The end of an Era

Today, after 41 years of working at General Motors, my dad retired. The Doraville plant closed today for ever. In the 41 years that my dad has worked for GM, he has many different job, worked as many as 12 hours a day, and 7 days a week. He has worked at two different plants, both of which are now closed. He has worked on holidays, weekends and, worked 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift. My dad has worked in the heat and bitter cold. He did all of this to provide for his family. He worked on the assembly line, walked the picket line and stood in line for his unemployment check (while waiting to be called back from a layoff). Whew! That's a lot of work!

Very cool areal view of the Doraville Plant. (Thanks Evan for finding the two photos above!)

These are the last vans that rolled off the line on Friday morning.

Here is the line empty for good.

And, this was my dad's cube. After many years on the line, he finished his college degree and accepted a position in the training department at the plant. My dad is amazing. As I type this, he is at home reading for one of his graduate classes. This is his first semester in Graduate school!

My dad spent the first evening of his retirement having dinner with us and feeding the ducks at the pond in the neighborhood.