[TAPE 1, SIDE A]

[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where were you born?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I was born here in Catawba County down near St. Peter's Lutheran Church.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When were you born?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

1904. February the twenty-second.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did your mother and daddy do?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They farmed all their lives.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How big a farm did they have?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Not too big a one. The farm that my mother lived on was owned by my grandmother. She didn't really own one of her own.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So your parents lived on your grandmother's farm and farmed it?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, my mother did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Your mother did the farming?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, she farmed all her life.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did your daddy do?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

My daddy was a farmer, too. Mother and Daddy didn't live together.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you live with your mother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So she took care of a farm by herself.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

She had some help from my grandparents and from some of her sisters.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did she have any hired hands?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She just did it with the help of her family?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, with the help of the family.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know how many acres she farmed?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know how many acres she farmed, but it was a little over 300 acres in my grandmother's farm.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did she raise?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They mostly raised cotton and corn and some wheat.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you kids work in the fields?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I did. [Laughter] I'm used to it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I'd hoe or pick cotton most of the time, about all I'd do.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How old were you when you first started going out to help?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know just how old.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Pretty small?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I was pretty small, but I was big enough to get out and work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How many brothers and sisters did you have?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I had a brother and a sister at that time, but then my mother remarried and she had three children after that. She married Thomas Miller, and she had three children by him.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How old were you when your mother remarried?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I was fifteen. I lived with my grandmother. Next fall I went to work in the glove mill at Conover.

JACQUELYN HALL:

The next fall after she got married?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were up there living with your grandmother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, my grandmother and I was living with my aunt and uncle that lived at Conover at that time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why were you living with your grandmother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Just because I wanted to stay with her, and she wanted me to stay with her. She didn't have anyone with her.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you feel about your mother remarrying?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I felt like if that was what she wanted to do, it was all right.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was it kind of hard to have a new stepfather?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, it was strange. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

I can imagine.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

But we got along all right, all of us, but I lived at Conover from then on. I went to work in December. I was fifteen, and I was sixteen in February.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What date would that have been, 1919?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

1919, I guess, yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Tell me a little bit more about your grandparents. What do you remember about them?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

About all I can remember about them, they was farmers all their life. My grandmother's parents were Dutch. They never spoke anything else, and I never seen either one. Well, I didn't see either one [any] of my great-grandparents.

JACQUELYN HALL:

But you just heard that they …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. But they spoke Dutch. My mother told me that. She said that's all they ever spoke. And she could talk a little Dutch, not much, but she could speak some.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about your grandparents? Did they?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They could, I guess, but I never did hear them talk too much of it, because they didn't use it with their own children.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember any stories that came down about the family?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't believe I do. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

About how they migrated here or anything like that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't remember them telling any.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Had they always been in that same farm, as far as you know?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, as far as I know, they had always been there in that same section, that farm. My grandmother inherited the farm from her parents. She was the only living child. She had a brother, but he died as a young boy.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember any stories about your great-grandparents or

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grandparents having slaves?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't remember if they ever did or not. They didn't say anything about it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about on your father's side? Do you remember anything about those grandparents?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, not too much I don't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did your parents separate when you were very young?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What happened?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Well, I don't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You never did know?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know your father?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

He lived around here?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, he lived around here. He lived over here on the Rifle Range Road.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did he help out or anything?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You never had much to do with him?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you feel about that when you were coming up?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I just didn't think too much about it. I just didn't worry about it or anything.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Your mother didn't really talk to you much about those kinds of things.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You went into Conover, then, when you were fifteen and were living

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with your grandmother.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And your aunt and uncle lived in Conover.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they lived in Conover, and we moved out there with them in the same house. They hadn't been married very long. It was my grandmother's youngest daughter, Mother's youngest sister.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where had your grandmother been living before?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

She'd lived back there on the farm. We lived back there on the farm.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you and your mother live with your grandmother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Then your grandmother left your mother out on the farm when she got married?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, my mother moved away from there when she got married.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She moved away from the farm altogether?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Moved away from there, but she still lived on the farm. She lived down here just across the road from where we live now.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So there was more than one house on the farm?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, there was three houses on the farm.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did your grandmother move into Conover?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Because she had no way of making a living. I was her support, what she had when I went to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you supported your grandmother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, she didn't have any other way. She was too old to get out and work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where had you heen going to school?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I went to Nowell School.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What kind of school was it?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

