Gadsden Antique Mall 1

 JAMIE STONEY: I hope that's long enough for you, Judy.

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GEORGE STONEY: Now. OK, let's try it one more time, for us. You're doing fine. Now. (pause) (inaudible)

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GEORGE STONEY: Now!

F1: Uh, you would find some in the main --

F2: When we first moved up here, I was the only one open on, uh, Monday and Tuesday, and, uh, I came up (inaudible; traffic noise) Christmas lights around the sign tryin' to get [the attention?] of people (inaudible). Lot of people come –

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M1: Y'all come on down here to the Mill Antiques. We right off here off I-20 in Oxford, Alabama. Can't go wrong, got something for everybody, thank you, thank you. Tell you an important thing, Elvis has been seen shopping down here. Don't forget: Elvis has been seen shoppin' down here before.

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JAMIE STONEY: (inaudible; airplane noise). Just a sec.

GEORGE STONEY: (inaudible)

M2: Uh, we've been here about, uh, a month now, the Village's been here several years, and we sell collectibles, and we sell all kinds of antiques, furniture, glassware, and we -- whatever people's looking for we'll have a little of it.

GEORGE STONEY: Who are your customers?

M2: They come from everywhere's. They come off I-20 from everywhere's, really do.

GEORGE STONEY: You ever have any people who used to be working in the cotton mills?

M2: Uh, the custodian here was the last employee at this mill when it closed, he's still here.

GEORGE STONEY: You ever worked at a cotton mill?

M2: No, I -- I work in a iron foundry by trade, never a cotton mill.

GEORGE STONEY: You sell any stuff that come out of a cotton mill?

M2: Yeah, the main mall down here has a few relics from that, but I -- I don't have any.

GEORGE STONEY: OK, thank you very much.

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[Silence]

GEORGE STONEY: Jamie, Jamie!

M3: (inaudible; background noise) This here used to be the old machine shop that worked on the machinery in the mill. You can see this old fan they made here, it came off that line drive, uh, that's -- that was their air conditioning. (laughs) And, down below, in there's the boiler room where they had steam boilers, it was heated in the summer and winter with steam. And, uh, a lot of 00:06:00the machinery ran off of electricity generated by the steam engines.

GEORGE STONEY: OK.

M3: [Y'all gonna need to?] come back and look.

JAMIE STONEY: -- a second, let me get somewhere I -- when you're ready, sir.

GEORGE STONEY: Alright, sir.

M3: These are the scales that they used when they were shipping material out, and also weighing the yarn. And then, we got folks to weigh on, and I always tell the women on here it weighs heavy, for women, and these spools over here, they came from, uh, Piedmont Mills, Piedmont Cotton Mill, they were -- they're 00:07:00real old. These are cotton mill spools actually used in the mill.

GEORGE STONEY: You have any other, uh, kind of memorabilia from the mill?

M3: Uh, I can't put my hand on it right now, but I might before you leave.

JAMIE STONEY: OK.

M3: I used to know [real cotton?] (inaudible). These are [stidgards?]. They put the cotton on here, and weigh it (drops metal) if you don't drop it on your foot.

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M1: Come on down here, we got a special in the brick room today -- right down 00:08:00here at the Olde Antique Mall at the Mill.

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GEORGE STONEY: All right, just tell us where you used to work, and where --

M4: I -- I worked -- I worked upstairs on the co-- on the cards, and then I guarded for seven years, and, uh, that's about it, I was just the foreman overnight [takin'?] cards upstairs.

GEORGE STONEY: When was that?

M4: This was about three or four year before it shut down. Shut down in '79.

GEORGE STONEY: What's this room, here?

M4: This is a picker room.

GEORGE STONEY: Anything left of here that we could tell it was a picker room?

M4: Nothing but that [rut?] co-- the cotton come through and come down and run it back over yonder and they picked it, send it up through their own lap, and then they put it on the cards.

GEORGE STONEY: How do you feel about this place, now?

M4: It's just like home to me, it's (inaudible).

GEORGE STONEY: Is it better to work in here like this than in the mill?

M4: Yes, sir, we got -- we had some hot weather in that mill, we couldn't raise the window or nothing. No fans, it was hot.

GEORGE STONEY: OK, thank you.

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JAMIE STONEY: I wanna pan around, and I want everybody to grin.

GEORGE STONEY: OK.

JAMIE STONEY: Where are you, right or left?

GEORGE STONEY: Right behind you.

M5: (laughs) OK.

JAMIE STONEY: Step back quick.

M3: Yeah, this a wood stove-- little oven down here, and a warmer up there.