Opal McMichael Interview 2



JAMIE STONEY AND GEORGE STONEY: (inaudible)

JAMIE STONEY: Rolling.

GEORGE STONEY: Okay, just tell us about, about how much you made, how long you worked, and what the pace of the work, how that all changed.

OPAL MCMICHAEL: The first week that I worked in the mill, I worked 55 hours and I drew $6.66. And I thought that was the most money I had ever seen in my life. I took that $6.65 and I had a ball with what my daddy didn't get, I gave him part of it. But uh, we went to work, I believe it was at six in the morning and we got at 15 till six. We were off an hour for lunch. We could -- they would let us, 45 minutes for lunch. They would let us go home for lunch. And we'd come back, and we had all kind of fun. We could -- it was kindly leisurely like when I first went to work, they -- you had to, they wanted you to stay on your job of course, but we did -- being kids like, we played around more than we should 00:01:00have. And so, gradually I got up to, after I'd worked a few weeks, I got up to $11.55. Now when I made $11.55, honey that was some money. I could just but anything I wanted to then, I thought. And uh -- so I guess it was for maybe two or three years that that's what I drew, $11.55. But after a while things changed and they expected a little more out of you. And then too, the personnel was different. And they started the other kind of winders that some others had to get on the other kind of winders and run them. They had [Foster?] winders and then another kind of winder that I wasn't accustomed to very much, but I didn't run them some. And I can't remember the name of those. But anyway, we'd work on those for a while, and we would -- they had us work by check. And what I mean by working by check, they would fill the boxes full of yarn, they had boxes, oh 00:02:00I guess about that large, about that wide, and about that deep. And every time they'd fill one of those we would get, they'd give us a check. And you'd get so much a check. They'd pay us by check then. And we finally got up to 15, 16, 17, $20, and things like that. And then when President Roosevelt came into office, you know when he'd done all the good deeds that he did, well things got better. Not only did they get better with the money part, with the wages, but also the work, that we had different. We was running rayon, and nylon, and things like that. And our wages were increased again. But I worked for 23 years and I never made $60 a week in my life in that mill. But it was fun. If I had it to go over again I would still say that it was a good life in a way. Because life's what 00:03:00you make it. And we enjoyed it. There was hard times and bad times. But you know, what you don't have, you never miss. And everybody there had the same thing. We were all just alike. There was no rich, no poor, we was all the same thing, we were all poor and we didn't know it, we just had a lot of fun with it.

GEORGE STONEY: What was the difference between your house in the country and your house in the mill village?

MCMICHAEL: We had a -- at one time we owned a real nice home just outside of Carrollton. We had a -- I guess it was about a six-room house, and if you've ever been on Alabama Street I think there's a [Bonnell?] place there now. And our land went from that street back to the river. My daddy had a lot of land, a lot of animals and all like that. And we had a real nice home. But then later on we got, he got to where we would -- he sold that place, he bought another place, and I don't know how many times he went through that, he bought several and he'd go from one to the other. And finally he wound up where he would just -- he 00:04:00didn't buy another house. He and an uncle of mine that owned a lot of land, they would work -- I think they called it working on halves. And so our houses were always fairly decent in the country, and they were livable and we didn't know but what they were mansions, because living out in the country you didn't see everything you seen was just about just alike, you know. But when we moved to the mill village we had electric lights and running water and I thought that was heaven on earth. That was the happiest I ever was when I didn't have to go dip -- draw a bucket of water out of the well. And we could just turn on that faucet and I just thought we were rich. I just knew we were rich! It took me a long time to think that we wasn't half as well off as I thought we were. But it was fun. And we had the little lights that just hung down from the ceiling. And we had those until after President Roosevelt came in. And then they changed things again, you know, and we had more modernization and they put, they painted the 00:05:00houses real nice. And my husband and me would always keep our (inaudible) inside when we lived on a mill village, we always kept ours just like it belonged to us. We would always keep the walls painted and keep the yards up because I don't like to live where the yard is not nice and the house is not clean. And so, I couldn't tell too much difference. I don't guess -- I guess if I had to say -- but I remember one time when we lived in the country, we didn't have any screen doors. And we'd be picking cotton and we'd come home for dinner every day and my mother'd always have, you know when you're raised in the country you have the best food in the world. She'd have all kind of vegetables and meats, and I never will forget, it was the -- oh, they was the most flies that year. We didn't have any screens. But you know what I'd do when I ate my lunch? I crawled up under bed where it was good and dark, where the flies couldn't get to me, and I had the best time under there, sleeping for one hour till I had to go back to the field.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, with all of this, could you talk about the 1934 strike? Do you have any idea why it took place?

