Remington’s recent history has been a roller coaster ride with a lot of drops. “I used to call it the beer train,” McDowell said with a smile. At Beer Belly Bob’s beverage center across the street from the plant, Bob McDowell recalled the sales bump on Thursdays and Fridays after shifts ended at 3 p.m. Union signs reading "United We Stand with Remington Workers” are in the windows of local businesses that sell everything from pizza slices to steel-toed boots. Though the company moved its headquarters to Madison, North Carolina, the old factory dominates - literally and figuratively - a village that has long depended on workers making rifles and shotguns to power the economy. Company founder Eliphalet Remington started making flintlock rifles on his father's forge near here in 1816, and the Ilion factory site dates to 1828. It’s common for people here to say that Ilion is Remington and Remington is Ilion. We can’t sit around and wait for forever.” And I plan on going back to college unless I find a job before I start that up,” said Sweeney, recording secretary for the local unit of the United Mine Workers of America. “My husband, he’s looking for work, just like everybody else. But these hopes are tempered by questions about how many workers will come back, and when. There are high hopes for a successful reload of the plant that dominates the local economy. Successful bidders for the idled plant in bankruptcy proceedings have said they plan to restart at least some production, though details remain scarce.
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