[TAPE 1, SIDE A]

[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

So he came here with the construction— Hughes and Folkwright [UNCLEAR], I believe—company that worked on building the plants.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You came here from some other town?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Washington County. Abingdon, Virginia. There was a lot of people that worked there maybe a year or so before I went to work there. And I wasn't old enough to go to work, but I told them I was older.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were supposed to be sixteen before you could start, weren't you?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. The fence is still around it, I suppose. Everybody just at the gates standing there, and the foremen would come out and hired the ones they wanted to work. But then later on they had the personnel office, so everything went through personnel. But at that time, at the very beginning, they didn't have it. You just went down to the gate, and the foremen would come out to the gate and look over the crowd [UNCLEAR] and say, "I'll take you, and I'll take you," like that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you make them think you were older than you were?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I just told them I was a year older than I was. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were fifteen at the time?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. But they didn't care. They could have looked at me and told that. If they had wanted to really know, they would have known better.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I guess you don't know Effie Parson, but she went to work down there one summer when she was fourteen, and she was telling us that she took high heels with her down there and put on high heels.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Looked a little older?

JACQUELYN HALL:

Yes. [Laughter]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I was a little old runt, and I didn't weigh more than a hundred pounds, and anybody could have looked at me and told that I really didn't look as old as whatever I was. You know, if you're built robust and big and tall, you just sort of fudge a little better on your age when you're young. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where did you say you were born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Here in Elizabethton.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What year were you born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

1912.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How come you went down there to get a job?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It was about the only thing there was around here to do at that time. And I just wanted to go and get a job; I don't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did your parents do for a living?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

My daddy did different things, but mostly he was a cook.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where was he a cook?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

This part of the country had no electricity at that time, as far out as up here. This wasn't town then; this was farmland. But right in town, just through Elk Avenue and Main Street and right in the heart of it, they had electricity. He worked with the power company putting in lines (rural electrification), and he was the cook for them. And then he cooked at restaurants. I don't know how long the power crews would stay out; I was little. They'd go out and stay and work [UNCLEAR], too. I suppose they had tents; I don't know about it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have brothers and sisters?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I have two sisters. One lives in [UNCLEAR]. I have one that lives on Main Street, and she went to work down there real young, too.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was she older than you?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, she's younger than me. She kept a-digging away until she got herself up till she . . . She worked in two or three different departments. She was secretary and treasurer of the union for a good many years. She had it a long, long time. Anyway, it looked to me like she'd worn her welcome out long before they quit electing her. [Laughter] Then she went to personnel and worked in the personnel office.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you the first of the kids to get a job?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. My youngest sister never did work till she was out of high school, and then she worked at personnel. Hannah worked at Pennye's, too. I don't know how it come. I wasn't working down at the plant that time, but I did some store work myself about '45, after . . . You see, they just would not have us back down there after the strike. We never did get called back. But they called me. They needed people in 1935, so I went back to work down at the plant.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you went down and just were out in front of the building, and the foremen came out.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The gates. You can take a look at the building. It has a big chain link fence all around the property, and there's big gates. Well, they opened those gates at shift time, but otherwise I suppose those gates were closed all the time, because they would be closed when people went down there for a job, and they came out to the gate and hired you. And we made $8.96 a week for fifty-six hours.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That's not much. What did you think of that when you first started working? Did you think that that was enough to get paid?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't suppose we knew any better. I don't recall. [Laughter] It was sort of, I guess, just living from one day to the next. I imagine that'd be the best way to put it: one day to the next. But at that time there had not been much industry here. Of course, we had two chair factories and a line plant, and that line plant had been here ever since I could remember it. I think there was a furniture factory, too, but outside of that there wasn't much industry around here until the rayon plant's been here.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How long had you been working there before the strike happened?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The first time I had a job there, I worked in winding. And then I had a bad leg and I was off from work with that, but when I went back down they hired me for North American, what they called Glanzstoff. The first time I went to work, though, I was fifteen.

