Interview with Ernest Moore and Ruby Moore

GEORGE: And Yadkin County, North Carolina, where --

ERNEST MOORE: Yankee County?

GEORGE: Yadkin County.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, Yadkin County.

GEORGE: No, Yankee County! Yadkin County.

ERNEST MOORE: Yadkin - well, Yad - Yad - no.

GEORGE: Well -

ERNEST MOORE: - [I can?] -

GEORGE: - since they're all Republicans up there, it might have been thought of Yankee country.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: But they play horseshoes.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: Oh boy. That was the game. And right out in front of the barbershop.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: Every night until they had to turn on the lights inside the barbershops to get light onto the - you remember that?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: What about some of the horseshoe games here?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, most of the time, they had the - right - right here was a - most - most of the time, would've had the horseshoe game right here, right down the side of the street here.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: They had the - one at the top here and one down there. Course, that was a little bit different there, you know, then. And that - that moved down toward the - pitchforks'd be right here.

GEORGE: Uh-huh. When were the first bi- did the first bicycles come?

ERNEST MOORE: When?

GEORGE: When did the first bicycles come?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, I don't know. I'm - there was bicycles back in my young days. But my brother bought one when we lived in Haywood County. He brought in a - bought [it second-hand, but didn't like?] (inaudible)

GEORGE: (laughs) Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: We had a rough road to ride on.

GEORGE: And when did they - they paved the roads?

ERNEST MOORE: Don't remember. I just don't remember.

GEORGE: That must have made a big difference with -

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yes.

GEORGE: - the dust -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: - and everything.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, made a big difference.

JUDITH: I missed the bicycle story with wind. I just wanted you to know that.

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: [Hang on here?] - (break in audio)

GEORGE: - [up straight by?] -

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

GEORGE: OK? OK, what about bicycles?

ERNEST MOORE: I never did own a bicycle. I didn't dabble too much about -

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: - bicycles.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: Brother owned one. [Oldest?] brother, he owned a bicycle.

GEORGE: Yeah. Hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: But my boys, when they got big enough to ride one, they had bicycles, yeah.

GEORGE: I don't guess kids back then, uh - I don't guess kids back then thought about having cars.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, when it got - 14, 15, they did.

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah. (break in audio)

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, pretty young when we - Daddy bought the first car. He bought a '25 Chevrolet.

GEORGE: Huh.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, and that's what I learned to drive, '25 - my daddy never did learn to drive the car. He got so he could drive pretty good, but then he just quit. He just said, "I'll let you boys drive it." So, we'd go - we'd - we'd take him a lot of places - he'd like to go back to Haywood County, back up to the old home place. And we'd take him a lot, up there a lot.

GEORGE: When did your father - when was he born?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, [that - I don't?] - I - I can't tell you the - just when - I just can't tell you when, [because it?] -

GEORGE: How old was he when he died?

ERNEST MOORE: [Here's a?] -

GEORGE: How old was he when he died?

ERNEST MOORE: I believe he was 8- I believe he was 8- I believe he was 84.

GEORGE: And when did he die?

ERNEST MOORE: Now, I've got his - I've got all that in the Bible and I'd have to look it up.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: I'd have to look it up.

GEORGE: But it sounds to me like, uh, he was born before the beginning of the - the century. Before 1900.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, he - yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah. I can almost tell you, but I won't do it, because I might be wrong, so -

GEORGE: OK, all right.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, I knowed everybody - everybody lived - knowed them, worked with them.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: My - I had a - uncle, one time, lived in that house there. He worked in the - that paper mill at Canton. My brother's - my mother's brother and he moved to Gastonia, worked at [Pem?]- in the (inaudible) and they went back up there. His - his girl made a schoolteacher. She's - she made a schoolteacher. And his son still went to Canton worked in the paper mill. They - they paid pretty good, that paper mill. If I'd have stayed in Haywood County, that's where I'd've wound up.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. S-

ERNEST MOORE: I'd have made more than I would've working at the company - Gastonia, working - you know, if I'd stayed here with Johnny. But my daddy worked there - little while. But he didn't much like it. He - he'd rather farm as work in a factory.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Well, I - that paper mill stuff, the smell of it, all that, seems to me like -

ERNEST MOORE: You could - you could - you could smell it six miles or more - [whether its own - where the air comes?].

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: But you know, that [inking?] plant, right this side, it - you know where the inking's plant at?

GEORGE: No, I don't.

ERNEST MOORE: The big Rayon plant.

GEORGE: Oh.

ERNEST MOORE: I think that Holland, the company - [well?], Holland come over and built that.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm, yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: If I ain't mistaken. We went up there when it first started and put in our application. We put in an application. We never did go back to see -

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - how it come out. [We's - that's one that's?] (inaudible)

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: But he'd - if you gets where the [wind's bad? (inaudible) I thought it smelled worse than Canton.

GEORGE: Oh. (laughs)

ERNEST MOORE: You know, they left out all - I don't know if it was acid or what, what the -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: - and I'd see that big stack, yeah? That smoke coming out every -

GEORGE: Oh, yeah. Now, compared with that, how was working in the mill? We've heard some people say it was hot and dirty and dusty.

ERNEST MOORE: Where?

GEORGE: In the cotton mill.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, if you went to card room that was the dusty part. You take the winder room, not too dusty. Spin room, it's dusty, but not like the card room. I never would work the card room, mm-mm. [They would?] -

GEORGE: Did the lint or dust or the heat ever bother you?

ERNEST MOORE: No, mm-mm. See, back then, it wasn't no air conditions. [They would?] Ain't many people had air conditions. And if you got any air, you open these big windows. But most of the time - it's like in the summertime, we got the air come from the west, you see? If you was on that side of the house, you'd get - well, not [even if?] - too bad. You're used to it.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Used to it. But if you get to - [you start dishing?] and getting warm, well, I mean, it's - it hurts.

GEORGE: (laughs) [Oh?], yeah. We're just getting soft now, I think.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah, yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: [Like I want to?] get used to. (laughter)

GEORGE: Yeah. If all these - roads without pavement, it - it must have been pretty dusty.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, mm, yeah. Dusty, yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Get hot out - they kept - they kept gravel on 'em.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: [Sure?], see?

GEORGE: Yeah, uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: They graveled 'em, [right?] -

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

GEORGE: Claude still owns that house.

ERNEST MOORE: Does he still own it?

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Really?

GEORGE: He rents it. Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Think he needs some back steps.

GEORGE: I know! (laughs)

ERNEST MOORE: Don't you think he does?

GEORGE: He [cer?]- (break in audio)

ERNEST MOORE: Both sides. The general strike.

F2: Oh.

ERNEST MOORE: See you.

F2: So, back in the '30s?

ERNEST MOORE: In the '30s -

F2: [Thirty-three?].

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

F2: I wasn't even born then. (laughs) Well, I guess you were.

ERNEST MOORE: [Shea?], you know your daddy was in it?

F2: Yeah.

JUDITH: Yeah, that's right. No, he was.