That was just a little country school, is all I can tell you. [Laughter] The building's tore down now.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were all the grades together?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was two rooms to the school. I just forget how many grades was in each room. It was kind of divided up, I think about half and half. But, you see, the grades didn't go up high then. Seventh grade, I believe, was about the highest it went. Seventh or eighth, I forget which it was. I don't know what they called it. They didn't have them graded out like they do now.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you went into Conover, did you go to school there at all?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't go to school. I had went down to Nowell School as far as I could go, and so I didn't have a chance to go any further to school, because there was no high school that I could go to, and when I went to Conover I had to work to make a living. I didn't have a chance to go on to school.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have older brothers and sisters?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I'm the oldest.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you the first kid to go out to work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you decide to get a job in the glove factory?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I guess because my uncle knew the folks that run the glove mill. They also owned the place he worked at, too. He worked at the Conover… What did they call it then? It's Broyhill's now, I think, there in Conover. But it belonged to Mr. Brady and Mr. Shuford, and they also owned the glove mill, and he worked for them till he died.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were these two factories right close together?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they was right close together.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did he speak to them about giving you a job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, he did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember what your first day of going down there was like?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

[Laughter] I know it was strange. It sure was.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I bet, for a girl from the country.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. [Laughter] It sure was. I didn't know anyone. There was a neighbor who lived right beside of my aunt and uncle, and she was the first one I met. I was always… It was strange to me to go to a strange place where everybody was strangers to me, so I felt …

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I liked it, though. I liked the work. I liked the place. In fact, I liked everyone that worked there after I learned to know them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have to go down and apply for the job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, my uncle had already got me the job, and all I had to do was go in and, of course, tell them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You just went in for your first day of work.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was your uncle's name?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

James Curley.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was his job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

He worked at the furniture shop. I don't know just what-all he did in there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did his wife work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, she never did work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was your first job at the glove mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

My first job was turning cuffs, I believe. I'm not sure. I almost forgot now. [Laughter] I worked a few days, and then they started

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teaching me to sew. So I sewed gloves the rest of the time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who taught you?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was one of the ladies that worked in there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was it one of the supervisors, or just another sewer?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was just one of the other sewers. The only supervisor they had was a man. He was over all of it. It wasn't but about twelve worked in there in all when I went to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they all women?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they had one cloth cutter, and then they had another boy that worked in there. And they had turners that turned the gloves; they were boys.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were certain jobs done by boys and certain jobs by women?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Could you tell me a little bit about what the process of making gloves is like, what the different jobs are?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

First they have to spread the material, and then it's cut with a die, and then they stack it in boxes. Well, they didn't at that time; we went up to the cutting press and got it. They cut in the palm and the thumb and the fingers. Some of it is according to what style it is. Then the sewers take it up to the machine, and they sew them together.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you would go to the cutting room and pick up …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was all in one room at that time. But at that time you'd go to the cutting press, and when they'd taken it off they laid it on a big table, and you'd go over and pick it up yourself.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And then you'd go sit down at your sewing machine.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. Put it on your machine, lay it out where you could get it where it would all go together. You'd sew it, and then they had cuffers that would cuff them. At that time, I think we cuffed them as we made them, but

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later part of the ladies made the gloves, and they had some to cuff them. Then when we got through with them, they was put in a sack at that time, and the turners would get them and take them and turn the gloves.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How do you turn them? Just by hand?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, it's a machine that they turn them on.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which of those jobs were done by men?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

The turning was done by a man. They ran the cutting press. Well, boys; it was mostly boys, the biggest part of them. They had one lady turner, but she came to work after I did. But she turned for years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why do you suppose they had boys turning?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

At that time I guess that was something the boys could do to give them a job. They couldn't sew, and that turning they could do. Of course, a girl could do it, too, but still it was more a boy's work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why was it not a good job for a girl to do?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

