Crest Ink - Volume 29 - Number 04

Thirty Feet of Crest Foods History by Jeff Meiners

It is a little personally disturbing to me that I have reached the point in my Crest Foods life that I am looked upon as one of those people who can recount stories from our distant corporate past. I’m not really sure how it is possible that I’ve achieved this status in what seems like the blink of an eye, but I’m not complaining…far better to be in a position to recount the stories than not. This is the first of a series that will be in the Crest Ink remember- ing some of the personalities that were part of the fabric of Crest in our formative years. It is quite possible that my memory has become a little distorted over the years, but these stories should offer a good look into the Crest Foods of the past. Freddy Sachs worked at Crest in the late 1960’s. At the time, we had just begun doing packaging work at our Main Street facility. We had a large incinerator in the back of this building and it was Freddy’s job to burn anything that was combustible. Freddy was a small guy – probably in his late 60’s at the time. My memory as a twelve year old kid has him as a friendly old guy who was quick to smile, always said Hi, but was not real talkative. Stoking the fires in the incinerator was a hot, dirty job. Freddy did it without complaining. He did have a peculiar way of approach- ing his job which would have earned him early retirement in today’s world, but was evidently acceptable at the time. Since his job was extremely hot, Freddy decided the best way to deal with it was to have a drink each time he loaded the incinerator. Fortunately for him, Grewe’s Tap stood where our pilot plant stands today. His choice of beverage to quench his thirst was a shot and a beer. Since the incinerator was loaded numerous times during the day, it was inevitable that Freddy ended up a little loaded himself by the end of his shift. His walk home was usually a little less of a straight line home than it was on the way to work…but he managed to make it back to work for his next shift every day. I’m not really sure when Freddy stopped stoking the fires at Crest – probably when the incinerator was retired due to EPA regulations – but he was certainly one of the more interesting characters from our past. The time had come to freshen up the reception area at the main plant and the decision was made that a timeline depicting Crest Foods’ journey since 1946 would be the perfect use of the thirty feet of space behind the reception- ist desk. It sounded like such a big area to cover until the task of consolidating 71 years of Crest Foods life was started and then that space suddenly became very small. Years ago Jim Croce sang about capturing time in a bot- tle…our job was to capture it on a wall! The finished product depicting Crest’s history in people, products, events and facilities turned out better than we Crest Culture: A Walk Down Memory Lane… With a Shot and a Beer by Jeff Meiners

18 Crest Ink October, November & December 2017

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