Legacies Project Oral History: Gary Bryner

Mon, 08/29/2022 - 11:55am

When: 2022

Transcript

[00:00:14] FEMALE_1: I'm going to ask you some simple demographic questions. Well, these questions may jog memories. Please keep your answers brief yet to the point for now, you can elaborate in later interview. Please say and spell your name.
[00:00:29] Gary Bryner: My name is Gary Bryner, G-A- R- Y-B- R- Y- N- E- R.
[00:00:35] FEMALE_1: What is your birthday [OVERLAPPING] [inaudible 00:00:36]?
[00:00:38] Gary Bryner: My birthday is May 10, 1941.
[00:00:42] FEMALE_1: How old are you?
[00:00:43] Gary Bryner: I'm 76.
[00:00:45] FEMALE_1: How would you describe your ethnic background?
[00:00:51] Gary Bryner: Ethnic background. Obviously, you can see I'm Caucasian and we're probably a German descent.
[00:01:02] FEMALE_1: What is your religious affiliation, if any?
[00:01:05] Gary Bryner: None.
[00:01:08] FEMALE_1: What is the highest level of formal education you have completed?
[00:01:11] Gary Bryner: High school.
[00:01:14] FEMALE_1: What is your marital status?
[00:01:17] Gary Bryner: I'm married.
[00:01:18] FEMALE_1: If married, this is festival looking?
[00:01:20] Gary Bryner: Yes.
[00:01:22] FEMALE_1: How many children do you have?
[00:01:23] Gary Bryner: Three daughters.
[00:01:25] FEMALE_1: How many siblings do you have?
[00:01:27] Gary Bryner: One brother.
[00:01:31] FEMALE_1: What would you consider your primary occupation to have been?
[00:01:35] Gary Bryner: A labor organizer.
[00:01:38] FEMALE_1: At what age did you retire?
[00:01:42] Gary Bryner: Sixty four.
[00:01:48] FEMALE_1: Now we can begin the first part of the interview, beginning with some of the things that you recall about your family history. We're beginning with family naming history. By this we mean any story about your last name, or family traditions in selecting the first two male names. Do you know any stories about your family last name?
[00:02:08] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:02:10] FEMALE_1: Are there any naming traditions in your family?
[00:02:13] Gary Bryner: Here is now.
[00:02:15] FEMALE_1: What is it?
[00:02:16] Gary Bryner: All my grandchildren are named after me and that's my middle name, Blair.
[00:02:27] FEMALE_1: Why did your ancestors leave to come to the United States?
[00:02:31] Gary Bryner: I have no idea.
[00:02:33] FEMALE_1: Do you know any stories about how your family first came to the United States or where they settled?
[00:02:39] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:02:41] FEMALE_1: To your knowledge, do they make an effort to preserve any tradition or costumes from their original country [inaudible 00:02:56]?
[00:02:56] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:02:57] FEMALE_1: Are there any traditions that you know that your family has given up or changed?
[00:03:03] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:03:07] FEMALE_1: What story to come down to you about your parents and grandparents or more distant ancestors?
[00:03:15] Gary Bryner: None.
[00:03:22] FEMALE_1: For our communications, media, and public policy magnet program, we're exploring issues surrounding politics and money. Our class came up with two questions we will ask you for each stage of your life. As with all other questions, you can decline to answer features. For this section, we're asking you about your family's history with these issues and if any stories you remember that may have an hand down to them. Prior to your own birth, how did politics, government, political, or social activism affect the lives of your parents?
[00:03:53] Gary Bryner: It didn't.
[00:03:55] FEMALE_1: Then prior to your own birth, what kind of relationships did your parents, grandparents or other ancestors have their money in savings?
[00:04:03] Gary Bryner: Money in savings?
[00:04:04] FEMALE_1: Yeah.
[00:04:04] Gary Bryner: None.
[00:04:11] FEMALE_1: This portion of the interview is about your childhood up until you began attending school. Even if these questions jog memories about other times in your life, please only respond with memories from the earliest part of your life. Where did you grow up and what were your strongest memories of that place?
[00:04:29] Gary Bryner: I grew up in Ohio, a little town called Newton's Falls. My only memories of Pre-school, I remember riding in a garbage truck with the guy that picked up garbage for several blocks and then he would return me home. That's one. The other memory I have is waiting for my brother to get home so we could play cards, we used to play poker for match sticks. Those are the two memories I have.
[00:04:59] FEMALE_1: How did you feel when they come to live there?
[00:05:01] Gary Bryner: They come to live there because they sought work from where they live to where they migrated to Ohio.
[00:05:09] FEMALE_1: What was your house like?
[00:05:12] Gary Bryner: Was chaotic. My dad was an alcoholic and my mom was loud, so it created a very loud and disruptive family
[00:05:24] FEMALE_1: How many people lived in the house with you when you were growing up, and what was their relationship to you?
[00:05:30] Gary Bryner: My mother, my father, my sister who is now passed, and my brother and I, and so there are five of us.
[00:05:38] FEMALE_1: What languages were spoken in or around your house?
[00:05:41] Gary Bryner: Other than cursing, English.
[00:05:48] FEMALE_1: What was your family like when you were a child?
[00:05:51] Gary Bryner: Disfunctional.
[00:05:53] FEMALE_1: How is that?
[00:05:55] Gary Bryner: My father was an alcoholic and my mother was loud. My brother and I and my sister, sought ways to get away from them. Wasn't fun.
[00:06:08] FEMALE_1: What sort of work did your father and mother do?
[00:06:11] Gary Bryner: My dad worked and he was a supervisor in a bumper making factory, and then he went into a steel mill and my mother worked in retail.
[00:06:28] FEMALE_1: What was the typical day like for you and your pre-school years?
[00:06:32] Gary Bryner: Pre-school? I don't have much memory of it.
[00:06:39] FEMALE_1: What did you do for fun?
[00:06:42] Gary Bryner: Sports.
[00:06:44] FEMALE_1: What was your favorite sport still now?
[00:06:46] Gary Bryner: Baseball, basketball, and football.
[00:06:52] FEMALE_1: Did you have a favorite book or books?
[00:06:57] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:06:58] FEMALE_1: Do you have a favorite form of other entertainment?
[00:07:04] Gary Bryner: No, [LAUGHTER] Was just boys, girls getting much later.
[00:07:11] FEMALE_1: How did politics, government, political or social activism affect your life?
[00:07:17] Gary Bryner: My entire life?
[00:07:19] FEMALE_1: At this point.
[00:07:20] Gary Bryner: Pre-school? It didn't.
[00:07:24] FEMALE_1: Then what was your relationship to money and savings at this time?
[00:07:27] Gary Bryner: I didn't have any. That was my relationship.
[00:07:35] FEMALE_1: Today, we will discuss your time as a young person from about the time that school attendance typically begin to the United States, up until your professional career all looked like. Did you go to a Pre-school?
[00:07:48] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:07:50] FEMALE_1: Did you go to kindergarten?
[00:07:51] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:07:53] FEMALE_1: Did you go to elementary school?
[00:07:55] Gary Bryner: Yes.
[00:07:56] FEMALE_1: Where?
[00:07:57] Gary Bryner: Newton Falls, Ohio.
[00:07:59] FEMALE_1: What do you remember about it?
[00:08:02] Gary Bryner: Not much. I remember I had a broken leg that I broke in the summer and I had to go to school with a cast. Other than the typical things I remember some of the teachers, but that's about it.
[00:08:17] FEMALE_1: Did you go to high school?
[00:08:18] Gary Bryner: I did.
[00:08:19] FEMALE_1: What do you remember about that?
[00:08:21] Gary Bryner: I played all three sports in high school. I learned to dance. Not very well, but I learned to dance. I remember that I was intrigued with all math, so I took all the math courses I could and that was about it.
[00:08:45] FEMALE_1: Did you go to a school or career training beyond high school?
[00:08:49] Gary Bryner: I did as part of a job that I got when I got out of high school, but not prior.
[00:09:01] FEMALE_1: What about your school experience is different from school as you know it today?
[00:09:07] Gary Bryner: It was probably more simple. That was a small school. I think there were a hundred kids in my senior class. There was no technology as compared to today, none. I can remember getting our first TV. Things were much slower. Phones, we didn't even use phones back then, except maybe at night they call each other back-and-forth. But other than that, you guys are well advanced from where we were.
[00:09:44] FEMALE_1: Please describe the popular music of this time.
[00:09:49] Gary Bryner: Rock and roll just came into being in the '50s and the '60s. That was the music of the day. I wasn't into it per se.
[00:10:05] FEMALE_1: Did the music have any particular dances associated with it?
[00:10:10] Gary Bryner: At the time? Yeah, they did the twist and jitterbug or whatever they called it. I was in sports, so music did not entertain me at all.
[00:10:24] FEMALE_1: What were the popular clothing or hairstyles of this time?
[00:10:29] Gary Bryner: They called them, what was it? Dirt cuts, where the hair was combed back and then it left a crease in the back. I think it was dirt something. But again, I was in sports, so my hair was normally shaved right off.
[00:10:48] FEMALE_1: Can you describe any other thoughts or styles from this era?
[00:10:54] Gary Bryner: They had bell-bottom pants, then they pegged pants. It was collars up trying to mimic whoever the artists of the day were that were making music. Again, it didn't affect me much.
[00:11:13] FEMALE_1: Were there any slang terms, phrases, or words used that aren't in common use today?
[00:11:22] Gary Bryner: That's a good one. I don't know any off the top of my head, but I'm sure there were.
[00:11:34] FEMALE_1: What was a typical day like for you in this time period?
[00:11:43] Gary Bryner: Normally, depending on what sport was in town or in season, but normally you just get up, head off to school, go to practice, go home, do your homework, go to bed, and start over.
[00:11:59] FEMALE_1: What did you do for fun while in high school?
[00:12:02] Gary Bryner: I played sports.
[00:12:06] FEMALE_1: Were there any special days, events, or family traditions you remember from this time?
