L.T. and Mildred Medley Interview

 GEORGE STONEY: Just watch for a good still as he does this. That's a lost art.

JAMIE STONEY: My grandfather could do that. He could -

GEORGE: I was thinking of a real still, [cat?], not a motion picture still.

JUDITH HELFAND: (inaudible)

GEORGE STONEY: I like that angle.

HELFAND: The angle that he's at?

GEORGE STONEY: Yes.

L.T. MEDLEY: Y'all ready?

GEORGE STONEY: Go for it.

JAMIE STONEY: (inaudible)

HELFAND: Should I get in front of you?

(break in audio)

HELFAND: The nerve and the courage to join that union with all of that.

L.T. MEDLEY: Well never - I never did join no union. I was just with 'em. I bet two-thirds of the people that was in that strike didn't belong to the union. They was up for the right, for the - to get a better job or get a job, especially that. I never did join no union.

MILDRED MEDLEY: They never did get a union in Hogan's Point, as far as we know now.

L.T. MEDLEY: A lot of the other people that did belong to the union, come to (inaudible). I don't know a man here that joined the union. They should have. Then they were good, so they lost their jobs if they did. And a job was a job then. It was living.

GEORGE STONEY: What gave you the courage to strike?

L.T. MEDLEY: Just got together and said we might as well just get on out 'cause we ain't making nothing.

MILDRED MEDLEY: I think maybe that they talked like everything would be real good after the union came in, and that would give - that gave 'em the -

L.T. MEDLEY: Courage to -

MILDRED MEDLEY: - courage to strike. That everything would be a lot better than 00:02:00it had been. I would believe that was the reason. And then they - they was not making anything and had to work so hard. And the people that said they could get out and go to the store, I don't remember ever going out of the mill and going to the store.

L.T. MEDLEY: Well they had a dope wagon come around down in there - in there.

MILDRED MEDLEY: No, it was in -

L.T. MEDLEY: Nickel drinks and this - nickel [pots?] and everything.

MILDRED MEDLEY: And um, the one that was talking about East Newnan going to - I don't remember that. Now, they could have, maybe one of 'em going out and getting all of it, but um -

L.T. MEDLEY: Shoot, I remember when you get three pack of cigarettes for a quarter. Now they're a dollar and half a pack. Bought many a pack for three 00:03:00for a quarter. Ten cents a pack, three for a quarter. Prince Albert the same way; dime a can or three for a quarter. Nickel book of leaves, them big books, and uh - and I suspect some of them is over a dollar.

HELFAND: Sounds like you're trying to say that it was much harder than a lot of people are saying that it was?

MILDRED MEDLEY: I could not remember any of them going to the - stopping off the work and going to the store. Now they might have, but I could not remember it. And uh -

L.T. MEDLEY: A lot of times when them dope wagons - what they call the dope wagons, come through there and set the job off, while they work you get a little bite to eat - they stop the frame off so you can go get something to eat. And a lot of it - a lot of 'em didn't have to stop 'em off because he'd be 00:04:00close enough to watch 'em, 'cause them frames, there's one end (inaudible) get to whooping around and tear a whole side down if you didn't stop it off.

HELFAND: When they went on eight hours, did it get - were you still able to have a lunch?

L.T. MEDLEY: No.

HELFAND: How was the work day?

L.T. MEDLEY: They still run the dope wagons and things. You could take your lunch or you could buy off the dope wagon, all.

HELFAND: I'm asking because some people have said that the work was speeded up so they had so much work to do that they didn't have time to each lunch.

L.T. MEDLEY: Naw.

HELFAND: That they had to eat standing up.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Well, you would because -

L.T. MEDLEY: - they did speed the things up a whole lots. When we went on eight hours they speeded the frames up, and they run worser [sic] too. The faster they run the more ends would come down. Well they - they run from all they put a - change a pulley and make it go much faster, see. Big pulley here and a little pulley here. You put this big pulley and this little pulley pulling the frame, it's gonna fly. You put a little pulley here and a big pulley here and 00:05:00it'll go slow. You know what I'm talking about.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Oh yeah. They didn't slow 'em down.