She had to stand there all day, and it was a pedal thing she had to pedal to mash the turner down, the thing that went down in a pipe, like, and it would pull the glove up and turn it. And that's a little hard for a woman, but it was a lot of women done it in later years. They may have some now at the glove mills. But they did when I quit. They had one lady turner, but she retired, too, after I did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was cutting done by older men?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was always done by men or boys. It was boys doing it at that time, but they were older. That's a little more dangerous work, because they have to watch those cutting presses. They'd lay the material and spread it out so thick, and then they'd lay the die on it, and they'd have to mash the cutting press down on it to cut it. They'd have to keep their fingers out from under it; if they didn't, they'd get them cut off. Most of the time they were older boys that done that, or men.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they ever have boy or men sewers?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they never did, as I know of. There was a few of them, I think, could set down and sew a little bit by watching us, but they never did have any regular sewers.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why was that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I guess they just felt like that wasn't a man's job, is all I know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How old were the twelve people when you went there? Were they mostly your age?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they were older than I was. Several of them were married. ladies. It was one other girl there that was the same age as myself, that had went in at the same time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just a couple of them were married, would you say? Was it unusual for married ladies to work there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, it wasn't unusual for married ladies to work. They could work there. There were several of them married; I don't know just how many. I know there were three of them that was married. Our bossman's wife worked there. Of course, they had just got married right before then. One of the sewers was married. I don't remember whether there was any of the rest of them married or not. They worked married women, but it wasn't as many of them worked then as they do now. If the women had children, they mostly stayed at home and taken care of them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who was your bossman?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Millard Holland. Millard come there at Christmas, but my first bossman was Clarence Smarr.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It was Millard Holland's wife that worked there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was Millard Holland from Conover?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I'm not sure, but it seemed like he was from over by Cherryville

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or somewhere in there. He wasn't from Conover.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did he do any of the processes in the plant?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

He would cut sometimes, and different things. The whole crew worked like a family, just about. It wasn't like it is now. They just all worked together.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You mean they would sometimes do each other's jobs?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was just a few of them that could cut, because they wouldn't let the younger boys cut. But [Holland] would cut sometimes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What hours did you work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We worked twelve hours then. We worked from seven till six. Got an hour off for lunch.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What would you do for lunch?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I usually went home for lunch. I didn't live too far from there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would your grandmother be there for lunch?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

My aunt was there. She fixed the lunch.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would your uncle come home?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, we all went home for lunch.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did most of the people in the plant go home for lunch?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Quite a few of them did. It was several that stayed there, though, that carried their lunch.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any other breaks during the day?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, we didn't really have any breaks, but we could get up and go get some water or something like that. We just didn't have to sit down and stay at it like fighting fire all day. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

You could stop and rest a little whenever you …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, a little.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Could you leave and go outside?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, we didn't go outside unless we had a reason to go or if we'd asked to go.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were there any other rules and regulations that you were supposed to follow?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't think so, not as I know of. Just to stay at our work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you find working for twelve hours at a stretch hard when you first started?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I really didn't find it hard when I first started. Of course, I'd get tired sometimes, but it wasn't any harder than it was working eight hours a day later.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Oh, really? Why was that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know. I guess I just got older, for one thing, made it harder. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which did you like better, working on the farm or working in the glove mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Oh, I liked working in the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did you like it better?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I just did. I liked it. And, of course, I had a little income, where you didn't have much on the farm. And it was different. We didn't at first when I went to work, but sometime later lots of times right before Christmas we'd work till about nine o'clock at night to get the orders out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How much did you get paid?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think I got a dollar and a quarter a day when I started. That was twelve dollars a week.[unknown]

JACQUELYN HALL:

You weren't on piecework then.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, not at first I wasn't. I don't remember what they paid by piecework then. But I wasn't on piecework for quite a while.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When did you start in piecework?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't remember that. I know they didn't pay much on piecework at first.

[TAPE 1, SIDE B]

[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE B]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which did you like better, working for a daily wage or being on piecework?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I couldn't tell too much difference. But, of course, if you was on piecework, you could make a little more if you worked real hard. It never was too much difference for me, though.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was sewing a skilled job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. Most of the sewers could learn it pretty easy. You had to be careful and not just put the gloves together any way.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which jobs do you think required the most skill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think sewing did. Of course, the material had to be cut good, too. I guess one was about as much as the other one, because if the material wasn't cut good you couldn't make a good glove out of it. But if it was, why, you could make a good glove out of it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which jobs paid the most?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think cutting paid the most. Of course, the cutting was always hour work. Maybe some of the sewers could make more than the cutters when they was on piecework; I don't know about that. But cutting was a man's job; I don't think a woman could have done that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So the men got paid more than the women.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know as they got paid any more. In a lot of ways, I think it was about the same. The ones that done the turning was paid just, I imagine, according to what the sewers was, so they was paid by the hour[unknown]. They was on hour work at first, and then they were put on piecework later.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about accidents? Was it dangerous work at all?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Nothing only the cutting. I did see one fellow that got a finger cut off.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just one in your career?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

