Around the time my mother brought me into this world (1961) she worked at AeroJet. It was located in the Glen Avon area of Jurupa and made munitions. That's right, like in "KABOOM!" AreoJet still exists but has been long gone from Glen Avon. I called the company headquarters up in the nothern part of our state and they had no record of ever having had a plant in the Glen Avon area.
My mother's friend Lila worked there as well and I asked her one time about it. This was back in the days before OSHA and the ladies who worked there filling shells with explosive powder (or what ever they used) woked in a little booth so if a shell exploded it wouldn't take out everyone around them. They especially feared the days when the Santa Ana condition rolled in because it got so dry and static electricty could cause an explosion. Lila said they would drape wet paper towels around their work stations to reduce the chance of static electricity.
At my mother's memorial service her best friend Emma Jane spoke about first meeting my mother on a Santa Ana day. My mom popped across the street to meet the new neighbors, breezely telling Emma Jane that she wasn't at work that day because of the wind and the danger it posed. Lila said that one of the reasons the plant was shut down and moved (or maybe it was combined with an existing plant, I don't recall) was because of danger on windy days.
My mom eventually quit AreoJet due to the danger posed by working with explosives. I do remember going to visit some ladies my mom used to work with at AreoJet. At least one was missing part of a finger due to her employment there. Obviously this made a very vivid impression on me!
Considering the fact that my mom worked in a munitions factory the whole time she was pregnant with me, I am grateful I wasn't born with two heads or extra arms.
I would love to hear from others who worked at AreoJet or who had a family member who worked there.
Whsre was it located?
ReplyDeleteThis is where they had Bunker's ...there are at least two that ive seen there
ReplyDeleteIt was located in Glen Avon CA.
ReplyDeleteIt was located in Glen Avon CA.
ReplyDeleteIt was located in Pyrite Canyon, up near the Stringfellow Acid Pits, I think.
ReplyDeleteYes on pyrite.....
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 70's my friends an I used to ride our Horses in those hills . On one ride we cams across an industrial chain link fence there was a big hole that we were able to ride through . What we found was a huge pit and some cement bunkers ,The pit was the result of a big explosion you could see heavy chains attached to a big ring hanging in the center the chains were half buried around the outer edges of the pit along with blacktop rd's . I thought it was a mining operation then realized with the bunkers it must have had something to do with munitions It must have been a huge explosion yet ! I could never find anything about it . It was
ReplyDeletelocated west of the acid pit's