ERNEST MOORE: And that's what they're gonna do when they - we'll get to see this one time - sometime. They say they'll - they going to show it off TV. So, if I get the tape, what they promised me, I'll - we'll run it.

F2: (laughs) OK.

ERNEST MOORE: They done showed me what - [some of 'em, some mind, you - so, you - they done show 'em?] right back.

JUDITH: Oh, you ought to see him. He's handsome.

ERNEST MOORE: And tell him what - tell him - explain it to him what the - what c- I mean, what all - what's he done for you?

F3: You guys want to tell him? I just work here.

GEORGE: OK, let's [guess?], uh, uh -

JUDITH: Let - well, can we turn -

GEORGE: - [get?] something [on?] -

JUDITH: - if we turn around, we'll get - we'll get -

GEORGE: Yeah.

JUDITH: - [him explain a little?] -

M: [Right?].

F3: (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: No, I - I [don't?] - I'll - [I'd go tell?] - let you tell him what you're doing, you see?

JUDITH: Ernest, you did a great job.

GEORGE: You - you - you tell him [what?] - then.

JUDITH: Ernest, you do it.

GEORGE: Tell him what we're doing.

F2: You'd better hurry up, [Carson?].

ERNEST MOORE: Well, [we're - oh?], other words, he's - he's getting the whole history about the -

F2: Oh, OK.

ERNEST MOORE: - about the strike and everything.

F2: All right.

ERNEST MOORE: And [they meant?] - and I think it - going back to when [Beale was here?], too -

F2: Oh, OK.

ERNEST MOORE: - at - the [wrong kind of?] organization, though, back then. I took him up where our chief was shot.

F2: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: [Now, if the - you know that building's down now?], what they had for the headquarter.

F3: Yeah, where headquarters was.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, that's down.

F2: Yeah, I saw y'all up there.

ERNEST MOORE: Is that where you saw me?

F2: Yeah, I saw y'all.

ERNEST MOORE: What you doing up there? What you (inaudible)

F2: [That's where I lived, in it?]. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: What'd you do? Where'd [you pace us at?]?

F2: [You was going for airline over?] -

ERNEST MOORE: [Oh, well, that?] -

F2: - [or right over?] (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, [that?] - you know, the - the - no, their headquarters - right behind that big building.

F2: [Right?] behind the big building (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Well, there's a house there.

F3: And a house, yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: But they - that building's tore down.

F2: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: That woman - she said, "No, that's how it's been for years." But I know there's a big - it was a building there.

F2: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Their headquarters in -

F2: [George Dowd, that?] owns it now.

ERNEST MOORE: Who?

F2: George Dowd.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, well -

GEORGE: [And Kenny Leskow?].

F3: [And Phil Lyons?].

ERNEST MOORE: Well, of course, it's getting hot in here -

F3: (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: - [and your window?] -

F2: (inaudible) yeah. Well, good luck!

GEORGE: Thank you.

ERNEST MOORE: He retired from the fire department in Gastonia.

JUDITH: (inaudible)

GEORGE: Turn the air off, please.

JUDITH: You said he retired from the fire department?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, [he had his?] - he was a truck driver. See, we knowed everybody. Everybody lived [in the?] house - knowed 'em, worked with 'em.

JUDITH: (inaudible) it's that one up there, I s- (inaudible) that one.

ERNEST MOORE: Now, right here's where I lived. But they've added since its - since they sold the house, they've added this brickwork and fix it up. It was more - say, like this. You see here? More like this. They put on siding and add more to it. So, that's when - that's where we started housekeeping, right there in that house. And that's where I lived when the strike, the general strike -

GEORGE: Now -

JUDITH: [That's all?] -

GEORGE: - uh -

JUDITH: - say that on camera -

GEORGE: Where did you - would you say that again? That's [where?] -

ERNEST MOORE: Here's where I lived when I first went to housekeeping. And that's where I lived when - was in the General Textile Strike, in this house right here.

GEORGE: Well, now, your neighbors lived all around.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, you knowed everybody. You knowed every- (inaudible) then. He lived in that third house up there. Feller, Will Jenkins. He was my overseer back then.

JUDITH: You know what, I had a - some disturbance (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: He lived there.

JUDITH: - can he say that again?

GEORGE: [And?] hold on just a moment.

JUDITH: I'm sorry.

ERNEST MOORE: And I'll show you the (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)

GEORGE: - we just want to -

ERNEST MOORE: Ready?

GEORGE: Yeah, mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: I lived there till they sold the mill village. And that was a three room house. And my wife wanted to - maybe a little larger house. So, I went over here. I'll take you by where I - I bought a lot over there, and I built me a five room house over there. And one of my friends, he lived down the street. And Claude's brother, he lived way down the end. 00:13:00And he wanted this house, so he bought it. Claude's brother.

GEORGE: Now, during the general strike, when you lived here, you and your family, every - all the neighborhood knew that you were in the union and your father was president.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure they did, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: What did they think about that?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, it was all right till - I say till we got ready to strike. And we still been all right, but it's hard to get people - never been in nothing, really don't - don't know really what a union stood for and all. They'd hear about how they made it hard for them if (inaudible) you belonged to a union, they'd fire 'em or get a - have excuse to run 'em off, to break a union. 00:14:00But still, when we organized - 80% of those workers joined the union. And I imagine, most of the rest of 'em must a had pretty good jobs there. Take Mr. Lambert, he lived across there. He was a supervisor. He didn't belong to it. And then Mr. [Jacob?] belonged to it, and - few others. And his brother (inaudible) [Jenkins, along to - a?] pretty good bunch of 'em lived around here. And (inaudible) [yeah, with the - well, after the?] strike over, why, they - they - they wasn't no hard feelings. I just accepted - we just lost. We lost [the?] union, and I'm a good loser for - if any sports you go out - out and if you ain't a - a good loser, you better not go out for sports. 00:15:00I tried to box a little bit back in my teenage - and -

GEORGE: But one of the things that - you're so exceptional to - people we've talked about is that you're talking about this openly and freely. And we've had a lot of people who say, "Well, I'm either ashamed of it" or "I don't want to remember it" or "it might be held against me." Why are you different?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I'm not ashamed of it. And if people want to figure it - go against me, I've done no wr- harm. And I thought [while I was into?] - I was into the right organization. And them kind of people, I don't care what they think, see? Didn't care then.

GEORGE: What made you different?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I'll let you be the judge.

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: I'll let you be the judge.

GEORGE: That's [the perfect answer?]. Come on, tell me. What -

ERNEST MOORE: I wasn't -

GEORGE: What -

RUBY MOORE: No.

GEORGE: What made him different?

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm. (laughter)

JUDITH: Come on (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Well, what you think, Ruby, tell him, I - tell what you think, now. Just -

RUBY MOORE: Well, I mean, really, he never was an opinionated person. If - if - if what he thought was right, he did it, regardless of what anybody would think. Now, he was that way. So, that's why.