MCMICHAEL: Well I -- I can remember that it was kindly secretive at first, you know they was getting a union, wanted to get -- to have a union. And so, as I told you before it caused some confusion because some people were for the union and some people was not for the union. It caused a little bit of confusion but in that -- you know, the, the overseers in the mill, I don't think -- as well as I remember, they weren't allowed to vote. But you could tell -- they'd talk, go around talking to people and we were always afraid to -- you hated to tell somebody you was for the union, and you hated to tell somebody that you was against it. Because you'd make an enemy either way. And my father was all -- he wasn't for it at all, and naturally we weren't. But our neighbors were, and I remember that it played on that way, I don't remember exactly how long. But I can, I can remember seeing, reading in the paper and hearing what was going on 00:07:00at the other mills, by the way Newnan Cotton Mills owned the mill we lived at and one here in town. And so we heard one day that the, finally they all got together, I don't know where the meet-- that final meeting took place. But I know they were marching, they were in cars, you know, and all kind of contraptions as well as I can remember. And so they came through down at East Newnan, and I remember that there were so many of them, and the people that, on -- that lived at East Newnan, on the village there, they would gather up down close to the road just to watch them. And they was, oh, was just hollering and ugly, it was ugly. I'm not going to say that it wasn't ugly, grown people a-hollering and acting that way. But nothing happened that in -- there wasn't anybody hurt or anything like that. And so that, then they closed to mill down as well as I remember they just closed the mill. And the ones that they called, some of the ones they called the strikers, well they got the place, there's an old pond down by the mill and they all had a stick, and they got down there and 00:08:00sit there that night. I can just remember that and I was frightened, I think all the young people were because we really didn't know what was going on too much. I was old enough to know, but I guess I just didn't have sense enough, I didn't understand it all. And so, I don't remember how many nights they stayed there, and I don't remember, I remember, don't remember ho-- where they marched, but I think they left there and went on to LaGrange. It was either LaGrange or Columbus, somewhere, they were going that way. And so I remember when they decided that they would open the mill up. I don't know how long that was, I think it was a few weeks. And we all met down at a bridge right below the mill. They got us all worried that everybody, of course I wasn't working then because I wsa expecting a baby and I wasn't working, but I was seeing what was going on like the rest of them was. So they all met down there below the mill. I guess everybody that had a job, just crowds of people. And I remember they, the 00:09:00overseer, superintendent and all of them was there. They talked to them, and they talked nice, they didn't fuss, they didn't say anything bad. But they just told them all that wanted to work, they could work, have a job if they'd go back to work then. But all that didn't go to work, they didn't have a job. And so I can remember one man in particular, and I won't call a name, but he was standing there, he was one of the big ones that was on strike too, but didn't nobody know much, know that he was, you know, he hadn't let it be known. But he had a stick in his hand, he was holding it there. And when they said that everybody that wants to go back to work can go back to work, and I can just see that stick now, just as it slid down out of his hand and hit the ground. So a lot of the people went back to work, and a lot of people didn't go back to work. Some of them left and went other places, had to find other kind of work. But after we got back to work it was all settled down, it wasn't any more confusion as far as I can remember, I don't think there was any confusion. The hurt feelings was over. 00:10:00It was just a thing that happened, just right then, and nobody held a grudge after that.

GEORGE STONEY: Was there any other attempt to have a union here that you recall?

