Cameraderie at a textile mill
Lela remembers her job at a textile mill. She loved her work, largely because of the cameraderie at the mill, a sense of family that extended out into the wider community as well.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with J. D. Thomas and Lela Rigsby Thomas, November 14, 2000. Interview K-0507. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- ROB AMBERG:
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Did you do a bunch of different jobs in the mill?
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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I was mostly chief inspector on all the patches that were made. They
more or less came by me, and I would okay them and send them out to the
customer. That's what I did.
- ROB AMBERG:
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Did you like that?
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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I loved it; I really did.
- ROB AMBERG:
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Did you work with some good people?
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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Oh yes. It was like one big happy family up in this little plant on
Rim's Creek.
- J. D. THOMAS:
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Every morning she went in, she'd take them a paper, Rob.
"Well, here comes gramma with a paper!" They knew
that. And she also made the coffee for them.
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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I was the first one there, and I'd make a big ole'
urn of coffee for everybody that came in.
- ROB AMBERG:
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You talked about it being like a family. Did you all do things together
also? Were there company parties?
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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Oh yeah, we had dinners and parties and all that. We enjoyed that. We
knew each other just like one big family.
- ROB AMBERG:
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Are you in contact with any of those people still?
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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Yeah, I have spent a little—we'd call each other
and meet each other at Rose's.
- J. D. THOMAS:
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Most of the time we go to Rose's on a Wednesday afternoon,
and we'd see anywhere from four, five, six or to dozen
people. That is senior citizen's day at Roses. [Laughter] Or Hardy's, or what
have you.
- ROB AMBERG:
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So there's places that you go? And you'll hook up
with folks, just knowing that they're going to be there?
- J. D. THOMAS:
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You was talking about people getting along with people. You did not have
to lock doors back in those days when we were growing up. Everybody knew
everybody. If Rob Amberg broke a leg and could not work, all the
neighbors would gather around and do all of his work for him until he
recuperated. That's the same way, when you go to all these
plants and all like that. People sharing and being each
other's brother's keeper.
- LELA RIGSBY THOMAS:
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As a matter of fact, this plant that I retired from, I was always going
in and making everybody laugh. When I left they said, "Oh, this
is like a morgue. Why don't you come back? This is like a
morgue since you left!" I even gave the manager a fit doing
things to make him laugh. [Laughter] We
had a real good time.