One of my mom’s first jobs after college was at Wachovia in Winston-Salem. Back in the late 1950s and early ’60s, it’s what women who graduated from the School of Journalism at UNC did with that degree — especially those who didn’t want to be shoved into what newspapers of that time called the “Women’s Section.”
My mom wanted no part of any “Women’s Section.” So she got into P.R. with a local bank that was just starting out. It eventually grew into a financial giant, a giant that tumbled hard when the economy turned to crap in the fall of 2007. The Wachovia merger with First Union that left Ken Thompson in charge was blamed for the downfall. First Union got Wachovia’s good name and then ran the company aground.
So now, Wachovia is going away. Wells Fargo saved the bank during the collapse and now it’s putting up its signs. The Wells Fargo logo is going up today at the downtown branch in Burlington. The old Wachovia sign on the ground near Maple Avenue is a sign of the times.
Truly the end of an era.
City editor Brent Lancaster mulls a future of looking at the bright red and yellow Wells Fargo sign.
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