GEORGE: Now -

RUBY MOORE: That's the way he was.

GEORGE: - you were married to him at that time.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: And how did you feel?

RUBY MOORE: Well, I felt pretty much the same way that he - I wasn't ashamed that he was in it, by no means, because -

ERNEST MOORE: But - but all her brothers -

RUBY MOORE: My brothers (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: I'll say all of 'em went against it.

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: I'll say -

RUBY MOORE: - [my people would?] -

ERNEST MOORE: I'll say -

RUBY MOORE: - and that's different.

ERNEST MOORE: - that all of her brothers was - went against it. For one of them was a supervisor, had a pretty good job. 00:17:00He's the one gave me the job, you see, that I couldn't go to.

GEORGE: But Ruby, you say your family was against it.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, most of 'em.

RUBY MOORE: Yes, most of 'em.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, most of 'em, yes.

RUBY MOORE: But I - but they said nothing against him, I mean -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, right.

RUBY MOORE: They - but they just wouldn't do that.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: You know, I reckon you change when you get - I mean, when you marry. She brung the Pentecostal Holiness to her brother was a preacher. Pentecostal Holiness. So, he was Pentecostal Holiness preacher. And we got married, she was a - she's a Methodist. And all her people were Republicans. And after she got married, she made a good Democrat. (laughter)

RUBY MOORE: So, he changed me in many ways, and in ways I think I changed him. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: You ready to go? About ready to go?

GEORGE: How did you change him?

RUBY MOORE: Well, (laughs) we'd - we won't talk about that. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: [And I'd be?] - (laughter)

GEORGE: OK.

RUBY MOORE: [We won't talk?] (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: You know, you have to have a little fun [to go along?] (laughter) [if they don't mind?].

RUBY MOORE: Oh!

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: I always like to have fun.

GEORGE: Yeah. OK, let's go up and see the mill. (laughter)

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible) right there's where they held the strike

ERNEST MOORE: I'll show the [gate at which?] -

RUBY MOORE: [Well, this?] -

ERNEST MOORE: - [I reckon - gate'll be black?] -

RUBY MOORE: He'll show you - the gate is right -

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: - up yonder.

ERNEST MOORE: If it's still here. But they tore down the -

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible) changed (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: - whole bunch of - they - there was a row of houses up here on this side of the street, but they tore 'em all down.

GEORGE: Where was your gate?

ERNEST MOORE: Right here. Right here (inaudible)

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, [right?].

ERNEST MOORE: [Said?] - right here's the gate we - no, that's the same gate.

RUBY MOORE: It's the same gate.

ERNEST MOORE: Same -

RUBY MOORE: This is it.

ERNEST MOORE: Same gate. Right there is the gate we blocked.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, because it was right at the road.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: And that's it, [I?] -

ERNEST MOORE: And that's when that truck driver - he come up here, he cut this close to - well, I guess they's packed up in there four, five deep or maybe more, standing all around. And he says, "Open it! If you don't open it, I'm coming through." 00:19:00They built this - no, that warehouse still there. But they tore down the - there was a row of houses right up through here, where the parking -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: - lot was, just like this street.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: And when they built this, the other part - they moved all the houses out there.

GEORGE: Where did the girls, uh, dig underneath the fence?

ERNEST MOORE: What you say?

GEORGE: Where did the girls dig underneath the fence to get in?

RUBY MOORE: This was it.

ERNEST MOORE: That's over on the other side.

RUBY MOORE: On the other side?

ERNEST MOORE: They done built another plant (inaudible) and moved the fence. Moved the fence, [like that?].

GEORGE: I see, yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: See, they done - they built a third - third plant [and this, the?] - the (inaudible) this was - finishing plant. This - they got - had four plants here. They had - pretty good company. I mean, pretty big company.

M: How many men did you have working the gate?

ERNEST MOORE: You mean picketing?

M: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, I don't know. We just had - went on shifts, you see? You'd stay on so long, [along?] - somebody else [take - go on?], you see?

M: So, 40 -

ERNEST MOORE: Huh?

M: - 40 men?

ERNEST MOORE: They - might have been sometimes. I'd say 20, 30 maybe.

M: So -

GEORGE: What about the women?

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: They had women - women, too, yeah. Women, too.

M: But, so it wasn't just a - three or four people with signs -

ERNEST MOORE: No, no.

M: - and stuff.

ERNEST MOORE: We had the -

RUBY MOORE: Mm-mm, no, [it's?] (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: We had [to have - when we're?] backed up against that gate and by the - about two, three deep.

GEORGE: Enough to make -

JUDITH: Did you have signs?

GEORGE: Enough to make somebody definitely change their mind?

ERNEST MOORE: Nobody passed unless we let 'em in.

GEORGE: Well, Ruby, where were you?

ERNEST MOORE: She was at home.

RUBY MOORE: Well, I was at home. I was pregnant. And so, I was home. I didn't - I never - I think I walked up here one time, and that was all.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm.

RUBY MOORE: And so, I - I never did have anything to do with it.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, that was a row of houses back there, right here.

JUDITH: Ask him if he sang.

GEORGE: On the picket line, was there people singing?

ERNEST MOORE: They sung some, yeah. That's what Claude said, that - "Let's sing 'Thou Shall Not Be Moved'."

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: They sung that song.

JUDITH: Could you sing it now? (laughs)

ERNEST MOORE: You know the Jenkins lived there. Jenkin- lived here, and they was against the union. These houses been built since then. I showed you - little house that I built over here. And we didn't bother - I bought this lot right here.

RUBY MOORE: Right there.

ERNEST MOORE: I built that 19-

RUBY MOORE: We lived there.

ERNEST MOORE: -39.

JUDITH: Let's stop the car.

ERNEST MOORE: That's the house I built in '39.

RUBY MOORE: [A dog?].

ERNEST MOORE: Little five room house. We liked it.

RUBY MOORE: There's a car behind you. All right, it's - he's wanting you. 00:22:00Ernest, pull up.

ERNEST MOORE: Huh? I'm going to turn here.

RUBY MOORE: Well -

ERNEST MOORE: Mr. [Picole?], he lived there. He was - [he was a partner?].

RUBY MOORE: Come on. You can come on. (break in audio)

GEORGE: - [is?] -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah?

GEORGE: Just kill your car.

ERNEST MOORE: You see that little garage down there? I built that myself. Uh, you see that lumber?

GEORGE: Yep.

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, I brought that, [mm-hmm?]. They took out some machinery up there, and that's a plank off the machinery, and I got every bit of that give to me - plant. I didn't have no doors [on that?]. Bought this, but the doors [weren't?] - I rented this to him for years. And I figured that my rent - and when I sold it, [gets to - paid from the lot?] and [bought?] my other house.

GEORGE: Hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: That - that's a nice little old - I liked it. We liked to live [up?] -

RUBY MOORE: It's so pretty inside.

GEORGE: How long'd it take you to build it?

RUBY MOORE: It was -

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, this house, I - as a (inaudible) [build?] it. I think I had the - 75 - $150 in the lot. I guess I had 10 or $1100 in that house.

