Frostbite

Sara Ashley-Cook’s great grandfather, Alvin R. Lester Price, was born in Slocumb, Alabama, in 1899. He was from a family of farmers, but had grown tired of being poor, and decided to move to Akron with his wife, Lucille Price, in 1928. Alvin started off delivering coal and working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where he helped build the Ravenna Arsenal and Mogadore Reservoir. While digging the reservoir, Alvin received his letter to come to Goodyear Tire, and worked “just about every nasty, back-breaking factory job there was,” including in the Lamp Black Room and Hose Room. After 29 years and 9 months, Alvin retired from Goodyear’s Transportation Department in 1965. Alvin and Lucille raised four proud generations of Akronites, who fondly remember them as “the bedrock” of the family.