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Since then, hundreds of former Ford workers have negotiated the delicate transition to new jobs, some more smoothly than others. Many acknowledg e they haven't come close to matching the financial advantages they enjoyed at the truck assembly plant.
"I think a lot of people have done very well after Ford," said Tim Taylor, 50, owner of Tim Dogs, a hot dog restaurant in Moyock, N.C. "But I don't know anybody offhand that makes the same money and benefits they made at Ford."
Yet there are pluses: The opportunity to sleep in. The rest on the body. And, for those who started their own businesses, freedom and self-determination.
"I know that I'm controlling my own destiny now," sa id Ray Wicker, 44, of Virginia Beach, owner of Wicker's Cr ab Pot Seafood. "I don't have to worry about some corporate office saying: 'We're shutting you down.' "
Here are updates of five ex-Ford employees and their new lives:
CHRIS BARNES
When he was at Ford, life was less nerve-wracking for Chris Barnes.
"I didn't have to worry about a lot of things, like making sure the bills get paid every month," said Barnes, 34, of Chesapeake. "Now it's a struggle sometimes."
Counting overtime, Barnes said, he sometimes made m ore than $100,000 a year in his factory job. No w he has a $38,000 -a-year salary as a Virginia Beach firefighter. His wife, Christine, whom Barnes met at Ford, stays home with their six boys, ranging from 9 months to 12 years old.
He likes his new job better -- the excitement, the power to help people at their neediest. But he misses the money he earned at Ford.
Barnes spent 13 years at the plant, ending in skilled trades, where he helped tend the combustion systems. When the news of the closing came out, he said, "I was scared to death at first."
He knew he didn't want an office job. He liked working with his hands. He was debating between firefighter and police officer. "My kids decided that for me," Barnes said. "They didn't want me getting shot at."
He took a battery of preliminary exams, from physical agility to psychological, and won entry to the seven-month fire academy. There, Barnes learned how to negotiate smoky buildings, how to break windows and ventilate roofs.
"At first, it was tough," he said. "After I got through a few hurdles, I really en joyed it."
In October, he joined Station 2 on Haygood Road. Barnes counts several benefits to the new job:
No worries about being laid off. The camaraderie at the station. The chance "to make an immediate difference in somebody's life, right then and there. When people call us, it could be at the worst moment of their life. You have to be on your game."
And, of course, "it's fun riding in a big, red truck."
The scariest, yet most exhilarating, moment came in February, when he helped battle a four-alarm fire. "You couldn't see your hand in front of your face," Barnes said. "It was fun and exciting and at the same time pretty creepy."
His boys are divided between considering his job "cool" and disliking the ever-present danger and the daunting s che dule. Barnes works 10 24 -hour shifts a month.
To bring in more money, Barnes has taken a part-time job at the closed Ford plant ("It's like a ghost town there"), working for a contractor helping to maintain the equipment. "Even with two jobs," he said, "the ends don't meet all the time."
The family has curtailed eating out. His wife "doesn't drive anymore if she doesn't have to."
But Barnes added: "I don't regret my decision as far as going to the fire department. I enjoy it. I think it will be a good career."
KEISHA JOHNSON and KIM THOMAS
Keisha Atkinson Johns on and Kim Atkinson Thomas envision a children's paradise: 10 "inflatables," including mazes, slides and obstacle courses. Four party rooms with names such as Elephant Safari and Monkey Business and murals to match. A concession stand serving pizza, hot dogs and popcorn.
The sisters, both Ford veterans, plan to open Jungle Gym LLC in partnership with another sister, Karen At kinson Hill, late next month at the site of a former warehouse and baseba ll batting cage on Dean Drive in Virginia Beach.
They've sunk about $250,000 of Ford buyout and their own investment money into the business. They plan nothing but success.
"I think we will do very well," said Thomas, 46, of Portsmouth, who's already talking about opening a second jungle gym.
Thomas had been with Ford for 12 years, working on the trim line; Johnson for 13-1/2, in chassis. "The Ford plant isn't a job you do because you like it," said Johnson, 40, of Suffolk. "It's a job you do because of the pay and the benefits. It allows you to provide a decent life for you and your family."
Nevertheless, the news of the closing helped them realize a decade-long dream to start their own place and capitalize on their business degrees from Norfolk State University.