L.T. MEDLEY: No. They never slowed 'em down no more. They was running good before that - before they went on three shifts, eight hour shifts, then it started worse and worse and worse, getting faster and faster and faster. You go in there sometime and your frame be running up faster than it was when you went out. This - put the pulleys on it, change it and start 'em up and you, thing'll fly.

GEORGE STONEY: You think the [Beedo man?] had anything to do with that?

L.T. MEDLEY: I think that's all - had all to do with it. You gotta go down and check it and write it down, write it down. You remember Beedo man? Stand around and check everybody. About the next - about a week from then your frame's will be speeded up.

MILDRED MEDLEY: You had to do so much work to get by. You couldn't go in and -

L.T. MEDLEY: You didn't get production first thing you know you'd be laid off.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Yeah.

L.T. MEDLEY: You had - they got the clocks on that say how much you're on, you see. It's like this clock right here. Well it's a different clock, tell you exactly how much is run.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, I was talking to a guy up in Kannapolis. He said when they put those clocks in there, that some of the fellows learned how to jimmy those clocks and cheat on 'em.

L.T. MEDLEY: Shoot, I learnt that, too.

MILDRED MEDLEY: (laughs)

GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about that.

L.T. MEDLEY: Well they - they don't have a wheel, it's like a fan belt put on a cog. Well then went in grooves, you see, and a little screw pushes that wheel up and it turns it like a speedometer. So all you've got to do is just loosen that screw and drop it down and take your finger and whirl it, whirl it, whirl it, and put it back up, you done cut yourself maybe two hours work, (inaudible). Then you could take your time.

MILDRED MEDLEY: But if they found out you was doing it, you didn't have no time.

L.T. MEDLEY: You - yeah, (inaudible) went up.

HELFAND: L.T., how'd you lose your finger?

L.T. MEDLEY: I had it cut off.

MILDRED MEDLEY: No.

L.T. MEDLEY: I did.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Tell 'em how - why you had it cut off.

L.T. MEDLEY: I had it cut off. Wasn't even sore.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Mm-hmm.

L.T. MEDLEY: You don't believe it, do you. I got burnt bad when I was about 12 years old. They - got gasoline on me and I got caught on fire. It scarred. It was up to here and up to here, on my chest and on my back, on my legs. I liked to died.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Show 'em your other arm.

L.T. MEDLEY: (inaudible) a while back. Well that scarred, you see. When it happened, this here - it ends there on that one. When it happened, it was up here. As I growed, the scars growed down. So uh, this finger here, this knuckle was laying right here and this part here was sticking straight up like that. Right there is the back of my knuckle. Sometimes it itches and I just scratch it right there and it'll quit. My finger will itch, and there's the 00:08:00nerve right there. And that's the back of that little finger right there - was right there. So I couldn't even get my hand open, so I guess I'd go get a - try to get a job or something another, and they didn't like it 'cause that finger was in the way, see. So, Papa and them lived in Atlanta up there, and - well my brother lived in Atlanta. Papa was dead. And I went up there to Grady Hospital, said I want my finger cut off. If you lived in the county it didn't cost you nothing. Said, we'll just straighten it out for you, but it'll be stiff acting like when it's cut off. So they cut it off.

GEORGE STONEY: Now did you peep - did you come from the country, or your family come from the country?

L.T. MEDLEY: Yes, sir. Up New Orleans County.

GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about that.

L.T. MEDLEY: And uh - we went - we moved to Fulton Bag Cotton Mill. Papa caught him a job, Fulton Bag Cotton Mill. And at that time there wasn't no paved roads this far, there wasn't no cars up there. We moved in a two-horse wagon and kept our wagon and mules in the backyard for a year or more. People would - 00:09:00an old coal wagon. There wasn't no cars at that time when we moved up there. And the (inaudible) great big ole truck with a - big ole chain drive on the side. He - you know. We was going to school one day and one of them things come and all of us kids just watched that. They just (inaudible) about that there, and every one of us was late for school. That's the first car I ever seen - the first truck I ever seen.

