CITY BEAT: SOME MIXED MEMORIES OF CATERPILLAR AND FIRESTONE

  

  Anyone who has been a resident of the Decatur area for at least a quarter-of-a-century can easily remember when Firestone, later Bridgestone/Firestone, was a major employer — with an imposing building complex on North 22nd Street.
     This week’s “Scrapbook” in the print and online editions of the Decatur Tribune is about the day in May, 1964, when the Decatur operation was dedicated and Illinois Governor Otto Kerner was even on hand to participate in the ceremony.
     Anyone connected to that operation can’t help but glance over at the building while driving today on 22nd Street and think for a few moments what once was there and how, what was inside that complex shut down so suddenly 37 years later. My memories go back even further to when I was a small child and Caterpillar, in helping the World War II effort, occupied the building.

     My dad worked for Caterpillar during those years and my mom, on the days she used the family car to shop for groceries and run other errands, would drive to the parking lot in front of the building when Cat’s shift was over, and we would wait for dad to appear out the front door and come to the car to drive us back to our home in Hammond, 20 miles east of Decatur on Route 36.
     While there are times, when driving on 22nd Street, that I glance over and think of the loss of the 2,000 jobs when Bridgestone/Firestone shut down, more often than not, I still think of dad coming out that front door following his workday at Caterpillar and smiling at us as he walked to our car.
     After the war, Caterpillar closed its Decatur plant and my father worked for companies in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sterling, Illinois and Chicago, before returning to Caterpillar in Decatur when it opened its new facility.
     Obviously, since I was a kid, I moved with parents to all of the communities where dad worked, but Hammond and Decatur were still very close to my heart and we drove back to “home” about every other weekend when we lived away from Central Illinois.
     It was always like coming home.
     I’ve often thought, that, if Caterpillar had not returned to Decatur in the 1950s, most likely we wouldn’t have returned to the area to live and, needless to point out, my life would have been entirely different than it is and has been.
Considering how I love this area, I’m very thankful that Caterpillar came back to Decatur — and remains a strong part of our community.

     • THE RECENT “Scrapbook” feature on the history of WTVP (now WAND) in Decatur, written by Doug Quick in the Aug. 7th edition, drew a lot of attention — and comments.

     Lenore Salefski of Decatur sent me an email stating “When I received the Aug. 7 edition of the Decatur Tribune, I was so surprised to see my brother’s picture  on the front page! His name is Edwin Pianka, the engineer in the picture. I have this picture among my pictures where I live.
     “I remember the day that Gene Autry was supposed to appear on the station, but he did not as the station did not sign on the air.
     “Later, Edwin moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida to work for NASA.
     “Thanks for the surprise. I really enjoyed the article.”

     • DR. TERROR — How many of you remember the local weekly production of “Dr. Terror’s Tales of Terror”, a hosted horror movie show with Mike Cheever as “Dr. Terror”? Mike (Dr. Terror) presented movies on each Friday night at 10:30 pm on WAND-TV Channel 17, between 1973 till 1977.

I remember the shows. The movies weren’t all the scary, but I did appreciate the creativity of Mike which always added to the Friday night viewing enjoyment.

     • WOW! I’ve been looking through some of the photos I shot of Decatur happenings and people over the past 60 years and I’ve been somewhat shocked at how young we all looked back then! (I’m not sure “shocked” is the right word describing our youthful look since the photos are from decades ago.)
     Anyhoo, I plan to use some of the photos this fall in a feature in the Tribune when I can find the time to put them together.
     I got a lot of comments after I posted a photo on this page a couple of weeks ago of me on my daily GE Cablevision TV Program 51 years ago.
     Brian Byers mentioned on his show about the huge television camera that was in the picture.
     Those were different times in the television industry with a lot of equipment that looks like antiques these days.
     One longtime Tribune subscriber wrote: “I didn’t know that television existed 51 years ago!”
Very funny…ha ha!

     • REPURPOSE — I’m pleased to see that the former Garfield School at 1077 W. Grand Avenue, will not be demolished like so many empty structures in our city.

     It will be “repurposed” (I like that word) thanks to significant financing support from the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA).
     “The City of Decatur and its development partners are excited to move forward with plans for the repurposing and adaptive reuse of the former Garfield School,” states the news release from the city.
     There’s more information on the complete story on page 14 in this edition but “IHDA’s support paves the way for the first phase of a sustained community revitalization effort: repurposing the former Garfield School at 1077 W Grand Ave into high-quality, affordable, independent senior (aged 55 and older) housing for the community. This $20.7-million development involves the complete restoration and adaptive reuse of the vacant school building, creating 32 apartments, plus a new construction addition creating 31 more apartments for a total of 63 apartment units.”
     Only a few blocks east of the former Garfield School on Grand is my former school, Roosevelt Junior High School, that was “repurposed” with apartments several years ago.
     It is the only school building, of all I attended, that is still standing. It would probably have disappeared without being “repurposed”.

     • I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00.

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