Family Appreciation Day

By R. Glenn Reid - Oshawa, Canada representative

To show their appreciation, General Motors of Canada had what is called an "employee family appreciation day" on Saturday, August 11, 2001 at the Oshawa car assembly plant

This was a beautiful hot and sunny day. Actually, we’ve been in the middle of a heat wave for some 7 weeks. The plant was open to all employees and their family and friends. There were all kinds of free drinks, ice cream, and barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers were the meal of the day - all graciously served by volunteers. Lots of children’s amusements were set up for the young ones, and General Motors also had a showing of all their new products. These included some of the new Cadillac trucks and the new Chevrolet Avalanche; this example finished in a beautiful red. It literally had people crawling all over it. This truck is going to be a big hit.

Also, a showing of employee classic cars were lined up along the front of the main office building. Many of the cars and their owners I recognised immediately. There were some real beauties; a very rare 1947 Ford Monarch, finished in a nice red was the first car on the line-up. This was the second year of the Canadian Monarch. One of only 4,926 sedans built, this example didn’t have the original Ford V8 engine though, it was powered by the Chevy 327, and mildly customised. Another Ford product, this time a rare Mercury 1954 Sun Valley, had the factory glass roof fitted and was owned by one of my co-workers Milton Bruce. This was powered by a 256 Ford V8 and finished in a beautiful mint green.

Some other workers I know from the paint shop, were parked along side each other. John Moher had what had to be the lowest mileage on a 1977 Z28 Camaro, showing only 15,000 original miles. It was finished in a beautiful metallic brown, powered by a 350 small block and was built at the Norwood plant in Ohio. It was purchased by John back in 1977 for $6,097 Canadian. He still had the bill of sale and dealer sticker on the window. When he placed a carpet on the ground and told me to look underneath the car I couldn’t believe it, it was just as clean underneath as on the topside. Moving along to another Camaro, the next one was a beautifully restored 1968 Rally Sport, owned by an associate from the tire room, Mike Emon. He had spent a many hours restoring this car, which is powered by a Chevy 327 and was also built at the Norwood plant.

Changing to older classics, there was a beautiful black 1940 Buick 90 owned by Jan Scinks with a little bit of history to it. He had purchased the car at Elliott’s Auto wreckers in Newtonville for $1,000. His wife thought he had lost his mind, as it was a real junker. After lots of work though, he got it back to its original condition. It’s an American built Buick, first purchased by Canadian military brass in the Ottawa area as an Army staff car. An unusual option was a factory sunroof, but the location is above the backseat, which I am told is one of a kind. The interior is finished in a beautiful gray west-of-England cloth, with two little jump seats in the back. It has to be on of the nicest Buicks I’ve seen in a long time.

A nice red ‘57 Chevy convertible towing a little Coca Cola truck was getting a lot of attention too. Someone told me that this car was actually a two-door hardtop that was converted in to a convertible by a local body shop. There’s something about a ‘57 red convertible that gets everybody’s attention. There was also a good selection of classic pickups and various hot rods.

Everyone I spoke to at this event said it was one of the best presentations GM ever put on. A lot of team effort went into the appreciation day, and I hope this effort shows in our future products.