JACQUELYN HALL:

1927?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

As well as I can remember, I went to work on my birthday.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Which would be what day?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The second day of May. I don't remember when I went to North American to work. (They later changed it, during the War, to North American.) The wages were poor, but I guess maybe for this part of the country, and having been used to working, that we just did it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you were at the Glanzstoff plant.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I worked at both plants. At first I went to work at Bemberg, and I worked there maybe a year. But then I had a leg problem, and I was off a long time. But when I went back, see, I was sent down to North American to work. That's where I worked when we asked for the raise from $10.08 to $11.20, and we just quit work. And we'd never heard tell of a union! You see, we didn't know how big it was going to grow. It grew and grew and grew, and other departments came out. I was in inspection. And then Bemberg came out; both plants came out. There was five thousand people out. And we had asked for an $11.20 raise! [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know Margaret Bowen?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, she was the secretary of the union at that time. I don't remember where she worked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Wasn't she in inspection?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I believe she was.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Tell me what led up to all the women in the inspection department walking out. Who said, "Let's go ask for a raise"?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't remember, but we all decided in that department if they didn't give us a raise, we wasn't going to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were these all girls?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, except a few I guess you'd call them indirect boys. They made the yarn back and forth. They'd bring it to you, and then they'd take it up, and then they'd weigh it and all that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you all get together to decide that you were going to walk out if they didn't give you a raise? Did you meet after work?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, just talked about it among us. And we didn't even know what a union was. We'd never heard tell of a union. But we just decided that we wasn't going to work for this wage. But as it happened, there was a carpenter and a union man, John Penix. He called someone that he knew in the labor movement, and they came here and organized, and it was just one big mess, and they just panicked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Why did everybody else quit just because you all had quit?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They were getting the same wages, and I imagine that they decided that if we were going to quit, they'd quit, too. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you making the same wages at Glanzstoff that you were at Bemberg?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, at that time they paid a flat scale. You started out at $8.96 a week; $10.08; $11.20. I don't know whether you got past $11.20 or not.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did the women make as much as the men?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know. There wasn't many men in there, and I've never heard them say. I was talking to a woman, [UNCLEAR] and her husband, and we got to talking about that one time down at the supermarket; it's not been long ago. Lawrence Strange and his wife. How much did Lawrence say he made when he was working down there? We were laughing and talking about it. He's in real estate now. We got to talking about working for $8.96 a week, and it seems to me like Lawrence said he made $11 or $12.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Twelve, I believe.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But really, outside of Lawrence, I never did hear any man say how much they made, but I don't think they paid them more. If they did, they didn't pay them much more.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you one of the ones that went in and asked the managers to give you a raise? Did you send in a representative?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't remember that detail.

JACQUELYN HALL:

The supervisors over you were German.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, they were American, most of the people from up close by, the close counties. A lot of people worked there from Johnson City and way back up in Pogey [UNCLEAR] Did you ever hear of Pogey?

JACQUELYN HALL:

No. Where's that?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know, but I think it's the end of the world. [Laughter] One time, I think we went to Pogey. [Laughter] We wound around those mountains. There wasn't a thing on earth but just mountains with rocks sticking out. And people worked from up in Butler. Oh, just all around.

JACQUELYN HALL:

But I mean the bosses were German.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. The superintendent was at that particular time. He lived down on B Place. Shubert. No, I believe Shubert was a little step higher than a superintendent. Stanley Lacey was superintendent

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have anything else that was the cause of you walking out? Was it just wages, or was there anything else that you were unhappy about?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Just wages. We decided we wasn't going to work for that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What gave you such gumption?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

We didn't know a thing about a union. We just decided well, we just wasn't going to work for $10.08 a week.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you unhappy about the hours?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Fifty-six hours, they didn't seem to pay any attention to it. People had never been nowhere, and they'd never done anything. Maybe go to a movie on Saturday night. So I don't guess the hours made that much difference. I don't remember, except I know you'd get awfully tired.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about the rules? Bessie Edens was a section girl and then she was a forelady, and she was telling that you'd have to get a ticket from her to go to the washroom, and you could only stay for five minutes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think maybe she was there before I went there, or it was a different section.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any rules like that about breaks?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I went to the washroom when I wanted to. I went by my own rules, if you needed to go to the washroom. Oh, you worked so hard, you didn't fudge on them any.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Could you take a break or rest?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, they didn't take any breaks. They were just supposed to go to the washroom and back.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So out you walked.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did all of you walk out, the whole inspection room, every single person?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, as far as I remember, they all just . . . I don't remember who did the talking. You see, they selected the one to do the talking, and they passed the word around they was going to ask for a raise. Said, "If they don't give us that raise, we'll just quit work." And that was it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was the signal to quit?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I guess that they just said, "Come on, let's go." [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

