Irene and L.T. Medley Interview

 GEORGE STONEY: OK, I'm going to start it again. What do you think this is?

IRENE MEDLEY: I would think it would be at Fort McPherson because they've got the tents all up and I don't think they put tents around down there.

L.T. MEDLEY: No they didn't. They loaded them up and hauled them off. To straight (inaudible).

STONEY: Did you know anybody who was on that? Who got hauled off to Atlanta?

L.T. MEDLEY: At that time I know nearly all of them.

IRENE MEDLEY: All of the ones there on that the picture, but it's been so long ago I've forgotten.

STONEY: Anybody in your family in here?

L.T. MEDLEY: Other than my brother.

IRENE MEDLEY: Other than his brother, James, and he was just a young boy.

L.T. MEDLEY: I wouldn't know him (inaudible) maybe.

STONEY: Was James working in the mill at the time?

IRENE MEDLEY: He might have been, I don't know.

L.T. MEDLEY: I think he was. He mentioned it anyway. I think he was working at the time.

IRENE MEDLEY: Now that looks like Viola Horton.

L.T. MEDLEY: They wore them more long dresses, didn't they?

IRENE MEDLEY: That looks like Eula Mae. Now I didn't know all of this was going on.

L.T. MEDLEY: They had a pretty good bunch of women.

IRENE MEDLEY: Mm-hmm. That's Viola and her sister Eula Mae.

STONEY: Could you talk about the Horton girls?

IRENE MEDLEY: I can tell you the first mayonnaise I ever ate was at the Horton 00:03:00girls' house.

L.T. MEDLEY: They made it.

IRENE MEDLEY: They made it. (laughs)

L.T. MEDLEY: First time, I reckon. They made it and I see what it was.

IRENE MEDLEY: We stayed together most of the time until we went to work in the mill.

STONEY: So the Horton girls were from a well known family here?

IRENE MEDLEY: Well, about as well-known as in -- they lived on Lincoln Street and when we moved here we moved on Lincoln Street in the house with my brother.

L.T. MEDLEY: A lot of them people is dead.

IRENE MEDLEY: (laughs) Yeah. Y'all should have come many years ago when we 00:04:00could remember. (laughs) We can't remember. I just don't recognize any of those.

L.T. MEDLEY: I imagine if you (inaudible) had that big ol' hat on and overalls. They liked that.

IRENE MEDLEY: I believe that's Olivia right there. That's Belle. (pause) 00:05:00That's Lena Eastwood.

L.T. MEDLEY: (inaudible)

IRENE MEDLEY: Mother.

STONEY: Did people talk about this back then?

L.T. MEDLEY: Back when it happened they did. They don't never say anything about it now.

IRENE MEDLEY: The people that live here now don't even know -- probably don't even know anything about it.

STONEY: What did they say back then about it?

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

IRENE MEDLEY: They were just wanting to get back to work and not have to work so 00:06:00hard. But I don't think they ever got to the place where they --

L.T. MEDLEY: One thing they don't see no more are long men with that long pig-tailed hair.

IRENE MEDLEY: (laughs)

L.T. MEDLEY: You won't see that working there now -- pig-tailed hat. (laughs) Silliest thing I ever saw.

IRENE MEDLEY: Now that looks like Tuck Spencer right there.

L.T. MEDLEY: The one that walked off.

IRENE MEDLEY: Yeah, the one that walked off.

STONEY: Got a story about him?

IRENE MEDLEY: Other than --

L.T. MEDLEY: Just knowed him.

IRENE MEDLEY: Just knew him, that was all. Just by his name. I don't know --

L.T. MEDLEY: Now if you see somebody kind of like that with a black hat he must be (inaudible). He always wore a black hat, blue or black.

IRENE MEDLEY: How long this stayed up there?

L.T. MEDLEY: About a week, I think.

IRENE MEDLEY: There are the girls again.

L.T. MEDLEY: All them's dead.

IRENE MEDLEY: There's Eula Mae. Yep. (pause)

STONEY: Now this is a -- this is a -- take it over and show it to your husband 00:08:00and see if -- see how many of them you can identify.

IRENE MEDLEY: See, right there's Jane. Right there. Toots Spencer there. May not can see it without your glasses.

L.T. MEDLEY: I tell you the truth I couldn't…

IRENE MEDLEY: You couldn't know any of them I know.

L.T. MEDLEY: (inaudible)

IRENE MEDLEY: Gordy Hanson's on there. Right up in there in there. And Truett Sims is over here on this side. And a man that died the other day. The Todd man.

