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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Junie Edna Kaylor Aaron, December 12, 1979. Interview H-0106. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Day-to-day schedule

Aaron remembers her day-to-day schedule at the Warlong Glove in this excerpt. She worked twelve hour days, she recalls, taking a one-hour break for lunch, which she ate at home. Her employers did not give employees scheduled breaks, but Aaron and her peers could leave their stations for short respites as needed.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Junie Edna Kaylor Aaron, December 12, 1979. Interview H-0106. 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

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.