What happened then when you walked out?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It just got in a bigger and a bigger and a bigger mess. Other people kept joining us, first from North American and then Bemberg, because everybody wanted a raise anyway, until that John Penix got in touch with somebody in labor, and an organizer came here and organized. We were arrested twice, on those picket lines. It was over here on the old State Line Road. They brought out the National Guard.

[00:20:45 - 00:29:26]

In the meantime, my daddy cooked down there at the plant during that time. Some of them stayed in there, I reckon, to take care of the machinery and things that had to be looked after, and he cooked for them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did he think about you being out on a picket line?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He never did say. He never did have anything much to say. But the men [UNCLEAR] mostly out on the picket line, but there was just as many . . . Oh, yes, we'd rally. And we had those public meetings. Now I think that's maybe what you're getting at. After Mr. Penix got an organizer here, there was an old building they called the tabernacle. And it was setting right down here where you turn out to go out by the monument. It was a huge old building, rough building. And they'd always have revivals there of visiting evangelists. So they met there, and they elected their president and so forth and their committees to meet with other people involved, like management. But that's a long, long time; that's been fifty years ago! [Laughter] It'd be hard for people to remember.

DAVE GALLIHER:

It's been so long, I've forgot all about everything. Only I do know where that old tabernacle . . . It was close by where they built that new jail.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It's right about where the new jail's been built now, or maybe a little bit over closer to the mountains.

But it was a huge building. There wasn't another building big enough to hold that many people marching, and they would march, march from the plants to town. They'd maybe meet down at the plant, and they'd all march. They didn't do anything rough. If there was any dirty work done, I didn't know anything about it. They probably did that at nights.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you say that it was mostly men that were on the picket lines, or did a lot of women join the picket lines?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Women and men, but I imagine . . . I didn't go out too much on the picket line, because where I put my work in was at the office, people joining the union.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You worked at the union office.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. The funniest thing, I was upstairs the other day, and I ran across your [Dave's] old union book, and I'd signed it. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Is that how you all met?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, we'd met before that. We were married by that time, I think. We were married just a little before I was sixteen, and he was nineteen. But I'd forgotten about that. It was before he'd joined the union, and I'd signed it. Now all the departments that I worked in, there was very few men. Of course, they had to have a few mechanics, and the indirect men that would transport. They would bring the material to you and take it away when you finished with it. And then some, like the inspection, they weighed it. And from then on, we've had a union. And it paid well for that kind of work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you think that things were better after the strike?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It couldn't have got any worse. Except for the people that they wouldn't take back. Now it was really rough on people that they wouldn't take back, and there was a lot of them they wouldn't take back.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you get involved?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I come off at eleven o'clock, and they come out on the strike the next morning, so I never did go back down there any more when they were . . . And they had me blackballed whenever I went back to work. They blackballed me and said I tore up the machinery. So I come out at eleven o'clock. I didn't know nothing about the strike until I come out. The next morning I didn't go back to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They thought that you were one of the people that went in and . . .

DAVE GALLIHER:

There was another guy that lived on up the road here [UNCLEAR] who'd been tearing the machinery up, and they thought I was the one that done it.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Mistaken identity.

DAVE GALLIHER:

They told me that I'd just as well forget about there was a plant down there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they tell you that to your face?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes. They said, "You can just as well forget about it." So I never did go back no more then.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they tell you the reason, that they thought you were . . .

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes, they said that they had me blackballed, tearing up machines. I said, "You're mistaken about that. I didn't tear up anything." I said, "I didn't know anything about the strike till the next day."

