Telia "Mame" Griffith Interview 1

(beep)

THOM MALCOLM: Ready? Mom, what kind of country is this again?

TELIA "MAME" GRIFFITH: Huh?

MALCOLM: What kind of country is this again? Alabama? I said it was warrior country, what kind of country did you say it was?

GRIFFITH: Oh, I forgot. What did I say? Rough woman's country.

MALCOLM: There you go.

GRIFFITH: (laughs) I can shoot a gun good as I can cut wood. (laughs) But sure enough, when the bosses get so mean to us, we can go to the supervisor, and buddy he'd straighten 'em out --

MALCOLM: You mean the overseer?

GRIFFITH: -- he'd tell 'em quick. Now here, I can get me another supervisor, but I can't get another hand so good.

MALCOLM: Yeah, they'll tell 'em that now, even in our plant, they'll tell 'em that, uh, supervisors, they can -- get them off the street, they ain't got no job security --

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: --supervisors, they'll tell you quick.

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: I trained a supervisor in a day, but uh, somebody's filling 00:01:00batteries, or back winding, or spooling, it takes years to get -- get them trained good.

GRIFFITH: Well, right down here in this mill, when I was in the hospital with my kidney operation, um, Mr. John Tilley was my bossman, and I'd just come out of the hospital that day, and he'd come out there for me to come to work for him.

MALCOLM: The same day you was out of the hospital?

GRIFFITH: Yeah. And I went to work that night -- I went to work that night on that spooler -- it was automatic spooler then. And, uh, this girl -- she dead and gone now -- but, anyhow, she kept laughin' at me, because I couldn't do so good, you know. Just come out of the hospital, 'course I'd been sick 14 weeks.

MALCOLM: Mm-hmm.

GRIFFITH: But anyway, uh, she come in laughin' at me, and, uh, so Mr. Tilley told her, says -- says, "I went and got this girl to help me" -- he needed a hand, you know, to get that thread -- well it was a mill then -- weavin' and everything then, you know -- back -- you know...

GEORGE STONEY: Ask her about, uh, what we call now sexual harassment, but put it in different words.

MALCOLM: Did, uh, did you ever have a supervisor come up and, uh, try to get you to say, "Well, if you'll go off with me, I'll make it easy -- make your job easier," or did you know anybody that --

GRIFFITH: No, no.

MALCOLM: -- ever had to.

GRIFFITH: I always kept them set down. If I felt like they wanted, uh, hanky 00:03:00panky, uh-huh.

MALCOLM: Did that ever happen to any of your friends -- a supervisor ever come up to 'em and try to proposition...

GRIFFITH: Not that I know of.

MALCOLM: Not that you know of.

GRIFFITH: Not as I know of.

MALCOLM: I wanna talk a little bit how hard it was during the Depression, how you couldn't get a job, and remember you was tellin' me that time that you couldn't find -- you know, you didn't have nothin' to eat, and how you had to take care of your baby and all that? I'd like for you to tell me about that again if you would.

GRIFFITH: OK. Well, I just couldn't get no job, and I had to scrub floors, and sweep yards, and push scratch mowers. You didn't have them with gasoline on 'em then, you had to push 'em in the yards up in town, all these here rich people. You know where the Burckett home is?

MALCOLM: I think so, yes.

GRIFFITH: You know where the A&P is, now?

MALCOLM: Yes.

GRIFFITH: Well, you know that big restaurant, they turned it into a fine restaurant.

MALCOLM: Greenhouse Restaurant.

GRIFFITH: That's Ms. Burckett, I worked for her.

MALCOLM: Well, was there ever a time where you didn't have enough to eat and, uh, I know you was tellin' me that one time where you went so many days...

GRIFFITH: That's right, that's when I lived up on Dayville in the Backwater. I went three days and nights with nothing to eat.

MALCOLM: Three days.

GRIFFITH: That's right. And nursing a little baby. But when I did get something to eat, I got me a piece of corn bread, and a glass of water, and I felt like I had had a meal to vittle. I wasn't hungry no more. The Lord provided for me, He takes care of me. I'm not worried. I don't have no worries, 'cause I know He takes care of me. He said we'd live by bread and water, but not bread and water alone.

