For those of you that know me, or have followed me for a long time, you know that I grew up in the 70’s. I was fortunate that my dad had a good job working at “The Gear”. One thing that I still remember from my childhood was going to the annual UAW Local 699 Christmas party at the civic center.
I remember walking from the parking ramp thru the glass walkways across the road to the entrance. Walking inside and then seeing the mountains of toys stacked up along the walls around the outside of the arena. Inside the arena, it was packed full of families watching the entertainment acts perform for the party, and then at the end, Santa came out and wished us all a merry Christmas. After the entertainment, my brothers and I would go down to the toys with all the other kids who’s parents were union members and find our age group to pick out a toy.
As I was growing up and getting older, slowly the GM plants closed, it’s hard to believe that at one time there were so many autoworkers that just one Local of the UAW could fill the civic center for a Christmas party. Times have changed and they ain’t what they used to be, but I still enjoy going to events at the civic center, and I still think about the days with mountains of toys. Saginaw may not be the automotive based town it once was, but I do have fond memories of growing up in Saginaw and I still love living here.
P.S. I had a lot of people request I make a BEANS Bunny T-shirt and I finally got some made, I hope you will take a look at them HERE, if your size is out of stock, I should have more by the end of the week.
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