Opal McMichael and Leona Parham Interview

00:00:00

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OPAL MCMICHAELS: Who took care of the other girls while my mother was doing her work? Opal. And I raised girls and I cared for girls, and I stayed with girls, and I said "When I marry I hope I never have a girl." I, I don't ever want to see another girl to have to see after her. And so when I had my first baby, I didn't go to the hospital. You know back then you stayed at home, you had them at home. And I had my first baby and I remember the doctor asking me, my husband, "What did she want?" He said, "She wants a boy." And he said, "That's what she's got." And I heard that 3 times. I got what I wanted 3 times, I never wanted a girl. But you know after I got older, I wish I 00:01:00had a girl. But I want her to be grown, I don't want to be little like those.

GEORGE STONEY: Ok Judy.

JAMIE STONEY: Ok Judy.

JUDITH HELFAND: Um, oh no, where was I? Yeah, George ask a question.

GEORGE STONEY: No, no, you ask it.

HELFAND: Um, um, um…

JAMIE STONEY: Preserved on tape too late Judy.

(laughter)

HELFAND: I'm sorry I was listening to your daughter story. (laughter) Um, oh, um, oh yeah tell me about you saw women on the picket line. Those women.

MCMICHAELS: You know I don't know about those because they were from Hogansville.

HELFAND: But you went out and met those women? You told me you went out to watch.

MCMICHAELS: Uh-huh, but they didn't line up out there that I could see. We were standing in the church yard and the people there were just gathered in one big bunch you know. I don't remember seeing them lined up like that. They may have but I didn't see them if they did.

GEORGE STONEY: We're they singing?

MCMICHAELS: Carried on and hollering, mostly hollering just screaming you know 00:02:00and just irritated I guess. And it was hot weather too. I was hot enough to make you scream if you didn't have another reason.

HELFAND: What were they saying?

MCMICHAELS: Well honey I don't remember that. They mostly just hollered and making noise, like frustrated. You know how it is when you're frustrated? They were frustrated. It was coming to a head and I guess they were -- some of them were excited and some of them were sad, so I guess it was a combination of both.

GEROGE STONEY: Did you notice any leaders?

MCMICHAELS: No I really didn't, I didn't see any leaders.

GEORGE STONEY: This is one of the strange things cause there were only 4 paid organizers in the whole South and there hundreds of thousands (inaudible).

MCMICHAELS: Yeah.

GEORGE STONEY: You it was spontaneous.

MCMICHAELS: Yeah mm hmm.

HELFAND: So Opal the truck came in?

MCMICHAELS: Trucks, they were trucks just going through you know. And they stopped and they shouted and hollered around awhile. And then they went on off. And either they were going to LaGrange or Columbus as well as I remember. But 00:03:00uh, I didn't you know. I, I, can't tell you as much as I could have if I had been working in the mill. I know I was working part of the time it was started, but see I had done had to quit right then cause it was almost time for me to deliver the baby. And they didn't let you work so far along. But I can, when I was working, I can remember what they were talking union.

HELFAND: Where would they do that?

MCMICHAELS: Huh?

HELFAND: Where would they talk union?

MCMICHAELS: Well they's just come up and if they got on your good side they'd as you if you were for the union. And you'd have to know them pretty well, if you were, if you told them you were. Now I wasn't so I didn't have any problem with that. Well now if my father had been I probably would have been too. Like I said about my husband we were still young and two my husband had to think of the future, he had to think of a family because he had no other way to go. You couldn't find a job then. There wasn't any jobs in Newnan.

00:04:00

HELFAND: Why do you think your father was so anti-union?

MCMICHAELS: Well I think maybe one reason was that he had always been his own boss nobody had ever told him what to do. I think that he gave any person who owned anything that same authority to do with what they had as they saw fit. That's down to earth what I think he thought. I think he thought if a man owns a thing he should run it like he wants to. Because that was his life, he had always – he had been his own manager. He had managed his own life with his work. Being a farmer he could do that. And he just assumed that the men that owned the mill, that was their privilege, to see it and ado what they wanted to with what belonged to them.

GEORGE STONEY: That a very clear statement of an attitude, yes, good. That's fine. Judy I think we're finished.

HELFAND: Yes.

[break in video]

GEORGE STONEY: And excellent.

