Pierce 100th Anniversary Parade 7-13-2013

[fcdan]

Juergen

I'll have to agree with you on this.  The Pierce parade consisted mainly of brand new rigs that were awaiting final customer inspection and delivery with just a few antiques thrown in for good measure.  In comparison, I attended the 125th Anniversary and assembly plant opening at Seagrave back in September, 2006.  Their parade was filled with classic and historic Seagrave rigs, most of which were also on display inside the new plant building after the parade.  I also attended the new Charleston South Carolina American LaFrance assembly plant opening in 2007.  ALF also had a large display of privately owned historic and antique rigs on display inside the new plant, as well as making the ALF Historical Museum, which was located about 10 miles away, open to visitors the entire weekend of the plant opening.  Ironically, both Seagrave and ALF offered plant tours guided by employees who were both knowledgeable in their company's history as well as the current plant operations.  I went on tow tours at each plant.  No one at the Seagrave or ALF plants told me I was "taking too many pictures" either and their tours included the entire assembly process from building the chassis through the delivery process.  It really appears that this celebration was intended to be an employee / retiree open house and not geared to the company's past accomplishments.  Ironically, Pierce didn't even have a merchandise shop or area set up to sell things like caps, calendars, shirts, collectibles, etc.to visitors.  Not to come off as being disappointed, I just thought that Seagrave and ALF did a better job in meeting the interests of their employees and visitors alike at their events.

A.J.

The merchandise shop was in the blue room.