[00:12:10] Gary Bryner: None.
[00:12:14] FEMALE_1: Did your family have any special sayings or expressions during this time?
[00:12:18] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:12:20] FEMALE_1: Any changes in your family life during your school years?
[00:12:24] Gary Bryner: My parents got divorced.
[00:12:27] FEMALE_1: How did that affect your day-to-day life?
[00:12:32] Gary Bryner: Well, I lived with one instead of two. Other than that, it was the same old same old.
[00:12:44] FEMALE_1: Which holidays did your family celebrate?
[00:12:48] Gary Bryner: Thanksgiving, Christmas.
[00:12:51] FEMALE_1: How are holidays traditionally celebrated in your family?
[00:12:55] Gary Bryner: Back then? Usually we'd head to my grandparents home in Pennsylvania for Christmas, and Thanksgiving was just dinner at home.
[00:13:09] FEMALE_1: Has your family created its own traditions and celebrations?
[00:13:12] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:13:17] FEMALE_1: When thinking back on your school years, what important social or historical events were taking place at this time, and how did they personally affect you and your family?
[00:13:27] Gary Bryner: I can't think of any, and they didn't affect us at all.
[00:13:33] FEMALE_1: How did politics, government, political or social activism affect your life at this time?
[00:13:40] Gary Bryner: It didn't.
[00:13:43] FEMALE_1: What was your relationships to money and savings at this time in your life?
[00:13:46] Gary Bryner: Didn't have any.
[00:13:53] FEMALE_1: This set of questions covers a relatively long period of your life, from the time you completed your education, entered labor force or started a family up until the day of your children left home and you or your spouse retired from work. We're possibly going to take a stretch of time spanning as much as four decades. After you finished high school, where did you live?
[00:14:18] Gary Bryner: When I graduated high school, I stayed at the house with my father.
[00:14:27] FEMALE_1: Did you remain there or did you move around through your working adult life, and was there a reason for it?
[00:14:35] Gary Bryner: I got a job immediately when I graduated high school, and a year later I moved out.
[00:14:45] FEMALE_1: I'd like you to tell me a little about your married and family life. First tell me about your spouse. Where and when did you meet?
[00:14:53] Gary Bryner: I met my first wife, since I'm divorced, we met in high school. She was two years older than me. When I turned 19, the two of us got married. We had three children.
[00:15:06] FEMALE_1: What was it like when you were dating?
[00:15:09] Gary Bryner: It was nice, she had a car. [LAUGHTER] Sounds terrible, doesn't it? It was wonderful. I would go to school and then I'd get to see her afterwards, then she could drive us around. It was cool.
[00:15:25] FEMALE_1: Tell me about your engagement and wedding.
[00:15:27] Gary Bryner: We weren't engaged very long, about six months we got married in August of, she was, now I have to think about, it would've been 1960 I got married. We were married almost 22 years. We had three girls, as I suggested earlier.
[00:15:50] FEMALE_1: How many wives have you had?
[00:15:52] Gary Bryner: I've been married twice.
[00:15:55] FEMALE_1: I'm going to repeat the same questions for your second wife. Where and when did you meet?
[00:16:00] Gary Bryner: I met my wife in 1983 at a convention, a UAW union convention. We were married four years later in 1987. We honeymooned in San Francisco, and we have no children together.
[00:16:18] FEMALE_1: What was it like when you were dating?
[00:16:20] Gary Bryner: It was magical. My wife worked full-time obviously as I did, and we got to see each other on a regular basis and shared many many things in common.
[00:16:34] FEMALE_1: Tell me about your engagement and wedding.
[00:16:37] Gary Bryner: Our engagement again was short-lived, it was probably six months. The wedding was held in a judge's chambers, and then we threw a little after-party for hundred or so people.
[00:16:54] FEMALE_1: Tell me about your children and what life was like when they were young and in the house.
[00:17:00] Gary Bryner: Well, I was 19 when I got married, the first child was born when I was 20. They were three daughters, my oldest now is 20 years younger than me, she's 56. Then 18 months later a second child came along, Shelley, and then 18 months later, a third child, Tracy. The three girls have been absolutely wonderful. They were always active in school, a couple of them were cheerleaders and they belonged to all these different clubs and they played sports. It was just a wonderful time of my life to watch them grow.
[00:17:42] FEMALE_1: Tell me about your working years.
[00:17:45] Gary Bryner: My working years, I've been working since I was 18 years old. [OVERLAPPING]
[00:17:48] MALE_1: Thanks. [inaudible 00:17:50] you're in such a good role.
[00:17:56] Gary Bryner: [LAUGHTER] Yeah, right.
[00:17:59] Gary Bryner: What is third again? What was it?
[00:18:04] FEMALE_1: I said tell me about your working years.
[00:18:07] Gary Bryner: Eighteen years old. I got a job in a steel mill. I worked there three years. I was a mechanical technician. I must say the first year I was there was the idea was to earn enough money to go to school. It turns out, we went on the longest strike and modern steel history, 120 something days, all the money was gone. When I came back to work, I worked another year or so and then I decided to change jobs. I went to an asbestos cement, lime and gypsum plant that made pipe, pipe that goes into ground for water, irrigation or sewage. I worked there three years and then I changed jobs again. I went to General Motors and I worked in General Motors. These are all union jobs by the way. In General Motors, I became representative elected by the folks that I worked with and I became a shop committee man. Then I became the president of that local union and I did that job for 11 years. Then the Governor asked me to take a position in the state of Ohio. I was superintendent of safety and hygiene for almost three years. I got fired by the Republican who got elected, Jim Rhoades. I went back into the plant, again, got re-elected. In 1977, I was asked to go on the staff of the International union UAW, which has headquarters here in Detroit. I became an administrative assistant to the President and served in that position basically for almost 30 years.
[00:20:03] FEMALE_2: What were the working conditions back in the steel mill?
[00:20:06] Gary Bryner: The steel mill was exceptionally hard, hot and dirty. I can remember people in the areas that I had worked were killed. One was backed over by high-low. I don't know if you know anything about his steel mill, but it is hot, dirty and dangerous. Three people were gassed in then annealing furnace where they use gas. It was a dangerous place to work. Almost had my hand chopped off on an instrument that I was working on. I was so happy to leave the steel mill.
[00:20:48] FEMALE_2: What was it typical day like during the working years of your adult life?
[00:20:54] Gary Bryner: Full-time. Morning till night and especially when I got involved in the running of the Union it's just nonstop. There's always something to do that's when I became active in politics and any social causes. There was just endless things to do and little time to do it. Trying to raise a family of three young girls, it was full go.
[00:21:25] FEMALE_1: What did your family enjoy doing together when your kids were still at home?
[00:21:30] Gary Bryner: Mostly other than their activities in school, summer times, we're always they wanted to go swimming so they learn to swim at a very young age. We're always together on the weekends wherever I was available to those fun things.
[00:21:49] FEMALE_2: What were your personal favorite things to do for fun?
[00:21:53] Gary Bryner: In my work life? I've been a member of a gymnasium of some sort, YMCA or a personal fitness place for my entire adult life. That's where I got my enjoyment. Little golf, some pickup sports and stuff like that.
[00:22:14] FEMALE_2: Are there any special days, events or family traditions you practice that differ from your childhood traditions?
[00:22:20] Gary Bryner: No.
[00:22:29] FEMALE_2: Please describe the popular music of this time.
[00:22:36] Gary Bryner: Again, I had very little interest in music and it's amazing to me now when I think back about it, because of my daughters and my wife loved music. Back then I could care less about what they were playing. Didn't know, didn't care.
[00:22:58] FEMALE_2: Did the music have any particular and dances associated with it?
[00:23:01] Gary Bryner: I'm sure it did. What do they do? See these foot's at Disco thing they used to do. I don't even know what they call it. Disco at his fever and John Travolta and that kind of stuff. I'm aware of it but didn't interest me at all.
[00:23:22] FEMALE_2: What were the popular clothing hairstyles of this time?
[00:23:27] Gary Bryner: Again, you wouldn't believe this at one time but I had an afro, full beard, and little wire rim glasses. The only thing you could see on me or my buck teeth and eyes. My friends said I was a son of a buffalo.
[00:23:48] FEMALE_2: Can you describe any other fads or styles from this time?
[00:23:54] Gary Bryner: These these flared pants, bell-bottom pants, was a big thing. What was these suits they used to wear these man-made suits of some material that you wouldn't own today? Other than that, it's not funny but I worked, that's what I did. I worked hard and long as most people did in order to eke out a living.
[00:24:27] FEMALE_1: Were there any slang terms or phrases or words that are in common use today?
[00:24:33] Gary Bryner: I can't think of any.
[00:24:36] FEMALE_1: When thinking back on your working adult life, what important social or historical events were taking place at that time, and how did they personally affect you or your family?
[00:24:48] Gary Bryner: But I can remember this is like 1970. We were working on how to get HMOs. Couldn't get doctors to talk to us about having an HMO so the health part of it was important. We were in negotiations in many years, talking about retirement and talking about health care and how do you get voluntary overtime and how do you get just pension questions. Those are the things they've got you involved with the politics because not all of what you can do with the companies you work for, you have to be done to legislation and health care was one of them. It's affected my life, I'll tell you how. I can remember the first dental plan we negotiated with the employer at the time, General Motors and my children all went to the dentist and all of a sudden I had coverage for him. It's amazing the amount of money that you spend on health care that now has covered some times where most times by insurance, which is a godsend to us.
[00:26:09] FEMALE_1: How did politics, government, political or social activism affect your life at this time?
[00:26:15] Gary Bryner: Well. As I learned, everything can be changed simply by those who get elected to represent us. You become very various attune to who you want to represent you. Working in the labor union, he had a lot of folks there were maybe 9,000 members and the local union when I was president, trying to find out or trying to determine who would represent his best and then seek to get them elected so politics was an everyday affair in the life when I started working.
