Show birthday banquet held in honor honorof of oldsmobile employed lansing mi mih ah jan 4 governor luren D dickinson of michigan R E olds founder of the olds motor works and W S knudsen president of general genera motors corporation were honored guests friday night dec at the largest and most unusual birthday banquet ever held in capitol capilo 1 at lansing the affair was planned to pay signal honor to charlie blades oldest oldsmobile employed emp loye in j act the oldest employed in the automobile industry in years of service on his birthday C L mccuen general manager of oldsmobile was host at the party and invited veteran oldsmobile employed emp loyes each one present was able to boast of a service record of 20 years or more with the company president i knudsen was the guest speaker of I 1 the evening and paid high tribute to blades for his long and interesting association with oldsmobile A H brandel a fellow worker of blades and himself with a record of 31 years with oldsmobile was spokesmen spokes urn for the old timers and cited incidents of his early association with blades local and out of town newsmen were also among the special guests mr blades known to hundreds as charlie has become one of the legendary figures of the industry said mccuen who presided not hotl only is he the oldest auto worker in point of service in the united states but as a blacksmith he hammered out the front axle for the first commercially successful automobile produced in america the 1897 oldsmobile now 80 years of age charlie long ago abandoned such strenuous duties as swinging a blacksmiths blask smiths hammer he is employed today as an information clerk in the tool division at oldsmobile blades was born in west walton county of norfolk england dec 30 1859 and came to this country with his parents when 5 years old they settled on a farm at pettysville Pettys ville some 12 miles south of howell mich and charles eldest of 12 children of whom seven are still living helped till the soil attending country schools whenever he could be spared by his father at I 1 16 6 he be went west to see the country and found a job helping the U S surveyors lay out the lines for a transcontinental railway returning to michigan reserved he served three years as blacksmiths apprentice under william peters of pettysville Pettys ville 1 I started at 50 a year and board charlie said besides I 1 had to do all the chores the second year I 1 got 75 and the third in gold it against the law to own gold then and that looked like a lot of money he then moved to lansing to work as a full fledged blacksmith in clarks carriage works where he helped build R E olds first automobile which is now in the smithsonian institute in washington he still has the hammer with which he fashioned the axles of that car 42 years ago for some years he be constituted the entire axle department of the olds motor works 1 I first set up my forge in the power house he said it was right between the boilers and it got so hot there that I 1 moved it to a tent outdoors when t the he tent blew away for the second time I 1 moved it indoors again at one time or another I 1 guess I 1 ive ve had had my shop in almost every building in this plant blades looked out of the window of hia office in building 40 as he spoke A lot of buildings today he reflected but I 1 can remember when there one in sight and I 1 shot rabbits around here in the hazelnut hazel nut brush that covered the countryside |