Workers pose for a photo at the Ken-Rad factory in Bowling Green.

On Oct. 15, 1944, the Park City Daily News ran an article about Ken-Rad, a maker of tubes for radios, which was running monthly attendance contests for its employees.

Attendance was low, and to get people to show up for work, Ken-Rad started offering to donate to local charities on behalf of the employee with the best attendance record.

This didn’t help, and the employees threatened to strike. In 1944, the company had contracts with the Armed Forces, and the Department of War ended up taking over the company.

– “Way Back When in Warren County” is compiled by researchers at the Warren County Public Library and appears twice weekly in the Bowling Green Daily News. For more information about the library, visit warrenpl.org.