[1954 Mobile Maid: built at GE factory near Louisville, Ky.]
I'm watching The Courier-Journal handle a big, late-breaker: General Electric's reported plan to sell its home appliances division. It's a major employer in Louisville, Ky., with 5,000 good-paying jobs at 56-year-old Appliance Park. Updates as warranted.
There's nothing worse than doing a bang-up job on a huge story, then dragging yourself to the next day's budget meeting only to hear the boss say: "So, what's your follow-up for tomorrow and the weekend?''
Here's what we talked about over dinner: Appliance Park's history is a story about the rise and fall of Louisville's post-war economy, told by those who worked and lived it. It could be written like a magazine essay. Something more personal. Maybe vignettes? Three generations of workers, who recall what Appliance Park meant to them? (I'm thinking out loud.) Vintage photos from folks you interview. Any old 8-mm film from the park that could be unspooled into online video?
I wrote a similar story when I was an investigative reporter at the C-J: It told the tale of an African-American family whose financial trajectory reflected the economy's shift to marketing, technology and other service industry jobs -- and away from manufacturing. My featured example was UPS, which by then had become one of the city's dominant private employers.
In its heyday, however, GE's Appliance Park was the big wheel: It sits on 1,000 acres, Wikipedia says, and once employed 25,000 people -- including many African-Americans, who rose into the middle class on GE's better paychecks.
There's nothing worse than doing a bang-up job on a huge story, then dragging yourself to the next day's budget meeting only to hear the boss say: "So, what's your follow-up for tomorrow and the weekend?''
Here's what we talked about over dinner: Appliance Park's history is a story about the rise and fall of Louisville's post-war economy, told by those who worked and lived it. It could be written like a magazine essay. Something more personal. Maybe vignettes? Three generations of workers, who recall what Appliance Park meant to them? (I'm thinking out loud.) Vintage photos from folks you interview. Any old 8-mm film from the park that could be unspooled into online video?I wrote a similar story when I was an investigative reporter at the C-J: It told the tale of an African-American family whose financial trajectory reflected the economy's shift to marketing, technology and other service industry jobs -- and away from manufacturing. My featured example was UPS, which by then had become one of the city's dominant private employers.
In its heyday, however, GE's Appliance Park was the big wheel: It sits on 1,000 acres, Wikipedia says, and once employed 25,000 people -- including many African-Americans, who rose into the middle class on GE's better paychecks.
Park's place in tech history
In 1954, Remington Rand installed a 30-ton Univac computer at the GE factory complex. It was the first installation of an electronic computer at a U.S. business, ComputerWorld magazine said, and it launched the era of business data processing.
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[Image: A 1954 GE promotion for the Mobile Maid: "The first truly automatic portable dishwasher" was shipped from the recently completed Appliance Park; GE press room]
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