LJ Idol - Week 13 - Current Events
No matter where a person comes from, no matter what circumstances they have grown from, the majority of us have some love for the place or places in which they spent their formative years. The places have their flaws, as do we, but perhaps it's the imperfections that make a thing loveable.
I come from a hard hit family in a dying city in a broken state, but that's home. Those of us who are lucky are able to get the hell out of Dodge, or Muskegon, rather. With the automotive industry largely leaving Michigan, and so many production jobs leaving for Asia and Mexico, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in the last decade or so. That means hundreds of thousands of skilled trade workers left scrambling, doing anything they can for a buck to feed their families. My dad was one of those workers.
Hired into Sealed Power not long after high school, my father has had many jobs in the foundry where they made piston rings and other engine parts. He's worked around molten iron, pushed hundred pound carts, cleaned out run off drains, went back to school for Class A Machine repair, and then eventually worked his way up into maintenance. The Sealed Power plants in Muskegon were bought out by DANA Corp, when I was in middle school. This had little effect that I noticed, my dad still did the same basic jobs and such. Then a few years later, they were bought out by Mahle. Though there had been quite a bit of downsizing over the years, it didn't take long for Mahle to start sending the machines down to Mexico, slowly closing up shop. My dad was one of the last to go, the last maintenance man to work to the end.
Many other companies have gone under or downsized all over the board. It's not just the auto industry. After college, I came home, and I spent 8 months looking for a job. I lost count after 675 applications four months into the search. I only got one interview, and I took the job as a live-in nanny across the state. I wasn't picky, either. I was applying to scrub toilets at McD's, retail, office cleaner, child care, teacher's aide, library page, office assistant, anything I was even remotely qualified for. When my dad lost his job, he spent several years on unemployment searching for a job, any job, that had a pay scale to match what little he earned on unemployment. During this time, my brother was permanently laid off from his tool and dye job. For Christmas, the company laid off the entire work force for three weeks, then hired a whole new work force without informing their laid off employees after the new year. My mother was similarly let go from her home health aide position, as there was not enough work to go around. There were several months in 2008 where my family of four adults was living off one man's unemployment check, because the rest of us didn't qualify for one reason or another.
I wish my tale was unusual for Muskegon, and Michigan in general, but it wasn't, and it still isn't. Though there is some job growth in certain areas, Michigan is still shrinking in population because people are unable to keep food on the table for their families. In 2009, I had to move to Oklahoma to find another job when my nanny job ended. There are so few opportunities at home.
The biggest resurgence that Muskegon is seeing is the tourist industry. We have little else, now that factory and foundry work is mostly gone. We're on the shore of Lake Michigan, with gorgeous sandy beaches and dunes, lighthouses, and State Parks. Muskegon has some decent hunting, is part of the Michigan Color Tour to see the leaves change in the fall, and has some great historical landmarks, such as the Hackley Library, Hackley House, and the Frauenthal. Quite a few fabulous festivals take place in Muskegon, as well. Unity Fest, held in August, is a Christian Music festival, and the Michigan Irish Music Festival is takes place in September. Both are held at Heritage Landing. The Film Festival takes place every May, and every other year, the Muskegon Motorcycle Club holds a huge hill climb. Summer Celebration used to be the big festival, bringing in many big name music acts, and thousands of tourists, but it sadly ended in recent years, having outgrown the venue. We also are home to Michigan's Adventure, a theme park and a water park in one that gets bigger every year, and the U.S.S. Silversides, which is a submarine that is part of our military museum! This is, obviously, only a small sampling of the fun things that Muskegon has to offer.
My guess is that's why there is a viral marketing campaign called Love Muskegon going on right now. No one seems to know who started it, or if it has any end goal beyond city pride, but for now, it seems to be a pretty great idea. Our poor, beleaguered city is struggling to find it's new niche, and now, for the first time in nearly two decades, there seems to be a true growth in town pride. We've not had much to be proud of recently, but I do hope that if we keep working at it, there will be reason to be proud of my home once more. I long for the day when I can come home and there will be a job for me. Perhaps in the next decade, that will become a reality.
