48 years of dedicated service

Capac woman spends entire career with Vlasic

 

Editor’s note: The following article was submitted by Darcy Flynn, a Capac High School 1977 graduate and a friend of Veronica Bolday who is retiring.

CAPAC — Veronica Bolday of Capac retired Friday, September 26, from Vlasic Foods in Imlay City after 48 years of service, having worked her entire career for one company.

Bolday graduated from Capac High School in June 1977 at the age of 17. She went straight to work at Vlasics in Memphis.

She never dreamed she’d stay for 48 years but immediately met so many new friends that it felt like a big family environment.

That big family environment was very important to Veronica, as she grew up with two loving parents and six siblings in a close knit family in Emmett, Michigan, attending our Lady of Mount Carmel Church every Sunday together as a family.

Veronica started as a seasonal employee working on the line that cut the ends of the cucumbers off. She would manually pull the cucumbers from one line and put them onto another and from there they would go through a cutting machine.

She has since worked many different jobs. After seven years, she became a regular employee with full benefits.

In April 1988 Veronica and her colleagues were saddened when the Memphis plant closed, along with five other Vlasic plants over the years.

Now, all Vlasic pickles nationwide are made in Imlay City. Veronica and her husband Jim moved from Memphis to Capac so she would be closer to her work. Her husband Jim, now retired, continued to work in Memphis for the school system.

Veronica and Jim met in 1980. He was a dipper loading cucumber spears onto tables. Veronica was a packer putting the spears into jars by hand (a practice that continues today).

Jim was shy and asked Veronica’s sister Teresa if Veronica would go out with him. Teresa said “go ask her yourself”. So he did, and they went on their first date that night.

It was Veronica’s birthday, July 19, 1980. They married four years later. After the 1988 closing of the Memphis plant, they bought a house in Capac in 1989 and have lived there for 36 years.

For the last 10 years, Veronica has had the crucial role of SPC or statistical process control.

In that role, she was the last line of defense in preventing defective products from exiting the factory and landing on store shelves.

Her plant manager, Tim Wagner told me “of all the team members here you can always count on Veronica. I know she’s gonna be smiling. Even on tough days, she hasn’t missed many days. Veronica’s role is to make sure that the quality is right and that the customer gets what they want.”

Veronica chimed in and said “I was raised with a good work ethic, to take pride in your work because people count on you.”

Mike Bliss, a supervisor, added “Veronica was never shy about stopping the production line if there was a quality issue. She took her job seriously and did a great job of it.”

While a few things still remain the same at Vlasic, like packing pickles by hand and having the midnight sanitation crew ( my old job) still clean equipment with high-pressure hoses, much has changed.

Veronica said that “ in 1977 there were no hairnets, safety goggles, slip resistant protective footwear, white lab coats, or helmets.”

Veronica is retiring with a pension, a 401(k), and Social Security benefits. She said “I’ve made a good living and am very grateful, especially for all the people I’ve met and worked with.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics achieving 48 years of service with one company is “highly uncommon”.

Marilyn Hiller in the Human Resource department confirmed that “ making it to 48 years is rare”. She added that in her 17 years at Vlasic foods, “only a few people retired with as many years as Veronica”.

And that’s out of thousands of employees over the years.

Several of Veronica’s colleagues at the retirement luncheon party on September 26 gave her hugs and wished her well. Two retired friends made special trips to return.

Those three retirees sat at a lunch table, talking about retirement, pensions, annuities, and the joy of gardening, walking their dogs, and being able to spontaneously do things with loved ones. Other things Veronica looks forward to doing in retirement include reading, especially old books on topics like the great depression, cooking and baking, gardening (even pulling weeds, which she finds relaxing).

Veronica may even renew her passion for ceramics and painting, two hobbies she loved since art class at Capac High School with Miss Nagy.

Veronica also plans to get more involved in our Lady of Mount Carmel, joining the monthly seniors meeting, helping with the annual rummage sale and helping with funeral lunches.

Kudos to Veronica on a wonderful and successful career and being such a good colleague and friend to so many people over her 48 amazing years of work.