The idea of the jungle gym appealed to the mothers in them; each has a 14-year-old child. For Johnson, it also made lots of business sense: "No matter what the economy is, kids will always be there. Second, most parents will do almost anything for their children."
They scouted jungle gyms, both locally and in Atlanta. Hampton Roads, they said, has a few, but none in proximity to theirs. Their goals to attract families, Johnson said, are "treating kids like they are kids," offering "great customer service," and providing a "clean and safe environmen t."
They will target children ages 1 to 10. The 15,000-square-foot space allows for as many as four simultaneous parties, the sisters said. They hope to connect with schools, day care centers, athletic teams and PTAs. They also will provide opportunities for "open jumps" for children who stop by.
The two seldom look back nowadays, though Johnson was astounded when a drug co-payment shot up to $21 under her new health plan from $5 with Ford. Otherwise, the sisters see the bright side of life after Ford.
"My body feels a lot better; I don't ache the way I used to," Johnson said. She used to "stay hoarse all the time." Not anymore. Thomas no longer gets sinus infections.
"You respect the little things -- just going to lunch when you want and being able to see the sun during the day," Johnson said. "... You no longer have to depend on someone else. Your business is what you make it. If you sweat, you might as well sweat for yourself."
CHRISTOPHER PEARSALL
His salary has been cut by more than half. He's got to pay closer attention to what he spends, what he wears, what he says. But Christopher Pearsall is happier these days.
Pearsall spent 10 years at Ford, working most of that time as a millwright, fixing and moving equipment. "This is where I'm going to be forever," he reckoned -- until Ford announced the plant would close.
Even before the shutdown, he enrolled at Old Dominion University, knowing only that he wanted "to stay out of manufacturing." In the spring of 2007, Pearsall applied for a $15-an-hour internship at Concursive Corp., a software company in downtown Norfolk.
It wasn't the best of starts. His resume had a few typos. Pearsall had forgotten to spell-check it. The executiv e vice president, Michael Harvey, responded with -- in his words -- "a fairly intimidating letter." Undeterred, Pearsall fired back a corrected resume. Harvey, impressed with his mettle, took him on.
Pearsall came to work at 6:30 some mornings and stayed late. "Chris is the very picture of someone who is a self-starter," Harvey s aid. "He's very, very hardworking and a very quick study."
So in what Harvey said was the company's most unconventional hire, he made Pearsall a full-time product manager in August, even before he got his degree from ODU. In the job, Pearsall scouts marketplace trends and helps decide which features to include in software.
At Ford, Pearsall said he worked 60- to 80-hour weeks, racking up gobs of overtime and annual pay of $140,000. His salary at Concursive is $60,000 a year.
The divorced father of four, who never used to worry about his bank account, last month sold a second house in Moyock, N.C., where he lives. He also sold his Jet Skis and gave up his Ford Excursion for a thriftier Ford Focus. His beloved skiing vacations to West Virginia -- also gone.
At the same time, Pearsall, 34, had to shell out for new work clothes. No more overalls. Now it was dress and polo shirts and the occasional tie.
He's had to button up in other ways as well. The plant was a "puff-your-chest-out, really masculine place, where you did not have to be politically correct," he said. "Coming here, I would call it more refined. You definitely have to think about what you're going to say before you open your mouth."
Physical and mental pros and cons: Pearsall was in a lot better shape at Ford. But his job now allows him "to think a lot more outside of the box."
He works much less at Concursive -- 40 hours a week. He can't, however, leave his work behind, as he did at Ford, when his day is done.
"It's fun and challenging, but it weighs on you. You're constantly thinking about your job. The to-do list goes home with you."
TIM TAYLOR
When Tim Taylor was a boy, his father joked all the time about wanting to start a hot dog place. The family loved eating at local haunts, like Jimmy's or Tony's. Tim's favorite was the tough-skin Norfolk dog.
His father, of course, stayed with his electrician's job. Tim became an electrician, too, and spent 14-1/2 years at Ford, primarily helping maintain the heating and air-conditioning systems.
After the plant closed, Taylor decided to start fresh -- "I was trying to get away from the elements; I worked outside for too many years" -- and embraced his father's dream.
