Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town (Ohio History and Culture

by Joyce Dyer

A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town tells the story of growing up in the rubber community of Firestone Park in Akron, Ohio”the former Rubber Capital of the World. The book begins with the rededication of the bronze Harvey Firestone statue on August 3, 2000, at the Centennial celebration for the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. The statue”perched high on a hill at the entrance to Firestone Park, the residential community Harvey built for his workers in 1915”was sacred to the author, Joyce Coyne Dyer, and her father, Tom Coyne, during the fifties, a time when the Coynes worshipped the company and thought themselves members of the Firestone family.

Genres: Nonfiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Joyce Dyer is director of the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, and John S. Kenyon Professor of English. Dyer is the author of three books, The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings, In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer’s Journey, and Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, and the editor of Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers. She has published essays in magazines such as North American Review, cream city review, and High Plains Literary Review. Dyer has won numerous awards for her writing, including the 1998 Appalachian Book of the Year Award and the 2009 David B. Saunders Award in Creative Nonfiction.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pairs well with (as in, antidote for): The Glass Castle

A bittersweet book about a father and husband who loved deeply, out of and through the failure of (literally) a lifetime.

Also of great personal interest since it's embedded in the history of my neighborhood in Akron, OH. (Side note - my neighborhood is built over a coal mine?!)

There are way too many italics and Firestone's bad-guy status reaches hyperbole, but probably both devices are meant to simulate the impressions of a little girl's mind, since the story is primarily about a little girl rediscovering her daddy.

[Linda Spear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a readaloud for my husband and me. Joyce taught at Hiram College so we are acquainted with her, he more than I. I had bought this when it came out and read it then, but actually did not remember how moving a story it was. And what Firestone did to Joyce's father really made me angry. When I ever see her again (she and my husband have both retired), we'll be discussing this book!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any child born into an Akron rubber factory home. The author's personal insights struck many a memory for me, the son of a 40+ year Goodyear employee. If your parent was a factory worker in the 50's, 60's or early 70's this is a must read. Also for our children!

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frustrating? Annoying? You Bet.....

This is Joyce Dyer's heartfelt (at times Slavish) tribute to her father..Thomas Coyne....and His slavish devotion to Firestone Tire & Rubber Company (Akron, Ohio) and Harvey S Firestone, Sr

Thomas Coyne was a COMPANY MAN..through and through...he believed that Firestone Tire & Rubber..and Harvey Firestone would care for him & his family for life...unfortunately, that was not the case...RUBBER left Akron in the 1970s..and left Thomas Coyne behind

I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio..my father spent his entire working life at Firestone Tire & Rubber Company..but he was NOT a Company Man..we did Not live in Firestone Park..and my Dad always said that Harvey Firestone Sr was "a crook" and a Robber Baron..

Ms Dyer, in spite of her slavish devotion to her Father, eventually presented a clear-eyed picture of the man..and his blind trust in a Company that let him, and so many other, down..in a shameful way

this was a tough read for me..Ms Dyer and i grew up in different circumstances..different "classes"...and my father retired as a Systems Analyst..but "got out" when he could in the late 70s...but i felt for her in reading this book. Her dad bought the Company Line totally..and he paid dearly

i won't recommend this book..unless someone grew up in Akron, when it was the Rubber Capitol of The World...but it is a heartbreaker of a book

4 Stars

[Ty Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little local history of my neighborhood.

[Christina Sopko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting; potentially less so if you're not from the area. Then, more likely a still interesting family story.

[Celest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Local history from my mother's hometown. The story of a Firestone employee's family and work with the rubber factory that built and then demolished careers.

[The University of Akron Press]

Gum-Dipped (Ohio History and Culture) by Joyce Dyer (2003)