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JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any kids?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes, I've got five.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When were they born?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

I had two boys before I married him, and then the others I have are three girls. My first one was born when I was seventeen.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So just after you'd started to work.

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

The other one was born four years later. Then we got married, and we've got three.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you quit work when you had your babies?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How long did you stay out?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

I'd work on long as I could [laughter] , sometimes six, seven months, and then quit.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Then how long did you stay out?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

We used to have to stay out three months before you'd go back to work, but now you can go back to work after they're a couple of weeks old if you want to.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you mean the company wouldn't let you come back before three months?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

No. But now they do.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why was that?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

I just don't know why they didn't, but they didn't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So it was a policy that you had to stay out for three months.

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes, it was a policy.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Could you come back right into your same job?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes, they had to hold your same job. They're supposed to do that yet when you get out and have a baby. But you can work on up now till two or three weeks before you have it, if you want to. And they'd come back. Now I went back when my last baby was three weeks old, because I went out to show her off.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You went up to the plant?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes, at Kayser-Roth. And the bossman said, "Are you ready to come back to work?" and I thought he was just joking. I said, "Yes, anytime," and next week here he come, and I was washing.

JACQUELYN HALL:

He came over to the house?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes. He said, "Carrie, are you ready to come back to work?" I said, "Yes, if you need me." So there I left my washing, and I said, "I have to get ready, though." And I went across the street to my neighbor, and she kept the baby. But I went back to work when she was three weeks old. I went back one day, and they sold us out the next day to Kayser-Roth. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who took care of the different kids?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

My sister-in-law, then my neighbor Mrs. Woody across the street. Them was the only two babysitters I ever had. Well, my mother kept them, too, for me before she died.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ever have anybody that came in and helped you with housework?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you just had your neighbor and your sister-in-law. You'd take the kids over to their house?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes, after Mama died.