Full Text of the Excerpt

ALLEN TULLOS:

So can you tell me any more about what it was like when you first started work. Just describe how you felt every day.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Oh yeah, I had a dime the first pay day I had.

ALLEN TULLOS:

A dime.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

A dime in a little envelope. And that was my week's work.

GEORGIA:

That's all anybody made. (chuckle)

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Everybody that went in when we did, they had their dime. (chuckle) Now my daddy took these dimes that we all had and I guess he bought what we had to have at the store. But back when they bought what they'd have to buy for groceries, you know you could take a dollar and go away yonder and buy . . .

ALLEN TULLOS:

You got a dime for working a week?

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Uh-huh. (chuckle)

ALLEN TULLOS:

Is that right.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Well, that's one side, that's ten cents a side. Well when I got up to running four and five sides, you know, I'd make forty and fifty cents a day.

ALLEN TULLOS:

This was when you were like eleven or twelve years old when you first went to work.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Yeah, yeah.

ALLEN TULLOS:

And how many hours would you be working?

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

I would work twelve hours.

GEORGIA:

Twelve hours a day.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

We'd go over to work at six and we'd quit at six.

ALLEN TULLOS:

Did you work on Saturdays too?

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Yeah, 'till dinnertime.

ALLEN TULLOS:

Did you have to stay real busy when you were working?

GEORGIA:

Oh yeah.

LETHA ANN SLOAN OSTEEN:

Yes, you couldn't leave it, because you had to stay right there to keep that work a going.