Full Text of the Excerpt

MARY FREDERICKSON:

Let me back up just a little bit and ask you about when you started working here in the mill. Did you think you were going to be here for a long time, or just until you got married?

VESTA FINLEY:

Well, the marriage wasn't in my mind at that time, because I was having too good a time making money. And I was getting some things that I had never been used to having; you know, having made my own clothes. And being with people. . . . No, I hadn't thought about marrying Rudy, but that thing come along and messed me up [laughter] . He was from a nice family, though, and they were real nice to me. He has a sister that lives up town, and she. . . . They were all real nice to me.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

When did you first meet? How did you meet him?

VESTA FINLEY:

Well, he and a quartet was going around the whole country putting on shows: dancing and singing and monkeying-about. They came up here to Eastmere School, and they put on a show up there. I went out and bought a ticket and went with my aunt and my cousins that, you know, I was making my home with. We went up there, and that's the first time I ever seen him.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

Oh the stage?

VESTA FINLEY:

Yes, dancing with a woman. [laughter] And then they had a quartet; they put on a little show, you know. Then my aunt had a party, a little get-together for the visiting quartet for out-of-towners that was putting on a show, too, up here at the school. And I met him there; that's the first time I ever met him, was at her house.

MARY FREDERICKSON:

Well, did you decide to marry him right away, or was it. . . .

VESTA FINLEY:

No, it was about a year, I think

MARY FREDERICKSON:

How old were you then when you got married?

VESTA FINLEY:

Nineteen.