HANCOCK -- Ralph E. Wachter, mayor of Hancock, walks into the small community museum in the basement of the town hall and goes to a corner where a 32-year-old gray raincoat is hanging.
"There's the first London Fog coat [made in Hancock]," said the genial former Calvert County school superintendent.
Pulling open the coat, he reveals hundreds of signatures of the first workers at the plant, which opened in 1962.
"By Lord, there's my namesake," the mayor said, pointing to one signature. "How about that, Betty Wachter. My first cousin. My Lord, I didn't know that was on there."
Now that raincoat, along with a spade used in a 1980 expansion and plaques with the names of retirees, will become another relic of Hancock's lost past -- sharing room with crates from defunct orchards, a crossing signal from a torn-up railroad and paraphernalia from the C&O; Canal, the overgrown 19th century artery of commerce that runs alongside the Potomac River just outside the Western Maryland town.
On Thursday, the large, pink, one-story London Fog factory, just four blocks from the town hall on Pennsylvania Avenue, will stop production, ending the jobs of 280 workers. For this small town nestled in the mountains about 20 miles west of Hagerstown, that's no small blow.
"London Fog is taking this town off the map," said Tom Taormina, a retired cook, as he stood on Main Street last week. "It's not fair to these people for as hard and as long as they've worked for them."
The fate of the plant was sealed last month when London Fog workers in Baltimore and Williamsport voted to accept a two-year contract that included provisions to close the Hancock plant and a smaller cutting operation in Williamsport, with about 60 workers. The contract also calls for staffing cuts at a retooled Baltimore plant, which will reopen in January with a reduced work force of 220.
The company also plans to expand its Eldersburg administrative and distribution center, which now has about 500 workers.
The arrangement ended a bitter six-month struggle between the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers union and the Darien, Conn.-based raincoat and outerwear company, which had threatened to shutter all three plants and shift all production overseas.
So, for just a few days more, London Fog tractor-trailer trucks will continue to trundle down Hancock's Pennsylvania Avenue, their back doors bearing the slogan: "There's a lot of your life in London Fog."
And in this tight-knit community of about 2,000 people, there's more truth to that than any ad copywriter could have imagined. The London Fog plant -- one of three major employers here -- was a place where families worked and fellow workers became like family.
"Actually, you get closer to some people in here than your own family," said Pam Hartman, a 17-year veteran of the plant and the president of the ACTWU local there.
"We cry on each other's shoulders," said Mary Lee Munson, 55, a 23-year veteran.
"In 23 years, you've grown up with these people, you know their kids, you know their grandkids. You do things together outside the plant," she said. "It's more traumatic than losing any of my husbands," she said, referring to her four former spouses.
Hiring relatives was common at the plant, according to Dolores J. Fling, 59, a presser who has worked at London Fog for 20 years. "Your mother is a good worker, we'll hire you," she said, summing up the management philosophy.
In her own family, at various times, her mother, husband, son, daughter, daughter-in-law and grandson had worked at the plant.
"It's been good for me for 20 years. It's been good for my whole family," said Ms. Fling. "I don't think it [the closing] should have happened."
The work force consists mainly of women, many in their 40s and 50s who have worked there for decades, many bringing a second income to their families. And while the pay -- an average $16,000 a year -- was low compared to other industry jobs, the medical coverage was coveted.
"My insurance is what I need," said Ms. Fling, who suffers from high blood pressure and high cholesterol. With a maximum of 18 months' coverage -- six months of free benefits and 12 months at $166 a month -- she faces the prospects of not finding other coverage because of her pre-existing conditions.
"There are jobs in Hancock, but they don't have any benefits," she said. "We had it made here."
An education is at stake
For Rick and Sandra Kerr, much more than medical insurance is at stake. Both work at the plant and are losing their combined income of about $35,000. The only bright spot is the $9,429 they will receive -- before taxes -- in severance and other payments.
"It's terrible. It's heart-wrenching on us. It tears us apart," said Mr. Kerr, 44, who lives in a trailer with his wife and three children in Warfordsburg, just a few miles away over the Pennsylvania state line. "But there ain't a lot we can do about it because that's what they decided to do, and that's what they did."
The closing comes at a particularly bad time because the couple's oldest daughter, Richella, had planned to start college next fall. Now, with no jobs, it will be difficult to get loans for her education, Mr. Kerr said.
"We're trying to find some way to find the money," he said. "I don't know whether it's out there or not. Some say it is, some say it isn't. I don't know."
The Kerrs plan to apply for unemployment compensation and are looking into Trade Readjustment Assistance, a federal program for workers displaced by imports. This program pays for training and education and can pay up to an additional 52 weeks of unemployment benefits if a person is enrolled in approved courses.
Less than a mile away from the plant, the shock waves from the loss of London Fog's estimated $3.5 million payroll are being felt in Hancock's five-block-long downtown retail area, which is already sprinkled with vacant storefronts.
"It will probably decrease 10 to 15 percent of our business from what it would have been," said Michelle D. Sipes, the store manager of Golden West Video -- a combination video and rent-to-own furniture and electronics store.
Ms. Sipes, whose mother-in-law is losing her job at the plant, said she has already noticed a fall-off in the number of people getting merchandise for Christmas on the store's 90-day credit plan.
Even if the workers -- who are spread throughout the tri-state area of Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania -- find jobs, they will probably stop patronizing her store because the jobs will be in Hagerstown or some other area away from Hancock. "There's nothing around here," Ms. Sipes said. "They're going to have to travel."
Hilda L. Buskirk, manager of the Dollar General Store, also expects to see sales drop by 10 percent to 25 percent at her discount store as the result of the closing.
"If they're not working, they're not going to spend any money," she said. ""Most of them are local girls and they shop local too. And that's going to hurt."
Prospects slim?
Wayne J. Creek, who has worked at his family's jewelry store for 21 years, said the town needs more industry and business to revitalize it. And he cannot understand why companies aren't attracted by Hancock's location at the intersection of two major interstate highways and other major highways.
"I don't understand why we can't get more industry into this area, it's an ideal place," he said.
Although unemployment in Washington County dipped to 5.9 percent in August, the lowest in four years, London Fog workers have few prospects of finding jobs at the two other major factories in Hancock.
Rayloc, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Genuine Parts that rebuilds automobile parts, has added 30 workers over the past ** year, boosting its work force to 370. And there are plans to hire another 20 by the end of the year, said Ronald L. Shives, the plant's general manager.
But the company stopped taking new job applications in August after it had gotten 2,000 to 3,000 from newly graduated high school students and other jobseekers in the area, Mr. Shives said.
Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. employs about 400 workers who make travel trailers bearing the names Prowler, Wilderness and Savanna, according to Mayor Wachter.
But here too, there are many more applicants than there are job openings, said Frank J. Subasic, general manager of the plant.
The one boom the town is experiencing is seasonal tourism, according to Mayor Wachter and Louis O. Close, the town manager, with visitors lured by various festivals, the C&O; Canal and the fall foliage of the rolling countryside.
Standing room only
"Take this past weekend," said Mr. Close, referring to Columbus Day. "You couldn't get into a restaurant in this town. They had standing room only at this restaurant," he said, sitting in the Park and Dine, a community landmark. "They had to close the doors."
But William Golden, a volunteer with the local Lions Club, expects to open the doors of the civic group's free-food distribution program to more families.
Usually 10 or a dozen turn to the Lions Club for help during the winter, but he forsees more in the wake of the plant closing.
"We will be stretched to draw on some dollars," he said.