MALCOLM: That's true. Uh, let's get back to when Roosevelt got to be president. You know that -- it was still Depression days, and some of the 00:05:00things he did to put people back to work, you know, some of the things you can think of and some of the change he made for the working people that -- that are still --

GRIFFITH: Well, he made lots of changes.

MALCOLM: -- here today.

GRIFFITH: That's the best president we've ever had.

MALCOLM: I agree with you.

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: Uh, can you think of anything right off hand? You know, like, we was talking 'bout he was changing from 12 hour days to eight hour days?

GRIFFITH: Yeah, he changed the shifts, and I took the third shift, and, uh, then they signed us up for our Social Security.

STONEY: Why did she take the third shift?

MALCOLM: Ma, why did you want the third shift?

GRIFFITH: Well, I liked it better. I liked the third shift.

MALCOLM: Any particular reason why?

GRIFFITH: Well, I could do my housework and work too.

MALCOLM: So you still -- even though you had to work, you still had --

GRIFFITH: But I still had to, I rubbed my --

MALCOLM: -- to take care of your babies.

GRIFFITH: --clothes on a rub board, and I iron them with a -- with a -- I got 00:06:00the iron sitting in yonder in the hall, an old stove iron --

MALCOLM: I've seen 'em.

GRIFFITH: -- and I had three children in school, but I washed my clothes on a rub board, ironed 'em, I'd wash 'em one day and iron them the next -- next day. And I'd sleep a little and done my cookin'.

MALCOLM: Did, uh, after Roosevelt got to be president, things start pickin' up?

STONEY: Could -- could we go back on that? 'Cause I want to say, we need to be very definite that she was on the third shift, and that meant she was working at night, and she was doing all the housework in the day time. See if you can get her to do that again.

MALCOLM: Basically -- we want to get back to why you was -- why you had to work the third shift?

GRIFFITH: Well, I just liked it.

MALCOLM: But, uh...

STONEY: See, some of our audience is not going to know that the third shift is at night.

MALCOLM: Oh, we want --

STONEY: But, that's so she can just --

MALCOLM: Third shift -- third shift was at night?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: And you had to work at night?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: Because you had a family?

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: Tell me about how come you had to work at night on the third shift? You know, tell me how you had to take care of your family -- even though you worked full time, you still had to take care of your family?

GRIFFITH: Well, I'd stay up 'til about 7 -- 'bout 7 o'clock, then I'd lay down 8 at night, and get about two or three hours of sleep, and then I'd go to work.

MALCOLM: Third shift then, that was from 11 at night 'til 7 in the morning, then?

GRIFFITH: Right.

MALCOLM: And you would stay up all day 'til 7 o'clock that next night?

GRIFFITH: About all day. You'd have to. You take care -- you take two children and a husband -- that's four to take care of -- and yourself, that's five. And you have your moppin to do, you have your dishes to wash, had your clothes to wash.

MALCOLM: I don't know how you did it, mom.

GRIFFITH: Well, I done it. And I worked nine shifts down there in this mill when I come out with my heart attack. I worked the night I had the heart attack.

MALCOLM: You did.

GRIFFITH: And the bossman tried to get me to come home. But I didn't want to. I stayed on until 7 o'clock that morning, and then I went to the hospital that night. I got -- I got -- I told my husband -- he wasn't dead then -- I told him that, uh, get up -- I said, "Sanford you'd better do something for me, or I'm gonna die. And he called my niece, and she took me to the hospital."

MALCOLM: Uh...

STONEY: Wait a minute...

GRIFFITH: But I worked -- I worked double shifts, you know what I mean? My husband had already retired.

MALCOLM: You worked double shifts?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: What do you mean by double shifts?

GRIFFITH: Well, I worked first -- I worked on the first shifts some, I worked -- 00:09:00I'd go to work at night at 11 --

MALCOLM: Mm-hmm.

GRIFFITH: -- at 11 -- no -- yeah. I'd go to work at night at 11. Well I'd get off at 7 every morning, you know. Well, I'd go home, I'd eat me a biscuit, get me a little coffee or whatever -- bacon, eggs, whatever I wanted. I'd lay down and sleep until about 11:30 or 12, and I'd get up, get my daughter, cook dinner and then, uh, at three o'clock, Guy -- what was his name? -- Guy -- I can't think of his name now -- right off the reel. But anyhow, he had come -- come -- he'd send Sam Clark out there -- at three 00:10:00o'clock he'd say, Lucy, I want you to come in and work. I'd go in and work, and I'd work 'til -- I'd work 10 to 11 o'clock. But I'd take my shift right on through 'til the next morning.

