Full Text of the Excerpt

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know people who set up little knitting mills in their garages?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Oh, yes, I had a brother that did that, up at his house.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did he go about doing that? I've just noticed a lot of little, tiny ...

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

They'd buy up old machines that the mills didn't want and start out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who would they sell to?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

They'd go around to the stores and get orders. But he didn't stay in it but a couple of years; he got out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why was that?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

He retired, and he just didn't fool with it anymore. And then a man that I worked with did the same thing. He quit out there and put him up a little hosiery mill. But now he's retired, and he's out of it. He had a heart attack; he's out of business. But it's lots of those little hosiery mills.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That still goes on?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Oh, yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

People just setting up their own little ...

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did people prefer to do that?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

I guess they'd think maybe they could get them a business started. Most all of these hosiery mills and things started like that, from little hosiery mills, and then they'd just keep expanding. I know the Whisnant Mills, been here for years and years and years, and that's the way they started, just with a few machines, and they'd just keep expanding and expanding till they have a whole hosiery business. They say "the good old days," but I can't see them back there; I think these are the good days.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why is that?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

Just look at the appliances that we've got. We've got washing machines; we've got dryers; we've got refrigerators; we've got deep freeze and airconditioning. And back then we had iceboxes. Ice trucks came around. I know when I was little we couldn't wait for the iceman to come around, because we'd get the little pieces out of the ice truck and eat them. [Laughter] And then we used to have to carry in coal, wood, carry out ashes. [Laughter] . Now we have gas; we have electricity; we have fuel oil and all of that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What do you think people mean when they talk about the "good old days"?

CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:

I just don't know! They think them was the good old days, but I don't. I just don't. I think that if my mother'd be living now, she'd be really surprised about the way they had to do, and now how convenient everything is.