GEORGE STONEY: Did you miss the country?

L.T. MEDLEY: Well I was too little to know much about it. I remember being in the country.

HELFAND: So you lived in Cabbagetown?

L.T. MEDLEY: Over at Fulton Bag. You know where that big ole cemetery is?

GEORGE STONEY: Mm-hmm.

L.T. MEDLEY: I lived on the - that's Fulton Bag, on that side, right there close to the mill on that little tall house there. We lived in one of them. Now at the time - they done changed all of that now. All the roads is different 00:10:00and everything.

MILDRED MEDLEY: After we married, we went up there one - I had never been to Atlanta. I had never been any place. We got on the street car and um, I said, well how is he gonna know when to let us off? And he says, go up there and tell him you want off at Golden Medley's house. I knowed that wouldn't do 'cause he didn't know Golden Medley from nobody else. I said, I'm not gonna do it.

L.T. MEDLEY: I said, go on. He'll stop at Golden Medley's house if you tell him. (laughter) I knowed I never seen the end of it. I was pulling her leg, you know.

MILDRED MEDLEY: I told you, he raised me. (laughs)

L.T. MEDLEY: Uh-huh.

GEORGE STONEY: How'd you get there?

L.T. MEDLEY: Up there?

MILDRED MEDLEY: He drove up there and we - he had a car when me and him married.

L.T. MEDLEY: We was just riding street cars.

MILDRED MEDLEY: But I had never rode one and I wanted - I'm that way with MARTA now. Some of these times I'm going up there and ride MARTA.

GEORGE STONEY: It's nice.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Yeah.

HELFAND: L.T., what was it like on the front - when you went out on those trucks? Can you describe where you went?

L.T. MEDLEY: What trucks?

HELFAND: The - back during that strike, when you went out -

L.T. MEDLEY: All we had ball bats and sticks and iron pots and everything else, out there beating on the side of it trying to get people to help join - help on the strike. So I don't know.

GEORGE STONEY: Was it - was it fun?

L.T. MEDLEY: At that time we was trying to get a better living. I guess - I don't make it was no fun, but everybody had -

MILDRED MEDLEY: Everybody fight at once.

L.T. MEDLEY: Everybody had to help. And the ones that wouldn't [fool?], we called 'em scabs. So it is. The old scabs ain't got no sense (inaudible). Far as I know there wasn't no fights among 'em. If there was, there wasn't in the bunch I was with.

GEORGE STONEY: Were they all men on your truck?

L.T. MEDLEY: On the one we was on, yeah. It was a lot - after then they got mixed up men and women on 'em. They had - they had women trying to help much as the men was. That's why a bunch was in that (inaudible) up yonder. A bunch of women was with 'em.

MILDRED MEDLEY: But they had 'em separated.

L.T. MEDLEY: Oh yeah, but - but they wasn't separated when they caught 'em down here.

GEORGE STONEY: Did you know any of the girls who got caught?

L.T. MEDLEY: At that time I knowed practically all of 'em.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you talk about some of 'em?

L.T. MEDLEY: It's so long that I forgot it. Don't really know.

GEORGE STONEY: There was the Horton girls.

L.T. MEDLEY: There was a lot of 'em over there. I knowed all of 'em then, but I don't now.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Most of 'em have passed away. Most all of the ones on that picture has.

L.T. MEDLEY: There ain't very many living that was in that - was in that strike.

MILDRED MEDLEY: From 1934 to '91? How many years is that, without a pencil? Thirty-four? He can tell you.

L.T. MEDLEY: Sixty - about 60 years ago.

JAMIE STONEY: Fifty-seven.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Fifty-seven? Yeah. So your memory fades when you get -

L.T. MEDLEY: How long you been married, Leah.

MILDRED MEDLEY: I'm told, ya, 57 years.

L.T. MEDLEY: Fifty-seven years ago. We just had another one.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Yeah.