MALCOLM: Nonstop.

STONEY: Now did -- ask her if her husband helped with the children, and the housework, and all that kind of thing?

MALCOLM: Did, uh, did your husband, did he help you with the children, and help you do the housework? You know, when you was workin' a third shift, did he help you out -- did he help you cook, or clean the house, or anything?

GRIFFITH: No, he couldn't boil water without scorching it.

MALCOLM: He didn't help you clean the house or nothin'?

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: Boy, my wife makes me help her.

GRIFFITH: Well, he didn't me.

MALCOLM: She don't make me, but I help her.

GRIFFITH: That was my -- that was my husband before I married Mr. Griffin.

MALCOLM: Uh-huh.

GRIFFITH: With the children -- he had two little boys, and I had one little girl. See, that was the three children.

MALCOLM: Did, uh, he help you with your housework, any?

GRIFFITH: Who?

MALCOLM: Mr. Griffin.

GRIFFITH: Yeah, now Mr. Griffin helped me a lot.

MALCOLM: He did?

GRIFFITH: After he retired, yeah.

MALCOLM: And you were still workin' after he retired, right?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: That was when you -- was that when you was workin?

GRIFFITH: He died in '75.

MALCOLM: '75?

GRIFFITH: The year I retired. I mean, the year they retired me.

STONEY: See if she can talk about babysitters, and how people handled their children when they had to work in the mill.

MALCOLM: When did you -- did you ever have to have babysitters when you went to work?

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: Who watched your children for you when they -- when, you know...

GRIFFITH: They watched themselves.

MALCOLM: So, what you did is you waited until they got old enough --

GRIFFITH: And he was on the first shift --

STONEY: Sorry, let's try that again.

GRIFFITH: -- he'd watch after 'em.

STONEY: And just let her answer that, OK? OK.

MALCOLM: OK. So, they watched theyself?

GRIFFITH: He watched -- he watched the children while I worked.

MALCOLM: But I'm talking about when y'all were both workin'. Who watched 'em then?

GRIFFITH: Well he was on different shift than me. He was on first shift, and I was on the -- on the third, first, and second and third shift.

MALCOLM: I can understand that, 'cause you know, Ann --

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: -- she's on the first, and I'm on the second, and that way --

GRIFFITH: He'd watch 'em at night for me.

MALCOLM: -- I'd watch her during the day, and then Ann, she's home at 3:00, and she watches her then.

GRIFFITH: But I divorced him and I married Mr. Griffin.

MALCOLM: Mr. Griffin.

GRIFFITH: Yeah, and then I went sure enough on the -- on the third shift, and I stayed on it.

MALCOLM: But then, uh, you never had -- y'all never had...

GRIFFITH: I didn't have no little children when me and him married. My girl was grown and married.

MALCOLM: Uh, I guess...

STONEY: What -- ask her about, uh, what it was like living in a mill village -- 00:13:00neighbors, and so forth.

MALCOLM: When you lived in mill villages, uh, tell us a little bit -- what the neighborhood was like, and some of the stores maybe they had in there, and things like that. You know, just kinda tell me anything you remember about living in a mill village.

GRIFFITH: Well, now I lived (inaudible) in a mill village, and I had good neighbors, and it was -- it was nice.

MALCOLM: Did, uh, most of those people you worked with that lived next door to you wasn't --

GRIFFITH: No, they didn't live next door to me, I had good neighbors.

MALCOLM: Was there anything special you can remember about mill villages? You know, maybe something special that was about 'em that was better than livin' somewhere else or anything like that?

GRIFFITH: Well, now it was a good house.

MALCOLM: Did the company keep it -- the company keep it up?

GRIFFITH: The company kept 'em up, yeah. You didn't have to do a thing but 00:14:00just live there, that's right.

MALCOLM: Did they -- did they charge you any rent for it?

GRIFFITH: I don't think they did.

MALCOLM: So, if you worked for 'em...

GRIFFITH: He took care of all of that.

MALCOLM: Your husband?

GRIFFITH: Yeah. But I don't think they charged rent for the mill houses.

MALCOLM: Do you remember...

GRIFFITH: They give them that to work in the mill for the rent, you know.

