Working on the Ford assembly line in 1976, St. Paul, Minnesota


Let's time-travel back to 1976, and go to the Ford Motor Plant in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I experienced what it was like to work on an assembly line. I built 1977 Ford LTDs.

I still have a paystub, and I still have the memories of what I learned, much of which has helped me in my professional career, and in life, although I only worked on the line for one summer.

And that's how you can tell that I worked there, I know the lingo. We simply called it "the line". And if you've never built cars on an assembly line, you may have a distorted image of what it was like, maybe influenced by TVs shows that that show one single repetitive thing done over and over. Yes, it was repetitive, but there were a lot of things to do. I described my station as putting in the "fuzzy bumpers", but I did much more.

First of all, there was a work station where you made assemblies that were attached to the car. At my station I assembled the hood release mechanisms, and then of course installed them. As the cars were going past my station they didn't have anything beyond the firewall, so I would install the assembly, then thread the wire through a hole in the firewall. The hood would be assembled later down the line, and the wire would be attached to it. I also put little "fuzzy bumpers" in the doors, which the windows rode smoothly on.

I could go on and on about the work station, and I probably will, but I'd like to mention the concept of "being up on the line", which is still something that I do. And it has to do with the first rule of working on an assembly line - never hurry. You let the car come to you, do your work in a smooth way, and then the next car is there for you. The old-timers said, "Never run!", and it's good advice on doing anything - I applied it to my graphic design career. But getting up on the line is kinda fun, and I still do that nowadays.

You could hurry a little bit, and walk up to the next car, do that one, and then relax for a few seconds (which was quite a luxury!). I only did this a few times, but I just love the idea of "getting up on the line" - it's the opposite of waiting for the last minute, which is what most people do in life.

This was a wonderful experience, and it taught me a lot of things. And the most important thing I learned about doing this type of hard work is that I was inspired to go to college, and someday get a desk job, which I did!

Thank you for working on the line with me! And hand me a fuzzy bumper, OK?
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