I come from a hard hit family in a dying city in a broken state, but that's home. Those of us who are lucky are able to get the hell out of Dodge, or Muskegon, rather. With the automotive industry largely leaving Michigan, and so many production jobs leaving for Asia and Mexico, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in the last decade or so. That means hundreds of thousands of skilled trade workers left scrambling, doing anything they can for a buck to feed their families. My dad was one of those workers.
Hired into Sealed Power not long after high school, my father has had many jobs in the foundry where they made piston rings and other engine parts. He's worked around molten iron, pushed hundred pound carts, cleaned out run off drains, went back to school for Class A Machine repair, and then eventually worked his way up into maintenance. The Sealed Power plants in Muskegon were bought out by DANA Corp, when I was in middle school. This had little effect that I noticed, my dad still did the same basic jobs and such. Then a few years later, they were bought out by Mahle. Though there had been quite a bit of downsizing over the years, it didn't take long for Mahle to start sending the machines down to Mexico, slowly closing up shop. My dad was one of the last to go, the last maintenance man to work to the end.
Many other companies have gone under or downsized all over the board. It's not just the auto industry. After college, I came home, and I spent 8 months looking for a job. I lost count after 675 applications four months into the search. I only got one interview, and I took the job as a live-in nanny across the state. I wasn't picky, either. I was applying to scrub toilets at McD's, retail, office cleaner, child care, teacher's aide, library page, office assistant, anything I was even remotely qualified for. When my dad lost his job, he spent several years on unemployment searching for a job, any job, that had a pay scale to match what little he earned on unemployment. During this time, my brother was permanently laid off from his tool and dye job. For Christmas, the company laid off the entire work force for three weeks, then hired a whole new work force without informing their laid off employees after the new year. My mother was similarly let go from her home health aide position, as there was not enough work to go around. There were several months in 2008 where my family of four adults was living off one man's unemployment check, because the rest of us didn't qualify for one reason or another.
I wish my tale was unusual for Muskegon, and Michigan in general, but it wasn't, and it still isn't. Though there is some job growth in certain areas, Michigan is still shrinking in population because people are unable to keep food on the table for their families. In 2009, I had to move to Oklahoma to find another job when my nanny job ended. There are so few opportunities at home.
The biggest resurgence that Muskegon is seeing is the tourist industry. We have little else, now that factory and foundry work is mostly gone. We're on the shore of Lake Michigan, with gorgeous sandy beaches and dunes, lighthouses, and State Parks. Muskegon has some decent hunting, is part of the Michigan Color Tour to see the leaves change in the fall, and has some great historical landmarks, such as the Hackley Library, Hackley House, and the Frauenthal. Quite a few fabulous festivals take place in Muskegon, as well. Unity Fest, held in August, is a Christian Music festival, and the Michigan Irish Music Festival is takes place in September. Both are held at Heritage Landing. The Film Festival takes place every May, and every other year, the Muskegon Motorcycle Club holds a huge hill climb. Summer Celebration used to be the big festival, bringing in many big name music acts, and thousands of tourists, but it sadly ended in recent years, having outgrown the venue. We also are home to Michigan's Adventure, a theme park and a water park in one that gets bigger every year, and the U.S.S. Silversides, which is a submarine that is part of our military museum! This is, obviously, only a small sampling of the fun things that Muskegon has to offer.
My guess is that's why there is a viral marketing campaign called Love Muskegon going on right now. No one seems to know who started it, or if it has any end goal beyond city pride, but for now, it seems to be a pretty great idea. Our poor, beleaguered city is struggling to find it's new niche, and now, for the first time in nearly two decades, there seems to be a true growth in town pride. We've not had much to be proud of recently, but I do hope that if we keep working at it, there will be reason to be proud of my home once more. I long for the day when I can come home and there will be a job for me. Perhaps in the next decade, that will become a reality.