MALCOLM: Do you remember that they had places for the children to play? You know like, maybe a playground, anything like that in 'em?

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: They didn't?

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: Was it -- do you remember a lot of children being in the mill villages?

GRIFFITH: Oh yeah, there's a heap of children.

MALCOLM: What did they -- just play?

GRIFFITH: They played around the house.

MALCOLM: Around the house.

GRIFFITH: And with one another. But they didn't have no playgrounds or nothing like that then.

MALCOLM: Uh, let's talk about a little bit when Roosevelt was president.

GRIFFITH: OK.

MALCOLM: And you got -- after Social Security and all that, did, uh, your working conditions improve any at all that you can remember?

GRIFFITH: Oh yeah.

MALCOLM: Can you tell me some of the things?

GRIFFITH: They speeded the mill up, then.

MALCOLM: They speeded it up?

GRIFFITH: They speeded it up, yeah.

MALCOLM: Can -- can you remember -- a lot of times, they -- they might have speeded them up and made it harder, sometimes.

GRIFFITH: Sometimes they would, yeah. They certainly would. Make it a little harder on you, they certainly would. Get 'em running so fast, you know.

MALCOLM: And they have a -- did you ever see when they speeded 'em up they ended up laying off -- started laying off people because machines might be running a little bit faster, and they don't need so many people?

GRIFFITH: Yeah, yeah.

MALCOLM: Did you ever notice them, uh, like, -- say like you was running, for the sake of argument, 12 sides of a spinning frame, and all of a sudden they lay 00:16:00this person off beside you --

GRIFFITH: And they give them...

MALCOLM: Their 12 sides too --

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: And make you run double jobs. Did you ever see that happen very much? Did...

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

STONEY: OK. Let's see if she can describe that -- telling about somebody who was in the mill who had that happen to them.

MALCOLM: Can you tell me about somebody that might have happened to, and, uh, how hard it was on 'em, and was they able to do it?

GRIFFITH: Well, uh, yeah I can tell you about my husband down in -- in Pepperell They laid off a man and give him a whole side of a -- a side of a spinning, you know, to lay a rope in, and he told me he wasn't gonna do it. And he come out, and he drawed his pennies.

MALCOLM: He did.

GRIFFITH: He went to Montgomery and got his pennies.

MALCOLM: Did he -- was it hard for him to get his unemployment?

GRIFFITH: Well, it was pretty hard. Lawyer Brown -- he died -- but he was the one that got 'em for it.

MALCOLM: So, he just -- he just flat refused to do it?

GRIFFITH: He certainly did. They laid -- they fired this man. They laid him off, they fired him, and give Mr. Griffin a whole spinning room to lay up rope and all. He just told 'em he wasn't gonna do it.

MALCOLM: You know, uh, they still do that today, but, uh, where I work at us having a union, if they make me run two jobs, they have to pay me double pay.

GRIFFITH: They don't to him -- they was gonna make him do it for the same pay. And that's why he, uh --

MALCOLM: Told 'em he wasn't going to do it.

GRIFFITH: -- he refused.

MALCOLM: If they would have offered to pay him, he mighta woulda tried.

GRIFFITH: He might have done it. But he couldn't do it.

MALCOLM: They tried to do that to me where I work at, and I went to my union 00:18:00shop steward, and he went and told 'em, he said, "Look if he wants two jobs, he gets double pay, or he's not gonna run two jobs."

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: It wasn't just a few minutes, they come out here and say, "You run two jobs, you get paid double pay."

GRIFFITH: That's right.

MALCOLM: That's one of the advantages of --

GRIFFITH: But they wasn't gonna do him that way.

MALCOLM: They wouldn't. You think maybe if he'd had a union that he mighta coulda at least negotiated with 'em? You know, talked about it.

GRIFFITH: He had run two man job for the price of one.

MALCOLM: For the same thing.

GRIFFITH: And he wouldn't do it.

STONEY: See if she knows...

GRIFFITH: But I ain't runnin' no two jobs for the price of one, and if I cut off pieces, I didn't make as much as the spooler hands, but when I cut off pieces, and they put me to spoolin', they paid me spoolin' wages. Whatever that knot tied, I got paid for it.

MALCOLM: Was it production? When you spooled?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

STONEY: Um, ask -- see if she knows the term stretch-out?