MCMICHAEL: Not at that -- I don't recall at that mill, I know there have been in other places, I've heard of it. But I don't remember ever attempting that again. Not while Newnan Cotton Mill had it and I don't know about this last mill that they've had, you know. But uh, as far as I can remember, everything was you know back to normal. And it was a good place to work. It was a good place to work. We didn't make -- as I told you, we didn't make all that much money, but you know, we made enough to live on, and so we were happy.

GEORGE STONEY: Do you remember the National Guard being here?

MCMICHAEL: I don't remember seeing them, I remember hearing it, you know. But I didn't see them. So I couldn't tell much about that. I do remember that there 00:11:00was other people from other mills came through, you know. And I can remember that there was some trouble, I don't know where it happened. But you know, if we were talking the other day, somebody had to go to jail. And stay for two or three nights or something of the sort, I don't remember exactly how. But I just don't know too much about that because as I say I wasn't working, and I just seen what was going on right there, you know. And back then there wasn't many cars, there wasn't many moods [sic] of traveling, you didn't have many ways to go. And so we mostly just lived in East Newnan and Newnan, and we got ready to come to town, my mother and me would walk up the railroad and we'd come to town walking. And we would -- then you didn't go casual, you wore the best you had wherever you went. We would start to town, we would put on our old shoes but we would put our best shoes in a paper bag and when we got to the city limits, we'd put on our good shoes and we'd wear the best clothes that we had. And it wasn't 00:12:00casual like it is now, now you go like you're comfortable. But then you wore the best you had, even just to go to town and buy groceries. And the best you had wasn't much (laughter).

GEORGE STONEY: Did the strike and all that get into the churches that you recall?

MCMICHAEL: I don't think so, I don't remember if it did now. Then they were having, they just had one church down there, and we had a Methodist preacher and a Baptist. We had Baptist services one Sunday and Methodist the next. And I really never did -- I couldn't tell the difference, because you know, the services seemed just alike to me and I supported one just as much as I supported the other. And of course I joined the Baptist church. I guess it was because back in my family most all of them were Baptists. And I joined the Baptist church. But I didn't know any different until the company finally, they finally got that settled, see the company had owned the church. They had church at -- when I first moved there it was in the schoolhouse. There was a huge schoolhouse, beautiful building. I wish I had a picture of it I could show you. 00:13:00It was an old-time beautiful building with the big pillars and things like that, and it was the schoolhouse but they had church upstairs. And then the mill company built a church for them, and things changed and -- I mean got much better. There wasn't any quarrel or anything going on but the church was al-- usually full on Sunday. And we had prayer meeting on Wednesday night, and church on Sunday and Sunday night, so. Then back in the 19 and 60s, they built a Methodist church. And it's back beside of the cotton mill. And now they're two churches down there, so they're Baptist and a Methodist.

GEORGE STONEY: So, you -- the, the church was owned by the mill back then?

MCMICHAEL: Uh huh.

GEORGE STONEY: And did they take -- they take part in choosing the minister and all of that?

MCMICHAEL: I don't remember if they did, but usually we had the superintendent 00:14:00-- whoever was superintendent would be our Sunday school teacher. And now Mr. [D.M.?] Woods, you may have heard of him if you've lived -- he was, he was superintendent when I went there, and he was Sunday school teacher for a long time. And then the next one was a Mr. Tuttle, I believe. And then the next one was a Mr. Nixon. And so they were all -- they were good teachers, and they were nice to the people that lived there, we had no complaints. We all enjoyed the church. And as I say, we -- none of us knew the difference between the Methodists and the Baptists, because it wasn't a formal thing like they have now, you know, like the Methodists -- you know there are differences in the Methodists and Baptists. But it was all carried just alike.

GEORGE STONEY: Someday I'll get you to tell me what the difference is (laughter). I still can hardly figure it out.

MCMICHAEL: Well, I can tell you a little bit of difference. I joined the Methodist church about a month ago, after I got 79 years old (laughter). I thought all my life I was a Baptist.

JAMIE STONEY: I know the difference between a Methodist baptism and a Baptist baptism.

