C/4

Hello fellow Pioneers, my name is Henry A. Roa. In the picture is my wonderful wife, of fifty-seven years, Juanita Rodriguez. C/4 are the number of years that I have been on pension. On May 31, 2011 I will complete a quarter century on pension from Western Electric Company, Cicero, Illinois. I worked there thirty-three years including three in the military. Well when I took the pension it was AT&T Technologies and now Actel Lucent but my memories are all "The Western". Anyone that worked at Western Electric knows what that means. It is gone; demolished for a shopping center. All that remains is the firehouse tower. Also the old cable plant on the north side of the tracks in Chicago. Everytime I go to Sams Club, Menards, Home Depot Target, Office Max, the restaurants, etc I get a sad feeling remembering the great working atmosphere at Western Electric.
It had its own power plant, a firehouse, a hospital, a park with a bandshell, a theater, several restaurants, Hawthorne Credit Union and an AT&T stock office where trading was free and done every day. A block south of the plant there was Albright Gym with a stage and meeting rooms, Tennes courts, ball fields, jogging track, putting green, etc. The gym complex was donated to Cicero but it did not last long and it too has been demolished.

In 1986 at age fifty-three I took an early pension because I did not want to leave Chicago to continue working and moving my family to another city. We have lived in our home for fifty-three years. We will never move.

Notice that I said "on pension" not retired. I worked a thity-eight hour week at Western and now I am busy sixty hours a week. It has been very satisfying to be able to do the things my wife and I enjoy doing.  I will blog on that next time.

I can be reached at mexfolroa@ameritech.net.

Henry