Men With Balls
Friday, November 27, 2009
I picked up this picture on Thanksgiving Eve at the Carriagetown Antique Center near downtown Flint, Mich.
I don’t have any family in Flint, although I have come to appreciate the gritty city as an Orphan of Americana.
I have looked at this picture every night. I paid $10 and it already is worth $100 of deep thought.
Who are these guys?
I can tell they are from the Flint Athletic Club 1939-40. The small print on the Flint-Stone explains they were in the Buick “78” League. They’re clearly not 78 years old although I presume they all worked at the Buick factory in Flint.
I’ve had fun imagining their personalities. The guy in the middle was the funmeister/prankster. The bowler on his left was the serious member of the team. I bet he was always first to show up at bowling night. The guy sitting on the far right was the chick magnet, and the gentleman with glasses always kept score. The bowler on the top left was the scary iconoclast. I know that because he is wearing a tie that is different than his mates.
These guys are so striking because their jobs could be mundane. I don’t think they were executives. Those guys are on the golf course. The bowling league was a conduit for self expression these men couldn’t attain in the workplace.
The automobile industry in Flint was co-founded at the turn of the 20th Century by J. Dallas Dort of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company near the Carriagetown Antique Center (get it?). Dort believed a city’s development was tied into the health and welfare of its workers. In 1915 Charles Mott, a GM Vice President, picked up the ball by creating an industrial committeee with Walter Chrysler as its chairman.
The commitee called itself the Industrial Fellowship League (IFL). Recreational and educational activities were offered to Flint workers through the IFL.
Bowling abounded.
I’ve told my journalistic colleagues that one way to bring back newspapers is to run bowling scores in the sports section. Bowling is all about foresight and neighborhood.
I’m serious. These guys were.
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