HELFAND: Now, could you tell us a little bit about - did your brother come back and tell you about Fort McPherson?

L.T. MEDLEY: Nah, he didn't tell me nothing. They didn't talk about it when he got back.

MILDRED MEDLEY: If they did, we just can't remember anything about it. Now, Etta Mae can tell you, but we were not associated with it that much.

L.T. MEDLEY: I wasn't up there either.

HELFAND: So you didn't go out that morning?

L.T. MEDLEY: Yes, but I was on that truck. I wasn't - there was a bunch of - see they got 'em down at the mill. They didn't go out nowhere else and get nobody. They just got the bunch that was there, and I wasn't at the mill. At 00:15:00the time we was riding around, that's why a lot of 'em didn't get in it. We might have been in LaGrange , we might have been in Newnan, we might have been out (inaudible) somewhere, see, at the time they come in and got 'em. We just - that truck wasn't there with us on it, 'cause if we'd of been there, we'd a been there. I mean, if we hadn't been on that truck riding around trying to get people to help us, we'd of been down there with the bunch that was already there, 'cause that's why I missed it.

HELFAND: What kind of reaction did you get from mill people, you know, when you would come into towns and into those mills, what kind of reactions -

L.T. MEDLEY: Oh, a lot of 'em was hollering away, and a lot of 'em said, give me some room and I'll get on that rig, and most of 'em were with it. And they start - we had done it a lot of times before then and a lot of people come on in, see. At that time, then we was (inaudible) wasn't with 'em 00:16:00because (inaudible) had been down there. We was trying to get more people to come in.

MILDRED MEDLEY: See, they had not organized a union at that time. They were just trying to organize.

L.T. MEDLEY: We was out telling people, come on help us, come on, help us. And that's why I didn't - I wasn't with a bunch 'cause I was out just riding around saying, come on down to the mill. We're having this fight down there. Come on down and help us. A lot of 'em did. But if you was on that truck when they come and got them, 'cause we missed getting on that truck going to Atlanta.

GEORGE STONEY: What did the local police, the sheriff, do?

L.T. MEDLEY: They didn't bother us. Didn't bother us. They didn't bother 'em when they got 'em, far as I know.

GEORGE STONEY: Did you see any of the troops?

L.T. MEDLEY: No, I didn't. They was done gone when we got back in. All the people, too, that was down there.

GEORGE STONEY: So the troops never came back to Hogansville?

L.T. MEDLEY: Not that (inaudible) that I know of. All they come and - come down and got 'em, and loaded 'em up and took 'em to Atlanta. I didn't see none of 'em.

GEORGE STONEY: Did your truck ever go to LaGrange?

L.T. MEDLEY: As far as I know we didn't go to LaGrange. We just mostly ride around Hogansville here.

GEORGE STONEY: What are the other mills?

L.T. MEDLEY: Down LaGrange?

GEORGE STONEY: No, the other mills you went to.

L.T. MEDLEY: Wasn't nothing but just these two here, just the people - running the people - running the people's houses, you know, like it was - come over here, come on, we're having a fight down yonder. Said they didn't even know we were going to strike. Didn't know till it happened. That was about the - well about two days of it, was it (inaudible)?

MILDRED MEDLEY: I don't think so.

L.T. MEDLEY: I think about two days.

MILDRED MEDLEY: 'Cause they went back and tried to - to organize, but they never did get it where it -

L.T. MEDLEY: That was the first time they'd ever ganged up down there. There was - they was mostly full in just talking about it. Having a meeting and talking about it. Might have been the first day they ganged up. I don't really know. It wasn't over two or three days before they come in and got 'em.

GEORGE STONEY: Did you ever go to any of those meetings out on the road or in - upstairs in the community building?

L.T. MEDLEY: Far as I know I didn't.

MILDRED MEDLEY: The only one that we ever went to was over on the highway, one time, when - I don't know -

L.T. MEDLEY: I think he got in the back of his truck and talked, didn't he? Or something. I don't really know.