L.T. MEDLEY: (inaudible) Todd.

IRENE MEDLEY: This is a blowed-up picture of the one that I had and cut out of the paper.

L.T. MEDLEY: That looks like my car, but I don't reckon it is.

STONEY: Tell us about yourself during that time.

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't know exactly where I was. It's been so long I a bunch of riding around with Feldon Green a bunch of us was riding around in truck or a car one. A truck I believe, they were beating on the side of it with ball bats. Trying to get attention. Tell them about the strike.

STONEY: Who's idea was that?

L.T. MEDLEY: I guess it was Feldon Green, the one that owned the truck. We just loaded it up.

STONEY: Who was that?

L.T. MEDLEY: Feldon Green, the guy that lived here.

STONEY: Tell us about Feldon Green.

L.T. MEDLEY: That's all I know about him.

IRENE MEDLEY: He has passed away.

L.T. MEDLEY: He was a cop over here in Greenville before he passed away but just worked in the mill with us. It's been so long I forgot all of it. I just 00:10:00can't remember none of it.

STONEY: Was Feldon Green a leader of the strikers?

L.T. MEDLEY: No, Percy Wilkes was the leader.

IRENE MEDLEY: Not Percy Wilkes.

L.T. MEDLEY: Not Percy Wilkes, uh, I don't know his name.

JUDITH HELFAND: Homer Welch?

L.T. MEDLEY: Homer Welch.

IRENE MEDLEY: Homer Welch.

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah, Homer Welch was a leader.

STONEY: Do you remember Homer Welch?

L.T. MEDLEY: At that time, but I don't know.

STONEY: Well, tell us about it.

L.T. MEDLEY: I can't. I don't know it. I just can't. He would just tell us what to do. That's why I can't -- nothing to say about it, but we had done what he said. He'd get up and talk to the whole bunch and we'd just do what he said to do. Load up the truck and go so and so. Well, we'd do it.

STONEY: Where does he come from?

L.T. MEDLEY: First I know he was here. I couldn't tell you where he come from.

STONEY: He'd been living here a long time?

L.T. MEDLEY: I couldn't really say. But he was the leader of that factory 00:11:00bunch. Only he told them what to -- how to do it and what to do.

STONEY: What did people think about him?

L.T. MEDLEY: Well, they liked him. Everybody liked him.

IRENE MEDLEY: He was a well thought of man here in --

L.T. MEDLEY: He was trying to help everybody get this thing straightened out.

IRENE MEDLEY: You see, at that time Callaway owned the mills and he was really 00:12:00against the unions. A nice mother and daddy.

STONEY: Yeah.

IRENE MEDLEY: Really nice.

L.T. MEDLEY: Wally Wood? Any kin to Wally Wood?

IRENE MEDLEY: Yeah, but they were cousins.

L.T. MEDLEY: I used to know all them but I already forgot them. In fact I can't remember like I used to. I'll be thinking about somebody have to do something and I know it and I can't tell them what it is or nothing.

STONEY: But I'll tell you something you can tell us about. Tell us when you first went in the mills and what it was like.

L.T. MEDLEY: Everybody was glad to get a job. Really glad to get a job. Back in them days there just wasn't no jobs. I come from Thomaston over here before I got old enough to work in the mill.

IRENE MEDLEY: And it was not easy.

STONEY: How old were you when you first started working in the mills?

L.T. MEDLEY: I run my age up I think I was 13 or 14. Run my age up and had to run my background to get social security. I think it's going in three different -- one year back and right and one year forward. They got it straightened out. I told them to start with had run my age up to go to work.

IRENE MEDLEY: We got our first social -- we got the first social security cards that were put out.

L.T. MEDLEY: First driver license.

STONEY: Tell us about your first job in the mill and what you got paid.

L.T. MEDLEY: Fourteen eighty. She didn't get paid nothing.

IRENE MEDLEY: (laughs) I did, I got $6.96 a week.

L.T. MEDLEY: Fourteen eighty was all she made. Or anybody made that wasn't the boss.

IRENE MEDLEY: They didn't pay you -- what you made, they just paid so much an hour.

L.T. MEDLEY: That was 60 hours a week, too.

IRENE MEDLEY: Sixty-six hours.

L.T. MEDLEY: Fourteen eighty.

STONEY: What work did you do?

L.T. MEDLEY: Well, I worked in the twister room, the card room. Never did learn any cards, but I run drawing, the same thing, same place. In the twister room we run twisters. That's the only two places I worked in the mill, the twister room and the card room.

