Quote:
Originally Posted by Garden guru
(Post 880034)
So what makes anyone so certain that "very small children" are going to want anything to do with this place decades from now when they become adults? Seems to me that kids have a funny way of making up their own minds about their own lives, as well they should. Get real, folks. The guy is a businessman, pure and simple. Anything he says should be taken with the grain of salt.
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This is true. Many times younger generations do not want to do what the earlier generations set in motion. This is most evident on today's family farms. And many times once Grandpa & Dad are gone..the offer to sell out and enjoy is too great to resist.
While this story does not involve a "family" business it does speak to the "we're here forever" statement....
I grew up in a small town in upstate NY called Owego. Owego is about 10 miles west of another small town called Endicott. Because of the way the school lines were drawn, while I lived in Owego, I went to school in Endicott.
Endicott, NY just happens to be the birthplace of a little company called IBM. In 1980 the population of Endicott was about 20,000 people. Owego's population was about 6,000. In 1980 IBM-Endicott and IBM Federal Systems Division in Owego employed 25,000 people. (Talk about FULL employment!) This number did not take into account the hundreds or thousands of people who were in the employ of a number of ancillary businesses located around IBM who were side suppliers or sub-contractors.
IBM was the local corporate "Santa Claus" to the local school districts, fire departments, police departments and charitable organizations. They operated a FREE country club for IBM employees and their families. At Christmas time each employee's children received an age-appropriate wrapped quality Christmas gift.
Many people my age walked out of the high school on graduation day, crossed the street, walked to the northern end of Washington Avenue and in the door at IBM's HR department and walked right into what they THOUGHT was a lifetime job. It always had been and there was never any reason to think differently.
My father was a R&D engineer for IBM. My wife's dad was a chemical engineer at IBM. Most people we knew worked at IBM. When the infamous words "Houston..we have a problem" were uttered from Apollo-13 there were a whole lot of lights that snapped on in Owego since many of the rocket's systems had been built in Owego.
IBM had started in Endicott and would be there forever. The company had expanded it's buildings and campuses..The words from IBM couldn't have been more positive.
But...In the late 90's it all came to a screeching stop. IBM essentially left town. They went from a workforce of 25,000 down to about 400 today. Building after building is empty with no hope of it ever being reused. They shuttered their newly-expanded R&D lab and either transferred or discharged the engineers employed there. The Owego plant was sold to several different companies, although it has now once again found some footing under Lockheed, and the new Marine-One helicopter will be produced there in part.
Virtually all of the guys I knew who had graduated from high school and walked right into what they thought were lifetime jobs are now unemployed or employed in jobs that don't even come close to the pay and benefits they had under IBM.
This story has happened in many places..but IBM was/is a "tech" company and we keep getting told that the future is tech. There was never the slightest whiff that IBM would ever leave it's birthplace. And then one day they were..GONE. The corporate announcement was that it was a BUSINESS decision.
So while the Morse family says that they are "here to stay"..and they very well may be. However the day may come when the BUSINESS decision for the family might very well be a fat payday and a farewell to TV.
