Neil Family Interview 1

CAROL NEIL:…cold.

JOE NEIL: Yeah. I can remember in the winter time, we went to the fair and I won a goldfish in a bowl. I brought him home and set him next to my bed. Next morning, I woke up and he was frozen solid -- the whole glass and all was -- that's how cold it was in the house next to, uh -- next to the fire. I mean, we had a fire in the house, but still -- that's how cold it was.

CAROL NEIL: It got so cold here one time, but I had to go out in the morning -- you know, bright daylight -- and milk --

GEORGE STONEY: Wait -- we gotta do that again.

BUDD NEIL: OK.

GEORGE STONEY: Come in, [Carl?]. I want you all to greet --

F1: Don't you say, hey -- just take -- take your food.

JOE NEIL: Take your food and come in.

SCOTT NEIL: I brought that picture -- I wanted Granny to see it.

GEORGE STONEY: When he comes in, I want you back -- act like that you didn't know he's coming in.

JOE NEIL: Oh, OK.

CAROL NEIL: I didn't know if we was supposed to or not. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: Tell that same story?

JAMIE STONEY: Tell that story where you met your wife.

GEORGE STONEY: OK -- that -- yeah --

JOE NEIL: Oh, lord. Well, she comes from the farm up here to visit a friend, and we had such good times -- everybody here -- you know -- I mean, she just enjoyed it so much here, she wanted to back every weekend -- and that's how I met her, you know? And, uh, so -- that's how I --

CAROL NEIL: Well tell them how (inaudible) -- what you thought of me when you saw me first -- hey, Scott. How are you?

SCOTT NEIL: Hi. How are y'all?

CAROL NEIL: We had just the tea.

SCOTT NEIL: Well, I don't want any tea. I want some pizza. And I brought my own Coke.

JOE: Tell him about what?

CAROL: 'Bout where you met me.

JOE: I met you here.

CAROL: I know. Then -- and then at NYF --

JOE: Oh, at NYF. We had NYF, but -- I don't know where other mill companies furnishes much stuff of other people is -- is -- you know they did here -- there wasn't nothing you wanted from 'em -- you know, anything you wanted they supplied it. I don't know how -- I know my daddy never wanted me to work in the mill. He got a (inaudible) for me ever working in the mill, so, uh --

BUDD NEIL: I didn't want you to make the little wages I did. I know how is when you don't draw but just a few dollars a week and got a family to support.

JOE NEIL: So when I was young, I went and worked for Coca Cola. It pleased Daddy either way, you know? And that was one reason I did -- because it pleased Daddy so much. You know, he was so proud of me working for a Coca Cola. So --

BUDD NEIL: When I --

EDNA NEIL: That's when he got into, uh --

BUDD NEIL: Refrigeration business.

EDNA NEIL: Refrigeration business -- and he finally went into business for himself, so he does all right.

BUDD NEIL: When I was just a kid here, we didn't have all of them opportunities. The way we made a nickel or dime, we'd go to the woods and cut the brush brooms-- we'd cut dogwood -- young dogwood down -- we'd make brush brooms -- we'd tote 'em 'bout a mile to 'em -- come back and sell 'em to 'em for about a dime. And we'd pick blackberries, you know -- we'd sell 'em for fifteen cents a gallon.

SCOTT NEIL: What did you -- why -- well, I mean -- the brush brooms -- what did you do with 'em?

BUDD NEIL: Swept the yard. People would let the grass grow in the yards --

JOE NEIL: We didn't have a lawn mower, so there was no way to cut grass. You had to dig up the grass in the yard.

BUDD NEIL: If it had come up, they'd dig it up and sweep it. They kept it swept clean as a pin, all the time.

JOE NEIL: Some of the women see a grass coming up in the yard -- is like a snake out in the yard -- they'd run out there with a hoe and dig it up --

BUDD NEIL: They'd did it up -- there wasn't nothing too --

JOE NEIL: [Brady?] get away from him.