GEORGE: (laughs) Now, this was on the edge of the mill village.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Mill village up - down the street, there. This was a - this [would take - whenever?] they sold it, they sold a lot [to you?], and I bought this lot.

GEORGE: Were the - was this owned by the Groves before -

ERNEST MOORE: No, no, no. [No, no?].

GEORGE: I see, so you bought that from somebody else.

ERNEST MOORE: No, that's -

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: This lot was sold to a feller, [Austin?], and I bought it from them.

JUDITH: Yeah, does this have anything to do with after the strike?

ERNEST MOORE: So, we - we - we [used to have - and?] - I reckon, pretty happy days [or - in?] -

GEORGE: Mm.

RUBY MOORE: We did. We really did. We raised our children there.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: See, they started school -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, they -

RUBY MOORE: - they walked to the Grove School, [so, yeah?].

ERNEST MOORE: We lived out - when they went - went - [you?] - when they - went to Duke University. We lived here.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm, yeah, they were. They were in - they were in college, we lived here.

GEORGE: OK, let's drive back to the house, then.

ERNEST MOORE: You know, when I built this house, do you know what my wages was? She worked the mill - 13.20 a week when I built that house. I [drove?] 13.20 - [was yours in that?] same thing?

RUBY MOORE: No, mine was different. I mean -

ERNEST MOORE: My wages, 13.20 a week when I - and -

RUBY MOORE: But mine was - mine ran different, you see -

ERNEST MOORE: - and .20 and -

RUBY MOORE: - yeah, I mean -

ERNEST MOORE: - [13?] -

RUBY MOORE: - certain jobs -

ERNEST MOORE: - $13, that's what [I was making, so?] -

RUBY MOORE: - I worked 17 years -

ERNEST MOORE: - $13.

RUBY MOORE: - up there.

GEORGE: And you put two children through college.

RUBY MOORE: Put through college, and then I - well, when I started back to school, I went back to business college.

ERNEST MOORE: We lived [on?] - she went back to -

RUBY MOORE: When I was 42 years old.

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: And they were still in college. But, you see, I went - I was drawing pay from quitting up there, [or from not?] working -

GEORGE: Mm.

RUBY MOORE: - [for the?] - and that's what I was paying my college tuition for. And so, we - [still, they?] - and they both had - they were getting on real good at school, because they worked in between times.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

RUBY MOORE: And so, they did all right. They did real well, both of 'em did. Make good - very good. And so, then when I got through with the business college, I went to work and I wound up working with [Morris Jewelers?] in Gastonia for 15 years, and there's where I retired.

GEORGE: And how many great-grandchildren do you have now?

RUBY MOORE: Oh, we have about 12 (laughter) grandchildren and 10 - 10 - 10 grandchildren.

GEORGE: Twelve great-grandchildren and 10 -

RUBY MOORE: [And?] -

GEORGE: - grandchildren.

RUBY MOORE: Grandchildren.

GEORGE: And you had -

ERNEST MOORE: [How many great-grandchildren?] -

GEORGE: - how many children?

ERNEST MOORE: - Ruby?

RUBY MOORE: I had three children.

GEORGE: Three children.

RUBY MOORE: I had three boys.

GEORGE: Three, 10, and now 13. (laughs)

ERNEST MOORE: How many grandchildren you had?

RUBY MOORE: Well, Ernest, I -

ERNEST MOORE: Six. Tommy had three and Ted got three.

GEORGE: Well -

RUBY MOORE: Tommy -

GEORGE: - let's go back to the house (inaudible) (break in audio)

GEORGE: [Well?] (inaudible) (long pause) OK. [All right?] - (break in audio)

GEORGE: (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, that's my sister's boy.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: Nephew. And they owned this racing team. That's his son, there. And here's his son-in-law. He does - he does all the mechanic work on it.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: And that's their - the little garage, sitting back there. That's where they do all the work on it.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: You know, where they -

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - [pulled?] out there.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: So, Steve lives in this house right here.

GEORGE: Uh-huh. Well, [now?], just where [we saw?] -

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: - over the village. Over in the Grove -- yes, over there.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, where -

GEORGE: So, you still got connections over [at the?] Grove.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, Steve lives [in one of the?] -

RUBY MOORE: The house is -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: - but he doesn't work there.

ERNEST MOORE: Well -

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - his daddy when they sold the mill village, his - his daddy bought this house, and the son -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: - I mean, the brother-in-law -

GEORGE: [Right?].

ERNEST MOORE: - bought this house here when they sold the mill village.

GEORGE: Well, here's another clipping I want to ask you about. Do you remember seeing that in The Gastonia Observer? Gaston Observer? The story about us?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, I don't take [to the?] - it - was that in The Gaston Observer?

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: When - when (inaudible) when?

GEORGE: This was back in - in March the 21st, 19- about us.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm, yeah, I remember it.

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: That's where the - that's [a - for telephone call?].

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, I remember it, yeah.

GEORGE: But we didn't hear from you.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I hadn't made up my mind whether to (laughter) get involved or not.

GEORGE: Why?

ERNEST MOORE: I think my wife kind of talked me out of it back then. (laughter) But my son come down -

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - from Philadelphia, and he said, "Tell everything you know."

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: "Just get in there and tell it."

GEORGE: Yeah. Why do you think the difference between your wife and -

JUDITH: Why don't we ask your wife?

GEORGE: Yeah, OK.

RUBY MOORE: Oh, no. (laughter)

JUDITH: Come on.

GEORGE: Why not? Why did you feel that we shouldn't? That he shouldn't talk to us?

RUBY MOORE: Uh, well - well, I don't know. I was afraid that maybe some of his people might not like it, bringing out something about his dad. And I - and I - and that was sort of - deterred me for a little bit.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: But -

ERNEST MOORE: My sister [Connie?] -

RUBY MOORE: His sister objected.

ERNEST MOORE: She went against, and she heard what you said about it.

JUDITH: What was that?

ERNEST MOORE: But I don't go by what she says. (laughter)

RUBY MOORE: His sister. She told us -

GEORGE: [Is this?] -

RUBY MOORE: - not to do it.

GEORGE: I see.

JUDITH: Can you say that again about - "my sister" -

ERNEST MOORE: [For his?] - her husband, he had a -

GEORGE: Can you start with your sister -

JUDITH: "My sister," [yeah?].

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: [Yeah, don't?] say anything much about your sister.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I - (laughter) she just, uh, I reckoned - she's young, she didn't remember too much about it. She's young.

GEORGE: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: She don't remember about the strike. She just knows my daddy left Gastonia on account of it, and that's about all she knows.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Well, do you have any pictures of your father?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: Could you -

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE: Could you get them? It's interesting, we've been talking with a lot of people. And a strange kind of amnesia is about what we're finding, that -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: - people just really kind of not wanting to remember it.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: It'd be interesting to know what he would think of this. 00:31:00Thank you. Let's see. So, which is your daddy?

