[tiretrx]

My SIL Mike and I took our trucks together for about 4 hours yesterday afternoon. Had a rough plan. One must on the list was visiting the old Grumman Aerospace facility in Calverton, NY. It's pretty close to my place. I'm sure many are familiar with Grumman. Built a lot of planes for the Navy, etc. from WWII, the Wildcat, Hellcat to name a couple, the LEM lunar module during the space race, and the F-14 Tomcat. These are just some of the more notable things, but their full array was huge, including aluminum vans, and canoes. They were the biggest employer on Long Island for many a year. And a job there was the Golden Ticket for decades.

There are something like 4 to 5 thousand acres at the old facility, with many of the old buildings still there. The Navy deeded the property over to the locals a ways back and many buildings are now being used for business. The beautiful thing is now you can drive through and see things that were verboten in the past.

Original Grumman building with the old flight tower on right end.

Here we are on the famed runway. If this strip of concrete could talk. Every plane/jet ever built at the plant rolled over it. And some incredible folks were at the wheel. My gratitude for their service.

We drank in the feeling of history for a bit and then exited out the old North Gate.

 

[tiretrx]

About a 1/2 mile down the public road is a small park dedicated to the Grumman company.

A really cool feature at the park is the bricked walk way. It is made up of folks that worked at Grumman. Their years there, what they did. It doesn't have a memorial type vibe, but rather it speaks volumes about how the people, the workers, are what made Grumman great.

We chatted with some other visitors, and then headed east.

 

[tiretrx]

After we left the park, as said, we headed east. Down the line, we saw a sign, Mike's blinker went on, then mine.

And now a little something for the hard working staff here at MTF...............a gratuitous HOT CHICKS photo!

They were about 3 days old and under a heat lamp.

 

[tiretrx]

So, how many did you buy?

Not a one, Al. Our 4 hens are still producing well. I'm a fan of Golden Comets from Hoover Hatchery when I do get them. Still get a kick out of watching the little buggers, though.

 

[tiretrx]

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This guy thinks he's funny w/ the title picture........

glenn

Ya know Glenn, he has all this extra time on his hands now, we're getting the benefit of his new stand up comedy act!🎤🤪

Sorry, didn't mean to get you guys all excited 😂

 

[tiretrx]

I'll bet a few of those Jeeps were parked at that plant during their day too!

I didn't think of that, Tim, but I'm sure you're right.

I'd say with how rural the Calverton area was "back in the day" and the high number of employees at the time, the odds would be against there not being multiple Willys in the parking lot.