White Furniture Factory as a community institution
As Hanks shares memories of her father, she recalls an earlier period in the furniture industry, when all of Mebane heard its whistle morning, noon, and night; when White Furniture Factory sponsored dinners; and when factory owners gave Christmas presents to employees' children.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Barbara Hanks, August 10, 1994. Interview K-0098. 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
Cause we lived right over here in Mebane and it was snow
and stuff and he would walk to work. He would walk to work. I thought,
man, you really love to go to work. [Laughter]
But he would. Then they had an hour for lunch. Where when I went
we didn't have put thirty minutes. So, I mean, he would come
home everyday and eat lunch. I remember more him working there, I
mean--cause he would come home and there was little tacks all in his
shoes. So we would have to get them tacks out of his shoes. And glue, he
would just bring all kinds of glue.
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
To use around the house?
- BARBARA HANKS:
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Yeah, because we'd tell him--and tape--if he didn't
have his glue and tape he couldn't fix nothing.
[Laughter]
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
[Laughter] You never went to work, though,
with your dad when you were younger, did you?
- BARBARA HANKS:
-
No. We would go, like out front, you know all them benches and stuff. We
could go so much inside the door, and we would look in. Oh, we wanted to
go and check it out, but, you know, they wouldn't let us go
in. But we'd stand out there and wait for him when he would
get off work.
The whistle, I mean, that's something in Mebane, cause at
lunch everybody could set the time with that White's whistle,
cause at twelve o'clock it went off and then at one it went
off before we'd go back to work and then in the evenings.
Cause mamma would say--I remember her be cooking-- "There goes
the whistle," and we know daddy be home soon. Everybody misses
that whistle, too.
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
Would it go off at the beginning of the shift, too, in the mornings?
- BARBARA HANKS:
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In the mornings, uh, huh, and then I think at break--it really
didn't go off like at lunch. At lunch, you know, it would
really
[makes whistle noise]
holler it out. [Laughter]
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
[Laughter] I guess you went to Christmas
parties when you were younger that the company would have?
- BARBARA HANKS:
-
No, then they didn't have--. Then they would--. I remember
when I was in high school I was in home ec, and they had a
White's dinner. My daddy worked there, and they had them a
steak dinner at the Eastern High School. I don't know if it
was for Christmas or why they had it for them, and so I got to help
serve. I mean, I was doing it for my school.
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
I see.
- BARBARA HANKS:
-
But we was doing it for White's. That was really neat serving
mamma and daddy. Well, it was a bunch of people. They had a lot of room.
They had them a steak and a salad and potatoes, a little slice of cake.
I would tell mamma and them to bring me their cake home.
- PATRICK HUBER:
-
Would they have summer picnics or--?
- BARBARA HANKS:
-
No, but I remember my father for Christmas that how many years
you've been there they get a book. They used to could pick
out--. You look through the book, and you get so many items how ever
long you've been there. I remember he could pick--I forgot
how long--anyway, he could pick out three things. That year it was my
turn cause he would take turns with me and my sisters and mamma. My
mother's still got the clocks. It's like a little
old-timey grandfather's clock. There's a smaller
model, she's still got that, too. She got that, and I
remember I got a unicycle and couldn't ride it. I forgot what
the other thing, but he would let us take turns
picking what we wanted. He never got him nothing out of it, but they
used to do that. I remember them doing that.