Probus Club meets

    PRESQUE ISLE — Probus Club of Central Aroostook held their monthly meeting Oct. 15, at Reed Commons, Northern Maine Community College, with 18 members and two guests present.     Program Chairman Mel Fitzherbert introduced John Nightingale as the speaker.
    Nightingale is from Fort Fairfield and works for Sensata Technologies. Sensata bought out First Technology that was in Caribou and Standish. Sensata has four plants, hiring 5,000 people, in different cities in China.  John travels to China for his company and he loves China and its people.
    A slide presentation was given by Nightingale as he told about the areas of Shanghai and Baoying where they have plants. The city of Shanghai is three times bigger than New York. When Nightingale is in China, he lives in a company compound. In the cities there are many apartment buildings being built. One city is huge and was built in 15 years. There are lots of parks and lots to do. Most people that work for Sensata live near their work. In the cities the popular car is the Volkswagen Santana. Many use motorscooters.  
    China has a simple culture. The latitude of China is about the same as Washington, D.C. It does snow there. There are no snow plows. The people shovel and sweep the snow off the streets and roads. They don’t heat their buildings. Their buildings are very drab. Everything is owned by the government and is Communist. They are a happy people and love the U.S. There is no clean air. The air is very polluted. It comes from coal used in the industries. Life expectancy will drop to 50 to 60 years because of the pollution.
    The cities are Americanized. There are parks everywhere. They do have MacDonald’s but don’t serve what we eat here in the U.S. They have nice Internet cafes. Tea is a big thing there. Everyone drinks tea.
    They all work. They don’t make much money. Their salary might be $8,000 a year. Their motorscooter might be $800.  John didn’t really like talking about the food there. But he said he and others did lose a lot of weight!! The employees of Sensata have three pairs of shoes — one for work, one for the street and one for home. John showed pictures of the machines used in their plants and the machines were made in Caribou and shipped to China. They don’t have traffic cops and drive wherever there is a lane open. He said there are many accidents and deaths.  
    The group thanked Nightingale for the informative presentation. President Peggy Woodman called the meeting to order. Guests were Meta Guiggey and Dale Hitchcock. Secretary and treasurer reports were given and accepted. The group voted to have the treasurer pay Probus Center for the club’s annual dues with liability insurance coverage. Pearl Carmichael gave her monthly reading entitled “I Love The Autumn Best.” Report of the Care Cards was given. The meeting was then adjourned.  
    The next meeting of Probus will be held Nov. 19. Guests are welcome.