IRENE MEDLEY: And the drawing room was when you saw that --

L.T. MEDLEY: The drawing is the card room.

IRENE MEDLEY: -- stuff coming out of those cans. That's when they --

L.T. MEDLEY: We'd make thread. We made cords for (inaudible) tires down here. The cords they put in, wasn't no steel in them then, just cord.

STONEY: How did you get along with your boss?

L.T. MEDLEY: Fine. I'd say that about every boss about every time I say that. Been there over 20 years. Then quit and went back and worked some.

STONEY: I'm trying to figure out if the company gave you a house and paid your light bill and water bill and so forth, what were people striking about?

L.T. MEDLEY: Because it wasn't hardly making enough to live.

IRENE MEDLEY: Who told you the company gave him the house?

L.T. MEDLEY: You had to pay -- I think it was -- it was a $1 a room. Wasn't it?

IRENE MEDLEY: And 50 cents a drop for your lights. Just one --

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah, but we had a six-room house. Wouldn't cost you but three dollars or six dollars a month. A three-room house, three dollars a month.

IRENE MEDLEY: And they take that out every week.

L.T. MEDLEY: Before you got a hold of it.

STONEY: Why do you think people were striking?

L.T. MEDLEY: Because a lot them was going hungry. Couldn't get nothing to eat.

STONEY: We're sorry. Could you say that again?

L.T. MEDLEY: Always going hungry. They had to do something to get -- they -- the PWA or what they call it come in here and put them over digging ditches and cleaning up and then this thing started picking up.

IRENE MEDLEY: When Roosevelt come in.

L.T. MEDLEY: That's when Roosevelt come in and put them on cleaning up roads and everything. (inaudible) That's when things started picking up. But just before then is when they had the strike. That was the whole start of it. And if it hadn't been for him letting us all work on the PWA or whatever you call it, cleaning bushes and the roads and things. A lot of people would have starved to 00:17:00death. But that started picking up right then -- picking up ever since.

STONEY: Now during the strike did the union make any effort to feed you?

L.T. MEDLEY: As far as I know they didn't because they didn't have no money. They said you got to try and help one another. There was no money to be passed. I don't think you had to pay anything to join it either. Tell them you want to belong to it.

IRENE MEDLEY: But later on they did start charging.

L.T. MEDLEY: Oh, yeah, they did.

STONEY: Now I understand some people from here went to Ellsworth to Lagrange. Did you hear anything about that?

L.T. MEDLEY: They went from here to Ellsworth and Ellsworth to here at the time. I just don't know. What was the reason why that, uh, I could never get on that 00:18:00-- cleaning up the ditches?

IRENE MEDLEY: I don't know, you just didn't --

L.T. MEDLEY: Made too much or something. I never could get on that clearing the road and cleaning up ditches.

IRENE MEDLEY: Just don't know too much about it --

L.T. MEDLEY: I must have --

IRENE MEDLEY: -- it's been so long ago --

L.T. MEDLEY: I must have been still working in the mill because I didn't get on that PWA or WPA or whatever you call it.

STONEY: Now if you were riding around in those trucks why was it that they kept you on in the mill when it opened up again?

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't know. Most of the people went back to work. There wasn't very many that didn't. I guess the ones that didn't want to went somewhere, but when it opened up, I didn't miss nobody.

IRENE MEDLEY: See, they did not get the union in and the ones that was on the trucks, they had to let them come back or else the mills couldn't start up. So 00:19:00that was the reason that they went back to work.

STONEY: Now, we've got records from Washington about a number of people in East Newnan who were on a -- who were in the union and got dispossess notices.

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah.

STONEY: Did that happen here?

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah, some of the leaders never did get back to work down here. But that's an old common person like myself and the rest of them just went on back to work. But it might rain later, no.

IRENE MEDLEY: I had not thought about Homer Welch with all that's been happening. I believe he had -- they went over into Alabama after that.

L.T. MEDLEY: They had another strike over there I think.

IRENE MEDLEY: I don't know.

STONEY: I want to show you how fresh your memory is -- how good your memory is. We talked to somebody yesterday who has got Homer Welch's wife's address -- daughter's address. And they stayed in touch.

IRENE MEDLEY: Mm-hmm.

STONEY: So you're absolutely right.

HELFAND: She lives outside Montgomery.

IRENE MEDLEY: Mm-hmm.

L.T. MEDLEY: Oh, that happened before the year I was even born.

