Living the General Motors Golden Years
Living General Motor's Golden Years
by Robert Huber

Anderson has seen more glorious days. Almost 24,000 workers produced auto parts for General Motors in twenty factories. Anderson was a boomtown where everyone had a job; people were buying two or three new cars a year. General Motors was Anderson's economy. Today, with all the GM jobs gone due to factory closings, there are only minimal-wage jobs in the service industry left. But the former factory workers are still the...
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  • Erin Priest, 74, former maintenance worker at General Motors, at Weider car dealership in Anderson, Indina. 90 percent of Weider's customer are former General Motors worker or their children. Most of them used to buy 2 or 3 cars a year during their employment. Now that the pensions of GM retirees are not secure, car dealerships suffer serious setback. Erin Priest has hold off renewing her car since 1997 but likes to do so soon. She would only buy a car from General Motors. .
  • Downtown Anderson, Indiana. The days are now quiet in the once bustling town. Stores have been closed, restaurants and bars went out of business. .
  • Former General Motors manager Jim Ault, 70, on Meridian Street in Anderson, Indiana. Today, Ault is the chairman of an incubator space in Anderson that helps start-up businesses. General Motors hopes to revive their car sells with the brand-new Pontiac Solstice roadster that Ault is driving down historic Meridian street.
  • Former General Motors retiree leave Toast, a popular restaurant in Anderson, Indiana. Mainly old people live now in the once booming auto town. Their children and grand children had to move away to find work.
  • Robert Taylor, 77, a retiree in Anderson Indiana, stops for a drink at the Lemon Drop restaurant. The Lemon Drop used to serve meals to General Motors workers. Remaining unchanged, it now serves General Motors retirees.
  • Jack Williamson, 77, has worked at General Motors for 47 years. His friend Flo Ferguson, 82, worked at the same plant for 45 years. They both lost their spouse and now often dine together at the Lemon Drop restaurant in Anderson, Indiana. They used to have lunch here while still at GM. .
  • A payment stub of a former General Motors worker. GM used to offer a full pension to its employers after 30 years of service to the company. These pensions are the major source of income of the population of Anderson, Indiana.
  • General Motors retiree Erin Priest (left) , Wanda King, 82 (2nd from the left) and William Davis, 69 (sitting far right), play cards at the senior citizen home in Anderson, Indiana.
  • A worker scraps a former General Motors plant in which head and tail lights used to be manufactured. The plant in Anderson, Indiana, is about to be torn down. .
  • Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana. At this horse-racing track, GM retirees spend their days betting on races which are broadcasted from other tracks to the monitors in front of them. .
  • Sunday afternoon at the MCL Cafeteria at Mounds Mall in Anderson, Indiana, a popular restaurant with General Motors retirees. Marleston Doan, 85, and his wife Clarice Doan, 85, have lunch. They've been married for 65 years. Marleston has worked at General Motors for 40 years as a utility man. Jackie Henkle, right, also retired from General Motors.
  • Bob Hoover, chairman of the General Motors retiree chapter 662 in Anderson, Indiana. He is 83 years old. Hoover worked for General Motors for 41 years as a machine builder. He now represents the interest of the unionized retirees.
  • Every Monday, Elisabeth Cobble (middle) bowls at Cooper's Bowling Alley in Anderson, Indiana. Two thirds of the senior league bowlers are former General Motors workers. Ms Cobble worked for GM as an inspector for 38 years.
  • A retiree follows a theater organ concert at the Paramount theater in Anderson, Indiana. Build in 1929, the theater has recently been restored to its original setting. The organ used to accompany silent movies. Organ concerts revive days long gone.
  • View of Anderson, Indiana. .
  • Barbara Gephardt, prom queen of Anderson High School 1944, in the once bustling downtown of Anderson, Indiana. Every Sunday she has brunch at Toast with her friends, all former General Motors workers. .
  • A former plant of General Motors in Anderson, Indiana, waiting to be razed. GM still owns the building which have stood empty for over ten years. Once they're razed the property tax will decline - however GM is obliged to take care of any environmental issues. The city of Anderson tries to settle the conflict about cleaning up the sites before a looming bankruptcy of GM.
  • Anderson, Indiana; 07 Apr 2006 . ..former auto part manufacturing plant 9 in Anderson, Indiana. ..Lookatonline imageID 00017858 ..© 2006 Robert Huber .roberthuber@lookatonline.com .www.lookatonline.com
  • General Motors retirees standing in front of auto parts manufacturing plant 9 in Anderson, Indiana. Erin Priest, (far left), Iva Hazelbaker (middle, facing camera), Ollie Dixon (orange t-shirt), and Bob Hoover (far right). .
  • A car dealership in Anderson, Indiana, selling General Motors brands. 90 percent of the customers are former GM workers and their children. Since the demise of GM in Anderson sales have dropped to an all-time low. .
  • Mounds Mall in Anderson, Indiana, was the states first covered shopping center. Situated near General Motors factories, it was frequented by GM workers. After the closing of all but one plant, few people still shop here.
  • Charles Collis, 44, stands on the side a road, advertising the closing of an office supply store in Anderson, Indiana. Since the departure of General Motors, well-paid jobs have been replaced by minimal-wage positions.
  • Kevin Smith, mayor of Anderson, Indiana, at the demolition of KC Kline, a lumber factory. Smith was elected in 2003 with the mandate to revive the former auto town and bring new businesses to town. .
  • A former engineering building of General Motors in Anderson, Indiana, awaits to be used again. It is shown to foreign companies as an initiative by Anderson's Mayor to attract new businesses to the town. .
  • An Anderson, Indiana, post card from the 1950s, showing busy Meridian Street. Paramount Theater, opened in 1929, used to show first run movies. The street is flunked with busy stores and restaurants. .
  • Meridian Street in Anderson, Indiana. The once bustling main street of town is now deserted. All shops have now closed, only few pass by. .
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