EDNA NEIL: And sometimes they'd [ring broom sage?] and make brooms to sweep the floors with.

JOE NEIL: We used to sell fish. Set out rabbit boxes and catch rabbits and sell 'em. We'd sell anything. You know, blackberries, foxes, brush brooms, and (inaudible) --

EDNA NEIL: Frog legs.

JOE NEIL: Yeah. Just anything we could --

GEORGE STONEY: [You know it?]

EDNA NEIL: Just gotta be eating the frog legs --

BUDD NEIL: Joe was talking about Mr. [Booey?], you know? Mr. Booey said one day that he wanted a blackberry pie -- you know, people used to make pie with blackberries -- he said -- he goes to me, them blackberries down in the pasture -- he got his gun, went down there -- said they come over him and he shot -- I reckon he must've shot too low -- that I didn't kill a bird -- but I picked 00:04:00up a basket full of [feet?]. (laughter)

EDNA NEIL: Basket full of feet...

JOE NEIL: That man -- he was -- he was Will Rogers of East Newnan.

BUDD NEIL: They bought him a gallon -- look at -- they come in one night -- he was pretty [pulled?] when they come in -- they didn't want nobody to see it -- if you -- anybody caught you with liquor, you was gone -- you had to leave. And he went around behind his house, and crawled all the way under the house, and crawled out in the front yard, and set his liquor out in the front yard.

JOE NEIL: Behind a brick pillar.

BUDD NEIL: Yeah -- behind a pillar. And said, uh, he crawled back under the house, all the way back to the back -- and got up and went in the house, you know? Next morning, he got up and set out in the porch -- when the sun come up -- he looked down at there and sat that gallon of liquor right in the front yard. (laughter)

SCOTT NEIL: He didn't hide it, did he?

BUDD NEIL: No, he did not.

JOE NEIL: Sitting out in the front yard --

EDNA NEIL: He hid it too well -- he crawled all the way out of that, instead of stopping far away and hiding it --

JOE NEIL: You know, that, uh -- if he was doing anything wrong, they made you move. And then you'd lose your job.

BUDD NEIL: Yeah, they'd fire you.

JOE NEIL: But, now what did he do that time they made him move?

BUDD NEIL: They fired him. And he lived on one side of the street, and they fired him -- and he knew the rule. If they fire you, you had to move off of the [village?]. When you moved off the village, you'd come back and they'd put you back to work. But you had to leave the village. Well, they fired him and one day the house come empty -- right across the street in front of him, you know -- well, he and his wife moved over there. And he went in the mill the next day and told Mr. Woods -- he said, well, we moved. He said, all right. You can bring all your family over here and go back to work. And he went back to work. And he said -- he forgot to ask him -- he went back about a day or two -- he said, Walt, I forgot to ask you, where did you move this time? He said, across the street. He got tickled -- superintendent got tickled -- he said, 00:06:00well, you know the rules. Walt said, this time I'm gonna let you by with it. Said, you know better than that, but I'm gonna let you by with it this time.

GEORGE STONEY: How did you feel when you knew that you were so under the thumb of a person like Mr. Woods?

BUDD NEIL: You just kinda -- you just kind of -- like a -- being washed with the (inaudible) -- he'd walk the street at night, you know -- he'd walk the street and he kept on (inaudible) all the time.

EDNA NEIL: It wasn't bad, though. It was like your mother and daddy, you know?

BUDD NEIL: He just get on you -- he'd tell you --

EDNA NEIL: He'd get after you if you misbehaved anything.

SCOTT NEIL: He made the people keep the places up -- take care of 'em -- (inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

JOE NEIL: Everybody kept things clean and neat and in order, you know? Your house was in order.