ERNEST MOORE: Right there. That's an old picture. It was four children, then. Oldest sister, oldest brother. That's me, there, and my other sister.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: There were just four of us back then, when that picture was taken. And there was eight of us in all.

GEORGE: And you were born which year?

ERNEST MOORE: What year?

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Fifteenth of April, 1909.

GEORGE: (laughs) And you're how old here, about?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, I wasn't - oh, I really don't know. I - about, what?

GEORGE: You look like you're about two then.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: So, that's - that's your daddy in about 1911, maybe.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, was way back there.

GEORGE: Yeah. And this is your -

ERNEST MOORE: [That?] -

GEORGE: This is your daddy, is it?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, that's my daddy and mother. That was taken in [northern North Carolina, right?] after he retired and he moved out [in the north?] - town.

GEORGE: Well, he doesn't look much different from what he does on - on the newsreels. We see him -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: - heading [that parade?] -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: - with - so, he's got the same hat, you see?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm, something like it.

GEORGE: Yeah. And we didn't see your mother. Now, what - what about this?

ERNEST MOORE: That was her - her pay. They put an envelope. Back in the '20s, they put the whole family that worked at the factory in one - all together in one envelope, and had the - each name on it and what they made.

GEORGE: Now, it says -

ERNEST MOORE: John.

GEORGE: - [is?] John.

ERNEST MOORE: He drawed 13.47 a week.

GEORGE: And -

ERNEST MOORE: That was 11 hours a day, five days a week.

GEORGE: And Floyd?

ERNEST MOORE: That's my brother, oldest brother. He drawed $11.

GEORGE: And Ernest.

ERNEST MOORE: Ernest, 12.10. All of it come to $36 and 57 cents. House rent was 75 cent. That was lights, water in the house.

GEORGE: And that was in 1925.

ERNEST MOORE: Nineteen twenty-five.

GEORGE: Well, now, wages went down, uh, after 1929.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah.

GEORGE: What - what did you make after that?

ERNEST MOORE: I got down to seven - oh, say about 7.20, 11 hours a day, five days a week. Depression.

GEORGE: And - and then, the New Deal came in.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah (inaudible) [came up?] and passed a wage an hour law [when they?] started to - getting higher. Roosevelt went in.

GEORGE: Yeah. Now, this picture here -

ERNEST MOORE: That was the - that was - number two thread plant, the Grove Thread Company. That's a spinning room, twist room, laundry room, and card room. That's the whole plant.

GEORGE: Where are you? You're young there!

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. (laughter) [No, I don't believe?] (inaudible) on that.

GEORGE: But the -

ERNEST MOORE: [Can't tell?] if he's on it, but (inaudible)

GEORGE: - all the young boys -

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: - were you 14 then?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. I went to work at 14.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: Here's my overseer. Will Jenkins.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: He was overseer. I've got an aunt on there, too. She married my mother's brother. She's a Presley. Here's - here was overseer. Here's the overseer. Most of - most of these is - here's my oldest brother. My daddy must not have been working that - when that picture - my daddy's not on there.

GEORGE: Well, I notice that you're - that your daddy isn't mentioned over here on this pay envelope, either.

ERNEST MOORE: That's - that's him there, [all right?].

GEORGE: Oh.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: I'm sorry. He's - he's [the?] -

ERNEST MOORE: There was three of us.

GEORGE: But he was at the - so, John was your father.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, oh, yeah.

GEORGE: I see. So this -

ERNEST MOORE: John [Robert?] was his name.

GEORGE: So, this is John and his two sons.

ERNEST MOORE: That's right.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. And the pay just went to your daddy.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah. They'd give it - come around and give it to my daddy.

GEORGE: And then, uh, how did you get money?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, my mother, they - she allows - allowances, a little bit every week. (laughter) There's a - that was a house that we lived - back in Haywood County, on my daddy's uncle - farm. And that was the house. But we lived in Gastonia. They went up there to a reunion, and that's some of his - that's my brother's - I mean wife's - I mean my mother's brother, and some of the Scott family. And my daddy's mother's [all - well?], Daddy's - both mothers, [uh?], right there.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: There's my daddy and, I believe - I believe that's my mother. And that's her brother.

GEORGE: Now, who's this?

ERNEST MOORE: That's him.

GEORGE: Your father?

ERNEST MOORE: That's my father, yeah.

GEORGE: Oh, he was a good looking man. I like that hat.

ERNEST MOORE: (laughs) You always wore a hat.

GEORGE: Same kind of hat he had in the parade.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: Yeah. OK, here's a -

ERNEST MOORE: That's a - that's the spinning room. That's just the spinning room at the -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Here's Claude.

GEORGE: Ah.

ERNEST MOORE: That's Claude, there.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: He's on that picture.

GEORGE: Huh.

ERNEST MOORE: Know who that is?

GEORGE: No.

ERNEST MOORE: They called him Ernest.

GEORGE: (laughs) That's you. (laughter) Oh! You got - you got better looking as you got older. (laughter) Yeah. So, you and Ernest worked on the same shift, then. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: [Yeah?]. (laughter)

GEORGE: And you and Claude worked on the same shift.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, uh-huh.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, I was the head doffer -

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: - back then. All of these - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight - there's my doffers. I'd tell 'em what frame to doff (inaudible) down, and had the spin room - had the different color of bobbins - and painted green, red, blue. And a - number of yarn [after?] - what you'd put on there so that - [went on?] through the plant, to know the number of it. And I'd tell 'em what to doff. And I - I looked back to these doffers, here. I was the head doffer. There's one of my overseers in the - I'll bet - somebody [broke - just out there - one?] (inaudible) right there.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Will Jenkins. Here's the spinners.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Right here. Yeah, I know - I know practically every one of them, call their names.

GEORGE: So, women were the spinners and men were - boys were the doffers.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: And who was the loom fixer?

ERNEST MOORE: [I don't know?]. I don't have - I didn't make - they didn't make cloth at Grove Thread.

GEORGE: I see (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: They make sewing thread.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Scott. He was a - oiler. Did I show you them spinners?

GEORGE: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: And he - going around - oil the machinery. He was a - oiler.

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, I thought Edna - but right there's a - yeah, that woman over there who we're talking to?

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, there's her sister. Right there's her sister.

GEORGE: The woman who's living in your old house, that -

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, the old house. There's her brother.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: That's a - he was a Robertson. 00:40:00See, I know all - I mean, when you work - people, you're - live around 'em, you know - you know about everybody. We was on the wilderness hunt down - out in Pisgah Forest?

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: And that's a wilderness camp. We walked miles in there. Way back in the forest, in the - they set up these camp tents for us to stay in. So, we went on a three day deer hunt. Pisgah Forest. And John Hudson and, uh, [that's me standing there?]. And that's a fellow we met up there. We called him Red something, and I [remember - V.H. Dent?]. He run a filling station here in Gastonia and it - there was three of us went up there deer hunting.