M1: Not yet. Still not yet

00:05:00

GEORGE STONEY: Ok.

M1: Still not yet.

GEORGE STONEY: Ok.

M1: Jamie?

JAMIE STONEY: Yeah.

M1: It's ready.

JAMIE STONEY: Ok.

GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about the picture please.

MCMICHAELS: Well I just bought this new coat, and I thought it gorgeous. It was a black coat and it had blonde fur. And I thought it looked so rich, you know. I hadn't had a coat like that since I was a child. And I was in love with the man that I married, and I especially wanted a picture of myself in that coat to give to him. And so, I went uptown, went to a little studio here in town, and had the picture made. I had the little brown hat on. And I had the little black coat, you know. They didn't match but you can't tell that, when they painted it they got it all just alike. But I just thought that that was the most beautiful coat I've ever seen. I remember the first time I wore it I wore it to church. And I thought I was the prettiest thing in that building. I just knew that that coat was making me look good. And I got so many compliments 00:06:00on it and I could have put my dress down a little further but I didn't. I guess that was just my way of sitting around. I guess I just wanted to show my knees that's the only thing I can think of. That was just the foolishness in me.

GEORGE STONEY: How old were you?

MCHMICHAEL: 18.

GEORGE STONEY: Just say I was 18.

MCMICHAEL: I was 18 years old when the picture was made. Happy as a dead (inaudible) in sunshine. And my husband was just as happy when I gave him the picture. And I gave my mother one, so.

GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about the picture again now.

MCMICHAEL: When the picture was made I was 18 years old and you see quite a 00:07:00contrast in then and now. If I'd known then what I'd look like now—If I had known then that I was going to look like now I'd just have stayed that way. I don't believe I would've ever got old. But during the time of it I began to age and when I look at that picture, I'm tempted to go back. I want to be 18 again.

HELFAND: Could you tell me about that coat again?

MCMICHAEL: Oh that—

HELFAND: One second. But Opal look at me when we come back.

JAMIE STONEY: I'm running out of batteries you got to do it real quickly.

HELFAND: Ok. Well Jamie can we have Opal

JAMIE STONEY: I'm doing like 3 (inaudible) from Sunday.

HELFAND: Oh, ok. Tell me about the coat.

MCMICHAELS: It was a gorgeous coat I saw it uptown and I thought I got to have that coat cause I hadn't had a coat with fur on it since I was a child. The fur was blonde, it was a black coat, and I thought it was beautiful. And I 00:08:00wanted my boyfriend to see how pretty I looked with that coat on. So I put the coat on and went uptown and had my picture made and slipped one in on him. He didn't know I had it made and when he got it he thought it was beautiful lady. But if he was living now and he could see them together, I don't whether he'd recognize me or not. You think he would?

GEORGE STONEY: Cut. Ok.

HELFAND: Thank you.

[break in video]

00:09:00

(indistinct conversation)

LEONA PARHAM: I'm tired when I wake up.

F1: (inaudible)

PARHAM: Well—

F1: (inaudible)

PARHAM: I am too.

M1: Hey (inaudible) lets go!

00:10:00

(car noises and indistinct conversation)

PARHAM: Well she looks better (inaudible).

00:11:00

(indistinct conversation)

F1: And I saw somebody going to check, check on (inaudible). I didn't see her come out of the house and I thought surely that's not Nadine.

PARHAM: She was walking around the church.

F1: I thought that I (inaudible) and it was kind of raining and Thelma said, "I'll take you home and she said, " No (inaudible).

00:12:00

PARHAM: I got to get back (inaudible).

F1: Oh my goodness.

PARHAM: She said, "Oh sure I..." Lynch told me she said, "I walk at least a mile a day." The last time I walked to church I had to crawl up there. Those steps…

F1: (inaudible) Her face was so red.

PARHAM: (inaudible).

F1: (inaudible).

00:13:00

PARHAM: (inaudible). Yeah (inaudible).

F1: (inaudible)

PARHAM: I'm going to start exercising.

F1: So true.

PARHAM: I'm going to do my best. Won't y'all come in. You can at least sit.

GEORGE STONEY: Ok. Thank you.

F1: Well, we'll see you.

PARHAM: Well I asked you if you want to stop and see what they're doing. I don't know myself (inaudible).