BUDD NEIL: I remember one night, we had a kerosene ball. I recon y'all have seen a kerosene ball. You'd make a ball out of strings -- cotton strings -- then you soak it in kerosene a day or two, then you'd stick a match to it at night -- then you'd get out there and play pitch with it. You'd throw it up in the air, and man, it was pretty -- that ball of fire -- and we was playing 00:07:00one night, and somebody walked up and stomped it out. He just said, now, kid, that ain't right to be playing out here with that kerosene ball -- said, you might burn one of these houses up. They didn't have a firetruck here then. You had to call the city, and the city would charge you when they come out here. They come out here, they charge you.

GEORGE STONEY: I understand that people -- like, if somebody got in the family way -- that they made people move. Could you talk about that?

EDNA NEIL: I never did know that.

BUDD NEIL: I never did know that. No, sir.

EDNA NEIL: If that had been true, there wouldn't been near as many kids around here as there were.

JOE NEIL: I wouldn't have 200 brothers and sisters. (laughter)

EDNA NEIL: 'Cause I tell you what. When work got scarce, you know, like maybe they wasn't working but two or three days a week -- that's when people -- about nine months from then -- there'd be another crop of kids around.

BUDD NEIL: (inaudible) wasn't paying for that.

EDNA NEIL: Now, uh, I think that when times were short -- they called it -- when 00:08:00they didn't have a lot of orders, and they were laying off hands -- and they let the head of house work. Or if a widow woman with a family -- they'd let her work. And I think a lot of young people had to slip around and get married, and keep it a secret -- if they wanted to work. You know, if the woman wanted to work, too.

JOE NEIL: They just gave them (inaudible) one wants the job -- then the family --

EDNA NEIL: The head of the household.

BUDD NEIL: The head of house -- they let you work. If they could, they'd put out work for you.

EDNA NEIL: I guess if a unmarried person -- you know, was in a family way -- they're probably make 'em move (inaudible; overlapping dialogue) -- just about -- you know -- just about everybody felt like it -- you know -- that if you got fired, it was kind of a disgrace 'cause they knew you'd done something bad. Or something you shouldn't have -- either conduct-wise, or job-wise.

GEORGE STONEY: Well, now -- when -- back in 1934, when there was the strike, we know that they put a whole bunch of people out. Will you -- could you talk about that?

BUDD NEIL: Well, you know, they let lots of 'em go -- that was working to organize a union. They didn't want a union. And lots of 'em was the head of it -- if they worked over here, they let 'em go.

EDNA NEIL: They just -- they just didn't -- you know, businesses down south especially -- I don't know how -- well, I don't guess they did up north, either -- want organized labor to begin with -- and, um, they didn't understand all 'bout what it was about and what it was for.

JOE NEIL: And you needed the job too bad to open your mouth up, uh, to ever -- you know -- I mean --

EDNA NEIL: Well, you didn't really have -- I mean, we didn't have --

JOE NEIL: You didn't have a choice. I mean, you had to do what you were told or -- I mean, what else you gonna do? I mean, you know --

BUDD NEIL: There wasn't much you could do.

JOE NEIL: No. I mean, you couldn't farm because of --

EDNA NEIL: And we didn't realize that they strike was nation-wide, we just thought it was this little group over here against the owners.

BUDD NEIL: I'll tell you another thing. You know, people then would cut wood all day -- or they'd plow all day -- for 50 cents, and that -- you know, that's how bad up people was. And I just though, I wish I could get somebody to cut my grass for two or three dollars -- beats 50 cents a day -- and people worked like that. And this man was telling me the other day that he was painting a house -- him and another fella was painting a house up town -- and said that he was driving his car up there, and they'd paint 'til dinner, then they'd come home and eat lunch -- and then they'd go back. That's when they quit -- they'd come back again every 'bout four trips up there and back -- said he told the man -- he said, I'm not making any money. Said, there ain't no way I can just keep doing this. He said, well making 15 cents an hour -- painting, you know -- he said, well, how 'bout raisin' you up to 00:11:0020 cents an hour. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: Can you remember having to walk across town to get groceries, and there used to be --

BUDD NEIL: Yeah. Yes, sir.