MCMICHAEL: Yeah, mm hmm?

JAMIE STONEY: It's that the Baptists hold the Methodists under a little bit longer.

MCMICHAEL: And you know, Methodists will sprinkle, they sprinkle too, they'll immerse you if you want to but if not, they sprinkle.

JAMIE STONEY: Like when you're doing lau-- ironing.

MCMICHAEL: Mm hmm, like sprinkling your clothes. But --

JAMIE STONEY: Remember the little soda bottle?

MCMICHAEL: Oh yes, I've sprinkled a lot of them.

GEORGE STONEY: I want you to tell, because we may not have had the camera in the right position, I wonder if you could tell that story about the bridge again. Because he was tight on you and we want to see your hands as you tell it. Would you mind?

MCMICHAEL: No!

GEORGE STONEY: Okay, well just start and tell about the bridge. Just start it "After the strike was over."

MCMICHAEL: After the s-- After the strike was over -- when they all met down at the bridge, well after the strike was over and they all came back and they had got word out to all the people that lived on the village that they were going to be there that day, and they would be there to speak to them, and they wanted everybody to come to the bridge. And so there was lots of people just crowded 00:16:00around, you know, most of -- well I guess everybody that worked there and the children too were there to see what was going on, of course. And so we all just listened to them and they talked and said -- one of the man got up and, men got up, the superintendent of the mill got up and he said "Now everybody that wants a job has a job if they come back to work. If you don't come back to work, you don't have a job." And so a lot of them wouldn't go back. A lot of them decided they just wouldn't take the job, but as I told you about the man that was holding the stick, you know, he'd been one of the -- he was kind of an influential person. And nobody knew until then that he was for the union. But he had that stick in his hand, I mean a lot of them knew that he had been over there with the men, you know, when they was guarding to keep you from going to the mill. But anyway he had this stick in his hand, and it just slid just like he had a snake up there and it just slid out and hit the ground. And so quite a few of them went back to work, and some of them never did go back to work.

GEORGE STONEY: How do you th-- how did that affect the community?

MCMICHAEL: I don't think it affected it at all, really. I think it probably helped it because they had been, for a while there was, people were afraid to relate to -- they didn't know how to relate to each other because they didn't want to hurt each other's feelings. Now we had a neighbor, I remember that. My daddy was strictly against the union, but he would not -- he wouldn't say anything about -- he wouldn't, he wouldn't discuss it. But this neighbor got peeved with my daddy and wouldn't have much to say to him about it, he could tell he didn't like it. But I think that after the strike was over, I think people got really closer. And so I don't know, I don't know why they didn't, you know, most of them were in other places -- northern places, they did have unions, didn't they? But it was hard until the northern people started coming in here and putting up business, it was hard to get anything settled in the South. In Newnan Georgia. Around Georgia.

GEORGE STONEY: Why do you think that's true?

MCMICHAEL: I know it's true.

GEORGE STONEY: Do you know why?

MCMICHAEL: Well, I don't know unless it was the wages. That's all I could ever figure out. I know they always got better wages in the North than the South, than they did in the South. And I never, I never could understand why, unless it was because they were organized.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you talk about the, yeah, the supervisors and the bosses and the, the owners. How did you know those people, did they come around the mill, did you see them?

MCMICHAEL: Yes. The owners was in and out, all, just every little bit. Sometimes they'd come every day and sometimes it would be a few days before you would see them. But they were nice to us, they always would talk to -- stop, maybe they'd see what we, the kind of yarn we were running, and ask us maybe a question about it. And they would always have on their nice suits and would be dressed real 00:19:00nice, you know. But the other bosses in the mill, they were kindly casual, just like the working people. And they were good to us, too. We did have one that people didn't like much, he was kindly fussy. But most all of them were real nice to us. They expected you to work but, I never will forget, we had one superintendent one time and, we would want to -- when we was going to get our 45 minutes for lunch, they would want us to stay at our work until the whistle blew. They would blow a whistle at, you know, for us to leave. And we'd be so ready to go home till we just couldn't wait for that whistle to blow. And I can remember, I got farther and farther and farther away from my winder. And the superintendent was standing pretty close by me and he said "Opal, you'll soon be out the door, won't you?" And so they were real nice to us, and sometimes we'd get peeved with them and sometimes that got peeved with us, and I know that I was, I would want to go somewhere and talk, and I'd go and my boss man would come over and say "Go back to your winder." And I'd go back, and you know I 00:20:00didn't have sense enough to stay there after I got all the ends up again, I'd take off somewhere else and he'd have to come tell me again. I know he got tired of telling me. But I wasn't the only one, you know, we were just still kids, you might say. So it was, it was interesting. It was fun. If people could go back and see all that went on, and if I could just tell it just like it was you'd have a ball.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell us about the amusements around?

