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East Meets West
As the gigantic new plant gradually was adjusted to fit its new tenants, there was still a more complex adjustment to be made – that of the New Englanders to the South. Leaving their homes, their friends, and the familiar surroundings of the Stratford plant; the first Connecticut people to come were confronted with a vast, empty factory and a city where there were few familiar faces. Chance Vought, however numerically small its personnel in the early days of the move, played the perfect host. Having established its office downtown in July 1948, it used this office as a reception center for employees traveling to Texas by car. John Hemmert, the senior officer in charge, or others of his staff, undertook to meet most of those traveling by train or plane in the early days. Later, an amiable Texan, John Wallace, was hired to say “howdy” to the incoming Easterners, take them to their hotels, and make them feel at home.
The family spirit has always been a strong one among Chance Vought workers. With those moving to Texas, it became even stronger. In the experience of moving, they all had something in common besides their work. Driving down, many of the workers and their families had become acquainted. In Dallas, transplanted workers had even more opportunity to become good friends. The morning after their arrival in Texas, all employees, with their families, reported for orientation. Afterward, they met in front of the plant and filled a caravan of automobiles to take a 70-mile tour of Dallas and surrounding towns. Now they could see for themselves the districts and suburbs of Dallas of which they had read in the numerous pamphlets distributed in the Dallas information booth in Stratford. They could decide in which part of the city they would like to choose a home. After the tour, members of Chance Vought’s housing group, being provided in advance with information on the new transferees’ housing requirements, took the newcomers house hunting. On one occasion, two previously unacquainted couples shared a car. “Now, there’s a house something like I had in Stratford,” one man exclaimed. “This looks like my old neighborhood, too,” said the other house hunter. “Where’d you live in Stratford?” It developed that the two couples had lived across the street from each other in New England. It took the Dallas move to make them friends. A Chinese-born Chance Vought engineer was delighted to find that prospective Dallas landlords offered him tea as he house hunted.
The housing group had been an important part of Chance Vought’s long-range planning and had consumed much of their time and thought in the early days of deciding whether or not the Texas transfer was a good idea. Just as soon as Chance Vought officials were assured by the community that housing needs could be met, they chose a former Dallas real estate man, Ted Michell, to make a detailed housing survey to determine what construction was to be done, its approximate completion date, and to find out from month to month what would be available in the way of rental property. At the beginning of the firm’s Texas operations, Mitchell, now supervisor of housing, already had hundreds of listings. By advertisements in local papers, and through close contacts with the Dallas Real Estate Board, the Dallas Apartment Association, and the Chambers of Commerce in communities surrounding the plant, he obtained hundreds more. He also had his people checking on properties offered from day to day in newspapers, and making a continuing survey of available homes. Each member of his department was assigned to a section of Dallas. On Saturdays and Sundays, or at any time when no applicants waited to be shown homes, the housing people combed their territories for “for rent” or “for sale” signs or for new construction. No stones were left unturned, and the results were gratifying. Many families were placed in a two or three hour period and housing placements generally kept pace with the number of incoming New Englanders. The average placement time for all employees was 9.1 days. A number of employees brought their trailer homes along with them and so had no housing problem. One man bought a home by mail from a real estate agent. Another had a Texas in-law find him a home and had his furniture shipped directly to the house. He arrived simultaneously with the moving van. As New Englanders became thick in certain sections of Dallas, they assisted their arriving friends to find homes.
The housing group’s services did not end with finding a home. They offered other services such as instructions on how to apply for utilities, how to handle mortgages and loans and, in some cases, where employees secured rentals and then decided to buy, they assisted them in canceling leases. For many families, the move offered an advantageous housing change. A great number had wanted for years to buy a house, but lacked the proper stimulus until they moved to Texas. Others who had made cramped quarters do, now found the opportunity to expand. The housing activity was one of the most vital cogs in the move. Each week, it found homes for about fifty families. At one point in the move, 45 percent of the incoming New Englanders, satisfied that they would spend their lives in Texas, were buying homes. One fact that surprised the New England housewives was that few Dallas homes had cellars or attics for storage. Burdened with an accumulation of years of living in New England, they found homes in the warmer climate were not equipped with these handy spaces for the storage of odds and ends. Many were relieved to discard these long cherished but useless items. The climate which made cellars and attics of little use in Dallas provided other advantages - utility bills were low and the New Englanders found the cost of living not quite as high in their new homes. They found savings, too, in food and other necessities of life.
Their children liked the schools, the outdoor life, and they liked wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots and going to rodeos. Several families bought horses and got their exercise in typical western fashion. The New Englanders went in enthusiastically for Texas diversions such as square dancing. The Texans received the Chance Vought plant and the Chance Vought transferees whole-heartedly. A bank proudly erected a signboard advertising Dallas as “The Home of Chance Vought Aircraft”. The Chamber of Commerce devoted one issue of its magazine to the aircraft plant and its transfer. At one meeting of Dallas businessmen, the club president announced to his members at the conclusion of the meeting, “I want you to find out if there are any Chance Vought people in your neighborhood, and if there are, make friends with them. These people have come a long way from their homes, and we want them to know that we appreciate it. And we want them to like Texas.” With this cordial send-off, the Chance Vought people rapidly found a place in the life of Dallas, and made themselves useful in its civic and cultural activities. Rex B. Beisel, the general manager, was invited to become a director of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Community Chest. Weekly, Chance Vought people were making speeches at civic clubs and schools. Mrs. Guy Colby, wife of a Chance Vought accountant and former actress in the Checkov Theatre group, went into the Dallas Little Theatre movement and was leading lady in its first production in 1948, “First Lady”.
 Vought people were active in the soaring club, figure skating club, and many others. They had filtered into every phase of Dallas life. They were getting along fine with the Texans who were doing everything to make them feel at home. When the child of one Vought family had mumps, the family was deluged with fruit and food by sympathetic neighbors. A solicitous Texas fishing enthusiast organized an anglers club for the purpose of “acquainting the Connecticut people with Texas fish and the methods of catching them”. The town of Arlington, Texas, near the close of the move, was host at a daylong barbecue, swimming, golf and handball party and dance in honor of the numerous new Chance Vought citizens in its community. Tradespeople, too, were obliging. In one extreme case, a Chance Vought family, arising late one hot Saturday morning, went out for the milk only to find that it wasn’t on the back step. It was in the refrigerator. But the back door was securely locked. The next day, the milkman enlightened them. “Didn’t want to disturb you-all,” he explained, “and didn’t want your milk sittin’ out in the sun. Just jimmied open that little window by the kitchen and climbed in.”
The Chance Vought personnel office at the plant, too, was doing its bit to make the transition smooth. The employee service group took applications for Texas car and dog licenses, and mailed back the old plates to Connecticut. They arranged appointments for Texas driver’s licenses, and got employees rides to work. The company even had employees’ credit ratings transferred from Connecticut to Texas. Gradually, the conveniences that had made them like their jobs in Connecticut began to appear in Texas. The Chance Vought Club and the Credit Union were reestablished. Plant parties and sports events began to sprinkle the calendar. Their old friends, one by one, migrated from Connecticut. With the old friends and old activities, they added new friends and forms of diversion they found in Texas. The transplanted New Englanders entered into this new chapter of their lives with a zest and enthusiasm that reflected itself in their smooth work of carrying out the move, training new Texans, and keeping up production schedules at one and the same time.
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