JOE NEIL: And we took all them groceries back home, and that was --

EDNA NEIL: I remember one time --

JOE NEIL: You don't remember all that. Where was you that time? You was --

EDNA NEIL: I remember one time when Budd and me first married, and he would -- he was a big fan of the movies. And we had a quarter -- that's between us -- and that what it cost to get in the show. He told me one day, there's a good movie on tonight. He said, I think I'll go to the show tonight. And I said, well, what about me? He said, well we don't have but one quarter. I said, OK, go ahead. You tell me about it. So, he walked to town -- walked part of the way to town -- and a man -- he owned the village -- had a car -- and he run a taxi -- and that man -- he got 'bout half way to town, and the man stopped and ask him if he wanted a ride, and he said yes, and he got in the car with him 00:12:00and got up there. And he said, where you want out at? He said, over here by the show. So he got out and just for manners, he said, how much do I owe you? The man said, oh, about a quarter, I guess. So Bud handed him his quarter and turned around and walked back home. (laughter) He didn't get to see the movie.

GEORGE STONEY: You said you -- that you -- that you felt the strike was only right here -- local -- uh, do you mean that you didn't read the papers? Or what?

BUDD NEIL: We couldn't take the paper then. We didn't take the paper to the mill.

EDNA NEIL: We could have taken it if we had paid -- you know -- we -- lot of people didn't have money. It was more than our budget would stand --

JOE NEIL: That's what it amounts to -- financial. Like I said, they didn't have any kind of -- you know -- and, uh, the radio -- they take -- there's so much static on the radio, you couldn't hear it. I mean, I could never, uh -- her daddy was the world's worst about turning the dial -- wa-wa-wa-wa -- he'd do that for hours, wouldn't he? I mean, he just -- you know --

EDNA NEIL: He'd pick -- he kinda -- one time too many, he picked up Orson Welles' "Invasion of the World" one time when I was little -- and -- my brother and I both got sick to our stomachs -- were just real sick -- but I'd never seen my daddy afraid of anything -- and my daddy was my hero -- and I never seen him afraid of anything. And that was so realistic that he was sitting there, listening to the radio and he said, "You know that might be the end to this old world." And when he said that, I just got so sick to my stomach, I couldn't stand it no more. I had to get up and leave.

BUDD NEIL: You know you talk about the papers. I used to be a paperboy here -- one time when I just a little, bitty kid -- and the way we got the papers -- the 6:00 train from Atlanta came down and it came through East Newnan, and instead -- they didn't stop. They just throw the papers off -- they kicked 'em off over at the cross -- used to be a depot over there -- and they just would kick 00:14:00the papers off and then the papers'd kick the ground sometimes and they'd wind up -- they'd be nothing but just three -- and, you know 'bout -- and it would tear 'em up so.

GEORGE STONEY: Uh, Edna?

EDNA NEIL: Yes?

GEORGE STONEY: You know something about the strike now. Could you tell these young people about it?

EDNA NEIL: Well, they were going to organize the millhand workers. And, um, they -- they would go around and talk to 'em about it and try to get 'em to join. And I think one thing kept 'em from joining, they knew they'd have to pay union dues. And they felt like union dues, coming outta their small wages, would be too much -- outta that budget. And another thing, they knew that if the union didn't win, they would lose their jobs. And so a lot of people, that might otherwise have joined, didn't.

BUDD NEIL: It wasn't like going to town and getting another job, was it? I mean --

EDNA NEIL: No. Jobs were scarce.

JOE NEIL: Jobs -- couldn't be bought, could they?

CAROL NEIL: Did y'all ever have to vote on it?

EDNA NEIL: They didn't the first time.

BUDD NEIL: They didn't the first time. They just locked us out.