[00:26:57] FEMALE_2: What was your relationship to money in savings at this time?
[00:27:01] Gary Bryner: I had a little bit more [LAUGHTER] because I was working and working steady. We had enough savings to consider putting the three girls to college, which worked out fine they all went to school. My relationship was to money is just to have enough, provide for the kids and the family.
[00:27:31] FEMALE_1: This set of questions covers a relatively long period of your life from the time you entered the labor force or started a family to present time. We covered a lot of this, but what was your primary fields of employment?
[00:27:54] Gary Bryner: My primary was just factory work.
[00:27:59] FEMALE_1: How did you first get started with this particular field?
[00:28:05] Gary Bryner: I had no education, got out of high school, got a job so you go where the work is. My first job I said was in the steel mill and then I just moved around until I found a spot that I could stay at.
[00:28:21] FEMALE_1: Describe the steps of the process involved in your job from start to finish, what's involved?
[00:28:30] Gary Bryner: Any particular job or the last one I had or?
[00:28:36] FEMALE_1: Whatever job, anything you want, it's fine.
[00:28:43] Gary Bryner: As president of union, I said there were about 9,000 members. We enforced the contract as well as negotiated new ones along with the international union. My job was every morning you get up, you go to work, work to me was going to a union hall, to an office, and then checking all of the mail that you had and then carrying out the functions of the office by either going to meetings, politics, social issues, everything in-between you did when you were the president of the local union.
[00:29:28] FEMALE_1: How have they changed over time?
[00:29:34] Gary Bryner: Well, technology has been a big improvement. Technology, when you go to automation within the plants that I worked back then, it's taken jobs. What used to be done by labor, by people are now in many, many cases done by automation through all kind of technology changes that have reduced the number of people needed to build or to do. Robots.
[00:30:15] FEMALE_1: It goes off of that. What technological changes occurred during the working years?
[00:30:19] Gary Bryner: Robots. The technical logical changes, I can remember going into a factory from a model change which means they're switching from one car year to another car year. When we got back and it was a two or three months layover, there were like 24 robots on either side of an assembly line that was doing welding that used to be done by the men and women in the plant. To see that happen where they automatically go in, find a position and weld and release and do it over and over and over again, it was astounding.
[00:31:10] FEMALE_1: What is the biggest difference in your primary filter employment from the time you started until now?
[00:31:18] Gary Bryner: Well, when I started I was actually a laborer and when I finished I was working in the international union as a representative of half-a-million people.
[00:31:34] FEMALE_1: How do you judge excellence within your field? What makes somebody respected in that field?
[00:31:39] Gary Bryner: Honesty, hard work, keeping your word. That's how you get respect.
[00:31:50] FEMALE_1: What do you value most about what you do for a living and why?
[00:31:57] Gary Bryner: The most thing I value was I was able to do what I believe to be something helpful in representing someone and many times, many, many people who otherwise would not have a voice. That is the one thing that I carry with me forever, is to be able to speak up for those who otherwise would not have a voice.
[00:32:25] FEMALE_1: Tell me about any moves you made during your working years and retirement prior to the decision to move to your current residence?
[00:32:36] Gary Bryner: Every time we moved, it was because of work. Initially when we stayed in a little home where we grew up and I got this job offer to go to state governments. We moved 200 miles to the capital of Ohio, Columbus and we stayed there for those three years. That was when I got fired there, I moved back, got another job back in the same union, and then we stay in the city until again I was offered a job in Detroit so we moved again. All of our moves were based on job opportunities.
[00:33:22] FEMALE_1: How did moving affect your family life at all?
[00:33:25] Gary Bryner: My daughters hated me because we took them out of school and put them in another school and every time it worked out just like this. They couldn't ask enough times to go back home and then that faded. Then we moved again and it was the same thing they wanted to go back where they left. Finally, when we moved to Michigan, they were, let's see, a freshman, eighth grade, and maybe sixth grade. All they wanted to do is go back to Ohio where they came from and until a year or so and then now Michigan is their home. They've never been happier. They're glad we moved because they went from a real little town of about 5,000 to Detroit, to this area where there's millions and now they're happy campers.
[00:34:23] FEMALE_1: Did you live in Detroit or like the suburbs?
[00:34:26] Gary Bryner: It was the suburb. I'm sorry. I worked my entire adult life almost 30 years right downtown Detroit.
[00:34:42] FEMALE_1: How did you come to living your current residence?
[00:34:47] Gary Bryner: My current residence is, let's see, the wife and I had a little 14 acre farm two horses, dogs, cats and the horses; one died was very old, 27 years old and the other one was a show horse. My wife used to show it over fences, it's like the fox hunting if you've ever seen it on TV. When that horse became lame, we decided the farm was just too big for us so we sold the farm and moved to Ann Arbor into a condo.
[00:35:26] FEMALE_1: This goes back to another previous question about how do you feel about Detroit?
[00:35:34] Gary Bryner: I saw Detroit in the 1960s when it was vibrant and going. To see it now, I was downtown Sunday University of Detroit to a lacrosse game. To see the blight, it's just heart-wrenching to know a city that was so vibrant could decay in the time span that I've been, let's see, in 40 years. It's just been horrible to see it happen.
[00:36:06] FEMALE_1: How do you feel about your current living situation?
[00:36:09] Gary Bryner: It's perfect in every way. We have a nice home, we have a good life, we're very, very happy.
[00:36:34] FEMALE_1: This set of questions covers your retirement years to present time. How did your family life change for you when you and/or your spouse retired and all the children left the house?
[00:36:47] Gary Bryner: Well, when the children left the house, it was up with my first wife. When the last one was in college, Tracy, her mother and I divorced. The girls were all in college. Could you repeat the question again? I just skipped.
[00:37:06] FEMALE_1: How did your family life changed for you when you and/or your spouse retired and your children?
[00:37:11] Gary Bryner: Well, you can imagine. My three daughters were in college at the same time. One was a freshman, one was the junior, one was the senior. I was home. Their mother moved to Texas. We had a four-bedroom house and me in it while they were gone. I maintained the house for the four years so they had a home when they were in college. Then once they get out of school, we sold the home. I then met my current wife and we got married, and life continues.
[00:37:46] FEMALE_1: What's a typical day in your life currently?
[00:37:52] Gary Bryner: This morning, I got up early seven o'clock. My wife, we have a dog, Baxter, she takes him for an hour walk or so. I get up and when they come home, I make breakfast. We eat breakfast, we read the newspaper, the dog eats about an hour later, I take him for a walk. We're fortunate enough to have about 40 acres of woods right next to our condo, so we walk into which the dog and I and then it's a matter of what we have planned, something like this, or I go to the gym, I go see one of my daughters, granddaughters. Hopefully, travel whenever we can, play a little golf.
[00:38:34] FEMALE_1: What does your family enjoy doing together now?
[00:38:40] Gary Bryner: Every year, for the last 20-some years, we go on vacation together. We spend major holidays together, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays. We do the turkey trot together and have for years and years and years. Everything is family, planned around everybody's birthday and holidays and travel. It's been pretty spectacular.
[00:39:09] FEMALE_1: How many grandchildren do you have?
[00:39:11] Gary Bryner: I have five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
[00:39:19] FEMALE_1: Do you remember any of the particular vacations?
[00:39:23] Gary Bryner: Every one of them. This is the one thing you do, at least in my case, when I didn't have those memories. I was telling my wife this morning when I read your brochures again, my mother was one of 11, my father was one of nine. If you looked at all the siblings or cousins that I had, there's probably over 50. I don't think my grandparents knew our names because it was so many kids coming and going. In my case, it's restricted to just five grandkids and three daughters, and we see each other on a regular basis. It's been absolutely wonderful to share the time with them.
[00:40:10] FEMALE_1: Do they live nearby?
[00:40:12] Gary Bryner: Two of my granddaughters are in Ohio about four hours from here, one granddaughter is in Chicago, and the other granddaughter and grandson or here in West Bloomfield.
[00:40:27] FEMALE_1: [inaudible 00:40:27] your favorite location list to vacation at?
[00:40:31] Gary Bryner: We go to a place in Michigan, it's up by the Mackinac Island. We vacation a place called Black Lake. We get cottages up there on the lake and we spend four or five or six days together up there every year. Again, my wife and I've been fortunate enough, we rented a house in New Orleans for a month, so the kids come down for a week at a time. We've been to Washington DC and they come, we've been to South Carolina and they come, wherever we go and spend our vacation or our time away, it's based on the kids availability to come visit.
[00:41:13] FEMALE_1: What are your personal favorite things to do for fun?
[00:41:17] Gary Bryner: The gymnasium, golfing, sports-related, and then, obviously, being with my grandkids.
[00:41:25] FEMALE_1: Are there any special days, events, or family traditions you especially enjoy at this time in your life?
[00:41:32] Gary Bryner: The turkey trot is one that I enjoy a lot. I have been running in the turkey trot downtown Detroit forever. My daughters started to join with me and then pretty soon they're kids were old enough, so we all do it. Now, we do it here in Ann Arbor. We've done for last two years here.
[00:41:54] FEMALE_1: When thinking your life after retirement or your kids left home to the present, what important social or historical event were taking place and how do they personally affect you or your family?
[00:42:09] Gary Bryner: Again, it comes back to health care again, where people need health care. Obviously, it's a very highly political issue as you all know. That's one thing that's affected our lives. Pension is another one, and while it's not maybe political, it has changed such that people who, in my age, grew up with defined pensions, where every month you know you're going to get your pensions check, my kids are growing up in an era where they have to save the money to be able to pay for their retirement, pay for their health care because it's not something that's a legacy from the company they worked for, isn't guaranteed. Those are the social issues that they're facing that I didn't have to. Then this whole question of the escalation of military buildup. Is there going to be a war? That stuff is always on the back of my mind.
[00:43:11] FEMALE_1: How did you feel about [inaudible 00:43:11] ?
[00:43:11] Gary Bryner: I'm sorry?
