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Post by TKennedy on Aug 18, 2022 22:02:35 GMT -5
Fascinating stuff. Amazing how small cities of manufacturing sprung up all over the U.S. almost overnight. Lots of women working, note the slide rule at 13:37.
We had a large paratrooper training base just outside my home town of Alliance NE. Four 10,000 foot runways, hundreds of barracks many massive hangers. Popped up in 1943 to train for D-Day, and was abandoned in 1945.
I wonder how the Chicago engine plant was re-purposed? Anyone know?
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Post by gbacklin on Aug 19, 2022 0:22:36 GMT -5
I wonder if that was where my Mom worked. All she ever said was that she worked on bomber engines during the WWII, she never said where.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2022 4:00:42 GMT -5
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Post by Marshall on Aug 19, 2022 7:32:30 GMT -5
I wonder how the Chicago engine plant was re-purposed? Anyone know? |
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Post by Marshall on Aug 19, 2022 7:36:47 GMT -5
I looked at a project in Ford City Mall once. I can't remember who it was for. Some retail store. And I got to look at the Structural Drawings for the building. It's a concrete vaulted roof system. Very stout. Somehow I don't think the project went forward as I didn't get to see the bare structure during any reconstruction. But I knew it was the old bomber plant.
I also did some work for Tootsie Roll, so maybe that was the reference.
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Post by TKennedy on Aug 19, 2022 9:04:20 GMT -5
Interesting, Terry. Here is more information about the Alliance, NE training base. Alliance Army Airfield[/quote A large section of the base became the municipal golf course. My dad was instrumental in getting the first nine holes built in the early 50’s. Later a second nine was added. Some of the old barracks were used as a club house and a residence for the pro and his family as well as maintenance facilities. The course was located where the barracks were so there was an extensive water and sewage system with hydrants and a big red and white checkered water tower. I worked either the pro shop or grounds crew all through high school and college. 1958-1967 We used the hydrants to connect to the pipelines we used for watering. Many of the mounds and topographic features were covered building foundations. Most of the massive hangers were used for grain storage and two for aircraft and one for repairs. I learned to fly there and in a Cessna or Cub you could take off and land about three times on those long runways before you got to the end. When I was a kid in the 50’s it was not uncommon for a large military aircraft with engine trouble to land there as the next nearest place with runways that long was Denver. I remember around 1955 or so there was a C-124 Globemaster there for a couple of weeks waiting for a new engine and we all got to tour it. Quite a place |
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Post by gbacklin on Aug 19, 2022 9:17:56 GMT -5
…I also did some work for Tootsie Roll, so maybe that was the reference. Many years ago, they were looking for a software developer through a recruiting firm and that firm contacted me and wanted to know if I was interested. As always, I said sure. My father in law’s sister had worked there for years, which a perk is to tour the factory. Nothing better than a tootsie pop right off the assembly line. Well the interview date came and I and the recruiter were led into Helen Gordon’s office. She mentioned that she had just came back from a long overseas business trip and still had some jet lag. She asked me after looking at my resume, to give her a summary of the technology and projects I had worked on. Well I have never claimed to be an overly exciting guy to be around, but about 1-3rd into my summary, Helen started snoring. Yup, out cold. I looked at the recruiter and I just stopped talking. Helen’s subconscious must have alerted he and she had that I just woke up jerk to her head and she said, “ok, thank you so much for that” and asked me a few questions and then said she would get back to the recruiter in a few days as there are other candidates to interview. As you can figure, I didn’t get the gig. 😂 |
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Post by Cornflake on Aug 19, 2022 11:02:18 GMT -5
Arthur Herman has a good book about how industry geared up for WWII. It was very impressive.
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Aug 19, 2022 11:12:38 GMT -5
In Indianapolis, the Allison Engine Division of GM built over 70,000 V1710 engines for WWII aircraft. It was a main fighter engine in our arsenal. More production space was needed so a new 1.6 million SF plant was built in five months using wood beams due to steel being needed for other purposes.
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Post by Marshall on Aug 19, 2022 13:28:15 GMT -5
Yeah. It was with Tootsie Roll. I do remember walking through the plant and looking up. It was a short lived engagement. The facilities guy I was doing some work for was an ass-hole. I got bashed on my pricing and didn't get paid in full.
The roof structure was cool.
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 19, 2022 15:14:43 GMT -5
My mother said that she worked in a Hershey's chocolate plant, and as a result never could stand the smell of chocolate thereafter. Given her high-school graduation year, that would have been a wartime job. And given the importance of Hershey bars as rations (and currency in liberated areas), that made her job real war work. (Her other significant product was me--an unplanned contribution to my father's morale during his time in the Pacific.)
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Post by billhammond on Aug 19, 2022 15:17:49 GMT -5
(Her other significant product was me -- an unplanned contribution to my father's morale during his time in the Pacific.) Oh, I'm sure it didn't affect him TOO negatively. (SORRY, low-hanging fruit, etc.)R.Dangerfield: "When I was born, the doctor slapped my mother!" |
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Post by billhammond on Aug 19, 2022 15:31:07 GMT -5
My mother said that she worked in a Hershey's chocolate plant, and as a result never could stand the smell of chocolate thereafter. For decades the huge tire-making plant in Eau Claire was the largest local employer by far, at various times called U.S. Rubber, Uniroyal, etc. If you were anywhere near its acrid effluent from the vulcanizing process, it would tear at your lungs. But to the folks who worked there, they got so used to it that as I heard countless times, when they got off a shift, fresh air stunk to them. Sad. |
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 19, 2022 15:53:13 GMT -5
So I ran up to a policeman and said, "Help me, I can't find my parents." And he said, "I dunno, kid, there are so many places they can hide."
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Post by billhammond on Aug 19, 2022 15:54:42 GMT -5
So I ran up to a policeman and said, "Help me, I can't find my parents." And he said, "I dunno, kid, there are so many places they can hide." "My mom didn't breast-feed me -- she said she liked me as a friend." |
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Aug 19, 2022 20:30:13 GMT -5
"I could tell my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio."
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Post by TKennedy on Aug 19, 2022 21:05:55 GMT -5
(Her other significant product was me -- an unplanned contribution to my father's morale during his time in the Pacific.) Oh, I'm sure it didn't affect him TOO negatively. (SORRY, low-hanging fruit, etc.)R.Dangerfield: "When I was born, the doctor slapped my mother!" Reminds me of a song intro Peter O did quite a while back. A soldier came back after two years overseas to find a baby at home. Stunned he asked his wife where the baby came from. His wife said “this is Penny, Pennie’s from heaven.” |
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 20, 2022 0:18:10 GMT -5
"Every time he asks, she says, 'Benny's from heaven.'"
From the "Buddies of Swing" album, which has an amazing bunch of players from the Prairie Home Companion days.
Also Eddie Jefferson:
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Post by TKennedy on Aug 20, 2022 7:02:51 GMT -5
Thanks Russ. My memory was faulty .
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Post by billhammond on Aug 20, 2022 7:53:24 GMT -5
"Every time he asks, she says, 'Benny's from heaven.'" From the "Buddies of Swing" album, which has an amazing bunch of players from the Prairie Home Companion days. Peter Ostroushko – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals Jethro Burns – mandolin Bruce Calin – bass Johnny Gimble – fiddle, mandolin Tim Hennessy – guitar Prudence Johnson – vocals Tom Lewis – bass Red Maddock – drums Dean Magraw – guitar Butch Thompson – clarinet, piano |
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