EDNA NEIL: It never came to a vote the first time. But the second time -- now, I wasn't working the first time -- I -- and -- but I think I was the second time. And people voted it down. But I still think it was because they didn't understand it. Because I worked under a union -- after I left up here -- and it meant a lot to me. If I had a problem, I'd help the union steward it and tell him and -- you know, get it straightened out. But, uh -- we just didn't -- it wasn't explained to us well.

CAROL NEIL: You ain't talking 'bout the same union, either.

BUDD NEIL: No, this didn't even have a name. They -- they didn't -- it wasn't -- it wasn't no organization. You know, like -- (inaudible; overlapping) or what you call it. It wasn't nothing like that. It just --

EDNA NEIL: It did. You just didn't know it. Because it was nation-wide, wasn't it? What was the name of it?

GEORGE STONEY: United Textile Workers

JOE NEIL: Yeah.

EDNA NEIL: Uh-huh.

GEORGE STONEY: Yep.

EDNA NEIL: UTW.

BUDD NEIL: Well, this one didn't have a name -- I don't think -- over here -- but the first one now -- the second one did, I think -- but the first one didn't.

EDNA NEIL: See, if they didn't even give you the name, you didn't feel like it would amount to much. And he says he don't remember it having a name, and I was too young at that time to remember everything. (inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

CAROL NEIL: Really, everybody probably -- really, everybody probably -- probably scared 'em to death because, oh, if the union come down, we all laid outta this job.

JOE NEIL: It'd be like seven tickets to the moon, then. I mean, people didn't understand what they was -- nothing about it -- it was just something' --

CAROL NEIL: Scared 'em to death.

EDNA NEIL: Quite a few people here took the daily paper. We took the daily paper. But I don't remember reading about it being nationwide. Course I probably didn't pay a lotta attention to anything 'cept the funny papers back in those days. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: You thought it just something' straight up around here. You didn't know it was, uh --

EDNA NEIL: Yeah.

BUDD NEIL: I don't think the job was the biggest reason people wouldn't join it. Was -- that was one thing, but another thing, you had to move. And you couldn't move if you didn't have nowhere to go. Wasn't no way you could move.

JOE NEIL: Where was you going? You was stuck there.

SCOTT NEIL: It sounds like -- like a labor camp, or something. The way you make it sound.

JOE NEIL: It was. I mean, it wasn't --

SCOTT NEIL: It was -- it was like the mill owned you and this --

JOE NEIL: The mill did own you. And the kids are scared -- that was -- it was like the [booga bear?] to the kids -- the mill company -- don't do that mill company, it gets you.

SCOTT NEIL: That's because that's what everybody -- that's what they always told you. (inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

JOE NEIL: Yeah, you had to be strong because the mill company's get you. And that's the way we felt, you know? It was like the booga bear.

EDNA NEIL: Right there -- that was like a mill camp.

JOE NEIL: We were -- in a -- in a -- in a way, we was in a camp.

EDNA NEIL: But still, they was so good to you, 'til -- you didn't resent it.

JOE NEIL: No. I tell you, I feel sorry, Scotty -- for people that wasn't raised like we were. You know, they don't know what lives are about. We had a ball.

BUDD NEIL: They didn't have a company store here, or nothing -- but I did know a mill right close by that did have a company store, and I know some people that worked out there --

JOE NEIL: That was wrong.

BUDD NEIL: -- 30 years and never drawed a paycheck -- never drawed a paycheck. They owe it all to the --

CAROL NEIL: Why?

JOE NEIL: What they would do, [Carol?] -- they -- I know a guy, he would go up and charge something' at the store and sell it at the mill -- to somebody that needed it -- and get that money -- and he always -- he never drawed a paycheck.

BUDD NEIL: Lots of him never did draw a paycheck. They'd owe it to the store. They'd go get anything you wanted, but --

JOE NEIL: You could get what you wanted. It was so easy to go in there and say -- get it --

GEORGE STONEY: Bought clothes and everything?

JOE NEIL: Anything you needed with the mill company --

EDNA NEIL: They'd just take the checks --

JOE NEIL: You just didn't draw a check.