That's right. But the cutting was, I think, the most dangerous part of it. Of course, the women sometimes would run a needle through their finger. I done that, too. But then it really wasn't as dangerous as the cutting press.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What happened when you would run a needle through your finger?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

You'd just run it through, and it was pulled out before you'd know it, if the machine was running, and you'd just have to put something on your finger.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You didn't have to go to the doctor.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What kind of gloves did you make?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I made canvas work gloves. Then I had sewed some jersey ready. They was all work gloves.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they good-quality gloves?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

More expensive or less expensive?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They were just like what they make in the glove mill now out here in Conover, most of them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just your basic work gloves.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They never made fine ladies' gloves.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they never did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you started work down there when you were fifteen.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How long did you work there? Until you retired?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't retire from there. I was in my late fifties when I quit the glove mill. It was just not too long before I retired. But I worked at the hosiery mill a couple years off and on. I didn't work regular. I worked at German Hosiery Mill a while, and then I quit there. I seamed toes there. That was after they started seaming the toes on the socks and hose. Then after I quit I worked part-time here at home after I retired. They wanted me to sew some upholstering, and they put me a machine in here at the house, and I worked part-time while I was allowed to work, because I had already retired and was drawing my retirement. And I was just allowed to make so much a year. I sewed patchwork covers for the Kaymar Furniture in Conover. I quit when I was sixty-nine. I think I worked for them about six or seven years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did that come about, that they asked you to do that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They didn't have enough to have regular work for any of them at the shop for that, and they really didn't any of them like to sew the patchwork covers. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They just didn't. They couldn't make enough on them, for one thing.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you mean it's actually patchwork?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They cut the patches. You've probably saw those patchwork chairs already. Some of the patches was about that long. They were the same size. They had two different sizes, but they were cut to fit. I sewed them. They asked me if I would do it, said it would be part-time work if I wanted to do it, and I told them I would. They had just about quit covering the chairs with the patchwork when I quit.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know the managers at Kaymar Furniture?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I knowed them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And they knew that you were retiring.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I had already retired.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you didn't ask them for a job.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't ask them for a job; they asked me [Laughter] if I'd do it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they just call you up?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. They just asked me if I'd do it. They knew I had sewed at the glove mill and all.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was it piecework?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, it was piecework.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would they bring the …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they brought the material all to me, and they come back and picked up the covers.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Like once a week they'd bring it, and then pick it up.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Whenever they needed them most, they'd come and get them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How many hours a day would you spend on that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know just how many hours. I didn't work, you see, all the time; I was just working part-time, and I done my work here at home, and I never did keep an account of just how many hours because it was piecework, and I didn't have to keep the hours.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You didn't work any certain hours, like you didn't do it in the morning. You'd just do it whenever you …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, whenever it suited me the best to do it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was it just a sewing machine that you had?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was an upholstering machine, one from the upholstering shop.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you had it set up here?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I sewed it on a regular sewing machine for a little while at first, but it was too hard to sew on that. You couldn't hardly sew it. So they brought me an upholstering machine out to sew it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How much did you make?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know just how much.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did it seem like it was worth it?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, it was worth it. I wasn't allowed to make only so much, and that's all I could make. After you're retired, you can't make only so much unless you pay so much of your Social Security back. So I just made what I was allowed to make.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you get a pension from the glove mill at all?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No. They didn't have no pension fund when I worked. I worked long enough; I should have had one. I think I put thirty-some years in all in the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you think they should have a pension plan?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I think they should. I think every place that people work should have a pension plan.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did people ever complain about that to the company?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They didn't while I worked, not as I know of. I never heard any of them say anything about it. It was some places that had that retirement fund then, but not too many, not like they have now. There's lots more of them have it now than they did then.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any kind of health benefits at the glove mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We always had insurance everywhere I worked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That would cover everything, or just accidents on the job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It would cover sickness, too.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It was when you were in your fifties that you worked at the hosiery

