Sunday, May 18, 2008
I had the privilege of knowing Arvid (Dutch) for several years when I worked in Plant 4 at the old Chevrolet Plant. I was a GMI student in 1962 and was loaned out from the manifold area to product handle for Dutch in the cylinder head job. He worked my butt off and I was relieved when the 10-hour shift was over. The next day, I was sent to work for him again!\
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Later in my career, I was a General Foreman, and Dutch was working for me. He was a source of continual jokes and pranks. He loved to eat, and when someone was cooking in the plant, Dutch had a keen nose and often ate the food and filled the empty pan with wet paper towels to harass the other person.\
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When someone fell asleep in the plant, they would get the heels of their shoes painted with yellow paint. Anyone who saw the paint would pound on benches to draw attention to the unsuspecting person with the yellow heels. Dutch saw a machine repairman working under a Bullard machine, and he painted the guys heels. Al Honek retaliated by finding DutchAaas work shoes and painted them all over. Dutch wasnAaat done, and got Plant Security to open AlAaas locker and did a big job! He painted one of AlAaas tall work boots with red, white and blue stripes and the other with white stars on a green background.\
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I remember when we were working 7 days a week, and on Saturday and Sunday I saw people in the flywheel job that I didnAaat recognize. I did recognize Ben Ehrmantraut as DutchAaas brother, and challenged Dutch about having strange people working on overtime in his department. AaA"YouAaave gotta take care of your own!AaA Dutch said to me. He had brought in his friends and relatives to work instead of his regular people, and he promised me that I would never get a grievance from his regular people who wanted a day off.\
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I learned a lot from Arvid about working for Chevrolet. He had simple sayings that meant a lot. AaA"Give AaEem what they want!AaA HeAaad say to me.\
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When I bought a home on Lake Shannon, Arvid and Helen came over early and painted the interior of the home for me and my family. Helen drank an entire fifth of Black Velvet that day, but she never acted drunk.\
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Another time, Arvid came to my home in Swartz Creek and climbed into a huge oak tree to cut out dead branches. He was a workaholic and expected the same of other people.\
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When I build a shed for my current home, Arvid woke me up early one morning and wanted to help me put the roof on the shed. He worked until dark and never complained.\
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I still have a painting that Helen made for me. She copied a postcard and made a beautiful picture that I still have displayed in my home.\
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Arvid was a very colorful person! When he and Helen went to the Upper Peninsula on vacation, he had an extra refrigerator in the trailer so he could fill it with cold beer. He had the knack of getting people to work without penalizing his workers. He said there were three kinds of time, AaA"Break time, lunch time and Chevrolet time!AaA He was the best foreman that I ever had working for me, and I miss him and pray to God that he rests in peace.\
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Sincerely,\
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John Vitovsky\