EDNA NEIL: The company paid it to the store. I mean -- well, it was --

JOE NEIL: It took -- (inaudible; over lapping dialogue) -- and your check was applied to it every week, and you didn't never had no money. Never had no money. You didn't even draw a check. Paid in cash money, but you didn't draw a check.

BUDD NEIL: You didn't draw a check.

JOE NEIL: 'Cause you owe for overalls, and your bread, and your milk -- and whatever -- you didn't ever draw -- draw a check. And you had to settle up before you left. And you didn't have no chance to leave 'em, 'cause you couldn't settle nothing.

BUDD NEIL: Joe was talking 'bout, you know that -- that they sell that stuff to people -- you know, I know a man that -- this ain't no joke -- this is -- may sound like a joke -- he seen a man one time with a sack of flour on his 00:19:00back, and he said, look over here at that man. He got a sack of flour on his back -- I bet he hasn't got a drop of liquor in the house. (laughter) That's what he said.

JOE NEIL: Daddy, tell him -- tell him how much -- what you all had when you moved from the country. You told me that a lotta times.

BUDD NEIL: Well, when we moved up here from the country, we had to by enough to do us a year. Now, you wouldn't do that -- now that'd be --

EDNA NEIL: That was in the country.

BUDD NEIL: This is was the country. We moved up -- I don't know what some of y'all familiar with a bale of flour or not -- but a bale of flour is four, 48-pound -- some of 'em call 'em 50-pound sacks of flour. When we moved here, we had 16 50-pound sacks of flour at one time. They were stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Sixteen 50-pounds of flour.

SCOTT NEIL: How'd you keep the bugs outta that?

BUDD NEIL: There wasn't no bugs to get in them then. You could do that. But now --

JOE NEIL: Probably got cold enough in to kill everything (inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

SCOTT NEIL: He had to have it all the way through, um, the summer, too. They had enough for year.

BUDD NEIL: We didn't have no problem with bugs, because we had -- we kept 'em -- all year 'round --

JOE NEIL: One thing had cotton poison, too --

BUDD NEIL: The other had cotton poison --

JOE NEIL: Yeah, you could smell -- that's all you could smell in there was cotton poison.

BUDD NEIL: I don't know how the people survived that cotton poison. You could ride through the country, and you couldn't get your breath.

JOE NEIL: You couldn't get your breath down there. When we lived Scott, -- you could not breathe down in there --

EDNA NEIL: What was that? [Chlorodyne?] Is that what they called it?

JOE NEIL: I don't know what it was --

BUDD NEIL: We called it -- it's arsenic, is what they said.

EDNA NEIL: Arsenic.

(inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

JOE: You couldn't breathe for it. You couldn't.

BUDD NEIL: There wasn't no mosquitos 'cause they couldn't survive it.

JOE NEIL: It wasn't nothing. 'Cause, I mean, it would kill whatever. It'd kill you if you stayed in it long enough. But, I mean, everything smelled like cotton poisoning.

BUDD NEIL: I seen my daddy get up before daylight -- and just about daylight -- and there'd be a big dew, and he had a -- a -- one of them cotton sprayers that fit around his neck -- and it had the handle -- and he'd turn them handles and walk down the road -- take two roads at one time -- and just blowing it all behind him. I don't know how they -- they done it. I don't believe I could stand it.

JOE NEIL: I remember we had a -- we had a, uh, wood stove. And that was our job. I don't know. I don't think you ever had no job around here. But when I was, we'd fill up the wood box

EDNA NEIL: We washed dishes --

JOE NEIL: Before I went to bed, I had to -- I had to -- I had to fill up the wood box, and bring in three buckets of coal. And that was a ritual that I had to go through every night. And if my daddy got up the next morning and there wasn't no wood in that box, I --

EDNA NEIL: You got up, too, didn't you?