MALCOLM: We talked about -- what you -- remember we talked about stretch-out on the audio tape? Remember when me and you was talking on that tape, well we -- really what we was just talkin' about, tryin' to make somebody run two jobs.

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: That's called stretch-out. Have you heard that term before?

GRIFFITH: Stretch-out?

MALCOLM: Stretch-out.

GRIFFITH: No. I just know that he said that they tried to make him run two jobs for the price of one, and he wouldn't do it.

MALCOLM: Well that's what's called a stretch-out.

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: I -- I didn't know that phrase 'til a month or so ago, myself.

GRIFFITH: But I'm gonna tell you, things was better when President Roosevelt took over.

MALCOLM: Did they, uh...

STONEY: When she starts it, just let her go.

MALCOLM: Go ahead and tell me some -- some of the better things after he took over.

GRIFFITH: Well, he changed the shifts. He changed -- he cut it up to three shifts. He give us our Social Security, and, uh, he just made things better. 00:20:00And we got -- we got a whole lot of stuff that we didn't have.

STONEY: Did she ever hear him on the radio?

MALCOLM: Did you ever listen to, uh, President Roosevelt when he was on the radio?

GRIFFITH: Yes, sir. And I listened to him on -- on the radio, but now he wasn't on TV.

MALCOLM: Well, you didn't have TV then.

GRIFFITH: Wasn't no TV. But I listened -- and I listened to the Grand Ole Opry. We had a radio, but we didn't have no TV.

MALCOLM: What were some of the things Roosevelt told you over the radio that directly affected your job as a textile worker? Can you remember some specific things like he might have told you about he was going to put in three shifts, or the Social Security, we've already talked about that, but is there anything else you can remember?

GRIFFITH: Well, no, I don't remember -- I really don't remember good 'bout him talkin' much on the radio. I sure don't.

STONEY: Did she ever see Roosevelt?

MALCOLM: Did you ever see President Roosevelt in person?

GRIFFITH: Huh?

MALCOLM: Did you ever see President Roosevelt?

GRIFFITH: Yes sir, and shook his hand.

MALCOLM: You did, well let me shake your hand.

GRIFFITH: I sure did.

MALCOLM: Well, tell me about that.

GRIFFITH: He come through Lynette, and -- and the mill stopped off and we went on the side of the road, and I caught hold of his hand and shook his hand.

MALCOLM: Well, did he say anything to you?

GRIFFITH: Yes, ma'am --

MALCOLM: What did he say to you?

GRIFFITH: Yes, sir. He said, "Thank you, lady. Glad to know you."

MALCOLM: I bet that made you feel good, didn't it?

GRIFFITH: Yeah, it did. Sure did.

STONEY: Did you remember him -- ask about him being a cripple? Keep it short.

MALCOLM: Do you remember that, uh, he was paralyzed and had the polio?

GRIFFITH: Oh, yeah. He went to Warm Springs. I've been all through his place 00:22:00up there. I've seen all of Warm Springs. I've seen the pools where he went in, I've seen the bed where he died on, his -- his little house. The Little White House at Warm Springs.

MALCOLM: Little White House? Warm Springs?

GRIFFITH: His room's there, his office is there -- I mean his desk and the bed he died on. His maid's room was next to him. I been all through that up there in Warm Springs.

STONEY: When she met Roosevelt did she -- did he look like he was crippled?

GRIFFITH: And his car is there.

MALCOLM: When...

GRIFFITH: Even the car he drove is in Warm Springs.

MALCOLM: When you met President Roosevelt, did he look like he was crippled then? Could you tell he was crippled?

GRIFFITH: No, he was sittin' down in the car.

MALCOLM: He was?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: What'd you just walk by and shook his hand...

GRIFFITH: Yeah, you know, just the car come along and we shook hands with him.

MALCOLM: You really couldn't tell that he --

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: -- that he was crippled.

STONEY: Did she ever write him? Lots of people wrote Roosevelt.

MALCOLM: Did you ever write President Roosevelt a letter?

GRIFFITH: Huh?

MALCOLM: Have you ever wrote President Roosevelt a letter?

GRIFFITH: No.

MALCOLM: You didn't? Uh...

GRIFFITH: No, I never did write him a letter, but he was a good president.

MALCOLM: Yes, he was, he brought about a lot of changes that are still helpin' workin' people today.

GRIFFITH: Yeah, he made -- he made a lot and lots of changes.