GEORGE: So, you like to hunt.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: You do any hunting now?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. I still deer hunt.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Who's this?

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, that's, uh, my wife's mother and daddy. And that's her when she was small.

GEORGE: Ruby, I wouldn't have recognized you!

ERNEST MOORE: (laughs) Here they are again.

RUBY MOORE: Think I was about 12 years old then, I believe.

GEORGE: Come over and you'll see.

ERNEST MOORE: And here's her -

GEORGE: [Yes?].

ERNEST MOORE: - here's her daddy, and that's one of her - I believe that's one of her brothers (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)

GEORGE: Did you say you were 12 years old?

RUBY MOORE: Oh, no, no, I -

GEORGE: [Yeah?].

RUBY MOORE: - I was looking at the wrong one. No, I was just four years old then.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

RUBY MOORE: [And they?] put a cap [on me?].

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: I had a lot of hair, but they still put a cap on me.

GEORGE: (laughs) Well, that was - way, the - way they dressed then.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: And I like that you're -

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm, yeah. (laughter)

GEORGE: - your dress and -

RUBY MOORE: My petticoat -

GEORGE: Look at those shoes.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, sure.

GEORGE: I've got, uh -

RUBY MOORE: Shoes, and I had on a - a real fancy petticoat.

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: And that I had to show, you know?

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: Oh, I didn't know you were going to show all of these.

ERNEST MOORE: That's her.

RUBY MOORE: Now, that's where I -

ERNEST MOORE: That's Ruby's grandmother.

RUBY MOORE: - I was in school.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: [I mean?], about the second grade, I think.

GEORGE: Oh, you're -

RUBY MOORE: No, the sixth grade I have -

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: - marked there.

GEORGE: Your old schools.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE: How far did you go in school?

RUBY MOORE: About - I'm - I - you mean - I went through the ninth grade in high school. And then, when I went back to - college, then.

ERNEST MOORE: You went to [work - back to?] -

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, I went to work.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, that was -

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible)

GEORGE: But what I've been trying to figure out is - is why some people in - in the mill villages were, pardon me, almost illiterate.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE: And other people did quite well. What made the difference?

RUBY MOORE: Well, I - I just don't know. I mean - and I think - I think it's just a - whoever you are, what you want to do.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

RUBY MOORE: You motivate your own self.

JUDITH: George -

ERNEST MOORE: You know who - this fella there?

GEORGE: No.

ERNEST MOORE: Look him over.

GEORGE: Kind of looks like you. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: How old are you there?

ERNEST MOORE: I was in my teens - I can't tell you. Now here - over there was - first house I built.

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible) now, that's that first house.

GEORGE: Oh, yes, uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: That's my sister, and me, and there is -

ERNEST MOORE: [She did?] - this - this, the (inaudible) they tore these cottages down -

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: - and put up other (inaudible) that's - her sister's [here?].

RUBY MOORE: And that's [me?], too. And this is my grandmother and granddad. I didn't think I had one of them, but [that - yeah, that's Harry Pinkham?].

ERNEST MOORE: They live down in - next to Wilmington, North Carolina. Down the coast.

GEORGE: That's a great picture, yes.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, that's my dad.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: Oh, that was a friend of mine in school.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: That's Dollar Bill.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: There's - [there's Eamon?].

RUBY MOORE: This is my mother's chickens. (laughter)

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: She was always so proud -

ERNEST MOORE: [Yes?].

RUBY MOORE: - of those.

ERNEST MOORE: We're - [our?] first cousin - that picture was taken, I believe, [over Mountain Island Dam?].

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Oh, they - look at those three kids.

RUBY MOORE: I didn't know [those, see, but?] -

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: - belonged to the -

ERNEST MOORE: Oh.

RUBY MOORE: - hunting group.

ERNEST MOORE: When we went on that wilderness hunt, [V.H. Dent, these?] - this family there?

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: They used to live Gaston, and he knowed them.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: So, we went (inaudible) before, [and?] they lived out in the country. So, we stopped off, and they fixed our lunch for dinner.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: And we stopped [and then we?] - had our picture took with them.

GEORGE: Well, now, let's go back and see if we can find a picture of you that was closest to the way you looked in 1934. You have - a -

RUBY MOORE: [I don't know whether?] (inaudible) or not.

GEORGE: Do you have any pictures that look like you at about 1934?

ERNEST MOORE: Might be in another book.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, let me see.

GEORGE: OK. That was about when -

JUDITH: Should I follow her? [No?].

GEORGE: That was about when you got married, just after you got married. [I wanted to see?] -

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible) now, I built this house [in '39, about?] -

JUDITH: Ruby?

RUBY MOORE: Yeah?

JUDITH: You're in here, all right.

M: Well she's hiding in here.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

JUDITH: Oops, sweetie, you've got to turn around. Thank you.

RUBY MOORE: Oh. (laughter)

M: Oh, they're just going to love that one.

RUBY MOORE: Goodness, I don't - I don't know about that. I believe there's another one in here. That's, uh, later. I'm sorry.

M: It's all right. We're just invading your house, here. (laughter) [Let's see, what?] -

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible) (laughter)

M: She's going to hit me with that thing. (laughter)

RUBY MOORE: [Probably. I don't know, these are?], you know, real late pictures after they're all grown. Is that what he would want, I guess?

JUDITH: He's looking for one about the time when -

RUBY MOORE: We got married?

JUDITH: Mm-hmm.

RUBY MOORE: I don't think I have - these - see, these are the grandchildren, and I -

GEORGE: (inaudible) [after you're married?].

RUBY MOORE: I'm not sure we have any. I mean, I - of those - I didn't start collecting my pictures [and things?] - no, now, see these are, too. These are weddings and grandchildren and kids and all that.

GEORGE: [Your wedding pictures?]?

M: So, did we ever figure out exactly how many grandkids you've got?

RUBY MOORE: Uh-huh, yeah, I've got 'em written down there. I've got 11 great-grandchildren and, uh, 10 grandchildren.

JUDITH: Did you take a picture when you got married?

RUBY MOORE: Huh?

JUDITH: Didn't you take a picture of you and -

RUBY MOORE: Uh-uh.

JUDITH: - Ernest when you got married?

RUBY MOORE: No. No, we slipped off and got married. We ran off and got married.

M: You eloped?

RUBY MOORE: Really, with another couple.

M: Yeah?

RUBY MOORE: They got married and we did too.

GEORGE: [You found?] (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: No, I didn't find anything of us. I need to -

ERNEST MOORE: Ruby, we got that (inaudible) show where we lived, and we - you know, we snapped pictures of us sitting [up the side?] of the house?

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: [Where we - where - was?] -

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - first housekeeping.

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: Here you are.

RUBY MOORE: That was - that was in the old house that we lived at.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm, yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: [That - on the Grove?] (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: Well, that was later, mm-hmm. Well, that's about as good as we have, because we didn't make any pictures back there.