MCMICHAEL: Well, the most amusements we had, the little medicine shows would come through. That was fun, oh that was fun, and the first time I'd seen a fight between two women was at a medicine show. Oh, we were all enjoying the show so well, and they were having, they'd had a little confusion between the children, I seen the commotion. And the people were gathered around, I didn't know what was going on. I got up pretty close by and they were down on the ground just rolling and tumbling like two dogs, pulling each other's hair and having a ball. And they fought it out for a good while. And the medicine show was about the 00:21:00only thing we had except we'd have parties, you know, that would be the young folks. We'd have candy pulling, or singings, or just parties where we'd get to walk with our boyfriend or girlfriend, you know, or take walks with them. That was the fun part of it. And that was about the only amusement we had, except they did have a movie in town. My daddy didn't ever believe in the movies, so he wouldn't hardly ever let us go to the movies, we didn't get to go very often. And once in a while we would slip off and go to a dance. But we had to slip off to go, you know. We could make like we was somewhere else, but we'd wind up at the dance sometimes. So it was fun, we -- that was about, that's about all we expected, I guess. We were just as happy as we could be, we didn't know any better. We didn't know there was nothing else in the world!

GEORGE STONEY: What about your education?

MCMICHAEL: My education? (Laughs) I got my education in Carroll County, at Oak Mountain School. And I didn't get much ed-- I didn't get to get much education. 00:22:00But after I got out of school, my husband used to tell me, he'd say, "Well you know you got more education in books than you ever got when you was going to school." Because I had to quit s-- I had to go to work in the mill, as I said my daddy lost everything he had, and I was the oldest child. And I had to go to work. So I had, didn't have a very good education, but I did study and I, I would get books and I've always liked to read. I still read all the time. And then when we got the little grocery store, I -- my mother used to sit up with me to teach me math, arithmetic. And she'd sit up till midnight with me, trying to teach me. And I did finally get along pretty good, but after we got in the grocery store, I got better education there than I'd ever gotten in the schools. I said "If you want to get a good education, get in a grocery store." You don't only get educated in, with learning, you get educated in people. Everybody ought to run a business for six months. That's the best thing you can do to find out 00:23:00what's in the world.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, you mentioned that you - -when you left the mill, that you had lint all over you. And we've heard some people say that they felt ashamed to be what they call a lint head. Could you talk about that?

MCMICHAEL: No, I wasn't ever ashamed. It didn't bother me a bit in the world because I've always been happy-go-lucky. And I would leave and I'd have it on my house shoe, if I wore a pair -- sometimes we'd wear a pair of house -- felt house shoes. And my house shoes might be covered with it, and when that whistle blew I'd take off home in house shoes, and with lint -- my hair'd be, I'd -- my hair was blond then, I was real blond. And just as full of cotton, and actually I didn't care if it was white as snow. And some of them would keep it combed out pretty well, but I never did worry about mine until I got home at night. It just didn't bother me at all, because I'd been raised in the country, I was used to dirt (laughs).

GEORGE STONEY: And -- uh, you never felt that it mattered -- difference between you and East Newnan and the people in Newnan?

