Full Text of the Excerpt

ROBERT COLE:

I was in ever bit of that strike, () tell the truth about it. But I was never out on picket duty. I come home one time and they had the bus stopped on Stoney Creek, they even took one for me for that. Said I kicked a fellow and I didn't do it. My brother-in-law was the one that done the kicking.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why was there so much fighting during the strike?

ROBERT COLE:

I don't know, just cross up somewhere I reckon. I wasn't in none of the fights.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did your mother feel about all of you being involved in the strike?

ROBERT COLE:

She was for the strike, too.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about your neighbors and friends?

ROBERT COLE:

They was for it, too. There was a few up there that was against it. Everybody knowed they was working us for nothing.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about the merchants in town? Were they for it or against it?

ROBERT COLE:

Lady, there was some for it and some against it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would you say that the people most active in the strike were people that lived in a certain place, like people from Stoney Creek?

ROBERT COLE:

They was from Stoney Creek, Gap Creek, Rone Mountain. They was from everywhere. There was people that came from Bristol, but they stopped that bus.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did the strike finally come to an end?

ROBERT COLE:

Well, they got less hours, and they got a little raise. Course, there were people that went in there that took our jobs, a lot of them. I didn't go back to work, and I know several that didn't go back to work. I had a first cousin go in and take my job. He done the work that two of us was doing.