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mill for a while?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I was in my fifties when I worked at the hosiery mill. I was in my fifties when I quit the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did you quit?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Making gloves was hard work. Now some people don't think it is, but it was hard work, or had got to be hard work for me. It really would tire you out, and you had to work hard to make good. They kept raising production, and I just didn't feel like I could keep on going up at my age.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How would they raise production?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They raised production where you'd have to make more. If production was a dollar an hour—which it was the biggest part of the time I worked; I mean you had to make a dollar an hour—you had to make a certain amount gloves to make that dollar. And if they didn't pay enough a dozen for you to make it, why, you just had to work that much harder to make it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You made a dollar an hour most of the time you worked there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I did when they raised up to a dollar an hour. I've worked for fifty cents an hour [Laughter] , but then it was less than that when I started.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did they keep raising production?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They always do, as prices go up on everything.

JACQUELYN HALL:

The glove mill changed ownership over the course of time, didn't it?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Oh, yes, I worked at Warlong Glove when I started.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know Mr. Brady and Mr. Shuford personally?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What were they like?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They were nice people to work for. They were good people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How were they good to the…

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They was just good to everyone in there, and they knew everyone.

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They were just good people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they come into the plant?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they'd come into the plant and talk to the hands. Now in later years as the glove mill growed—you see, it got so big—why, of course, then Mr. Brady and Mr. Shuford dissolved partnership, and Mr. Shuford taken the glove mill, and Mr. Brady the furniture shop. Then in later years Mr. Shuford didn't come in as often, because the glove mill had got so big. It growed and got bigger, and so many more were working there and all. But he would come in pretty often and walk through the mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did they dissolve their partnership?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know anything about that. I guess they maybe felt like it would be better if they did that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were Mr. Brady and Mr. Shuford very different from each other?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

In some ways there was right much difference. But they were both really nice people to work for.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That's what I've heard. How were they different from each other?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Well, I just [Laughter] can't hardly tell you how they was. I think Mr. Brady was just a little bit more serious than Mr. Shuford was in some ways. After I quit Warlong Glove, I went to work for Southern Glove, and I worked there thirteen years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You quit Warlong because they were raising production?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't quit Warlong because of that. When I done that was when I quit Southern Glove because I was getting older. I had quit Warlong before our youngest son was born, and then I hadn't went back to work. I was out a little over a year. And this Southern Glove started up in Conover, just a small glove mill, and I went to work in there then when I went back to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you try to go back to Warlong?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't try. I could have went back to Warlong, but I didn't.

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I felt like I wanted a smaller place. Warlong had got so big, and I went to Southern Glove and worked for them thirteen years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What were the advantages of working in a small place?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

You just know everybody more. That's the only thing I know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you make close friends at Warlong Glove?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I had close friends both places I worked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you see them when you weren't on the job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I had friends I seen out from work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you able to talk to each other while you were sewing?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You could have conversations?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, you could talk as long as you kept working.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You could talk and work at the same time?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did people do that?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they did do that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any kind of parties or little customs?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they always had a Christmas party. Then if any of the workers wanted to get together and have a little party, they did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where would you have your party?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Usually at the mill. They had a couple of the Christmas parties, I believe it was, at the schoolhouse, the last couple years I worked at Warlong, but we usually had them at the mill every Christmas.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you enjoy the most about your work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think being with people was what I enjoyed the most. That's what I've missed the most since I've been retired and been at home.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you dislike the most?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I couldn't tell you that. I just don't know if it was anything or not.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did things bother you more in later years?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they did me; when I got older, things would bother me more. Things gets on your nerves sometimes when you get older. You work so hard and get so tired, and then have to come home and do your work at home, too.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It's hard.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, it's hard.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do some people think that making gloves is not hard work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Well, I've heard a few say that they didn't think it was hard work, but the biggest majority of them thinks it is, I think. [Laughter] But I have had some few to say that they didn't think it was hard work, but I think they find out and change their mind a little bit when they get older.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How would you compare working in a hosiery mill to working in a glove mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

What work I done in the hosiery mill was lots easier than working in the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about the atmosphere? Did you enjoy the people just as much?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I did. I had friends at the hosiery mill, too, but I just hadn't worked with them as long as I did a lot of them at the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which was considered a better place to work, the hosiery mill or the glove mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know whether there was any difference or not.

