Early in my career I did some compressed air and gas piping for a mill near Willy on Metropolitan Ave. There were rows and rows of carousel machines, some spitting out sweater bodies, and some doing sleeves. A floor boss and an army of Hispanic women sewed them up and packaged them. There was a senior citizen yid, who floated among the machines, adjusting feeds and belts, and tweaking the bobbins. I thought at the time that his departure would cause the business to collapse. As it turned out, GAAT and NAFTA came soon after and spelled doom for all the local factories. I was also a frequent visitor to all kinds of facilities in Maspeth, many with old rail connecting tracks out the back door, and some still with massive steam equipment that had been reworked to electric. I was witness to the dying gasp of American business, as it all was scrapped or shipped to China, and raw material with a ‘Made in USA’ stamp became a rarity.
Menu