In September, he opened Tim Dogs, which serves Hormel hot dogs and fries in Moyock, N.C., about three miles from the state line. He used "a lot" of his pretax $100,000 buyout from Ford to get the business going.
"Because of the money, it hasn't been so bad," said Taylor, 50, of Moyock. "It's been a decent transition."
Still, "I was hoping to be doing a little better than I'm doing," Taylor said. "The hardest part is the economy. It's not helping me right now."
Tim Dogs offers a cheap meal: Dogs run from $2 to $3; fries start at $1.75. But even that's been too much for some folks.
Business has recently fallen off from where it was over the winter, Taylor said.
He opened too late last year to capitalize on the summer crowds, but he's hoping the next few weeks turn around, with the rush of tourists headed to the beaches and students returning home.
"It's been a long year," Taylor said. "It's had its good and bad. I really need for this summer to be a good summer. Th is is what I've been working toward all year."
Financially, Taylor is behind since he left the plant. "I don't think I'll ever make the kind of money I made at Ford," where he received $32 an hour, he said.
And health insurance is taking a far bi gger bite. Taylor is paying about $600 a month under his wife's plan. At Ford, there was no monthly premium. "Most of the guys I know from the plant -- they're struggling with it."
He is saving on gas, though. His drive to the restaurant is 1-1/2 miles, compared with 26 to the Ford plant.
Tim Dogs has six tables and eight bar stools. Jerseys from Currituck County schools and recreation teams decorate the walls. His customers, he said, include bank presidents, construction workers and county commissioners. Steve Jo nes, owner of Steve's Custom Golf Carts nearby, goes there about four times a week.
"The hot dogs are great," Jones said. "It's just a real nice place, comfortable and relaxing. Tim seems to be a great guy and will sit down and talk to you when it's not busy."
The most popular item, Taylor said, is the all-beef dog. The tough-skin Norfolk dog hasn't caught on as much in Carolina.
Taylor said he hasn't gotten tired of wieners yet. He eats one most every day.
STEVE TISDALE
It's been a rough year for Steve Tisdale, 44, of Elizabeth City, N.C., but he holds out hope for a better future.
Tisdale had worked at Ford for 11 years, ending as an inspector in the trim department in December 2006. Last July, the month after the plant closed, he and his wife separated.
The economic hardship "played a big role, and we kind of went our separate ways," Tisdale said. "We had two houses. She used one of them for a day care business, but we didn't have the money to keep both of them up."
Then, last month, he filed for bankruptcy. Even after the $100,000 pretax buyout from Ford, he was more than $100,000 behind on his house and car payments. "There's no way I can get my debts paid off," Tisdale said. "I'm trying to get the slate wiped clean."
The beacon that keeps him from depression is his pursuit of a marine biology degree at Elizabeth City State University. After he receives his bachelor's degree next summer, he hopes to get a job in a secondary school, following in the teaching footsteps of his mother and two uncles. Then, maybe, a graduate degree and a college job.
"Once I get my second degree, and I get my credit straightened out," Tisdale said, "maybe it will be a new chapter in my life. I'm going through a valley now to get to a brighter future."
Tisdale said he's always loved plants and animals. He even used to bring lizards and snakes into the house. His mother didn't mind "as long as they were small."
This summer, he's enjoying an unpaid internship helping restore sea grass to the Currituck Sound.
Tisdale, who said his grade point average is 3.3 on a 4-p oint scale, has impressed Thomas Rossbach, an associate professor of geology at the university. In his first class with Tisdale, "he consistently had the highest scores on every exam," Rossbach said. "He has a great wealth of knowledge and remembers an incredible amount of what he's taught. His whole attitude is: I want to do this the best that I can."
Tisdale's income at Ford used to be $70,000. He estimates his annual income this year will be $6,000 to $8,000. That would come from his 30-hour-a-week job as a cashier at Food Lion, which he acknowledges is "a big step down."
To get by these days, Tisdale said he eats smaller portions and doesn't go out to "fancy restaurants at the Outer Banks anymore."
"I don't really miss it," he said. "What I enjoy mostly is reading books, going out in the field and working on the ocean and the sound."
Tisdale readily acknowledges that he was better off at Ford than he is today. "If everything goes according to plan, I think I'll be better off in the future. And I' m enjoying what I'm doing right now more."
Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pilotonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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