Factory #09 Northeast Corner 1923

This view of factory #09 (facing south west) is from around 1923 and the changes made that I mention in the previous post are obvious. I spent many evenings "while on break" looking from this same vantage point, but this building was gone, and factory #40 bldg. #16 was in it's place. I used to sit, with my back up next to what was (at that time) called 50 dock. This dock was used by the machine floor in the 12c annex of factory #12. You could watch all the traffic go by "entering and exiting" onto Industrial Ave. This was before the remodel that closed this road to Industrial. My friend (at that time, Bob Alexander) who's father worked on #50 dock as a forklift driver and then retired. He died before he received his first check. This happened to many retirees. Thank god and the Union for 30 and out. A lot of people just think factory worker's are fat and lazy, but you do not understand what it was really like unless you lived it. "There is more to a book than it's cover" and when I read the books done on the Buick history, it's always a bunch of back slapping "good ole boys" who all work well together, through all the good and bad "which sometimes was true", but I found this to be the exception to the rule. Most guys would slit their buddy's throat for a nickel of overtime or snitch you out to the boss just to maybe get a leg up the ladder of success to a better job. So in closing do not just think we had it made in our high paying jobs and that all was a bed of roses. If you worked at Buick you paid your dues in more ways than one.