[00:43:15] FEMALE_1: How did you feel about building of arms?
[00:43:20] Gary Bryner: I'm opposed to war, I'm a pacifist at the very least. I started when the Vietnam War, I was opposed to that. I was in [inaudible 00:43:31] my local union so wherever I could get an opportunity to speak out against it, I did that. I'm opposed the war in any fashion. There's got to be a better way.
[00:43:49] FEMALE_1: When thinking back on your entire life, what single social-historical events had the greatest impact?
[00:43:59] Gary Bryner: On my life, this is not something that I was a part of. But when they created the Wagner Act and let people form unions, it turned out it was the greatest impact forever on my life because I was able to be a member of a union, willingly.
[00:44:31] FEMALE_1: I think we're going to stop here because we have to put cameras and stuff away. We're almost done, we can finish up rest tomorrow.
[00:44:40] MALE_1: Sounds good. Thank you.
[00:44:42] FEMALE_1: Thank you.
[00:44:42] Gary Bryner: You're welcome.
[00:44:42] MALE_1: [inaudible 00:44:42] I'm pretty sure my freshman year we played and we lost 17 to 5.
[00:44:54] Gary Bryner: It happens. You have a bad day someday.
[00:44:55] MALE_1: That's for sure. Yeah.
[00:44:58] Gary Bryner: I haven't been able to exercise for three weeks, it's killing me.
[00:45:17] MALE_1: I was about to say whenever I get the flu or feet or my bones are sick.
[00:45:20] MALE_1: Is that good?
[00:45:20] Gary Bryner: It's good to have movement, especially when you get old.
[00:45:25] FEMALE_1: [inaudible 00:45:25] .
[00:45:25] Gary Bryner: You got pretty cool shoes, Nick.
[00:45:41] MALE_1: Thank you. Down for my birthdays.
[00:45:41] MALE_1: Is that good?
[00:45:45] FEMALE_1: No, I think it's that one. Yes, that one. Go right. [inaudible 00:45:52]
[00:46:17] FEMALE_1: [OVERLAPPING]
[00:46:17] MALE_2: I think it's okay.
[00:46:22] FEMALE_1: Hello. How are you?
[00:46:29] MALE_1: Thank you.
[00:46:29] FEMALE_1: [inaudible 00:46:29] chit-chatting and [inaudible 00:46:38] Just giving symptoms and [inaudible 00:46:39] I'm not being rude. Yes.
[00:46:42] MALE_1: Me either. [LAUGHTER]
[00:46:46] MALE_2: How have you been?
[00:46:46] MALE_1: [inaudible 00:46:46] Perfect.
[00:46:48] MALE_2: Oh, that's great.
[00:46:51] MALE_1: Got excited. Missed it too here came late like three weeks ago. I saw this [inaudible 00:46:58] It's no fun. I do taxes on Mondays and Tuesdays. [inaudible 00:47:11] my entire adult life without ever being on sick leave [inaudible 00:47:22] different feeling.
[00:47:38] MALE_2: Could you hold that for me on your face real quick just to [inaudible 00:47:40] Now the white part of it [inaudible 00:47:43]
[00:47:45] MALE_1: This way.
[00:47:46] MALE_2: Yeah. You put it over your face.
[00:47:49] MALE_1: Over.
[00:47:50] MALE_1: Yeah.
[00:47:51] MALE_1: This is a better deal [LAUGHTER] [NOISE]. Whoops.
[00:47:58] MALE_2: No.
[00:47:58] FEMALE_1: [NOISE]
[00:48:18] MALE_2: All right. You're good.
[00:48:19] MALE_1: Thank you.
[00:48:19] MALE_2: You're welcome. Good morning.
[00:48:26] MALE_1: Good morning.
[00:48:26] MALE_2: We're really happy that you're here today. We've been looking forward to this interview. Let's see. This shouldn't take too long and should probably be the shortest interview of them all. But it's going to be the most, I guess, the [inaudible 00:48:40] stories of them all and so I was talking earlier about some of the stories that we wanted to sort of touch into. You said you're okay with that. [inaudible 00:48:49] can make it right into it, that's all right. We just got some questions. You can put as many details if you want. If you don't want to say anything, you don't have to. Describe the place you grew up.
[00:49:02] MALE_1: I grew up in a small town called Newton Falls, Ohio. About 6,000 people. I think when I graduated, it was 100 kids in my class. You could see that the size was not tiny but small, created an atmosphere where you knew everybody.
[00:49:24] MALE_2: So is more of the country rather than the city.
[00:49:26] MALE_1: It was a very small town.
[00:49:29] MALE_2: Was your home comfortable to you?
[00:49:33] MALE_1: My physical home?
[00:49:34] MALE_2: Uh-huh.
[00:49:37] MALE_1: It depends on how you describe comfort, but as far as having a place to sleep and a place to live, that was all right.
[00:49:47] MALE_2: What was the time period long enough for you?
[00:49:50] MALE_1: I don't think I understand.
[00:49:52] MALE_2: Just the time period was it 1900s or earlier or later.
[00:49:58] MALE_1: When I grew up?
[00:49:59] MALE_2: Yeah.
[00:49:59] MALE_1: Well, I was born in 1941, so I was in school for the next 18 years. I graduated in '59 from high school and then I went to work.
[00:50:16] MALE_2: We remember you came from a large family. Can you tell us what it was like growing up with a large family?
[00:50:21] MALE_1: Well, a large family, extended family. My family were there were actually three of us. My sister and my brother were each a year older than me and that made me the third of the three. But my father was one of nine, my mother was one of 11. I had 13 great aunts and uncles on my father's side alive when I was growing up. Because my grandmother was one of 14 kids. They were big families that came from Pennsylvania.
[00:50:55] MALE_2: That's cool. I didn't know that. Did anyone else live with you besides your parents and your three siblings or your two siblings?
[00:51:04] MALE_1: Only people who were migrating from the farms, like uncles and cousins that would land at our house for like two weeks or three weeks while they were working getting a job, and then moving on, but nobody permanently.
[00:51:20] MALE_2: What big world affairs for the most memorable while you were coming off?
[00:51:24] MALE_1: The Vietnam War when we got out of high school. It was the biggest event that I can remember. Where my friends were being drafted and sent off to Vietnam.
[00:51:36] MALE_2: I think it was the first or second interview you were saying you are fully against the war.
[00:51:42] MALE_1: I was.
[00:51:43] MALE_2: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:51:46] MALE_1: Well, when I got to be a worker and got active in the labor union, it just seemed to me that we were fighting a war that had nothing to do with us. Kids that I went to school with some dying, of course, as a lot did. It just seemed like the opposite of what we should be doing and I had a voice so I used it.
[00:52:14] MALE_2: Good. We were [inaudible 00:52:16] by your stories about your childhood. Describe a favorite memory from your child, [LAUGHTER] if any. [LAUGHTER]
[00:52:24] MALE_1: Well, I do have probably some favorite numbers, but it all had to do with extracurricular stuff, sports because that's one of the things we did and it was a little town. There was just enough boys in the school. If you went out, you made the team and usually you got to play. We played sports year-round.
[00:52:48] MALE_2: That's cool. We remember that you were involved in sports growing up. Can you tell us more about that? Just get into more detail.
[00:52:56] MALE_1: Well, my favorite sport was baseball. I made the varsity team when I was a freshman. All the boys made the high school football team because everybody went out and got a uniform. Then I played basketball for three years. Football four years, baseball four years, and three years in basketball.
[00:53:27] MALE_2: Regarding to up until now just more into the depth of sports, I guess in your childhood. Sports played a big part in your life. What did you enjoy most about competitive sports?
[00:53:40] MALE_1: Well, the camaraderie of friends and teammates, of course, played an important role. You learned discipline, you had to make practices, you had to do the kind of things you had to learn the place. You had to be able to compete when you're not feeling as good as you think you should and occasionally you succeed. That was a good feeling.
[00:54:08] MALE_2: How much time did you spend at your home during your childhood and during sports?
[00:54:15] MALE_1: Obviously, I slept there, but other than that, we were outside doing something somewhere, generally speaking.
[00:54:24] MALE_2: So it's almost always [inaudible 00:54:25]
[00:54:27] MALE_1: Always [inaudible 00:54:27] I didn't have a curfew. I could come and go as I chose. The only curfews I had were sports curfews. You had to be in the house by a certain time or the coach could throw you out of the team.
[00:54:41] MALE_2: First interview, you mentioned that your father was not well. When did you and your families start to see these signs?
[00:54:48] MALE_1: As long as I can remember, my father was an alcoholic, which mean he'd drink something almost every day. He's affected that way. As a child, you probably become immune to it thinking he drinks. But the actions, he was moody, that thing that went with drinking arguments with my mother.
[00:55:16] MALE_2: How would you describe the disease of alcohol as long as it affected your father, was he abusive or just wasn't really present?
[00:55:24] MALE_1: The good thing is he was not abusive. I got enough trouble with my dad, didn't know that he could discipline us and he did. But you didn't do it out of my rage of alcoholism. It affected him because it seemed like it was the only thing that he enjoyed, drink, drink, drink.
[00:55:46] MALE_2: What was your reaction to your father's illness? Did you try and stay clear of him or try to talk to him anymore?
[00:55:56] MALE_1: Clear is probably the determinant value I had. But he was working or drinking. There wasn't any conversation. No father-son conversations about where you're going, what are you doing, let me help you. That did not exist in our house.
[00:56:15] MALE_2: During your sports, did your mother and father both attend the games?
[00:56:19] MALE_1: Never.
[00:56:19] MALE_2: Never. How did that affect you? Did you mind they didn't really?
[00:56:24] MALE_1: It's probably embarrassing when I think about it back. But it was probably more embarrassing if they would have come.
[00:56:30] MALE_2: Yeah. That makes sense. How did the rest of your family feel about your father illness like your siblings, your mother?
