubber Company since 1977. Ammons succeeds James R. ATMI CONTEST First in Group C Thomas, who was nsimed execu tive vice president, wholesale operations, in Firestone’s sales/ marketing group. In his NATG post, Ammons is responsible for sales of original- equipment and private-brand tires, product-planning, and Fidesta. Be fore he went with Carlisle Tire in 1977, he had been with B.F. Good rich Company in several technical/ sales posts since 1962. Firestone/Gastonia has earned lead place for a second time in the American Textile Manufacturers Institute nationwide safety contest. I'he Gastonia headquarters plant of the Fibers & Textiles Division is one of more than 100 companies or plants within companies taking part in the nationwide “Let’s Make Textiles First In Safety” promotion which began late in 1981. More than 300,000 employees are represented in the par ticipating firms. Numbers of employees range from 500 to 10,000. Firestone is in Group C — 1,000 through 3,099 em ployees. -To page 2 Gastonia, NO 28052-1278 Bennettsville, SC 29512-0016 Bowling Green, KY 42010-0008 Hopewell, VA 23860-0450 The Postal System began assign ing the new numbers In 1980. The first digits represent (as they have since the 1960s) area of country, city and other locations. The added 4 numbers further pinpoint the place of delivery. As in the case of Firestone plants, the added digits refer to the main post office box numbers. Adding the 4 digits is the first major change in the ZIP system since the code plan began in 1963. The 9-dlgit system will put to use optical character and C-bar code readers to fully automate mall- handling. As of now, the new system does not apply to individual mailers. With the large-volume mailers, use of the new code leprcsciUs some saving among the large firms and organizations that send more than 100 million pieces of mail per year. The post office promises these mailers, as incentive to use the new codes, up to 1C reduction in postage charges per letter. The changeover to the 9-digit ZIP is keystone of a Postal Service effort to save money by sorting more mail with fewer workers. I 71 WELCOME! PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT I When FDR visited Firestone Cotton Mills On an August day in 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt came through the Firestone/Gastonia community, on the way to Char lotte where he delivered a speech. The President had come up from the Little White House at Warm Springs, Ga. On that memorable occasion the mill stopj>ed production, so employees could greet the Presi dent. Troy Jones, retired tinsmith (Firestone Shop), recalls that by the time FDR and his entourage arrived at the outdoor place for his speech in Charlotte, it began to redn. But only for a little whUe. The sunshine burst through, and the President addressed the multitude, THESE PHOTOS? They’re be lieved to have been taken on a box Kodeik, by William L. (‘Roy’) Car ver, longtime employee of the Shipping department. Prints and negatives were foimd in his desk soon after his death in 1966. The print with engraving of FDR (inset done for reproduction here) shows some people of the waiting crowd being refreshed from Tony Coletta’s icecream wagon. Small lettering on ‘Wel come’ banner reads “You are passing through the community of Firestone Cotton Mills, Inc.” (Name changed to Firestone Tex tiles in 1944.) Note water tower. a landmark removed several years ago. Other photo: President in front open car; right, in back seat, greeted the people at the mill’s east end. Robert Spencer, Pur chasing, had been working at Firestone 2 years at that time. “1 was standing right next to the President’s car,” he recalls. The year 1982 is the lOOth anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birth.
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
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May 1, 1982, edition 1
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