GEORGE: But that - so, this -

RUBY MOORE: Yeah, that's Ernest, and this -

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: - is me, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: So, this about the time - about the -

RUBY MOORE: That was right (inaudible) side of the house -

GEORGE: Yeah, just about -

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible)

GEORGE: - '34.

RUBY MOORE: Right.

GEORGE: Except you weren't pregnant then.

RUBY MOORE: No, uh -

GEORGE: (laughs) No. Mm, no.

RUBY MOORE: No, uh, the - Tommy was already born -

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: - then -

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: - in that -

GEORGE: And he's younger here.

RUBY MOORE: Yes, that's - that - that was before we married.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

RUBY MOORE: And these are -

GEORGE: [Yeah, well, in the - we'll make?] -

RUBY MOORE: - these are pictures of Ted (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) and - Ted and -

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible) was in Duke.

GEORGE: Oh, yes.

RUBY MOORE: I was in Duke, so -

GEORGE: Uh, why don't you come around here, Jamie, and get a picture - and get a shot of these two - of them - because I think these are the key things.

JUDITH: [About?] - just those two. Ruby, go back.

M: OK, turn this way.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

M: Put you there.

ERNEST MOORE: Them two top pictures.

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible)

JUDITH: Well, talk about it.

RUBY MOORE: They're very faint. I mean, uh, I - you can't - [just about?] - but, uh -

GEORGE: Well, what we'd like to do is, we're going to copy these, uh, so we can -

M: Tilt it up more towards me (inaudible)

GEORGE: We're going to copy these so we can -

M: [There you go?].

GEORGE: - enlarge them, you see?

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: So we can see 'em clearly.

RUBY MOORE: OK, yeah, well -

GEORGE: Because -

RUBY MOORE: - that [is about?]. It's - because we - like I said, we didn't take many pictures then.

GEORGE: You know how these were taken? Did you have a brownie or -

RUBY MOORE: Uh -

ERNEST MOORE: Well, we took - we took - we took them.

RUBY MOORE: - yes, we took them, mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, we took 'em.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm.

JUDITH: Did people use photography during the strike? And were they taking pictures of your union and your organization?

RUBY MOORE: I don't know. We didn't have any. I mean -

ERNEST MOORE: What's that?

RUBY MOORE: (inaudible) uh, pictures of, uh - do they - take any pictures of you when you were out there on strike?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, no, no. I didn't take no pictures. No, [I didn't get none?].

RUBY MOORE: I don't think [they had anybody to take them?].

ERNEST MOORE: [I didn't think?] -

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

ERNEST MOORE: - I wasn't interested in taking pictures.

GEORGE: (laughs) You had much - something else to do.

ERNEST MOORE: We was tied up.

GEORGE: (laughs) That's right, yeah.

JUDITH: George, I have a question.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: [I'll?] - (laughter) no.

JUDITH: For you.

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: [Amy - Amy?], she going to show you another picture of (inaudible)

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: - way down from -

GEORGE: OK.

ERNEST MOORE: - down at the beach.

M: Oh, sorry.

ERNEST MOORE: Down at the [Blue?] (inaudible)

GEORGE: OK, let me see -

ERNEST MOORE: Get it, Ruby.

GEORGE: Yeah?

ERNEST MOORE: She might not want me - she has a bathing suit - (laughter)

GEORGE: Well, we're going to (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Carolina Beach (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: [Are we?] talking about this one?

ERNEST MOORE: Right here, yeah. Went to Carolina Beach [when I was taking?] (inaudible)

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: [I?] -

ERNEST MOORE: - about that same time. (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)

GEORGE: - just like chickens.

RUBY MOORE: Oh, no, I didn't want you to see that. (laughter) Mm-hmm. Yes, I - that was - I don't remember how old I was then. About -

ERNEST MOORE: [That was around the?] -

RUBY MOORE: - after - and that is the - after the children was born.

ERNEST MOORE: (inaudible)

M: Now, where'd you get a picture of Miss America like that? (laughter)

RUBY MOORE: Well, at Carolina Beach - we used to go every summer.

GEORGE: Uh-huh.

JUDITH: [Yeah?].

RUBY MOORE: [But we?] - and I - I just - they had a little old booth there -

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: - that they made 'em.

GEORGE: Yeah.

RUBY MOORE: And this guy came around, said, "Let me make your picture." And so, I just got up there and he took it.

GEORGE: No, that's beautiful.

RUBY MOORE: And [I got one of them, that's right?]. (laughter)

JUDITH: But you said that was - you were just going to say that was right after what?

RUBY MOORE: Well, that was (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: That was right after -

RUBY MOORE: - [that was after the first time the other?] -

ERNEST MOORE: - these other pic-

RUBY MOORE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: - these other pictures was taken.

RUBY MOORE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: [That's?] - a little bit (inaudible)

RUBY MOORE: That's my first time (inaudible)

ERNEST MOORE: Year or so after that.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. About the - about the same time, yeah.

JUDITH: But you were saying - you were telling us that when you didn't go back to work, you lived with - who did - you lived with your parents when you were out of a job? After the strike?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, no, we - we still lived there. See, they - Mr. Groves, uh, he said he was going to take everybody back if they didn't have no trouble with - so, we still lived on that little - house where we showed you, and he didn't charge no rent, no water bill or no light bill. And when - just got in orders enough to go back to work, he started putting 'em back to work.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: See? We was on short time when we struck. And that's one reason, I guess, they decided [it wasn't closed down?], because they knowed it - maybe be enough to keep it going just about like they wanted to - [be?] running five days a week.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: So, he said - he promised - take all - everybody back. That's the reason the Labor Board didn't do nothing about it. 00:51:00He promised to take them - said he's going to take 'em back, see?

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. But you were out for six months.

ERNEST MOORE: Six months.

GEORGE: And Ernest was out for -

M: Claude.

ERNEST MOORE: Claude.

JUDITH: This is Ernest.

ERNEST MOORE: Claude was out -

GEORGE: [Of course?].

ERNEST MOORE: - [he stayed?] (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)

JUDITH: George, excuse me -

GEORGE: Yes?

JUDITH: - since we're stopping -

GEORGE: Yes?

JUDITH: - could you stop doing that -

GEORGE: Yeah, OK.

JUDITH: - to your change, [and here?] -

GEORGE: Yeah. You were out for -

ERNEST MOORE: Six months.

GEORGE: And Claude was out for 11 months.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, he said he was out for 11 months. And I believe - I don't know, but I believe it, 'cause he was a - our secretary. The union. Outside of that, why, I don't see how it -

GEORGE: So, let's see. Your father was president.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

GEORGE: And he had to leave town.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, he didn't have to leave town. They - they told him they was not going to put him back to work. And he decided he'd just leave.

GEORGE: The - then, the vice president, secretary -

ERNEST MOORE: Vice president, he - they told him he wasn't going back to work. So, he went - work up the feed store in Gastonia.

GEORGE: And then Claude was the secretary.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, he was [the?] - they put him as secretary [up?] - I believe he [went in right about?] the last secretary, I don't - I don't remember.