[00:56:38] MALE_1: My sister died early of cancer in her 40s. My brother and I talk about it. It's just when we think about my dad, a guy who had an eighth-grade education, could build a house, could repair a car, could find jobs anywhere, and had no education. He's just one of those guys get caught in a trap. Started, I suspect, drinking to get a little comfort out of life and he just realized how close you can come back to almost making it a night. He's the one that did not make it. Now, was he a happy guy? Yeah. Everybody liked my dad. But his life was all about work and drink.
[00:57:31] MALE_2: How did your family take any precautions because of your father's alcoholism?
[00:57:39] MALE_1: Well, what I learned was not to drink. My brother was the same way. I don't think I drank anything until I was almost, I think maybe 21 or 22. My brother went into the service and I suspect he drank there. He was in Germany. I'm sure he tipped a few beers, but we just re-framed because we knew that there was this end of the line. You could see what had happened with our dad. Was a cautionary tale not to get involved in that.
[00:58:16] MALE_2: Did it bother you that your father never attended any of your sporting events?
[00:59:00] Gary Bryner: Yeah, as I said before, it was a little embarrassing. Because you're around like 20 or 30 kids on the team. Their parents show up on parents' night, yours don't. It's a little unnerving I guess.
[00:59:00] MALE_2: Why do you think your mother didn't attend your games?
[00:59:00] Gary Bryner: I'm not sure. I suspect mine thought I was just wasting my time. My brother didn't play sports. He worked two jobs trying to get a car. It's a strange phenomenon about parents, and why they do and what they don't do. As a child, you don't even think about it. You don't make the argument you need to come. I need you there. I just did not exist in our household.
[00:59:13] MALE_2: Now we're going to Act 3. This is more of the positive outcomes. [LAUGHTER] You should feel much better about it. We recall you felt strongly about being the best parent you could and grandparent, of course. You have children. How many?
[00:59:31] Gary Bryner: We have three daughters.
[00:59:32] MALE_2: Three daughters?
[00:59:33] Gary Bryner: My oldest daughter is going to be 57 and her sister is 18 months younger. She's 55 in July and then the youngest one is a school teacher in Ohio and she's going to be 53. In fact, she was 53 in January.
[00:59:49] MALE_2: Can you describe a little bit more about your relationship with your children during their childhood?
[00:59:58] Gary Bryner: Three girls, all involved in those girly things that girls do at that time. Two of them were cheerleaders. They played different sports together. Our job was to shuffle them back and forth from school to school to do whatever they do, why they're there. That was one of the things I got to do. I got to get out of school, get a job, and buy a station wagon so I can haul the kids around.
[01:00:27] MALE_2: Growing up as a parent we know that your father was an alcoholic. Did you ever drink in front of your children or did you ever consider how they would see that?
[01:00:40] Gary Bryner: The answer is no, I didn't drink in front of them. Well, I shouldn't say never. I'm sure when we had people, we may have had a beer, a glass of wine, or something, but there was no alcohol stored in our house. We didn't do that and I was not a drinker and my wife was not a drinker, so that never entered into our home. My children, they may have seen me since they've become adults, drink maybe too much, but other than that, no.
[01:01:11] MALE_2: Going back to your grandchildren. How many grandchildren do you have?
[01:01:16] Gary Bryner: Five grandchildren. Four girls and one boy.
[01:01:20] MALE_2: How old is the oldest and the youngest?
[01:01:22] Gary Bryner: The oldest is 30. The youngest since 19.
[01:01:25] MALE_2: Nineteen. Is that the one that attends Albany College?
[01:01:29] Gary Bryner: I also have three great-grandchildren.
[01:01:31] MALE_2: Wow.
[01:01:32] Gary Bryner: All boys. Four, two, and one.
[01:01:36] MALE_2: It's crazy.
[01:01:38] Gary Bryner: I don't know if I told you this. My grandkids are named after me. Their middle name is Blair and my middle name is Blair. It's Jordan Blair, [inaudible 01:01:46] Blair and Jessica Blair, Rebecca Blair, and Ryan Blair.
[01:01:51] MALE_2: That's crazy.
[01:01:52] Gary Bryner: Isaac Blair is the great-grandchild, one of them is named after me as well.
[01:01:57] MALE_2: Fantastic. We recall that you attend as many as your grandchildren's sporting events as possible. Describe your relationship with your grandchildren.
[01:02:11] Gary Bryner: I tell all my friends. I was married early and had children early and grandchildren early. I told my friends that when they're thinking about when their kids are going to have kids that it will change your life. Grandchildren will change your life. What it does, it's your ability to be able to do anything you want with them when you want, when they're available, and then you get to turn them back over to their parents. One of the things we always said is if you need somebody to look after the grandkids, call us first. If we're available, we'll do it and if we're not, we'll tell you we're not. We weren't going to be grandchildren's parents in absentia. We wanted them when we wanted [inaudible 01:02:55] , we're just not going to be babysitters. With that, we were able to do a multitude of things with all of them over the years and it's been absolutely wonderful.
[01:03:09] MALE_2: I'm glad to hear that. These are just the last couple of questions. In general, how did your childhood make you a better person, I guess help you discover what to do and what not to do.
[01:03:25] Gary Bryner: In relationship to my family, I can remember my brother and I have talked about this. I don't know how our grandparents remembered who the grandkids were because there were so many aunts and uncles and they all had 2, 3, 4 kids each. How they could remember 25, 30 kids that they didn't see on a regular basis always, I thought, is not right. Grandparents should have the opportunity to share this love they have for their grandkids. That's the one thing that I promised myself that these kids, you would get to know them. So that made a difference in my life, watching my grandparents, they obviously knew our names, but they didn't know a thing about us, there were too many of us. In my case, there were only the five grandkids and they came nicely spaced out from 19-30 so picked up perfect.
[01:04:27] MALE_2: Do you have any words of wisdom for the people of our age who may be dealing with a parent who is not well at home?
[01:04:36] Gary Bryner: Well, one of the things I would say is that it's not something you can fix probably on your own. It's not your fault and when you're dealing with it it's overwhelming. You should probably seek help because they're things out of our control. Adults do what adults do. Kids aren't supposed to be able to know any better, and that might not be the case at all. It would be a difficult situation and if you could find help trying to get through it, it makes a lot of sense to do it because a lot of kids fall through the cracks, unfortunately.
[01:05:20] MALE_2: That wraps it up. Cool. Thank you.
[01:05:22] Gary Bryner: You're welcome. My second daughter was single parent. Her daughter was on, I may have told you guys this. She was on the honor roll at school, Honor Society, and she had to take a bus. The bus got there a half hour after the meeting started, they would meet in the morning before school. My granddaughter, the one that's 30 now, could not get to school on time because her mother had to work. I came up with this idea and my wife bought into it. We bought her a car. She drove it for two years, her junior and senior year. She passed it down to her cousin, Alex, who drove it for two years and she passed it down to Rebecca who drove it for two years. Then I had to get another car for the next one and another car for Ryan when he got to be a senior, but they each had a car for their junior and senior year. Now, they think we did it for them. We did it for our daughters because, well, if you've got parents that are driving you from here to there, if you don't have transportation your parents got to take you. That was driving my daughters' crazy. They couldn't keep up with these kids. Will you take them across country? Every sport Ryan played. Anyway, we were able to get them a car. They all named their cars and it was just one of those things that have connected us over the years where they talk about owning these different cars. It was a wonderful experience.
[01:06:57] MALE_2: I was going to say my grandparents actually bought me my car too because my parents, my dad, mom both work and so at the time my parents couldn't afford a car.
[01:07:07] Gary Bryner: That's exactly right, and they probably loved doing it. It was one of the highlights with my kids because I got to call them each crash over the years, they all wrecked the cars somehow. Ran into something or get them. Anyway, that's one of the things that happened with kids and grandkids. We were able to share a little bit of what you've attained over the years and it makes you closer together. I won't bore you guys any longer.
[01:07:34] MALE_2: No, it's great.
[01:07:35] Gary Bryner: Listen. I have one question. Did you guys march?
[01:07:38] UNKNOWN_1: Yes.
[01:07:38] Gary Bryner: The student march? Good for you.
[01:07:40] MALE_2: I went to Washington DC on, let's see, I think it is this Saturday morning, the big march in Washington.
[01:07:49] Gary Bryner: Good for you. The wife and I, they had something going at Pioneer but I came down with the flu. I couldn't get out of bed. Horrible. But man, this is something I think will continue forever now. Unfortunately, there's going to be more shootings and this will never be forgotten. These things are going to go on and on and you guys will be able to make a difference. Make a difference. Be a voice, not an echo. I had one of those warmers on the steering wheel. I love them.
[01:08:22] MALE_2: I wish I had them.
[01:08:24] Gary Bryner: Just wonderful. I didn't need the seat this morning but my hands were cold.
[01:08:30] MALE_2: Are we ready to start? Is everyone ready?
[01:08:30] Gary Bryner: Yeah.
[01:08:37] MALE_2: All right, cool.
[01:08:37] Gary Bryner: Cool.
[01:08:38] MALE_2: Three, two, one.
[01:08:41] FEMALE_1: We generally spent through the questions last time. So is there any part of your life that you felt you didn't talk about it now?