JACQUELYN HALL:

In pay?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Most of the hosiery mills paid better, I think, than the glove mill did. But it's just according to the person. I mean some people like the glove mill better, and some the hosiery mill better. I've knowed of some

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that quit the glove mill and went to the hosiery mill or even to upholstering, and would go back to the glove mill.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They'd find out they didn't like it.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they found out that they liked making gloves the best. But now, as far as me, hosiery mill work was lots easier work than glove mill work. I don't know that I liked it any better in a way, but it was easier work for me at my age.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ever consider working in a textile mill?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why not? Was that not as good a job?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I guess it was, but I just didn't, I guess because I went to work at the glove mill when I was real young, and I just didn't think of anything else.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you think those different kinds of work attract different kinds of people?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't think they're any different. I guess they just went and got that job, and then they just probably decided to stay on with it. I don't think there's any difference in the people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember any strikes at the furniture mill or the glove mill during the time that you were there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't think they ever had any strike as I know of at the glove mill. Some of them would kind of get upset and walk out once in a while, but I don't think there was ever any strikes. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

You mean these people would get up …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, just wander.[unknown] Some of the times they didn't get along on their job or didn't get along with their bossman. Sometimes they'd walk out, but they never had any strikes as I know of. They didn't at the glove mill

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where I worked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What would happen when people would get mad and walk out?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They'd just go somewhere else and get them a job, or get over it and come back. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did people ever have complaints? For example, when they started raising production, did people complain about that and try to …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Sometimes they would, yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What would they do if they wanted to complain?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They'd just …

[TAPE 2, SIDE A]

[START OF TAPE 2, SIDE A]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did people have any other kinds of complaints?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know. I was …

JACQUELYN HALL:

When they started raising production, did people ever deliberately refuse to work quite so fast, everybody just agree to keep production down to some low …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, not as I know of. They just tried to do what they could, their part, and tried to make production, and I don't think that any of them ever slowed down any to hold production back.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were some people much faster than others?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, there's some lots faster than others. I never was real fast. Some are faster, and some are better sewers than others. Some make better gloves than others. And it's just that way in everything, the same way in the hosiery mill. Some does better work than others.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you make good gloves?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't want to brag on myself, but they always said I did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You weren't real fast.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I wasn't real fast, but I always wanted to make them right. I wanted them beautiful.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did the people who worked very fast make production go up for the other people?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know. They probably did. I don't know whether that was what caused it to go up, but it probably was.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did people ever get mad at the ones who worked so fast?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't think they did. It might have been with some people, but it wasn't with me. I always thought that if they could make more, that was so much better for them. I done what I could.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember when the eight-hour day came in?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. Charlie, didn't we start working the eight-hour day during the Depression?

CHARLES AARON:

Yes.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

What year was that? Thirty-one or '32, somewhere along there. I was trying to think what president it was that started that eight-hour-a-day work, and I can't think now of his name.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you a Democrat or a Republican?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I've voted both ways, so I can't say which I am.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was your family traditionally one or the other?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

My family was mostly Democrats, I think, but I've voted both ways. I think you need to vote for the man instead of the party, but sometimes you don't know which to vote for. It's kind of hard.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What difference did the eight-hour day make to you?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

The biggest part of the difference was you got home earlier, and at that time we had children, when that eight-hour-a-day come in. You got off earlier every evening. You got to do your work up earlier at home, and, of

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Page 25

course, if you had a garden, you got to work it earlier and such as that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you keep on having an hour lunch break?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, we just had a half an hour of lunch break.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have to work harder once the eight-hour day came in during the hours you did work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, you didn't have to work any harder. It was the same thing. The sewers and the turners was on piecework then, and you just got pay for what you made.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did the eight-hour day make a lot of difference?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, the eight-hour day made a big difference to people that had families and to married people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When did you get married?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I got married in 1926.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where did you meet your husband?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I met him in Davie County, between Mocksville and Salisbury.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you all happen to meet?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We met at a friend's house.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were down visiting a friend in Davie County?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes. I spent the night down there with a friend.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And so you started dating?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We just wrote to each other for quite some time. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you met once, and then you started writing letters back and forth?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, that's right.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you get to see each other again?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

