Monday morning, Sept. 13, unfolded for me like a thousand other mornings. I woke up, cleaned up, grabbed some breakfast and the morning paper, stopped at the convenience store for some coffee, then made my way around Military Circle, turned right on Ridings, then right again before winding my way to that building on 5910 Firestone Drive.
Only this was the last time I was making that journey.
It’s official, and it’s done. Eagle is now situated at 2501 James Street, in the heart of Eastwood, in a busy neighborhood with actual restaurants and stores within easy walking distance. No doubt, this is a move we had to make to give the company a more public face.
Yet it’s done with mixed feelings, because so much of my life has passed inside that unpretentious DeWitt building amid drab industrial land in between the Miltary and Carrier Circles. Leaving it behind is necessary. Letting it go is not that simple.
Not that Eagle has spent decades at Firestone – in fact, it didn’t move there until the start of 1997. It’s all I have ever known, though, ever since that cold November day 12 years ago when Dave Tyler interviewed me for this position.
This building is like any other building, in that it has good qualities and bad qualities. Since it’s not on a main thoroughfare, you never had to worry about traffic getting in and out – except that one day where it rained so hard that Firestone flooded, trapping some employees for hours.
From the exterior and the interior, it wasn’t much of a looker. A single-story structure with a double-door entrance (second door locked for security), a reception desk right to the left and, to the right, our editorial offices. The bosses were straight right and left. The paper editors circled the perimeter. I was right in the middle, out of sight and, often, feeling quite isolated.
That central position had its own good and bad sides – good in that you didn’t have to yell to talk to anyone, bad in that you heard everything the others said, to each other or on the phone, even the stuff you didn’t want. That could break your concentration.
Of course, it was more than just an editorial office. In back, there was the dark room for photos (when that was still done) and, further back, the large warehouse where our old printing press ran for a decade or so before getting dismantled, as well as our loading dock. Old editions were stored, there, too, and yes, we got our hands dirty sifting for material.
On the other end, there were offices for all the people in charge, from publisher to sales, as well as the desks of all the folks trying to sell ads. You could be anywhere in the building in less than 30 seconds, and that included the bathrooms and break room (containing the vending machines, refrigerator, sink, oven and microwave) that stood in the rear, off the back hallway.
And in just about every hallway or meeting room, there were framed copies of our better papers and plaques signifying the awards and honors Eagle received over the decades. It was ostentatious, but never obnoxious, just the right amount of pride in the work done here.
Never could you characterize the building as “clean”, but it wasn’t a filthy sty, either. The parking was generous, and the grass outside even allowed for a few picnic tables and the occasional outdoor meeting or cookout – small, nice touches that might not replicate itself at our new digs.
Once our printing press down and the economy nearly did the same, a move was inevitable. The relocation involved numerous possible sites, everything from Baldwinsville to Fayetteville, and I personally dreaded long drives to the office in mid-January and wondered if I was going to work at home most of the time.
Fortunately, that building on James Street turned up, keeping us in a central site but, as said before, integrating us much more into a surrounding community that, ideally, will take our presence to heart.
Everyone here has spent the last two months packing up and taking stuff out of the Firestone Drive building. Some of those archives will go with us. Others will not. To some degree, it’s been fun sifting through the memories, but I was ready to go a while back.
Still, those last few days brought a lot of unexpected emotion. Yes, it was just an office, just a building that will belong to someone else now. Yet it’s also the place where I went from youth to something close to middle age, a passage filled with milestones and achievements, glorious peaks and dark valleys.
So now we say farewell to 5910 Firestone Drive, and hello to our new chapter in our new home where, hopefully, hundreds of more mornings are spent – and more memories are created.
