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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Nell Putnam Sigmon, December 13, 1979. Interview H-0143. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Learning to sew gloves

Unlike many textile mills where new employees had to find someone who would be willing to teach them the job, the glove factory where Sigmon worked hired women to train new employees. When she speaks of working at Conover Glove Company, she probably meant Warlong Glove Company.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Nell Putnam Sigmon, December 13, 1979. Interview H-0143. 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

What was your first day of work like?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
You know, learning. You have to learn to sew. They give you a certain time to learn. Well, you naturally pick it up the more days you're working. [END OF TAPE 1, SIDE B] [TAPE 2, SIDE A] [START OF TAPE 2, SIDE A]
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
Oh, mercy, I was eighteen. I'm sixty- five now [sixty-six].
JACQUELYN HALL:
What was the date of your birth?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
The twenty-third of August, 1913.
JACQUELYN HALL:
You were a sewer?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
Yes.
JACQUELYN HALL:
What mill was this?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
This was Conover Glove. They had an instructor that taught you.
JACQUELYN HALL:
Was that all she did?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
Yes. She taught people to sew.
JACQUELYN HALL:
Was it hard to learn?
NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
Naturally, when you sit down to an electric sewing machine that just flies when you step on the pedal, you automatically have got to learn to control the machine first.