He'd come to Conover once in a while.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you still living with your grandmother all this time?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, my grandmother had died a long time before then. I was still boarding with my aunt and uncle, though.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When your grandmother was alive, did you just turn your paycheck over to her?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't. I paid a certain amount of the grocery bill and of the house rent for us.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why didn't some of the other children or your mother help pay for her groceries and rent?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I was taking care of her, so it was my place to do it, I felt like.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was that because you were the oldest, or just because you …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, it was just because I had stayed with her, and she had helped look after me and all.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you really closer to her than you were to your mother?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I was just as close. It wasn't much difference.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Then after she died, you kept living there, and you would still pay for some of the groceries?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I stayed on, and I paid board after that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did it come about that you decided to get married?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We just decided to get married, that's all. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember when he asked you?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where did you get married?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We got married at Mocksville.

JACQUELYN HALL:

At a justice of the peace?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did you get married down there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Because he wanted to get married down there, and we just got

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married down there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Then did you come back to Conover?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We stayed down there for a little while, but not long. I got off for a little while. Then we moved up here to Conover and lived up here for several months, and he couldn't find any work at that time. The Depression had started then, so we moved back to Davie County to his mother's. His father was dead. We lived down there a year then, and he worked on the farm. Then that next fall we moved back up to Conover, and he got work, too, in the glove mill, and we both worked there. He turned.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When did you have your first child?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

In 1930.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And you took off for about a year when you had your first child?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I was off, I guess, about a year when Billy was a baby.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you work right up until you had the baby?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I quit pretty soon after I got pregnant.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was that what most women did?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they didn't, but we just wanted a child so bad, and I just decided to quit.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just to make sure that nothing went wrong?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you feel like you were having trouble getting pregnant?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, I did have some trouble.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was there some medical reason?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I just don't know what it was.

JACQUELYN HALL:

But it had been three years or so.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Almost four years. He was born the thirty-first of May, and we'd have been married four years the sixteenth of October.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ever go to the doctor and ask what was wrong?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I hadn't been to the doctor but very little, unless it was just something I had to go for. [Laughter] I hadn't been to the doctor till I got pregnant, and then I started going.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who delivered your baby?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Dr. Herman at Conover.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have him at home?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any trouble with your pregnancy?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't have any trouble with my pregnancy. I had a little trouble because of my age when he was born, but outside of that everything was all right.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was it a hard labor?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did your mother have midwives to deliver her children?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who were they?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't know. I couldn't tell you that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they friends that lived around, or were there certain …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They had several midwives around in the county, not too far apart, at that time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You have how many children?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We've got four children. We had a boy and then a girl and then two more boys.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So once you started having children, you had plenty.

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who took care of the children while you worked?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

My aunt stayed with me, one of them, at one time, taking care of our youngest one, and after we moved out here my mother taken care of some of them part of the time. And one of my cousins stayed with me one time and taken care of them, so it's just different ones. But we always had somebody to take care of them when they wasn't in school.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who did the housework?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I done most of it after I got home of an evening, till some of the children got old enough; then they helped.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you were really doing two jobs, weren't you? [Laughter]

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Most any woman has to that works at public work. She's got two or three jobs.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which of your jobs did you like the best?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think I liked public work better than I did keeping house. I loved my children—I loved doing for them—but I mean I just… Oh, I wouldn't have minded keeping house, but [it's] kind of hard when you've got two jobs to hold down. But I don't know, it seemed like it was always kind of hard for one to make a living.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you take off for a while from work each time you had a baby?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you take off as long as you did the first time?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I think I did with most every one except my second one, my daughter. I had to go back to work earlier after she was born, because Charlie didn't have work at that time. That was during the Depression, and they wasn't paying anything much for work, either. So I went back to work sooner after she was born. She was about three months old, I believe, when I went back to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they laying people off at the glove mill during the Depression?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, they wasn't laying anyone off. He had went to the furniture

