Bald Tires
My alma mater, Kettering University, in Flint, Michigan is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month. The technological university began in 1919 as General Motors Institute and I attended between 1967 and 1971. We coop students alternated between school and work each quarter. As a freshman in 1967, during work periods, my job was foreman at GM’s Frigidaire Division in Dayton and it paid $4.50 per hour, just above the base wage of the hourly employees being supervised. During a typical work period, I could just earn enough money to cover tuition plus room and board, with little pocket cash left over for essentials and fun stuff.
In the fall of 1967, after completing my first quarter at school, the tires on my ’62 Chevy were worn smooth, but replacements were out of the question until after my first paycheck back at work. It was a cold and rainy Friday in Flint as the last of my finals was over and I immediately headed for home. Back in those days, Flint had many brick paved streets and when they were wet, traction was at a premium. To this day, the main drag, Saginaw Street, remains brick paved.
The bricks, bald tires, cold, rainy conditions and rush to get home all contributed to an accident where I slid into the car in front of me at a stop light less than 3 blocks from school. Both my front bumper and the rear bumper on the car I hit driven by a little old lady were damaged, but fortunately both cars were drivable. So after exchanging insurance information, we went on our way without having to call the police. Given that scare, I concluded it was better to head back to my nearby fraternity house and stay the night before heading home the next morning under better conditions, because the tires seemed fine on dry pavement. It also gave me time to call my insurance agent, Harry Frilling in Ft. Loramie about the accident. He immediately called the old lady and was able to quickly take care of her damages. Meanwhile, the deductible on my policy was about the cost of a new bumper, so after receiving that first paycheck from Frigidaire, a used bumper from a junk yard and some retread tires were purchased all for under $100, eating up most of the proceeds from that first week’s work.
Retread tires were the norm back then, a useful means of extending the life of tires. However, once radial tires were invented in the 1970’s, retreading died out except for truck and agricultural use. Speaking of which, check out this previous blog about a trip to Florida later in my college years on a set of tires “for farm use only”!
About that time, the UAW was on a 68 day strike like now, but they had targeted Ford, not GM, so we weren't impacted, except the wage increases garnered from the strike eventually worked their way to us coop students, providing a much needed boost to our meager incomes. The impact was short-lived, however, as GMI naturally raised their tuition rates since the professors and staff were all GM employees who also received wage increases! Those frugal times lasted another two years until 1969 when I took out a tuition loan and used my pay instead to buy my first new car for $1800, a 1969 Chevy Nova SS, after trading in the ’62. No more retreads for me!
Eventually met my wife while driving that first new car, which to this day brings back so many special memories; more fodder for a future blog. Stay tuned.
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