Little difference between different types of sewing work
Aaron compares making gloves to sewing hose. While she recalls some differences in her personal experiences in the two positions, she does not believe that there is any substantive difference between the kinds of people who take different kinds of clothing work.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Junie Edna Kaylor Aaron, December 12, 1979. Interview H-0106. 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
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Did things bother you more in later years?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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Yes, they did me; when I got older, things would bother me more. Things
gets on your nerves sometimes when you get older. You work so hard and
get so tired, and then have to come home and do your work at home,
too.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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It's hard.
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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Yes, it's hard.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Do some people think that making gloves is not hard work?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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Well, I've heard a few say that they didn't think it was hard work, but
the biggest majority of them thinks it is, I think.
[Laughter]
But I have had some few to say that they didn't think it was
hard work, but I think they find out and change their mind a little bit
when they get older.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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How would you compare working in a hosiery mill to working in a glove
mill?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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What work I done in the hosiery mill was lots easier than working in the
glove mill.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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What about the atmosphere? Did you enjoy the people just as much?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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I did. I had friends at the hosiery mill, too, but I just hadn't worked
with them as long as I did a lot of them at the glove mill.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Which was considered a better place to work, the hosiery mill or the
glove mill?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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I don't know whether there was any difference or not.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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In pay?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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Most of the hosiery mills paid better, I think, than the glove mill did.
But it's just according to the person. I mean some people like the glove
mill better, and some the hosiery mill better. I've knowed of some
that quit the glove mill and went to the hosiery
mill or even to upholstering, and would go back to the glove mill.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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They'd find out they didn't like it.
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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Yes, they found out that they liked making gloves the best. But now, as
far as me, hosiery mill work was lots easier work than glove mill work.
I don't know that I liked it any better in a way, but it was easier work
for me at my age.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Did you ever consider working in a textile mill?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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No.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Why not? Was that not as good a job?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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I guess it was, but I just didn't, I guess because I went to work at the
glove mill when I was real young, and I just didn't think of anything
else.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Do you think those different kinds of work attract different kinds of
people?
- JUNIE EDNA KAYLOR AARON:
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No, I don't think they're any different. I guess they just went and got
that job, and then they just probably decided to stay on with it. I
don't think there's any difference in the people.