“I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town”.
There’s something about that Bruce Springsteen song that reminds me of the “good old days”. The days when I was young, growing up in a town whose economy was driven by the large car manufacturers. Before life got complicated. Men went to work in the engine plants, kids played baseball, communities celebrated the 4th of July, grandfathers spoke of fighting for freedom. Before 9/11, before the internet, before cell phones, and before the Kardashians. Some memories are real others manufactured but the truth is our country, the world, even us; everything has gone through the inevitable “change”.
This feeling of nostalgic national pride hit me in the face just the other day. I was driving around the northern perimeter of Atlanta and saw the old General Motors, Doraville Assembly Plant. The factory is shut down and is now in the process of being removed to make space for a fancy “work, live, play” development. This seems pretty typical looking at the landscape of the American economy. That being said, it made me sad. Really sad. My father worked every day in a factory like that, worked every day so my siblings and I could live the American dream. He was proud of the company he worked for, proud to work hard for his family, proud to build something and to see the factories go dormant brings a sadness to the generation who built great products through hard work and ingenuity.
But fear not. American manufacturing is not dead. It brings me great pride to work for an American manufacturer; a company who believes in creating quality products. We go to work every day, we go to work and we build, we create, we deliver. The global landscape may be changing but through change the strong survive, through change the market delivers what the market craves. An American manufacturer of digital displays was born in Norcross, GA, but a large scale visualization experience creator was forged through the demand of customers looking for something more. So it is with great pride that say, ‘We will not go gently into that good night.’ American manufacturing is alive and well!