Tire trophies - the trappings of a 35-year career

If your calendar year runs from June 2007 to July1, 2008, then this probably qualifies as Bill's roughest year. I'll have to ask him. The year he was in Vietnam is still numeral uno on my list, but that's another post. So it was that during this last hospital stay, the one of my 3 operations in 8 days, he walked into my hospital room and announced that he had looked at the numbers again and thought that he could retire in July '08 rather than Feb. '09. Maybe it had nothing to do with my illnesses, not to mention his own heart attack on Aug. 25, '07, reminding him that life is short or was on the brink of brevity several times. Whatever, it seemed that we were now entering the phase in our life when doctor visits outnumbered company policy allowances. It was time to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you . . . When he contacted HR in Feb. then, they told him to officially put in for retirement on April 1, which he did. Yesterday. But he has been gradually bringing home his office loot, which I found a place for on top of a cabinet in the computer room. Believe me, there aren't many "places" left in our house for displaying any knick knacks, so he's lucky. As much as he is looking forward to retirement, he has been, what we have called "a company man." Meaning loyal. 35 years of loyal. 35 years of heading out on a Sat. or Sun. for a business trip or not getting home till very late from a business trip. Thankfully, he has an insured pension in return. And though in every way has Bridgestone gotten its money's worth from my tire engineer, it has also been a good place to work (http://www.bridgestoneamericas.com/). They are committed to the environment; they made a donation of 10,000 acres of wilderness to the state of TN. They support so many charities, including the Nashville library; NPR; Aids. Did I mention that insured pension? But, I digress. Bill has worked hard and traveled far. I have sometimes said that his job was to go places and talk to people. Sometime when I can get him to work on this with me, we'll sit down and enumerate the states he has not visited for Firestone, then Bridgestone. Of course, he traveled to Japan several times as well. Now he deserves to stay home and know, as he said, that Sunday nights are just like Friday nights. Besides traveling, he is also known as one of the few people, I have heard it said, who knows the most about tires. He came up through development, working on passenger and truck tires, OE and replacement, straight from Univ. of VA to Akron, OH, in 1973. It wasn't until 1991 that he was promoted to Nashville and Sales Engineering. We've survived rif's (reduction in forces), recall's (really painful) and restructuring (remember, we used to be Firestone, not Bridgestone). So, the well-deserved trophies: strain your eyes and read them if you can. Some came with a trade show and some came with a large check. He has his favorites. I liked the large checks. But mostly, I liked the fact that you could work for a company for your whole life, become very knowledgeable and valuable because of that history, and be rewarded with a pension at the end. I'm sorry that our country has moved away from that concept of long-range employer/employee relationships that can be in the best interest of everyone.