Full Text of the Excerpt

LU ANN JONES:

Do you ever remember people who came in and timed how fast you could work? They would come with stop clocks to see how fast you could work. Do you ever remember people like that coming into the mill?

GEORGE DYER:

She didn't have that on her job. I had it on my job.

LU ANN JONES:

What did you think of those people?

GEORGE DYER:

They were doing that to see how much the loom would produce-how many picks. That's the reason they did that.

TESSIE DYER:

I worked by the hour.

GEORGE DYER:

They'd see how many picks it would make. That was the stop clock; they do it to see how much it produce-whatever it was, make picks-how many a minute.

LU ANN JONES:

Did that make you nervous?

GEORGE DYER:

I run my job, and I knowed I'll always get another one. I never did fear about losing a job because it wasn't that important to me. The jobs I had wasn't that important. A job I had like that, I could always get another one if I go to the right place.

LU ANN JONES:

How long did you work. . . .

GEORGE DYER:

I think if you can run your job, ain't no use to be scared of it-ain't no use to be scared of the boss either. Now sometimes they don't like you like they do other people, but if you run your job, I don't think you going to be run off. That's the way I always been, and I been on different jobs, big shop mills and different other things in my life. Sometimes some boss don't like you, something like that-get it in for you. But it's the best then just to quit. Don't work under conditions like that. I didn't want to work under a man that didn't respect me. That's the way I've always been. The way it is, I think if you run your job, most of the boss men, they'll keep you. They won't push you too much if you run your job.