IRENE MEDLEY: I believe his wife had passed away, hadn't she? L.T., I believe Homer Welch's wife was Aldine Richardson's sister.

L.T. MEDLEY: I think so. (inaudible) sister (inaudible).

IRENE MEDLEY: I can't right now -- I can't remember.

STONEY: Did you ever take part in any other thing about unions?

IRENE MEDLEY: Other than we went to that one meeting I was telling you about.

L.T. MEDLEY: I never did join no union either.

STONEY: Did you know that this was happening all over the country?

L.T. MEDLEY: Well, at the time -- that's what little I heard -- everybody was trying to do something to get better -- to live. They was a mess.

STONEY: Did you ever see Roosevelt?

L.T. MEDLEY: I never was close to him.

STONEY: Do you remember hearing his Fireside Chats?

L.T. MEDLEY: I believe I went over to Warm Springs one time when he was over there but I didn't get close to him. No, he -- he's from Union Springs over there (inaudible).

IRENE MEDLEY: Y'all been down there.

L.T. MEDLEY: I've been pretty close but not close enough to talk to him -- 00:22:00speak to him.

STONEY: Do you remember listening to him on the radio?

L.T. MEDLEY: Oh, yeah.

STONEY: Talk about that.

L.T. MEDLEY: I think he made a speech in Warm Springs one time and I happened to be over that way. It was a bunch of people was over there.

IRENE MEDLEY: Not too much we can remember about Fireside Chats. At that time they didn't have TVs, you know.

STONEY: Did you have a radio?

IRENE MEDLEY: Yes.

L.T. MEDLEY: Well, we had a battery radio. The second TV and two TVs come over there (inaudible) screen was just about like that. And he got one and I got one. People used to gather right in -- gather in here all the time to watch that 00:23:00little bitty television. First tv to ever come to Hoganville.

STONEY: What about radio?

L.T. MEDLEY: (inaudible) television.

STONEY: Do you remember when the first radio came in?

L.T. MEDLEY: Yeah, we had an old battery radio and had to give it up after years. Sometimes you couldn't hear anything.

IRENE MEDLEY: I did have a receipt from when my daddy paid for the radio. I believe it's in yonder when I got that picture a while ago. It was a dollar and a half a week.

STONEY: Do you have any of your old pay envelopes?

L.T. MEDLEY: I don't think I have.

IRENE MEDLEY: No.

L.T. MEDLEY: Wasn't none. They put it in an envelope --

IRENE MEDLEY: That's what he was talking about.

L.T. MEDLEY: Bills and silver. It was in bills. No, I ain't got any.

STONEY: They never had a company store here, did they?

IRENE MEDLEY: They had a company store at Sergeant's. Had you all been to Sergeants?

L.T. MEDLEY: I think they had one up there -- the other place we went to work at, too.

IRENE MEDLEY: Banning?

L.T. MEDLEY: Banning. They even had bookoos of money in Banning. They made your own money and you spent it in another town. We went up there and went to work up there a long time. Used to be a straight down (inaudible) that mill run with water -- water wheel turned it.

STONEY: So, why did you move around so much?

L.T. MEDLEY: Trying to get some work. Trying to get something to do.

STONEY: There was a short time here then?

L.T. MEDLEY: Short time everywhere.

IRENE MEDLEY: The mills was maybe one or two days a week and if they were 00:25:00running any better any place else you would try to get there.

L.T. MEDLEY: In a way it was bad but it wasn't in a way. You could buy gas for a dime a gallon. Some places it was cheaper than that. Now look at it.

STONEY: When did you get your first car?

L.T. MEDLEY: Don't remember. I just about had one ever since I was big enough to drive one. Old T-model. Yes, T-model. Them things was kicky -- break your arms. You had to crank it with a crank in the front and zoom -- that thing would fly like that. Papa taught me how to crank it with my foot. He get up there and stand up and hit the pedal. He would crank the gas right. Hit it and let his foot slide off of it. People had got broke legs (inaudible). Broke arms, too, on those cranks on T-models. I know Papa would get out there a lot of times and 00:26:00jack up the back wheel ready to turn, put it in gear and crank it with a back wheel. Turn the back wheel to keep from getting kicked.

STONEY: What about those three pedals?

L.T. MEDLEY: That's what I am talking about. (inaudible) Put some more points up there. (inaudible) on the wheel. I left (inaudible) in one of them things (inaudible) come out of that thing. Little v-shaped things and fasten them things (inaudible) You ever fired one of them?