[01:08:49] Gary Bryner: Well, I was thinking about this when I got home and I thought I painted maybe a picture of doom and gloom when I was a kid. The one thing I didn't get to say, I thought I was answering the questions maybe too quickly is I had a great time as a kid. I had a lot of friends, played sports, and it was an enjoyable time. I liked school. That all worked out great. I did come and I now know I come from a dysfunctional family. My father was an alcoholic. But as a kid, you just march on your head down and keep your business to yourself and you keep on going. You could be one of two things, sad or happy. I chose happy. My brother was happy. We had a good time. It's in retrospect that you find out that, wow, this is not the way it's supposed to be. But one of the things that I didn't say that I should have is that my father said to us as kids, among other things, of course, is that you can learn something from everybody, even if it's not what not to do. What he didn't realize what I learned from him was not to drink, not to smoke. While my father worked, we weren't poor. We had a place to stay and food to eat. Poor to me is when you don't have a home and you're on the street or you're moving three or four times a month because you can't pay the rent. That's poor. I didn't have that. But what I did have was this dysfunctional family and what I learned, as I said from my father is these things. My father died when he was 47. I was 22. He didn't have a will, he never owned a home and he left nothing for his family. Now, I was out of the house, so it didn't bother me in that respect. What did I do? What I learned from my father was at age 21, the wife and I bought a home. The next thing I did was get a will. The next thing I did after we had children was to buy insurance on my life so that if I were to die early, they would have something to take care of themselves for a number of years. I think we base it on four years of salary. You insured yourself for that. The wife and I figured that out and my investments from my dad turned out to be what not to do and that's what he did. I didn't get to mention that. But I think about especially in high school, I just had a wonderful time and I now wanted to say that.
[01:11:54] FEMALE_1: Your father did drink a lot. How did that affect your daily life growing up?
[01:12:01] Gary Bryner: Well, daily, it didn't much because my father was a functioning alcoholic. He went to work every day. During the day we're at school or in the summer you're out playing, your dad's at work. What happens is when he doesn't come home from work. He either stops and have something to drink which lingers in to pass your dinner hour. Then the fight begins when he gets home with your mother about where the hell have you been. Excuse my French. Those are the things that out the door you go find your friends, go do something else. It affects you more when it becomes like social issue. I played three sports in high school. My father never attended one game, not one. You're always embarrassed by that. I remember once he came to school, the parent-teacher conferences, he come to school, he was drunk. You get embarrassed by that thing. Then you have friends and we lived in a project and most of my friends live there. Everybody knew each other's business. You're a little embarrassed by that. But my father was a very nice man and he made a lot of friends. But he goes on these vendors who are not good.
[01:13:27] FEMALE_1: Did your mom ever go in any of your games?
[01:13:30] Gary Bryner: No.
[01:13:33] FEMALE_1: Was she supportive of them?
[01:13:35] Gary Bryner: No
[01:13:35] Gary Bryner: No. They thought I was wasting my time. I may have been right, but I had a good time.
[01:13:43] FEMALE_1: Overall. What were your favorite parts about high school?
[01:13:48] Gary Bryner: The sports was very important to me. I liked learning. I wasn't an excellent student. I was a good student. I planned to go to school after high school. It didn't turn out that way. I met my first wife, as I mentioned earlier in school, she was two years older than me, so my junior and senior year she was out of school, so we dated back and forth, but I never took her to a prom or a homecoming. That wasn't always with girls that I went to school with. But when I graduated from high school, my then girlfriend we fell in love and a year later we got married.
[01:14:33] FEMALE_1: When did you graduate high school?
[01:14:34] Gary Bryner: 1959. It's a long time ago. [LAUGHTER]
[01:14:40] FEMALE_1: Did Cold War tensions or any historical things in that time affect your day-to-day life?
[01:14:46] Gary Bryner: In 59 I don't remember anything other than I'm out of school, my dad says you got to get a job, you should go to work. The first thing I know I'm at work, I'm going to save my money so I can go to school. The next thing I know, I'm on a strike because I went to work in a steel mill and the steelworkers went on strike against the company and it lasted like 120 some days. It was the longest strike in modern history in the steel industry. So everything you had went out the window because you got nothing. When you go on strike. You'd get a zip. Now, I lived at home, so all the money I had, my dad worked in a steel mill as well, I gave him the money because I lived there. You're going to eat there, you're going to sleep there, you give them the money. Then you fall in love. My wife's two years older than me, she felt like she's getting older. It's back then 21 was old for a young woman who wasn't married. My wife was smart but didn't want to go to college, she had a job. Fell in love, got married. I don't remember any of that except to say, it wasn't long after that the Vietnam War started to cook up and they started to having the draft. When you're 18 years old, I don't know if you guys still do it, isn't that something I should have asked my grandson? When you're 18, you go and sign up at the draft board. You still do that? Well, I did that as well when I turned 18. Then they had the mandatory draft and you had to go to the draft board and they gave you a number when you would be selected for the draft. But what happens is they have five categories as I recall. One of them is an A3. If you're married and have at least two dependents, you're in A3 and you're not subject to draft because you couldn't sustain your family on what the military would pay you while you're in. In 1969 when that happened, we already had three children. There were five of us, so they wouldn't even draft me. That's the thing I remember from the time I graduated and the politics began in my life. That's one of the things. Then as I changed jobs, there were other political considerations that they came into be.
[01:17:21] FEMALE_1: Nick, do you have any questions?
[01:17:27] Gary Bryner: Nick is busy with the sound. [BACKGROUND]
[01:17:39] MALE_1: What were some of the other political consideration?
[01:17:42] Gary Bryner: That's an interesting one [inaudible 01:17:43] . I went to work in a steel mill, spent three years. Then I went to work. It was every job I've ever had, I liked. I look back and they weren't all good jobs. They were hard, dirty, heavy jobs. It was in the industry and steel. Steel was cyclical. You'd be working full-time double shifts. That's how I got my down payment for the first house. I would go to work and work to shifts every day that I could so I could save enough money to put down on a house payment. But then there was no work. They built a new plan about 18 miles from my house and I went up there and applied. They gave me a job. I was one of the first people hired. I went to an asbestos, cement, lime and gypsum plant where they made pipe and it was the most dangerous of all because it had asbestos and silica sand, which I'll tell you about when we get to what I did for work. But I then realized this is not the place where you want to spend your life. You've had to get out of here. General Motors opened an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio in a cornfield, what used to be a cornfield. They built this huge plan. I applied there and I think I was 136 person hired, and then that's where the political stuff began. We organize the plan under the United Auto Workers, and I became a committee man in the plant, and then from there I became the president. There were about 89,000 people who worked in a plant on three shifts. Two shifts were production, the third shift for the maintenance groups. I can remember, my first political, real consideration was health care. Now this is 50 years ago and their argument about it today well this is Affordable Care Act, and we couldn't get doctors to talk to us about forming an HMO, a health maintenance organization because they was taboo that doctors, did not want to aim to do it. That's where you could go and get all of your services cheaper than the traditional services. That was the one. Two the war. I was anti-war. The politics was, the union would try to assert whatever power, prestige we had to try to get the Congress to end the war, and then following that was the the OSHA law, Occupational Safety and Health, where the law was changed to protect workers and their plants from the safety and health violations that were being created by the jobs that they were doing. Those are the considerations I had early on in my life. I was in my '20s when this happened. It was a big deal and fun.
[01:21:03] FEMALE_1: What was your favorite part about long? You can answer this depending on whatever job or you could do multiple. What was your favorite part about your job.
[01:21:14] Gary Bryner: Well, my favorite part of my jobs was when I was involved in our union. In Lordstown, Ohio. As I said, there were 8 or 9,000. It started when plant then the General Motors build another. We're making cars in an assembly plant and we were making vans in another assembly plant on the same location, all belonging to General Motors. I was a full-time committee man under the rules of our contract with the company, you had about approximately 250 people as a committee man you would represent. If you were one of those 250 people, if you were having a problem at work, any kind of problem, you could call your committee person. That would be me and then I would come and find out what it was trying to negotiate with the company, make it better go away, and from there, I graduated and I ran for the President of the local union, and I was elected President. Then you have the the job of the administrating of the union with all those members and all of the benefits in the contract and the appointments of people to do different jobs, that's what I liked the best. I became the spokesman for the union. We were on a segment of 60 min. Back in 1972. We were on as a spokesman, probably in every major newspaper in the world because we ran into a problem with General Motors. We made 101 cars an hour that actually drove off on assembly line. Now think about that for a second 101 cars every hour you drove them off the assembly line. Do you realize you had 30 plus seconds to repeat your job, and it came again and again, 8, 10, 12 hours a day, five, six days a week, and that's the kind of work that we were doing in the assembly plant. It cause what I testified before Senator Ted Kennedy had an I'm trying to think what I would call it a hearing in Washington and he asks that I would come down. I brought another fellow with me and we testified to this, what they call the worker alienation. Of that his his committee was studying. We got to testify before Kennedy and in Washington about the kind of things that go on. This very thing about when I said to you, when you repeat your job every 30 seconds you become bored out of your mind. Because you just think about that, no matter what you do if you had to do it every 30 seconds, How would you feel? And that's the kind of things workers were facing. I got to be the spokesman for that thing. I was awarded the labor award of a year for the state of Ohio, and out of that position of president, I was appointed to the superintendent of safety and hygiene for the State of Ohio by the governor, and there were like 180,000 employers in the state with 88 counties, and we had, I don't know, maybe over 200 inspectors and hygienists that we're inspecting workplaces across the state of Ohio. Trying to make health and safety a better place for workers in the state. Those were the things that I did in the local, and then it turns out, when I worked for the governor, he lost the election. The new governor fired me immediately. I went back into plant. I got re-elected, and then I got appointed. In our union. The International Union is in Detroit and I was in Ohio. But the President of the International Union asked me to come on his staff in 1977 after 11 years in the local union, and I became an assistant to the president of the International Union, and most of the work I did there was the internal workings of our union, and that I did for almost 30 years scrape job.
[01:26:06] FEMALE_1: How long were you involved in the union
[01:26:11] Gary Bryner: The first job I took was of a steel workers and they were unionized. I did not want any office there. I was there three years. I'm probably half of it not working because of strikes or lay off. The job I went to as cement, lime and gypsum workers. I was the vice president and a commitment and that local, and I worked there three years, and then I went to Lordstown in 1966, and in 1967 six months after I started, I was full-time committee man in the plant and stayed active as a full-time union rep the rest of my life.
[01:26:51] MALE_1: Since the union as a political organization, you were [inaudible 01:26:53] so were there any internal divisions in the union.