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shop a good while before that, and he didn't have any work. They had laid right many off then; they was out of work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any health problems along the way that really made things difficult for you?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I didn't have nothing only low blood. I had low blood the biggest part of the time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You didn't have any complications from childbirth or pregnancy?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I never did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Could you tell me a little bit about the neighborhood that you lived in? Were you involved with your neighbors very much?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We lived in Conover till our oldest son was six years old. We did live on the farm for a while. After our daughter was born, I worked for a while and then we moved on the farm back down in Davie County. We lived down there two years, and then we moved back to Conover. We had good neighbors. I liked my neighbors, but about all we done was go to work, and of course we'd visit the neighbors. Neighbors visited more then than they do now. Get together. Then we moved out here right before our second son was born, and we've lived here ever since.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What do most of the people around here do for a living?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They most all work somewhere.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do many of them work in the furniture and glove mills?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, our son that lives right behind us works in the furniture shop, and our neighbor over here, his wife works in the furniture shop. He used to, but he drives a truck now. The ones straight across the road are retired now. She had worked at the glove mill at one time, and then she quit and went to this foam place, Hickory Something. My sister lives down there across the road, and she works at the Frye Memorial Hospital, and her husband works for Highland Porcelain. He has for years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you've lived here since about when?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We moved out here in December of 1936, and our son Jimmy was born in April of '37.

JACQUELYN HALL:

This is kind of far out from town, isn't it?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It's about five miles from here to Conover, but we drove backwards and forwards to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you want to live further out? Why did you happen to …

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, we didn't. We just bought this land here and built and moved here.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you think back over the years, who would you say has helped you out [most] just in daily life, helping you when problems came up with the kids and…

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I just wouldn't know. It's been different ones that has helped. I just can't say who did really help the most.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you involved in the church?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, we go to Mount Zion Lutheran down here. They've been a big help to us for a long time. The children went down there, and they was all baptized and confirmed down there at the church. Everybody has really been good. I can't tell any difference. There's just been a lot of good people around.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What have been the hardest times in your life?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

The hardest times in my life, I guess, was during the Depression.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you make ends meet?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Well, we didn't hardly make ends meet part of the time, because it was hard for us. You just had to do the best you could.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do for fun in the early days of your marriage?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We went to the movies. They had right many different things to do around once in a while, and we'd go, and we'd get together, younger married

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couples.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Dances or music?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We never did go to dances. We liked to go hear music when they had good music. They used to put on a lot of… [Interruption]

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

We used to listen to string music and all. They used to have a lot of groups come from different places around to the schoolhouses and such as that and make music. We used to go listen to them; we liked them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They'd play at the schools?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Yes, they'd have them at the schoolhouse, or sometimes at the movies.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was there any music at the glove mill, any singing or anything like that during work?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Oh, we used to sing, a lot of them did, at work. They'd sing some, but they got where they made them quit it. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did they make them quit?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They'd think it would disturb somebody else at work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What would they sing?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

They'd just sing different [unknown]. Whatever you decided you wanted to sing, they'd sing.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember any of the songs?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They'd be hymns or popular?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Hymns sometimes. Yes, something. But they didn't get together and sing much; it was just if the one next to you sewing wanted to sing, [unknown] sing together. But they got strict, and they cut it out; they wouldn't let you do that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember just when that was that they got more strict?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, I don't remember when it was, but they did cut it out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did Mr. Shuford's son take over the plant at some point while you were still working there?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, he didn't take over while I was still working there. Mr. Shuford was still living yet, and as long as he lived I think his son helped him, I mean taken over part of it, but he was still living as long as I worked there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I wonder, since the same man owned the plant the whole time, why he would get stricter after [unknown].

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

It was just so many more of them. You see, the plant had growed so; it was just so many more workers who were there in all.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you think that there was a need for a labor union at the plant?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I don't think there was any need for one, no… I don't know as they ever said anything about a union at Warlong while I worked there. I don't think there was ever anything said about one.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you think that you were fairly treated, that you got paid as much as you should have?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

Just as much as they paid anywhere else, I think we did, I mean as much as they paid around at the other plants.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Is there anything else that you can think of that has been important to you in your life that we haven't talked about?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

I just can't think of anything right now. [Laughter] It's been a lot of important things, but I can't think of them. Talking about the Shufords, Mrs. Shuford was awful good to the girls that worked at the glove mill. For years it was just about like a family to her, I think. She'd come down, and a lot of times she'd take a bunch of us girls somewhere to a show if it was some special show on or something like that. She was really good.

JACQUELYN HALL:

During work hours?

JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:

No, that would be at night.