Jordan loaned an employee fifty dollars when they met during a brief vacation
Ellington and four of his coworkers happened to meet Jordan while vacationing at Virginia Beach. Ellington was impressed that Jordan loaned him fifty dollars and allowed them extra time off work when they returned.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Thomas R. Ellington, October 10, 1983. Interview C-0122. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- BEN BULLA:
-
You say he called you Plumber? Did you do
plumbing?
- THOMAS R. DOC ELLINGTON:
-
Oh yeah I used to do plumbing work down there in the mill and the village
too.
One time the valve stuck on the old straight eight diesel engine and I
went down there with Mr. Jordan. Alse Davis was up on top of it. Mr.
Jordan said, Davis, how long before you going to have it
working? Just a minute, Alse said. He
threw that crowbar down without looking to see if anybody was standing
there, it bounced up and hit Mr. Jordan on the shin and skinned it a
little bit he come by me hopping and said,
Come on Plumber, this ain't no place for me, and out
the door he went with me following.
He was awful good to me, Mr. Jordan was. I could borrow money from him
anytime, anywhere. First time, me and five of the boys went to Virginia
Beach. Sunday morning we got up, I had all the pocketbooks, and I had
all their watches on my wrist. Walked up the beach and there stood Mr.
Jordan, Dr. Carrington and Shannonhouse, the yarn salesman. I walked up
over there and I says, GOOD MORNING! He turned
around and he says, Huh! I thought I left Saxapahaw at
Saxapahaw. I said, No, there's five more of them out
there somewhere or another. Mr. Jordan, how about loaning me
50. You don't need no
50, he said, you're getting ready to be
back to that mill Monday morning to go to work. I said,
O. K., if you'll let me have 50, I'll guarantee
I'll have all five of them others there at 7:00 o'clock to
work. So he let me have the 50. We got back in
Saxapahaw at 20 minutes to seven the next morning. I jerked the keys out
of the car and went to work. Mr. Jordan came down there and asked what
we were doing there dressed up. I told him we had just got back about 15
minutes 'til seven and didn't have time to go home and change. He told
us to all get out of there and go home and put on our
working clothes and come back.
- BEN BULLA:
-
Who were the other four, five?
- THOMAS R. DOC ELLINGTON:
-
Marion Glosson, Dorsett Johnson, Wayne Woody, myself
and