Detroit Jollies

Proof that beer and tools DO mix!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1257459 ... bs%3Dvideo

I used to work for The Kanter Brothers, Dan and Fred. They bought the Packard Name around 1980 I think. They have a warehouse in Boonton, NJ, visible from Rte. 287.
The four storey warehouse dates to 1875. It used to be a silk mill. The Rockaway River runs right next to it, on its way to feed The Jersey City Reservoir.
I worked there for a year, my only job was to repair and paint windows. I painted every window in that huge warehouse.
Dan Kanter would give us a dollar and send us out to get milk for the coffee room. At that time, a quart of milk was 99 cents. He would put his hand out for the change. Businessman extraordinaire.
They had a part of the factory that was as big as a few tennis courts, filled with exotic and rare automobiles. They lent one of their Cadillacs to the movie The Godfather. There was a 50's prototype Chrysler convertible in there, one of a kind, with a record player built in!
I also had my first job there around 1973, before they bought it. At that time it was a handbag factory. I made $2/hr. stuffing vinyl handbags with paper.
You could see where the turning shafts ran overhead through the length of the entire building in the past. Those shafts would drive leather belts to run machinery. There was a place down by the river that housed an acetylene generator.
The parts manager got his job by identifying a Munce Jet on his interview. He also identified the Facel Vegas they had.
They would buy NOS parts by the truckload. There was an ancient Otis elevator in a brick enclosure, the height of the building. You could see where it was separating from the main brick structure.
One day two of my warehouse buddies loaded a couple of pallets of tie rod ends onto the 1000lb capacity cab, on the fourth floor. That slow ancient elevator usually made a "dwoooovve" sound as the huge electric motor way up at the top of the elevator tower came to life. As soon as they hit the down button, the cab began to plummet! The safety brakes, a couple of ball governor-controlled dogs that were designed to clamp onto the rails, busted right off. The elevator shot to the basement! I was standing on the roof of an adjacent garage and saw the cab fly by the loading dock doors! I thought my friends were dead. They had minor injuries, and scrambled out of the space at the top of the cab, for fear of the motor coming down on top of them.

HOLY CARAPPER what a ride that must've been!! I've woken up from dreams of that same situation ...


Back when I was a teenager, there was an old abandoned brick mill in town ... as there is in every town in MA, just about. We used to get inside & have a blast running around inside. My buddies always enjoyed busting *censored* up, but I used to love checking out all those old time pieces of equipment. I'd always leave with a soda can in mint condition from the 50's & 60's -- no rust at all -- perfectly preserved.

I remember seeing hundreds upon hundreds of 55 gallon drums in there. One day we all let curiousity get the best of us & decided to empty about 100 of them or so into the mill. I don't know wtf was in these drums, but some of them made our eyes burn! Decades later, the place was declared one of the most polluted sites in the state .... I always wondered if I caused all that ... hmmmmm ........

One day we climbed the rickety 100+ year old ladder & got onto the sagging roof. No fear of falling through at all -- I think back to that day & realize we were just some lucky punks!! Me & my buddy got into the bellhouse! WOOHOO! After the fascination wore off of seeing a piece of history like that up close, we jumped on the lever that connects to the hammer (still had the knot there from the old rope) & rang that son of a bitch for 10 minutes!!! DING DING DING DING!!!!!! I never laughed so hard in my life!! My ears were bleeding, I swear! People were like WTF is going on over there???? That bell probably hadn't been rung since the '40's!! Everybody was pouring out of the housing units around the mill (used to be for all the workers ... bought & paid for by mill currency only ... sometimes I think we're gonna see that again ...) We knew we basically summoned the entire town police force, so after ringing the hell out of that thing, we sprinted down the ladder, hauled ass down hundreds of flights of stairs & sprinted out the back window & into the old mill housing nearby, belly-laughing the whole way. Just as soon as I got through the chain-link fence, there were about 5 cruisers pulling in there lights blazing & sirens blearing! *censored*!! I ran like hell! I never ran so fast in my life. Never got me though! Not bad for an asthmatic, aye?

I miss those days ... good times every day. Can't believe how many decades have come & gone since ...

Smitty, how old are you sir..

grumpy wrote:Smitty, how old are you sir..

You're looking for his vintage.