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Oral History Interview with Gladys and Glenn Hollar, February 26, 1980. Interview H-0128. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Gladys Irene Moser Hollar and her husband, Glenn Hollar, describe their childhood in rural North Carolina and their working lives in the glove industry and elsewhere. The Hollars grew up in large families in which everyone had to contribute to eke out a living. As a married couple, the Hollars spent most of their lives near Conover, North Carolina, moving from job to job and weathering the 1918 influenza epidemic, the Great Depression, and hostile supervisors before reaching retirement. In this interview, the couple shares recollections about laboring and rural life in the early twentieth century.
    Excerpts
  • A working mother supports her family
  • A poor glove-sewer angers her colleagues
  • A boss helps his employees during hard times
  • Recollections of an impoverished rural childhood
  • Leisure in a Christian community
  • A short-lived strike at a glove factory
  • Workers shut down a glove factory to demand higher wages
  • Laws regulate working hours
  • A contentious relationship with a supervisor
  • Leisure in a Christian community
  • Reflecting on the high and low points of life
  • Work speed-ups at a glove factory
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Farm life--North Carolina
  • Textile workers--North Carolina
  • Trade-unions--Textile workers--North Carolina
  • Women in the textile industry
  • Textile workers--Training of
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.