JOE NEIL: I got up early. 'Cause I got -- you know -- but anyway -- we would, uh -- we had no reservoir beside the stove, and we would dip our water out, and put it in the tub -- me and pop would sit in here and take a bath, uh, Saturday -- took a bath on Saturday -- well, you took a sponge bath during the week, but you took a good bath Saturday.

BUDD NEIL: We didn't have no running hot water.

JOE NEIL: Nuh-uh, you didn't. You just dipped it outta that reservoir and put in a wash cloth --

BUDD NEIL: We had a solar clothes line

JOE NEIL: And in the summer time, we'd set water out in the yard --

EDNA NEIL: Solar clothes drier.

JOE NEIL: You know -- and, uh, warm it.

SCOTT NEIL: Well, you did all the cooking, didn't you? Down there --

BUDD NEIL: When we lived in the country, you know -- lots of Sunday mornings -- sometimes we'd have company come spend the night. My mother'd get up -- by daylight, she'd get up and she'd go out in the yard and feed the chickens. She'd catch three or four big fries, you know -- and kill 'em and we'd have chicken and gravy and coffee for breakfast. There wasn't no such thing as tea back in them days. You had to drink coffee. And people won't eat a yard chicken now. Said, no they wouldn't eat a yard chicken. We was raised --

SCOTT NEIL: There ain't enough meet on 'em for --

BUDD NEIL: We didn't know --

SCOTT NEIL: There ain't no meat on 'em.

BUDD NEIL: There was then. My mom kept 'em fat.

JOE NEIL: Well, you know, I can remember pop coming home and -- me and this guy across the street -- my best friend, uh -- you know, we said, we ain't working at no mill over there. I went and come home and -- I didn't quit -- I was like my daddy -- I wasn't coming home fussing about the boss every night, you know? And I didn't quit. And, you know, that's the way we felt about it. And we didn't want to work in the mill. And my daddy wouldn't of died a natural death if I hadn't worked in the mill.

BUDD NEIL: Some of them bosses over there was good -- some of 'em wasn't -- and you do something that they didn't like, now they just had, uh -- if they had a rife against you, they'd tell you right quick. There's a barefooted boy down at the gate, wanting your job right then. And, you know, some of 'em was real rough on you. And them was local people. I mean, they was local people. They was --

JOE NEIL: They was in the same boat we were --

BUDD NEIL: Yeah, they was in the same boat we was in, but they'd -- they was rough on 'em --

JOE NEIL: They felt like they was a little bit above because they had that little bossing job -- and, uh, they made it hard on you if they could. Well, it wasn't, uh -- didn't you tell me you was a first and -- around -- that you know of it -- that run (inaudible) --

EDNA NEIL: Orlon?

BUDD NEIL: Orlon.

EDNA NEIL: The man from DuPont came down and -- when it got to my machine and he started up -- they started it up, and where they mixed -- and you know, all through the card room and everything -- and when it got to my job, I ran automatic coolers -- and I asked him, what was that? He brought so much down there and then told me this was a new product that, uh, DuPont was experimenting with, and he wanted me to run it for the weave shop. And I said, what is it? 00:24:00And he said it was supposed to have the texture of wool and the strength of nylon. And it must've been successful, 'cause you should -- could buy a lot of pretty Orlon sweaters and things -- a year or so later --

JOE NEIL: Do you think that's what put the root of the company outta business? Was Orlon nylon --

EDNA NEIL: Synthetics.

JOE NEIL: -- synthetics.

EDNA NEIL: Well, no, because they run, uh, synthetics on the same machine that they run, uh, cotton on. I run some stuff one time -- uh, it was a strand of nylon and a strand of 14-carat gold. And what it was supposed to do, it was supposed to keep the static outta the, uh, nylon seat cushions for the luxury cars. 'Cause you'd slide across 'em and you'd get a sting, you know? And that gold -- that metal -- was supposed to keep 'em from -- that static 00:25:00electricity down.

GEORGE STONEY: Now I suggest we get --