[01:26:57] Gary Bryner: Yes, because every everybody has their own opinion on how you should run or how you should do your job in the union. So there were always people wanting to get that jobs because they believe they could do it better. The nice thing I think about the whole thing is the people you work with, the people you see every day are the ones that decide and they don't go away you don't go away. If you lose your right, I've lost elections so you run, you don't get elected, you right back there working with them. If you win, the other guy goes back and works with them. Then every two or three years at this time is three you run again and you run on people, decide whether what you were doing or not doing is what they want and there should always be competition for those jobs because that's what makes us better when there's a little pressed to do more, when somebody wants to do it instead of you.
[01:28:00] FEMALE_1: How did being involved in a union, I see how it affects the small government departments how did it affect your party affiliation naturally?
[01:28:12] Gary Bryner: Well, there's this thing that's been said since I ever started, there's a connection between the ballot box and the bread box. Does that make sense to you? So here's what happens. What we negotiate, what we get from the company through negotiations or strikes in many times strikes can be taken away by politicians. So you have to lobby for the politician that would protect the rights of workers as well as taking care of the rest of the society. Our involvement is from day one, our union is structured so that we have a political action committee on a national level and every local union has a political action committee. What they do is screening. We spent months before any election inviting candidates from all offices that are running in our jurisdiction at that time. I think we added like a three county area. The counties and the cities within that area. We would send letters out and ask them if they would like to come to a screening committee. Then they would screen it was questions about what positions they would take on these different issues and then the committee would recommend to the full body of the local union who we should support any election. We would support them with donations of money and or manpower, door to door phone calls, that thing. I was thinking in a in a minute when I first met you, you asked me what I did and I told you I worked for the International union UAW. I asked you, did you know what that was? Do you remember what you said? You didn't know? That's odd to me because when I started in the union in 1966 in UAW, 30 plus percent of people who worked in private industry were organized. Which means, I would bet that all of you have close relatives that worked in a union and it was probably the UAW and or the teamsters or the mind somewhere along the line you had union affiliation because that's a third, you can't miss it. Our numbers wouldn't allow you to miss it. But now it seems like the unions, you hear this thing about the unions are two powerful, the unions do this or the unions do that. Here we are in a society that says, you only get from your employer what they'll give you or if you have a union, what you can negotiate. So the better you're able to negotiate with an employer who can afford it, the more you get. So the UAW became very good in negotiating with General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, all the independent suppliers that we had organized. But the better we did the more jealous people got. Our wages and benefits and pensions started to go up and people who didn't have a union, maybe they did, maybe they didn't. We were starting to get the blame so every time we get a raise, they say all the prices around us go up. But I'm convinced that you've heard this story. The tide rises all boats or raises all boats. In this case with the union, I believe that to be true as wages increase for workers in a union, competition for jobs in non-union plants, their wages have to go up in order to get people to work for them. Otherwise, they're not going to do it. Why would they work for 10 bucks an hour when they get 15 somewhere else? So the competition has thrived. When I worked at General Motors in the '60s, they had almost 50% of the market. There wasn't any foreign competition at the time. So what's happened over the years? The Japanese, the Germans, Volvo started to build cars and sell them in this country. Since the hue and cry was, if you're going to sell them here, build them here, and that was one of the things that union said. If you're going to sell your car, is if the Germans are going to sell cars here, bring them over here, build them here and then sell them just like everybody else. They started doing that. They're doing it today even and new plants are coming. But this is a country where the politicians in this country will lobby against having a union in the plants they bring over here. In Alabama and Tennessee Senators who are supposed to represent everybody in our country are angry. They want to give benefits of tax breaks to corporations to come to their state and then lobby against the union, which will lower the wages of the people that they represent so that they will have no unions and the only thing that gets that plant any kind of similarity to what unions have is because if they didn't, they're afraid we would organize them so they pay them within $3 an hour. Here's the other thing. They don't have any legacy cost because we have pensions and we have health insurance so the companies that come here, they pay less, they don't offer them the pensions we have and they don't offer them the health care that we have. So they lower the price of making cars in competition with labor unions. I say to myself why would politicians do that? What is the purpose of seeing how you lower wages, keep them lower to get people to build jobs there. To me it's again, it goes right back, follow the money. I saw this graph and you can't quote me on this, but it showed what we were doing in the 60s and 70s and how the wages started to go this way, where the rich got more and the poor got less, so there's this line like this and somebody superimpose the union from 30-some percent down to 13%. It was parallel, so as wages or is the unions were less organized, got lower and lower, the gap between the rich and poor got greater and greater stagnation of wages, like they talk about now. When I started work, well, I got three bucks an hour, $3 an hour. Now they're making up to 25, 30 bucks an hour. So you always expected that people somehow we're going to increase now that didn't come without a fight. I mean many times it had to be a strike. He had to go on strike in order to convince the employer you want more money and you're a deserving of it. That's where really the rubber meets the road. If the employer is just the one who decides how much you're going to get it work, and what job you're going to do it work, and the hours you're going to work and there's no union, they decide everything. With a union that is all changed. That's when you say, how much are we going to be paid? How much of a pension? There's a place where people have to decide what they're willing to fight for and a union you can decide it for pensions or health care, or wages per hour or conditions that work. But without a union, the employer decides. So to have less union, on this little scale, employers make more money. They pay less, less legacy cost. Now where does the money go? Does the money go in cheaper cars? Don't think so. Does the money go as you can see by any standards you want to make the rich get richer. What is General Motors in business to do? Do you have any idea General Motors for what are they in business to do?
[01:38:02] MALE_1: Cars?
[01:38:03] Gary Bryner: Cars. No.
[01:38:06] Gary Bryner: They're in business to make money. If they made popsicles, as it right they're making cars, they make popsicles. They don't care what they make. Their General Motors is owned by stockholders. Stockholders take their money, give it to General Motors so that they'll make money and they'll get their return plus. The only interest they have is money. Now what will they do to get that? If you have no union and that happens everywhere in our system, you get on the short end if you don't have somebody who's going to represent workers. The company? Without a union, it's the company. You have no representation, you have no complaint, you have no avenue. It's irritating to me that people can't see this. Look, I don't want this to sound simplified that there's just this one little simple thing you could do to fix things. It's much more complicated than that. But one of the problems is when you weaken unions, you weaken the economy for workers, and the people who reap the benefits are the ones that already have the most money. It's just that simple to me. I know it's not a simplified response to a very complicated problem. But, there you go.
[01:39:38] FEMALE_1: Do you follow modern day politics?
[01:39:41] Gary Bryner: Yeah.
[01:39:42] FEMALE_1: On the other party affiliation?
[01:39:45] Gary Bryner: If I had to choose, I'd be a Democrat. But you would like to believe you could support people who are doing the right thing. But we are so polarized now that there's just no chance to pick and choose within different parties, because the Republicans are doing it, they're solidified. The Democrats is solidified, and it's two parties bumping heads about who's going to get re-elected rather than what are you doing for our country. Look, we're not Democrats, were not Republicans, not union members, non-union members, we're citizens, we all belong to the same country. It's just aggravating that, that can't be worked out. That's a nice thing about belonging to a union. You'll learn how to negotiate, you're an employer who has their needs, you have workers who have their needs, and you have to come to the middle of the road. You can't be at opposite ends and exist. You can't take more than they can pay, and you shouldn't take less of what they can pay. But the negotiations, I don't see it happening in the politics. If you had to say what am I, I am a Democrat. Not all Democrat.
[01:41:17] MALE_2: With unionism, playing such a big part of your life. What do you think the future of it as you hinted at it?
[01:41:24] Gary Bryner: I think the pendulum will swing. Well, let me give you example. The union has said in many of the arguments under NAFTA, we were opposed to NAFTA. The reason was, for example, just take Mexico as an example. In Mexico, they make a couple of bucks an hour. Now they're building cars, I came out of wars and I tell you, they make the Chevrolet cruise. Very popular car, small car. In Mexico, they make the Chevrolet cruise hatchback. Ever seen one? Gorgeous cars, just nice cars. They make 3,4 bucks an hour, you make 25 bucks an hour. Now, when they ship that car back to the states to be sold, do they sell it cheaper? No. NAFTA lets them exploit the worker in Mexico to build this beautiful car, bring it back here without tariffs, and sell it like they would any car that costs them 25 bucks an hour to build. They make money by doing it, and they exploit workers in Mexico. In a perfect world, it doesn't matter where you are, or what you do, you are humans, we're workers, were all worker bees. What's it matter what country you are in? Why should you be exploited no matter where you are? But, there you go. It happens and it's going to continue happening because employers chase the low amount it takes to build a car. That's just as simpler as that. If there's a cheaper place to do it, they're going to go there, and you're going to keep chasing it. It would be nice if all of them were they chased had, unions that were fighting for workers to get better wages and better conditions. But some of these countries like Mexico, it's controlled by the politicians instead of a free union like we have where you're independent. People have more faith in employers than I do. Can you imagine in the 1900s, they work children 8, 10, 12 hours a day. They're employers. Now it's a different era but they were kids and conditions were unbearable. The unions in this country came out of strife. They changed the law in 39 to allow unions to organize National Labor Relations Act. The [inaudible 01:44:23] Nicole was a senator at I think New York, who proposed this bill, under Roosevelt, he signed it, became the National Labor Relations Board Act, allowed unions to organize, was against the law before. What did the employers do? They hired thugs to beat up organizers. They hated the unions. Why? Because they were going to take away things that they couldn't do if they had a union. They didn't want anybody to tell him how to run their business, they didn't want anybody to tell him how to pay their workers. The unions in this country came out of great struggle and that lingered for a long time. I think it's better now. The conditions in the plants are better. Employers are I think, more responsible than they were back then obviously, and unions are as well.
[01:45:24] FEMALE_1: What do you hope to see you for the future unions?
