Hello. $475 for the album.

And now to 1944 and Tyler, Texas. This is from the Tyler Courier-Times newspaper, November 12, 1944.

With World War 2 raging in Europe and the Pacific, automobiles out of production since early 1942, and gasoline rationed, bicycles were very precious for transportation!

Thieves in Tyler, Texas were busy grabbing those precious bicycles! But it seemed those stealing bikes had a particular attraction to (you guessed it) Packard bicycles.

As incredible as it may seem, here are at least three Packard bicycles all stolen around the same time!

From the files of National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com) and Leon Dixon.

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Most of this stuff was being made by outside vendors. For instance the vacuum tanks (on the splash well in the engine compartment) were made at a company on Detroit's east side. Interior trim (much of it) was done at Mitchell-Bentley in Ionia, Michigan. And on and on...

Postwar Packard production was not like many imagine it today. The foundry buildings and work (which was actually located north of Harper Avenue where nobody today realizes the plant extended) had all been shut down by the V-8 era. The foundry contents were already being auctioned off.

This points out yet another reason why the death of Packard in Detroit was so very crippling to the city. At one time, Detroit (and southeast Michigan) was peppered with little shops and companies that did everything from manufacturing small parts and assemblies to tool & die making. When Packard went down in flames, so did many of these little companies!

And businesses like Creative Industries, Mitchell-Bentley and Modern Engineering could create cars and components cheaper and easier than Packard could itself. So? They farmed this work out to what were believed to be competent vendors.

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Yes... these things are all obvious today– especially in hindsight which is always 20/20. And the fact that modern car manufacturers now have the process pretty much down cold.

Yes... Packard depended (perhaps naively) on vendors to do what they had indeed promised they could do.

Yes... vendors dumped Packard in the grease. And one can blame Packard and J.J. Nance (and a lot of others) and the blame-game is a mainstay in American thinking– no matter the field.

Yes... I am very familiar with J.I.T. and how it works, having been involved in this very process during most of my adult career on the auto industry.

But the issue I was attempting to illuminate is that no critic or critique has pointed out that Packard was attempting to do this long before the Japanese. Despite the Japanese being credited today with somehow inventing J.I.T. This was a pioneering move ahead of its time– whether it worked or not For Packard. And whether it has been recognized or not.

Even up until its end, Packard was an amazing, forward-thinking company and I still give them an "A" for effort– in spite of what took place at the end and at Conner Avenue.

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Not really true.

First of all, Utica was engine and transmissions. Some other pieces were also made there.

A significant part of the East Grand Blvd. plant was occupied with body transport, body storage and component storage. This took up a lot of imagined free space. Plus Briggs was actually renting additional space in the plant. AND there were always trucks coming and going to and from Briggs over on Conner. With production relocated to Conner... all this became unnecessary.

As for Conner Avenue there were some space issues, but many of those "issues" were just as much organizational as spatial.

It is also a pity that the modern method that Packard was attempting to do at Conner has been so bitterly criticized. But when the Japanese used this same process years later in their plants they were hailed as geniuses! The production process is known as "Just In Time" or "J.I.T."

In J.I.T. a part or component or subassembly is delivered to the factory just in time for it to be assembled on a vehicle. This way requires far less handling and storage space to be allotted for keeping such items on hand.

In this process, it is the vendor who needs to be at the top of their game. And some weren't. This got blamed on Packard.

But those anxious to criticize Packard or J.J. Nance for imagined inept thinking jumped all over what Packard was attempting to do at the time. Of course the industry in the USA was (as a whole) not fully embracing J.I.T. at the time. And there were obviously numerous teething problems and adjustments that resulted from the move to Conner. But the issues were/are not nearly as cut and dried as most critics and critiques imagine.

I am very much saddened to learn of Bob's passing. He was a very nice man with family history so much a part of the Packard story.

I always enjoyed reading his articles in The Packard Cormorant magazine about his dad's Packard dealership. Wonderful memories from someone who was actually there in the final days of the Packard empire.

I'm saying prayers for Bob and his family. Hope that he's somewhere in happy eternity... smiling behind the wheel of a brand new Packard. All with the engine purring and a bird on the hood. We miss you, Bob.

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Newspapers and these silly articles on the East Grand Blvd. Packard plant insist upon re-writing history and twisting the story of the plant's demise. They make it appear as if Mr. Palenzuela is to blame for all the monstrous destruction that took place. In fact, the damage was already done by the time he arrived on the scene with an impossible dream to rescue it all.

The whole scenario was caused by the City of Detroit. Palenzuela is merely a convenient patsy to blame things on. All he didn't do was not being able to pull off a miraculous rescue. Period.

It is sad that people keep drinking the Kool-Aid and cannot see this. To Palenzuela's credit, he did indeed clean up a lot of HIS portion of the plant (while the City did nothing with theirs)... and he did indeed post private guards and got Concord Avenue blocked off to traffic (that was allowing scrappers and vandals to haul everything away they could). What did the city do? They sat back and let things go down the toilet.

And the politicians keep talking about this "neighborhood" as if it is a haven for residences and families. Please. Great copy for the newspapers and TV. And people believe this silliness.

As far as production taking place on East Grand Blvd. in 1956 (as mentioned in the newspaper), this is also a fantasy. Dreamed up obviously by someone born after the Apollo Moon Landing. Production at this location stopped in late 1954, not 1956. All 1955 and 1956 Packards were produced at the new Packard Plant on Conner Avenue. And that, too... is gone. But today's newspapers, people running things and TV don't know it.

Sorry, but I was there. And as long as I am breathing, I will point these facts out– no matter what the newspapers and internet stories are telling you.

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