Visit to Hilltop Road plant

[Brian Wood]

Hi Murray,

You are correct - what's left of Heathkit is tucked away into a corner of a
former K-Mart in Benton Harbor. I couldn't bring myself to go there, even if
it is still owned by Heath. I wanted to see the real Heathkit - the big
building in St. Joseph; the one we see in the back of the catalogs; the one
that was expanded 4 or 5 times to handle the incredible demand; the one
where MY kits were manufactured. Glad I could see it before it is
"renovated". Still looks pretty good to me. If inanimate objects can have a
soul, then this one certainly does. It reminds me of an old "imaginary tale"
in the classic 1960's era Superman comics entitled "The Death of Superman".
In that issue, Lex Luthor finally kills Superman, and as the world mourns, a
smiling, ghostly Superman waves at us as he flies off into the sky, and a
Russian says simply, "We salute you in death as we honored you in life,
comrade."

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Heathkit Owners and Collectors List
[mailto:HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV]On Behalf Of Multi-Volti
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 3:52 PM
To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Subject: Re: Visit to Hilltop Road plant


Hello:

I'm confused...Hilltop Rd is the old building in St. Joe, on the Lake,
the one that was sold to Groupe Bull, then Packard Bell, then who knows
who.

Riverview Dr. in Benton Harbor was the last location I knew of for
Heath. THIS was the old Kmart building. You mentioned ghosts. Hilltop
has some weird things like a depression in the warehouse floor shaped
like a maple leaf...like someone saw one land in fresh cement and
carefully pressed it into the cement to leave a perfect print.

I have a brick corner or two that fell off the Hilltop Rd building...I
guess I truck backed into it or it happened spontaneously...I went into
work there one day and the pieces were in the parking lot, so I took a
couple for my 'Heath collection", in case anyone didn't think collecting
Heath parts was unusual enough.

Murray

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