Hello,

I worked at the Main Office in the Accounting Department for 10 years. My best memories of Chatham Supermarkets were the Friday Nights with the girls. Among the group were Cathy McClarey, Nancy Cooley, Linda Tsuch, and Linda Haren. We were friends in and out of work who saw each other though relationships, marriages, divorces, and children.
They will always be a part of me,

Michele Hylko
Office: Accounting
mhylko@somanetics.com
Macomb, MI 48042

Hi Everyone ~
Not sure if anyone in particular was in charge of the entire warehouse. Overall responsibilities were Ed Clark's. Ed did not have an office at the warehouse. Transportation was managed by Harry Van Heck at the time the warehouse closed. (1985) Truck drivers had various foreman at different times, such as: Mike Quaglia, and Gerry Westergard. Garage foreman were: Jerry Joly, Tom Ikeigommi (Spell?), and Jim White. Pre-pack (Where produce was packaged) was run by Jim Jones and Ted Kucab. Loading dock was run by Toni Toleme and Dexter (Can't think of his last name.)
There were others that I will remember just as soon as I send this E-mail. Just came across this website, how long has this been in existance? (about 3 years) I worked at the warehouse from 1973 - 1985 as a truck mechanic. I will try and contact some other mechanics and drivers and let them know about the reunion.

Went through my photos, found these:


This is a picture of me and my toolbox that I customized with the paintings. These pictures were taken in 1983. I worked in the fleet garage on Frazho Rd. from 1973 to 1985. The tractor next to me was a "Royal Leasing" tractor used by the Milk Drivers that hauled dairy from out of the Borden Plant on Stephenson Hwy. in Troy.     

This was one of my co-workers, Bob Zak. He worked the afternoon shift with me for a lot of years. We had a lot of great times together.     

This was another co-worker, John (Kenny) Sadler. We were replacing a kingpin on one of the older tractors. You couldn't beat the working conditions at the fleet garage. It was actually fun going to work. I worked with a bunch of great guys.     

Another picture of the garage.     

Here I am working on one ot the "Reefer" trailers. Chatham had a lot of these trailers to haul Dairy, Produce, Ice Cream and later, Meat to the stores.     

Here is a picture of the produce docks where the produce was unloaded from the vendors and reloaded into the produce trailers after being packaged in the pre-pack plant at the rear of that part of the warehouse.     

Here is a picture looking north from the garage of the parking lot. The tractors pictured here were the newer S-series Internationals.     

This picture just about tells it all.....OOPS!!!! The funny thing is, this trailer was on the road for over a month before a foreman noticed the mistake and phoned the garage to make sure someone corrected.it. As to who the culprits were, they were I and another co-worker who I will not name to spare him the humiliation. No one got in trouble but I received a lot of good natured ribbing about it. This was the reason I had taken the camera into work that day so that I could show my family my handiwork.

In closing, I just want to say that I didn't realize it then, but my time at Chatham's was some of the best years of my life. We just had a lot of fun, and that makes for a great workplace. The morale was always upbeat until the last few months.

I now work at a automotive brake R and D facility doing a lot of testing and data acquisition, I continued to work as a truck mechanic until 2000.     

Thanks,
Kerry Gelles
46579 Snowbird
Macomb Twp. MI 48044
sunblade50@comcast.net