[01:45:29] Gary Bryner: I would like to see the growth of the union in the public and private sector increase tenfold from 13% to 60%. Nobody has to join the union, I agree with that, nobody has to join a union and shouldn't be made to join a union. However, for example, in Lordstown, you vote to have a union so, we voted, the majority of the people wanted a union so now we have a union. You come to work there and you say, I don't want to belong to the union, fine, you don't have to join the union, but we have what they call a negotiated closed agreement, which means you don't have to join, but you have to pay dues like everybody else because you're going to get the same representation, you're going to get the same wages, the same working conditions, and everything that goes with it, you're going to get, so you have to pay your fair share. What we have now is these right-to-work committees all over the country who are funded by anonymous sources, who seek to weaken the union and the ability to collect dues for those kinds of workers who say, I don't want to pay dues to your union even though they would be freeloaders if they don't pay their share, and that's what's happening, they're trying to weaken the union in every stretch. They want to limit what you can bargain for and we have the state workers here in Michigan in the union, we organized, it was 22,000 of them, we organized them. Now the legislature wants to limit what we can bargain for them. Simply eliminate those things, it's going to make it harder for people to even want to be in a union, you shouldn't have a union just for the sake of a union. If you can't do something for people, get out, move on. This whole theory is again, get rid of the unions more for us, who's us, it's not the worker, they're not doing it for the worker, that's how I feel about it.
[01:48:01] FEMALE_1: He didn't completely finish the question so you can go through and do some of these. Thinking back over your entire life, what are you most proud of?
[01:48:19] Gary Bryner: My children. I have three lovely daughters, they have produced five grandchildren for me and those grandchildren, I have three great grandsons so, my family is very important and if there's anything, I couldn't be more proud of than those, my family. As far as work, I'm happy to say that I've spent my entire adulthood working on behalf of others and others meaning more than just union folks because when we lobbied for minimum wage, nobody in our union was making less than minimum wage, they were making more. It didn't affect the workers that we represented so we were doing it for those who had less benefits or less choices and no union. The same with health care, we were able to negotiate in our unions, health care coverage is insurances for workers. But other people within society didn't have that sum to lobby for that, to spend the time and the effort was on behalf of others. In the Civil Rights Movement, our support of the Civil Rights Movement was something that was done because of our civic obligation to others. In our union, it doesn't matter who you are, if you're a man or woman, what race, it doesn't matter, you get the same benefits, you get the same pay for doing the same job. Women don't make less and you're not allowed to discriminate. Those things within our union are under contract and if you feel like that has been abridged, you have a right to grieve that through your union, and to me, that is as important as the amount of money you're going to earn if you can have that kind of right and protected right within the workplace. Think about it, you spend literally a third of your life at work so you want it in conditions that are right, where people treat you accordingly to your rights, that you're not some kind of a robot and you have something to offer and you have respect and dignity on the job. Everybody deserves that.
[01:51:07] FEMALE_1: You mentioned the Civil Rights Movement. What do you remember about the Civil Rights Movement?
[01:51:11] Gary Bryner: Well, I remember the marches. I remember all of those. I'm reminded of the minister in our church took a two-weeks vacation and went to Selma, Alabama when they were marching and they arrested all these folks and they put them in this pin, a corral and when he came back, he and his family, they went there on vacation. When he came back, the congregation fired him for his involvement in that civil rights march in Selma, that's when I left the church. I grew up in a white town, there weren't any blacks in this wee little city of 5,000. We had very few minorities in our schools so I wasn't exposed to any of that until I got into union and that's when blacks and whites and any nationality or religion and women work together for the common good of those in that area so it was an eye-opener. When people are having these struggles, it bodes well for the union to get involved because you actually represent that kind of diversity already so nobody should have to do that alone. So our unions played a great role and that's something to be proud of.
[01:52:53] FEMALE_1: What did you say has changed the most from the time you were my age to now?
[01:52:59] Gary Bryner: Technology. It's amazing. When I was in school. I can't remember. They made me take typing and stuff. I think inquire, I signed up for choir. The teacher says I had a terrible voice, Nick. She says you're going to have to go. Your voice is changing, your young man's changing. I took typing. Typing then was on these manual typewriters. Have you ever seen one? That's what we typed with. I got that typing in only by accident. But think about that. Typing on that it says a clearer picture to me is probably you're a computer. That was the technology of the day. You could type on this, phones. God, I can remember when we got our first television. Then you couldn't hardly watch. There wasn't much to watch and they get three stations. My kids and their kids have favorite cartoons and movies that they watched when they were kids. I had none of those because I didn't watch television. Those things just went beyond the only thing we listened to or I listened to was sports events on radios. That's about my extent. Then you see what's happening. I can remember I tried to get the president of our International Union to put a phone in his car when it was like carrying around a 10-pound box and then I don't know how would even work, but you can have a mobile phone in your car. It had to be charged and all that. He's not only bothered with people calling me this and I said, but you don't have to answer it. He just might need it. Now what do you have two or three phones probably, I don't know and you got computers everywhere. It's incredible what they can do. People on the moon. It's incredible. I have lived in this wonderful time where I remember as a child going to my grandfather's farm and working the farm with horses, no water, no indoor plumbing, no electricity. Raise nine children on that farm. Didn't get electricity until I was like in high school and got a tractor finally, everything was done by manual labor, horses, cows and pigs, and chickens, and ducks. Everything you did buy your own. My mother said the biggest thrill, she was one of 11 children. Her biggest thrill was going to the store and getting sliced bread because they made everything at home. Can you imagine wanting to get sliced bread instead of homemade bread? I saw how you work with your hands and work hard and see things changed now to where you can make 100 cars an hour on an assembly line. It's amazing to see the robots they use technology then the engineering. It's incredible to see what we've seen.
[01:56:41] FEMALE_1: Do you think the modern or this generation maybe uses too much technology?
[01:56:46] Gary Bryner: No, I don't think so. I think they misuse it sometimes. You go into any restaurant where there are children they have something in their face. It looks like somebody's babysitting them. That's what I think. Now, that's not the kid's fault. It's not technology's fault. It's the parents' fault. I see this ad on TV and I'm sure you've seen it too, where the mother shuts off all the devices and they sit down and have dinner and talk to each other. Have you seen that? That's the answer. Not too much technology isn't the problem. Get out of the way of technology, it's a good thing. It's improving our lives. It's going to advance our sciences and our health. It's just how you deal with it. You don't have to be on the phone.
[01:57:40] MALE_1: Going back to the assembly line and health care. Did you ever get injured or see anybody get injured?
[01:57:49] Gary Bryner: Yeah. When I worked in the steel mill, I was some mechanical technician. I took the test, didn't know a thing about it and it was a math thing. I'd taken all the math, I could in high school, so I take this test. You're going to be a mechanical technician. That's like a mill right if you know what a mill right is, and it was in the steel mill and it was under 56-inch hot strip mill. They take a slab. It's about that thick, maybe 10, 12, 15 feet long, 50-some inches wide. It put it in a furnace and heat it and they get it like white hot. They drop it on conveyors and then they start stretching it through mills, a two-high mill, four-high mill, six-high mill and they actually stretch the steel that slab down to like a quarter of an inch or less and it's like it comes out of a six high. I don't know why I'm telling you this story except it's in my mind It comes out of a six stands. You couldn't reach around them, these rollers that they use to stretch and there's six of them in a row. When it comes out of that mill, it's going 2,200 foot a minute, red hot. When it gets down to the end of that line, there's a coil that is grabs it. You've seen these coils on a truck when you see it that goes into a coil or it's going the same speed as the steel when it hits there and it wraps it all up and then they put a band around it, and then a crane takes it away. This thing that comes down, this big mechanism with arms like this comes down around the coil, collapses and a band goes around it, tightens it down, and puts the clamp on it. We had one of those machines off to the side and we're repairing it and we used to practice on a 55-gallon drum. We'd come down. We'd let the band go around and tighten it up to see if it was working and when it broke down, that's how we checked it before we put it back into production. I'm under there working and this thing starts to fall, it's by hydraulic. When you push hydraulic under pressure, it raises it up and when the hydraulics release the weight, let it come down. When it started to drop, my mind says I'm in there with the barrel. When it gets to a certain point, that band is coming around and it's going to tighten down and I'm inside that circle so I'm going to get out. I go to get out and I slipped and I reach and I grab that barrel and it was like a two-ton piece of equipment was on my arm and the barrel. I saw the blood popping out. The guy over there off the line hit the button to took it back up, would put pressure on it. If he would not have been there, you would have cut my arm off or damaged it to a point where it would have broke all my bones and I was numb for like six months. That was my personal experience in steel. I was driving home from work on a midnight shift and on the radio a man was killed in the area that I worked in as a technician. He was backed over by a high stir. When these guys get under there and they pickup load, he backed up and the guy was in his way around right over and killed him. Two people in a cold strip, died in a gas furnace. When I was in Lordstown, Ohio on the assembly line one of the conveyor they have couplings. They must weigh 100 pounds. I happened to be over the hood of a car. This is so freak. It was almost like you're almost preordained it. He's over there inspecting paint. That thing broke off and fell, hit him right on the head, and killed him. It is so unusual and assembly plant is probably the safest place I've ever worked that something could happen, but it can happen and it does happen. When I was superintendent of safety and hygiene in a state of Ohio every dismemberment or death cross my desk for me to see and every day there was something there. That's what we do to workers in this country. Every day in a State of Ohio, somebody gets a finger or an arm, a leg, or a death. No question. That was when I was there. Who knows what it's doing now? That doesn't even take into consideration what disease or you can contact or contract from chemicals that we don't even know what they're doing to you like asbestos and silica, sand and fumes and vapors. You don't even know.
[02:03:03] FEMALE_1: I think that we're running low on time.
[02:03:06] Gary Bryner: [LAUGHTER] I'm sorry.
[02:03:15] MALE_1: Thank you.
[02:03:15] Gary Bryner: We are done?
[02:03:17] MALE_1: Yeah.

Media

2022

Length: 02:03:16

Copyright: Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)

Rights Held by: Ann Arbor District Library

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Legacies Project