Full Text of the Excerpt

PATRICK HUBER:

Do you remember what your first day was like at White's?

BARBARA HANKS:

Yeah, weird [Laughter] because I had never worked in furniture. I started out in rub and packinq. I had to rub the furniture and sand it and make sure it was smooth, you know, shine it up, gloss it up or whatever. Let's see. I can't remember how it was. We used--. It was kind of weird cause, you know, when you rubbed the furniture you used this, like steel wool, and I thought that was really weird because you wouldn't think you'd put nothing like that on a piece of furniture. I mean, it cleaned it up. It got all that oil and stuff off of it. I learned about the different types of polish--. I learned a lot really in the time I was there that I didn't know about furniture. This is a piece of White's furniture. [Barbara is showing Patrick a piece of her furniture.] We done messed it up. The people was real nice. They help you out a lot. Really, the older ones there, you wouldn't think it, but they would help you a lot.

PATRICK HUBER:

How would they help you out?

BARBARA HANKS:

Like some of the short cuts that, you know, after a while you'll learn them, you know, how to do it better, and they would just point out things like, when I was on rubbing and packing you'd have to pull the drawers out and clean it all up and make sure it was all sanded and stuff.

PATRICK HUBER:

What other kind of short cuts would the old timers there show you?

BARBARA HANKS:

I don't know. Well, not really, I can't say they'd short cuts, they just--. I reckon you have to be there to really understand [Laughter] what I'm talking about. I ain't really thought about it. I worked there a little over a year, and then I got the final inspecting job. That was really a shock to me because I didn't think I had been there long enough. But what they was really looking for was just a normal eye, you know, instead of looking into the wood just seeing, you know, what you could just see normally. After you've been working there a while you look more into the wood than the outer. Then you could see, you know, the little nicks and stuff that a lot of people really wouldn't notice, but when you work there you notice it cause you see it everyday and stuff. I really like that. I sure hated it when they shut down. I really liked working at White's.