MALCOLM: Did, uh, did you know that President Roosevelt was what made it possible -- if I'm not mistaken he's the one that made it legal for us to have unions, or had a lot to do with it. Did you know that, uh, that he did that? Or made it possible for a lot of textile workers to have unions?

GRIFFITH: No, I didn't know that. I didn't know that, son. But I hadn't -- I hadn't heard him say nothin' about that.

STONEY: How does she feel about...

GRIFFITH: But he made lots and lots of changes.

STONEY: Has she...

GRIFFITH: But union is a good thing to have, I'll have to say that.

MALCOLM: Well...

STONEY: Why didn't you have it back then?

MALCOLM: Why -- why didn't, uh --- can any reason you think of why you might not have had a union back then?

GRIFFITH: No, I didn't.

MALCOLM: Don't...

GRIFFITH: They didn't even mention unions.

MALCOLM: Maybe...

GRIFFITH: Not as I remember of.

STONEY: Did she remember anything about the big thing in '34 when the troops were out and everything.

MALCOLM: Do you remember -- any we talked about this on the audiotape, you wasn't working in the mill in 1934, I know that, but do you remember when they had the big strike and a lot of people went off the job and they called the National Guard in? And a lot of people got hurt and killed? Remember them pictures I showed you, the funeral and all that?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: Do you remember anything about that happening?

GRIFFITH: No, I don't remember that son. Was that 19 what?

MALCOLM: 1934.

GRIFFITH: Thirty-four, let's see. Two or four years old. No, I don't remember that.

STONEY: When she was going to the movies, does she remember seeing newsreels?

MALCOLM: When -- when you went to the movies, do you remember seeing newsreels?

GRIFFITH: Mm-hmm.

MALCOLM: Did, uh -- and of course, you probably seen President Roosevelt a lot -- saw him on the newsreels, did you?

GRIFFITH: Uh-uh.

MALCOLM: What kind of news did they show you on the newsreels?

GRIFFITH: They just showed cowboy pictures..

MALCOLM: No, you know --

STONEY: Just...

MALCOLM: -- a lot -- before -- before the movie, sometimes they'd show what they'd call a newsreel. It'd be news about World War Two, or news about the Depression. Do you remember them having anything like that at the movies?

GRIFFITH: Uh-uh. All you'd see was like, Hoot Gibson and, uh, just cowboys 00:26:00and, you know, cowboy pictures, and John Wayne and all like that. Stage coaches and things. I don't remember the newsreels.

MALCOLM: We was talkin' bout, earlier how -- out there on the porch, how different things in the mill, even though the machines are modernized, it's still all the same thing. Like, me and you was talkin' about krillin' and, uh, how they -- we still got weavin' and slashin' but, you know, you was talkin' about how you had to tie the ends up, now they got a machine that does that.

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: And what it's doin' now is just cuttin' out a lot of people's jobs.

GRIFFITH: Yeah. Just like it did when they cuttin' out these garbage trucks. They made that thing to dump it --

MALCOLM: That's exactly right.

GRIFFITH: But they took two men off of there. See, that took two people off there with it, you know, they pick it up with them (inaudible) arms now.

MALCOLM: And that's exactly what the textile industry is doin' right now, they're puttin' in machines to take our place.

GRIFFITH: That's right. They certainly are.

MALCOLM: Take our jobs away from us.

GRIFFITH: Call 'em robots.

MALCOLM: Mm-hmm.

GRIFFITH: And you punch a button and -- and make that thing do what it wants to do. That takes away the labor from the man. Ain't that right?

MALCOLM: That's right, that's right.

STONEY: Ask her about Lintheads. Just use the term itself.

GRIFFITH: That takes the labor from the man.

MALCOLM: You remember when you worked in the mill, I've had people call me this before, not lately, you every remember anybody sayin' the phrase, Linthead?

GRIFFITH: Yeah.

MALCOLM: How do you feel about somebody when they say Linthead?

GRIFFITH: Well, I say I'd rather be a Linthead than starve.

MALCOLM: That's about what I told 'em.

GRIFFITH: That's exactly what I told 'em. I'm not ashamed I worked in a mill. The cotton mill give me my work, give me raise my baby, and raise my family. I'm not ashamed of my job. I wished to God, Tommy, I could go back to it today. I'd take it. I can take it up here. But this old body's done gone.