Making Stuff

And Watching Other People Make Stuff

Riley likes making biscuits.

Making Trucks

Last week my husband and I spent some time in Detroit watching folks at the Ford River Rouge Complex make F-150’s. It reminded me of working in post office mail distribution centers for so many years. When I worked the graveyard shift, I started the night surrounded by sacks of letter and parcels that needed to go somewhere else. The next morning, I watched semi-trucks full of sorted mail head off to delivery points around the world.

At the River Rouge Complex, employees start with raw metals and end up with around 1200 shiny new trucks per day. It’s the longest continuously producing auto plant in the nation.

No photos are allowed inside the River Rouge Complex but thankfully artist Diego Rivera also spent time in the plant in 1932. He was also fascinated by the factory’s size and technology and his incredible murals recording his impressions are on the walls of the garden court of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Making Music

Berry Gordy of Motown Records worked on Ford assembly lines for longer than he wanted to but he said later on in his life that it was one of the best things that happened to him. The repetitive work allowed him to began composing music in his head during his shifts.

I can relate. I did plenty of mind-numbing jobs at the post office and listening to my coworkers tell stories as we sorted mail helped pass the time. Some of those stories ended up in my first novel “The Lockhart Women.”

Watching raw materials turn into beautiful automobiles also gave Berry Gordy the idea that local musical kids from his neighborhood could come through the doors of Motown Records with no experience, go through a process of learning how to dance, dress, and present themselves, and exit as musical stars.

Berry Gordy bought the house now known as Hitsville USA in 1959 and converted it into Motown’s administrative building and recording studio. It was pretty incredible to stand in the studio where those kids from his neighborhood (like Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and so many others) made their musical dreams come true.

Making Vinyl

We also watched the team at Third Man Pressing convert pellets of polyvinyl chloride into vinyl records. If you want to see how the process works, here’s a video. (The annoying ad at the beginning is very short.)

Third Man Pressing is owned by musical force and Detroit native Jack White. White founded the vinyl pressing company in 2017 using his own money to address a problem in the musical world. There’s a big demand for vinyl these days but there aren’t enough pressing plants which causes delays of up to nine months for music to be released in vinyl format.

Third Man Pressing also has a stage where they record live music straight to vinyl. Which means no “do overs.” If you make a mistake, you just keep going.

Making Art

Also at the Detroit Institute of Art is this cape-like structure created by Ghanian artist El Anatsui. He used available raw materials (in this piece it was reclaimed aluminum liquor bottle caps found near his studio in Nigeria) and then flattened the caps, molded them into circular forms, and strung them together with copper wire.

There’s a lesson somewhere in this travel diary. Use what’s available, learn from what you’re doing, if you see a need for something maybe do it yourself, and if you make mistakes, keep on going.

Detroit is a great place to visit. Michigan farmers make incredible displays of produce and flowers at the gigantic Eastern Market. Detroit beermakers brew some of the tastiest Hazy IPAs we’ve ever sipped. Detroit mixologists stir up some pretty incredible cocktails. Plus, there are Coney dogs, stellar pizza, and you’re just across the river from Canada.

Making Up Stories

Alice Munro was born in Ontario, Canada, not too far from Detroit. Munro wrote short stories from the late 1960s until her final collection, Dear Life, in 2013, when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

She was one of my guiding lights, and I’m grateful to Bill Wolfe of Read Her Like An Open Book for including me as one of fifteen authors in his recent blogpost in tribute to her. Alice Munro died on May 13, 2024.

I made these two books! (with a lot of help from trained professionals)

Making Mistakes

In my last giveaway, I forgot to state that the signed paperback giveaway was for US only. Thanks to Argentina subscriber Ileana for being so understanding. I wish there was an affordable way to ship books to other countries. Congrats to Crystal and Laura who won signed paperbacks. I’ll be more careful in the future.

The Lockhart Women is three years old on June 1st and paperbacks are on sale right now on Amazon for $11.75. To celebrate, I’m giving away three eBook copies (US only.)

To enter this giveaway, respond to this email and let me know what you like to make.