GEORGE: But - and he was out for 11 months.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, he was out for 11 months.

GEORGE: And you were kind of the captain of the gate.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, part of the time.

GEORGE: And you were out for six months.

ERNEST MOORE: Six months.

GEORGE: So, that was the way they handled it.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: Mm-hmm. I think the reason they done that, they might - they wanted you to be sorry you joined the union. That was the purpose. They had to make you - I say they had to make you suffer a little bit over - on account of it.

GEORGE: Yeah.

ERNEST MOORE: I believe that's the biggest - biggest reason.

GEORGE: Were any of the fellows mad enough to - to carry weapons or anything like that?

ERNEST MOORE: Not as I know of, mm-mm, no, no, mm, hmm. No trouble. [That?] - only trouble I - what I (inaudible) wasn't no trouble. They just had a few words, and -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: - so, everything else was - was nice.

GEORGE: And was there any talk afterwards about a union?

ERNEST MOORE: No, no, no. After - every - everybody is - just went on the business as usually, see.

GEORGE: So, in effect, Mr. Grove won.

ERNEST MOORE: Well, yeah. We lost the strike. He - he won, yeah. We lost the strike, mm-hmm. Yeah.

M: Now, would you say that since Grove said he'd put everybody back, he kept his word?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. He - he - he put 'em all back at the - he didn't - he didn't, um - he let 'em all stay in the house, furnished 'em water and light. Didn't charge 'em no rent. And I guess that's what (inaudible) they didn't find him guilty with labor laws, so -

JUDITH: Maybe you could, um, ask Ernest - are we rolling? [Let me just reach?] - I'm not getting any sound. (break in audio) (laughter)

M: You're going to owe Mr. Gideon a lot of money if you keep saying that.

GEORGE: No, I - Mr. - Reverend Schofield, who taught me how to - as - to remember [that, all right?], yeah.

M: I know, but you've been getting coached on the -

GEORGE: [Yeah, OK?].

M: - Gideon Bible every day.

GEORGE: Yeah.

JUDITH: Um, Ernest was saying that they wanted everybody to feel really bad -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

JUDITH: - and just the - sort of beat - beat it out of them. And I'm wondering if - if he ever stopped wanting the union in -

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

JUDITH: - and if he felt that bad - can you ask him?

GEORGE: Well, since they finally - you got back to work.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, I went back to work.

GEORGE: Made the - they got everybody to feel repentant?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I don't - I don't know what they - I don't know what [they thought - what up?]. But after people went back to work, it went on just - 'bout as smooth as it did before the strike.

GEORGE: And there was no talk of a - of a union after that.

ERNEST MOORE: No, no, no. Mm-mm.

GEORGE: Well, tell us about that hearing that happened about six months later.

ERNEST MOORE: I don't know too much about it. I went up [Trenton?] - the courthouse just a while one morning. And I never did - I never did go back to [hearing?]. But I was working.

GEORGE: Did they ask you to go?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, they asked me to go.

GEORGE: What'd they say?

ERNEST MOORE: They asked me if I'd - [for?] - if I'd go make a statement. And I told them I'd rather not, for I was in the union, and I'd rather not make no statement. 00:56:00And they kind of - they said I'd - they'd rather me to go.

GEORGE: This is Mister -

ERNEST MOORE: Uh, Mis- that was the superintendent. And I told him if I went, I was going to tell just like it was. Tell the truth. So they took me to the courthouse that morning, but I never was put on no witness - never put on no stand.

GEORGE: Now, Claude was on the stand.

ERNEST MOORE: I imagine he was. I never - I didn't go back.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: I don't - I don't know who all was on the stand. I'd - I'd - I never did go back there.

GEORGE: Well, he told us about the hearing first. We didn't - we didn't - we hadn't found the papers in Washington.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah.

GEORGE: But we'll try to find the papers and see if we can find out what the record was.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah.

JUDITH: George, could you ask Ernest if he -

GEORGE: If they put you on the stand, what would you have said?

ERNEST MOORE: If the - I'd answer the questions. That's the only thing I'd done. I'd ask - the questions that was put to me.

GEORGE: OK, let me be the prosecutor for a moment.

ERNEST MOORE: All right.

M: (inaudible)

GEORGE: Uh -

M: - let me get set, here.

JUDITH: It's a one shot.

GEORGE: - Ernest Moore, were you a part of the - the strike?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, I belong to the union.

GEORGE: OK, you belong to the union. And what happened after the strike was over?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, they went back to work. They started the mill, it went back to work. And, uh, everybody that wasn't in the strike went back to work. My - [remember, if?] - they was on short time when they struck, and everybody that wasn't in the union went back - right straight back to work.

GEORGE: How long was it before you, uh, got your job back?

ERNEST MOORE: Six months.

GEORGE: Do you think, then, that the - that the factory was punishing you for being in the union?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I thought it. I guess they thought maybe - punish you, you wouldn't want to get in no other union. I - I - and I thought it, yeah. I don't know what the others thought.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: But I thought it.

GEORGE: And the - the NRA 7A said that you had a right to join a union.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: And Roosevelt said that - when - that if you'd call the strike off, he'd make sure that everybody got their jobs back.

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, mm-hmm.

GEORGE: How do you feel about Mr. Roosevelt and that?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I think he - he meant good in what he said. But, you know, he - he couldn't rule all the courts. He didn't - he couldn't [do it that?] - he - just like court come up - 00:59:00he couldn't - he wasn't a judge and jury, and he couldn't - didn't have much to say about that.

GEORGE: Do you feel that Roosevelt let you down?

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, no. Mm, no, mm-mm. No. Mm-mm.

GEORGE: Do you feel your union let you down for calling off the strike?

ERNEST MOORE: No. No. Well, it's - some nights, the guards would come - come in and open the gates [and?] - back to work, and they would - they was coming in at - Grove's Thread the next week, open the gates. And, for my part, why, them calling it off didn't have nothing to do with - we done lost the strike.

GEORGE: Do you feel that Governor Ehringhaus was right to bring in the troops?

ERNEST MOORE: Well, I guess he - [two?] politician- one had put him in office and 01:00:00furnished the campaign, him going to Raleigh, had a lot to do with it.

GEORGE: So, you think that the - that Ehringhaus was doing what the manufacturers asked him to do.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Most of - most of our governors goes to Raleigh, and still at it - uh, do the - about - do the same thing.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, yep. Now, that's interesting, because you, your father, and a lot of the people in your mill were politically active then.

ERNEST MOORE: Oh, yeah. Locally.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: Locally.

GEORGE: But you - didn't you vote - you voted for the governor, didn't you?

ERNEST MOORE: Yeah, I imagine - I imagine - I imagine we - I guess - well, I know if I was old enough to vote, I voted for him.

GEORGE: Hmm.

ERNEST MOORE: [So, yeah?], I voted for him. But, uh, they - they didn't - he didn't know me. But he knowed the higher-ups.

GEORGE: Mm-hmm. Well, you know, at that time -