MCMICHAEL: I will h-- I can't say we didn't, we did -- but the majority -- most of the people in Newnan were from the old mill too, you know. They were-- the Newnan didn't consist of, you know Newnan was always known as the richest little town. And there were quite a few rich people here then, and you did feel kindly inferior when you were around those, but the most people that we would see would be the people that were just like us, because the old mill you know was right here in the city limits. And they had the high school here, and the ones that lived up here could go to all through school, and go to the high school. Of course those in East Newnan, quite a few of them, finished in -- they came to Newnan after all for, you know, after so many years. But we did feel a little inferior. In some ways.

GEORGE STONEY: Okay. Judy?

JUDITH HELFAND: You know, the first time you told me about the bridge story and 00:25:00the man holding the stick. I wondered if you -- tell me about the stick again, the man holding the stick. Do you think, tell me again about, just the man dropping the stick, tell me if you think he, it was a hard choice for him to make.

MCMICHAEL: I know it was. Well, see, he was one of the overseers, this man was an overseer. And of course a lot of people didn't know until, you know, until the strike come on that he was, that he belonged to the union. Because they wasn't supposed to. And they met, you know, when they had the strike, I may have left this out, but they met over across the pond over there, a crowd of them, and they was guarding the mill. They had the mill shut down, you know, and they all had the sticks. And I guess they meant if you try to get in the mill we'll knock you in the head. I never did know what that was for, unless it was a weapon. But anyway, when he -- that day, he still had his stick in his hand when he had to come back to the bridge, you know. And the day they told them that they could go back to work, and he still -- he still had his stick with him. And 00:26:00then everybody knew then that he, you know, did belong to the union. And so, he wanted to go back to work, and when they said we could all, they could all go back to work if they wanted to, he just let his stick slide like that, and hit the ground. [Inaudible] kindly embarrassed.

GEORGE STONEY: How do you think he felt?

MCMICHAEL: I think he felt, just if he felt like he looked he was feeling bad. Because in front of all that crowd, you know, oh, that, that was sad looking. It was. There was a lot of sad looking people. Because they knew they had to go back to work. Whether they wanted to or not. But they seen that there was no use in trying to get a union started. That ended it. And I think the first one they ever had organize, the first time I remember, I think it was organized, they called it the plastic plant, came in, and I believe that was the first plant 00:27:00that I remember being organized. But Newnan Cotton Mill never was.

GEORGE STONEY: Now if you worked with all, all your customers in the grocery store were out of the mills, weren't they?

MCMICHAEL: Oh, we had some people form here in town. We knew people from here in town, and there were quite a few that would come out there you know and trade with us. And so we had quite a good group of customers. But the majority of them were from the mill village.

GEORGE STONEY: When, when you first moved into the mill village did they have company stores?

MCMICHAEL: No, they never did have a company store. When we moved there my uncle was running the only store that was there. And he ran that store for a few years and then he sold out and went to Orinco(?) and somebody else bought the store. And so different ones had the store. But the comp-- but I'll tell you one good kind of thing the company would let us do. They would, they would have somebody to go to the store between time, but if somebody wanted something to eat, they would, maybe say at around 10:00 in the morning, 9:30-10:00, they'd somebody 00:28:00would go around, they asked some boss man if they could go to the store and he'd tell them yes. And they'd go around and ask anybody what they wanted from the store. We would all tell him what we -- you know, what we wanted, and we'd send the money or have it charged. Sometimes we'd have it charged. All of us had had charge accounts. And so. It was a -- we had a lot of fun.

GEORGE STONEY: Okay.

MCMICHAEL: We'd have candy -- he'd bring us candy and [inaudible]. And finally they put the Coca-Cola machines and the snack wagons in the mill.

JAMIE STONEY: Dope wagon?

MCMICHAEL: Mm hmm, dope wagon, that's right. That's what they called it, the dope wagon. And we'd crowd around the dope wagon, boy we was sitting, living in high cotton then.

HELFAND: Opal, um. Since your father loved the country so much, I imagine leaving the country and coming here was difficult for him.

MCMICHAEL: Oh, yes.

HELFAND: Could you tell me about that transition?

JAMIE STONEY: Judy, we need to pop in a new tape --

HELFAND: Okay.