the t-shirt

8/4/2019 The T-Shirt

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Hovernotes

The T-Shirt

This morning when I saw that my daughter, Kayla, was wearing my old HomeTown Newspapers

shirt, I couldn’t help but tell her about the story behind the shirt. It was a part of stack of old

shirts that I had given to her about a week ago after I reorganized my shirt drawer. They were

just shirts that don’t fit me, I hadn’t worn, or were just taking up valuable space. I knew that they

wouldn’t fit Kayla properly enough to wear out in the public, but that they could be worn as

pajamas.

So, Kayla slept in my black shirt with the lightbulb on it and the phrase, “My future is so bright, Ihave to wear shades.” I received the shirt during a banquet being put on by HomeTown

Newspapers just a few months before I found out that the subsidiary that I was working for,

called HomeTown Online, was being dissolved, and everyone who worked there were going to

lose their jobs.

HomeTown Online was a local ISP which HomeTown Newspapers started up a couple of years

later. I began working there as a web designer and phone support technician shortly after I

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Hovernotesgraduated from CMU in 1997. It was a small operation especially compared to the organizations

and companies that I would work for later on, but in many ways it was where I really was able to

dig into the web development profession (back when it was still barely a profession at all). It was

where my coding and graphic design skills were put to the test. I also got into the process of

customer service when I began meeting with new clients who wanted to hire us to develop their websites for them.

We heard the first mumblings about a shutdown when my manager pulled us all in his office and

told us that any rumors about a merger were untrue. Although I didn’t say anything, my thoughts

were, “what rumors?” because I truly hadn’t heard anything at all.

The next clue came during the HomeTown Newspaper banquet when we weren’t included in

any of the speeches that were given about the company’s future. Our sister company, which

was based in the Detroit area, was mentioned, but HomeTown Online was completely

overlooked. I also remember that my manager was given a cold shoulder by members of the

management team.

So, it was during this same banquet that everyone was given these black T-Shirts with

lightbulbs on them, and a slogan underneath which says “My Future is so bright, I need to wear

shades.” A few months later, we were all pulled into the conference room and told that the

company was being dissolved, its subscribers were going to be given to our sister ISP in

Livonia, and that we were losing our jobs. None of us had been given any warning until that

point. Not even our manager knew that this was going to happen.

I told Kayla that the shirt seemed pretty ironic, since it seemed to suggest I had a long future at

HomeTown Newspapers/HomeTown Online, but as it turns out I really didn’t. Of course, I’ve

learned since 1999 when I was being let go from my first job out of college that there really isn’tsuch a thing as job security, not even if you wear a shirt that proclaims it.

RepercussionsThe announcement that HomeTown Online was being shut down impacted me in more ways

than one. Sure, I’d be looking for a new job after the next three months (they were keeping us

on to help with the shutdown and transfer of the subscribers over to our sister ISP), but what

was almost worse was that my wife had just resigned from her position with the Marlette

Elementary School, where she had been teaching fifth grade during the last year. Our plan had

been for get married and then move to somewhere in Livingston County where I would continue

working for HomeTown Online, and Theresa would get a teaching job. So, now we were both

going to be unemployed, and there was no way to know where we would end up living.

My downsizing at HomeTown Newspapers reshaped the direction of our life together as a

couple. Had we known I wouldn’t be at HomeTown Online at the start of the next school year,

I’m sure that we would have decided to live in Marlette so that Theresa could keep a teaching

job, and I would have gotten a job at one of the nearby cities.








HovernotesBut, things worked out for the better even if we had to change our plans. I ended up working

part-time at the Cromaine Library that following summer. It was a job, at least, and I had the

time I needed to help Theresa plan our wedding. I eventually applied for and got a position with

the Michigan State Medical Society, in East Lansing, so by the time we were getting married on

July 10, 1999, I was employed once again. I started working for MSMS one week before our wedding.

Theresa was never able to find a full time teaching job that year. By the time we were married

and living in Haslett, Michigan, schools had already filled their teaching positions. Living in the

Lansing area made it even harder for Theresa to find a teaching job because she was an

unfamiliar face. She began subbing for the local districts so she could build up her credibility,

and actually ended up landing a long term subbing position for an elementary school in Waverly.

Kayla listened intently while I told her about my job with HomeTown Online, how I was given the

shirt, and the way I found out that I was losing my position with the company. She was also

interested in my story about planning for the wedding. I didn’t tell her how deeply my job lossaltered the course of all of our lives.

Hidden TruthsThinking about how things have turned out, I can’t help but wonder if the T-shirt might have

been telling the truth after all. There have been some bumps and bruises along the way, but we

still managed to recover each time. There were even a couple of times where I ended up a little

better off because of a move or a job change.

Looking back, the worse part of my experience with HomeTown Online was that management

didn’t seem to really give HomeTown Online the chance, nor were they very willing to tell us thetruth. My guess is that when they looked at the bottom line, HomeTown Online wasn’t

performing well enough to keep around. And, they never really valued us as employees.

And, that shirt was really cheesy.






the t-shirt

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