MILDRED MEDLEY: All I know is they just never did get one started here. They tried, but when they'd find out that you was affiliated with it any way, you 00:19:00lost your job.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell us about that meeting? Uh, how - did it start with prayer? Did they have music?

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't really know.

MILDRED MEDLEY: That - that right there, they did not have any music, I know, but I don't think that - that we attended until after it had started. I mean, we was not there when they first started.

L.T. MEDLEY: I never did go to anyone of those meetings.

MILDRED MEDLEY: He was talking about what - all it would do for you and everything.

GEORGE STONEY: This was this [Homer Welch?]?

MILDRED MEDLEY: Mm - it was somebody from the outside, because when - I think when Homer Welch got - when they found out that he was ring leader, he lost his 00:20:00job. And uh, that uh, he did not - I don't know whether he left Hogansville right then or not, but eventually he did.

HELFAND: Now, this meeting on the highway, was it at night?

MILDRED MEDLEY: No, it was in the daytime.

HELFAND: OK. Now, why was it out - all the way out on a highway?

MILDRED MEDLEY: That was the only place they could find to meet.

L.T. MEDLEY: At that time they had a big ball park behind the mill. Real big place, played ball down in there. Had room enough down there to meet, see, they'd stand up there in the road right behind the mill. Big place down there, but not - the building's in there, and after you get - that's why they had plenty of room to park their cars and everybody get out and talk. You could drive down the road and you wouldn't know it was back there. And when you got all (inaudible) got together, you got cars, trucks, sometimes there'd be a line of 'em all together, trucks and cars and blowing their horns and 00:21:00hollering and trying to get 'em some help, but they wasn't (inaudible). When they got (inaudible) behind the mill, running and rounding 'em up, see. Load 'em up and took 'em around, and we was off - I don't know we was on his truck (inaudible), I wasn't down there. They got everybody was down there. Whether they was with 'em or they wasn't, they got 'em. A lot of 'em would say, I wasn't here with him. I'm just listening. Made no difference. Get in that truck. Took 'em with 'em.

HELFAND: Were they arrested?

L.T. MEDLEY: Wasn't nobody arrested. I know they were put up there on that fence and they kept 'em until they took a notion to turn 'em loose. No, there wasn't no trials or no nothing. They had to stop the riot.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, the soldiers had guns. What about the strikers?

L.T. MEDLEY: I imagine some of them had guns. I didn't see any though. I know most everybody had one, had (inaudible). I just don't know. I didn't (inaudible). I knowed three or four of 'em that struck (inaudible) had guns. Wasn't - wasn't none of my business.

HELFAND: I - I recall hearing about a trial of Homer Welch because they said he had a gun. Do you remember any of that?

MILDRED MEDLEY: No, I surely don't. Don't.

L.T. MEDLEY: I imagine he did. I don't know.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Probably back then I would remember it, but right now I don't.

HELFAND: Could you talk about after the strike when the people went back to work? How did - how did everybody feel? What were the feelings going around?

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't know. I just went back to work, forgot it and went back to work.

MILDRED MEDLEY: There would be people come in every once in a while talking and 00:23:00trying to get you to join the union, but they still - if they found out you were talking to 'em you lost your job.

L.T. MEDLEY: They didn't go down there to the mill.

MILDRED MEDLEY: No.

L.T. MEDLEY: They - they give to little leaflets.

MILDRED MEDLEY: And stand at the gate.

L.T. MEDLEY: And if you wanted to come to one of the meeting's you could come such and such a place, you know, but they didn't gang up down there no more.

GEORGE STONEY: Now we talked with a gentleman the other day who said that he was advised by his boss to join the union and then come tell the boss what it was all about.

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah, find out about it.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you talk about that?

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't know anything about it. I wasn't the man he was talking to.

MILDRED MEDLEY: (laughs)

GEORGE STONEY: Do you think that was - that happened?

L.T. MEDLEY: You know it did. [Pimp's over?]. That's right, pimp's over.

