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| This photo taken before the creation of Buick City shows a workers companion "The Boom Box". I still have my machine and my special mix tapes. If you've ever seen the movie "Car Wash" you will understand the need for this device. The worker shown is Jay Britt. After the creation of Buick City, TV was the status symbol in the factory. The problem was reception, (being surrounded by the steel structure of the building). Many antennas would sprout up on the roof with cables running hundreds of feet down into the factory. Every so often management would send maintenance workers up on the roof for antenna removal. The maintenance workers always had the best equipment and of coarse they would never remove their own antennas. On factory #40's roof alone could be found well over 30 installations. As with the numbers runners, makeshift restaurants, bordellos (Mattress Mary's in old factory #40), liquor stores and gambling establishments being shut down every few years, the same held true for rooftop antennas. P.S. knowbody seemed to care about Mary's being shut down because that meant a new mattress. Life in the factory sure was interesting at times. 'We really were a city'. |
I wonder if that photo is Wayman Britt's brother because it sure looks like him. He sat across from me in my Senior year at Northern...I didn't like basketball then so had no idea who he was other than a classmate.
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to tell me about the number runners and how some walked out with paper sacks full of money. I know he played...a lot. But never won.