PART I: A VISIT TO THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON FACTORY
Written by Henry N. Patterson
October 1994

We in Topeka, whether you know it or not, are blessed with having one of the "pioneers of Harleys" among us. Henry Patterson has been involved in riding, living, breathing, and not to mention making his livelihood out of Harley Davidson for well over 70 years. "Pat" has submitted for our newsletter an article on his trip to the H-D factory which will be in the next three editions. Read and enjoy!

"Some of you know that I made my first trip to the factory in 1934. With this story I will try to let your relive some of my observations and changes over the years.

9:00 a.m. 9/29/94 3700 Juneau Ave. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

They say the factory has changed. As I walk up the steps I wonder if Stella will be at her receptionist and phone booth just inside to the left. I open the door to the entry way and there is a pay phone that did not used to be there. I open the main door and what a change. Stella's room is gone. Where the front of it was is a set of four maroon chairs and a small coffee table with a red phone on it. To the right is a 1904 Harley enclosed in glass. Off to the right is a shiny blue Wide-Guide. Ahead is a very modern looking receptionist area with a very modern front. Two very pleasant young ladies are there with a very modern phone system. They do not have to pull the long cords out of the console and push them into the wall sockets. They just push buttons. We tell them who we are and that we are early for our appointment and not to call yet that we were there. We wanted to try to get a hold of Bill Bailey who used to work for us. He was not at his desk so we would wait.

Watching sales people and others come in was very interesting. A nice young lady, sharply dressed, sat down across from me. Took out her compact and lipstick and primped. She had a very important presentation to make. She looks through her folder and I see that she must be from an ad agency or the printers. I see pictures of accessories. A young man sits down to my right and looks straight ahead as if to say, "why do I have to wait, I had an appointment". Others kinda pace around. Others take it in stride and look at pictures of the Founders and read the captions under them. They look at early trophies that the factory had from their early days.

Just before my appointment time I had a call from Marty saying that there would be a delay. There had been an emergency meeting called and all department heads had to be in attendance. With the wait, Leola thought she would call the lady from the factory we had met at the Jerry Lewis Telethon. She was S000 surprised that we remembered her that she said she would be right down. The other people were gradually being taken in so we were surprised when she came through the door. We got up to greet her and right behind her was Marty. I had never met him but as I was the only guy left he headed my way. We had a short visit with the gal and then Marty took us to the elevator. Elevator--I had never seen it before. I had always gone down the hall to the old waiting room. Of course they had to have an elevator. How would they take all of those parts from floor to floor? We went up to the fourth floor walking past offices, a meeting room, a cafeteria, and a room full of Harley accessories that only Harley employees could buy and then we were at Marty's office. Lots and lots of portable partitions to make offices were all over the area. Marty told me that each floor had been made over about like this one. The ceilings were tiled and a nice carpet on the floor and it looked real nice. Not the old factory that I had seen before.

Who is Marty? Marty Rosenbloom has been with the factory quite awhile and just recently been appointed Director of Archives. He has a Doctorate in history and is very enthusiastic about getting the archives better organized. He called Tom who I also had asked to meet and he came right in. Who is Tom? Tom Bolfert is a long time worker at the factory and spent countless hours in the archives and edited the Big Book of Harley. He did a fine job and anyone interested in Harley History should have one of these books.

I have had an idea about a story about another side of Harley and I wondered if someone had already done it. They said it had not been done and were interested in the idea. It would take an immense amount of research. They were to travel together the next day and were going to talk it over. Marty assured me that I would be hearing from him as he was working on a project and intimated that I would be involved. We had a very good hour with them and had some anecdotes to trade about old times. It was now noon so we had to break up.

When we got to the waiting room I asked if there was a restroom I could use. The girls pushed the electronic button that opened the door that we had just come from (no one gets through that door without them knowing it). Heaven forbid. Kleimenhagen's office and Stella's little room had been made into very modern rest rooms. I hope they do not wake up. Kleimenhagen was the Sales Manager for many years.

We leave the building with after thoughts. Here is a building that has made thousands upon thousands of motorcycles and all the necessary parts for their motorcycles. Here is a building that had at one time the reputation that it was the only large major manufacturing plant that made nearly 100% of it's parts. They have taken away all the noise of manufacturing. They have covered up all the grease, grime and oil of all those years and it looks very nice but they overlooked one thing. They just painted the many, many pillars that hold up the floors. They painted them all white. All the scratches, chips and marks of all kinds that were made over the years by the workmen pushing the big metal carts that held the parts being manufactured from area to area and bumping into them. They could tell a lot of stories.

Good-bye for now 3700. The noise of manufacturing is no longer in your confines but the LEGEND is. In you now are business people - engineers, draftsmen, designers, etc. that must keep the LEGEND ALIVE. GOOD LUCK.

Part 2 will be at the motor factory.