MILDRED MEDLEY: But if they found you was affiliated with it in any way you lost your job.

L.T. MEDLEY: And at that time, it was so rough nobody didn't want to lose a job. Hell, I didn't - I mean, mostly at that time just kept my mouth shut. I - sometimes, some of the bosses up in there at the mill, come around, talk to you and ask you what you think about it, or this and that and the other. I said, I ain't got nothing to do with it, know nothing about it. Trying to trick ya.

MILDRED MEDLEY: See, the bosses lived here in Hogansville too, or around here anyway. They knew about what was going on.

L.T. MEDLEY: Some of the bosses was - was far better but they couldn't do nothing.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Hm-mm.

L.T. MEDLEY: And if they (inaudible) find out they did, they'd lose their job.

GEORGE STONEY: Was there kind of a regular system of pimps in the factory?

L.T. MEDLEY: There always were. Some ever were. Still is. In the police force you got pimps. Worser now than it was then. More people (inaudible) worser now. Shoot, I even told (inaudible) one time, have a look yonder, the damn pimp's telling on me. That's been years ago. Liquor 90 cents a gallon. I still got some holes up yonder where I used to hide my liquor. I got caught one time. Didn't go to jail though. Sheriff gave me - ah, forget it. Give me 00:26:00$100, forget it. Really didn't get caught. Last time I - old car was broke down. They found some in it. I was caught anyway, it was my car. It wouldn't run or nothing, but smart police over there is the one who done it, trying to get a star in his crown. He finally got killed.

GEORGE STONEY: You still got some of that whiskey you want to sell?

MILDRED MEDLEY: (laughs)

L.T. MEDLEY: I was up that way the other day, and I - one of them holes. I just put them holes up there. No, that's been years ago.

GEORGE STONEY: I haven't drunk anything in years that didn't have a label on it.

MILDRED MEDLEY: Mm-hmm.

L.T. MEDLEY: This here was - you ever hear of Over The Top, over close to Thomason? Back in the coals? There's a bunch back over in there. There's only one road. You go in there, went around the mountain down there, and all the - you ever hear they talk about - that's how - you ever hear of a 00:27:00man called Hancock?

GEORGE STONEY: No.

L.T. MEDLEY: He went over in there and (inaudible), go over in that place and he never did come back. They put him in the river. Back in them days, you couldn't get no law to go down there. Only one road went down there and they kept that road guarded with shotguns, rifles. Them old people lived their own law (inaudible), you didn't have - it was bad. I used to go - I used to get my liquor over there.

HELFAND: I wonder on the picture how many of those folks lost their jobs.

GEORGE STONEY: Yeah. Mm-hmm. OK.

HELFAND: Do we have it? It's over there on the table.

GEORGE STONEY: OK. This might be the last one.

HELFAND: OK.

JAMIE STONEY: Yeah, I'm about to change tapes.

HELFAND: OK.

GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, OK.

HELFAND: I wonder if you could look at this picture and tell us who on their lost their jobs.

L.T. MEDLEY: Can't even recognize none of 'em. I can't.

MILDRED MEDLEY: We really -

GEORGE STONEY: Show it over - show it to your husband and then go - name 'em and see if they had lost their job.

MILDRED MEDLEY: We really can't say because -

L.T. MEDLEY: We don't know.

MILDRED MEDLEY: We just don't know and if we - back then we might have remembered, but now we just don't. But I recognize lots more of them than I did on the picture that I had.

L.T. MEDLEY: It's been so long I don't - God, I couldn't tell you. I couldn't recognize near one of 'em.

HELFAND: L.T., do you think it would have been different if the union had been able to come through and a strike was successful?

L.T. MEDLEY: I can't say. You know the words - what they done was successful. It helped everybody around here.

GEORGE STONEY: How's that?

L.T. MEDLEY: 'Cause they went back to work and everybody was doing better in - it went on eight hours a day and it was a lot better than 12 hours, and uh, they 00:29:00just got better. Things got better. 'Cause the way it was going, it was rough, but it got better.