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But Dave, I believe that that was a little after, though, the one that I was in.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Well, it was.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They had one, it must have been in '28.

JACQUELYN HALL:

There were two different strikes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

There was two. But it was '29.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It was the second one that you were in.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes. So I never did go back no more. I went to work here with the city.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, he worked anything. He didn't like to work down there. I guess some men can handle that yarn, but it's awfully tedious work, and he didn't like the work no way down there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they blackball you, too?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know. They didn't ever say, but the agreement was they was supposed to take everybody back. And it was in '35 when they called me back. I'd been out six years, I guess. I hadn't worked in six years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Had you gone down there and applied?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And they just said that they didn't . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They just wasn't hiring anyone. But they was supposed to have took everybody back.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you feel about not being able to get your job back?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I didn't give it much thought, just like I didn't give it much thought when I went down there and applied for a job.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You didn't really have to work.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

We just didn't think too much about it. No, I just went down there and asked for a job when I first went to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

But you were able to stay home for six years and live just on one salary?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

You see, that ran on into the Depression years. No, neither one of us had a job. You just made out from hand to mouth.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you get by?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know how people survived. I suppose it's just your spirit or something, because I don't believe young people today could survive. We're just survivors, I guess. It boils down to that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have a garden and raise your own food?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, and he picked blackberries. I'd can a lot. If he'd get an odd job or anything, that went for . . . You'd buy . . .

[TAPE 1, SIDE B]

[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE B] [Beginning of tape inaudible]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

You worked some at the chair factory.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It went broke. You see, everything just folded up. [UNCLEAR] at the chair factory. Then they cut wages again. And then they moved the plant from here to Johnson City. He got to go to Johnson City. But by that time they had cut wages down to around $1.35 a day, wasn't it? But by combining the two together at Johnson City, they went broke. It was just during that Depression; it was just one of those things. But we just about [UNCLEAR]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any help from your family?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, very little. There for maybe two years, we lived in a house that belonged to my daddy. Now that way, we didn't have to pay any house rent [UNCLEAR] And we carried water. There was a spring at [UNCLEAR]. Because if you didn't have any utilities, [UNCLEAR] stay healthy and pay your bills. [UNCLEAR] We carried our water.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any kids?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

We had one, a girl. She lives in Jefferson City now. She's lived all over, moving around place to place. She can remember that. You had the lamps with [UNCLEAR] oil in them, kerosene. You had no utilities to pay. [UNCLEAR] you couldn't get by now without your utilities, and without a job you couldn't pay. I don't know how anybody could survive now through that, with the bills they have to pay.

[00:33:38 - 00:44:03]

[UNCLEAR]. But we had the one daughter, and the son who was born in 1944. He was laid off over at Kingsport. He was working in a lab over there at Holston Ordinance. Now he was laid off over there in '75 [UNCLEAR], and I tell you, that boy is burning up gas. He runs from town to town [UNCLEAR]. And I mean that's [UNCLEAR]. But it's work that he's not used to; it's something that he's never done, and he's never worked in a factory. It wasn't nothing new to me; it wasn't nothing new to him [Dave]. But to him, it was awful, just learning to go to work in a factory.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What doesn't he like about it?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It's just hard on him. Working on machinery is very hard. It's hard on your nerves, that is, some people's. Some people it don't seem to bother. It's nerve-wracking.

DAVE GALLIHER:

He said he's putting out 8,000 engines [UNCLEAR] in eight hours.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He [UNCLEAR], doesn't he? But he has really . . . really [UNCLEAR]. [UNCLEAR] you could fend for yourself. Now there's not much way you can fend for yourself.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do when you went back to work the second time?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I went back to work at Bemberg in winding.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was that nerve-wracking work?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. It's the pressure. You have to meet that quota you're supposed to get, and you just fight like fire to get it out [UNCLEAR] working real hard to get it out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you being paid by the piece?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It wasn't paid by the piece. You got paid so much for the forty hours, but to meet that production you'd have to put out a lot. But then when you'd get so you could make production, then they'd speed the machines up, and you'd have to work harder to come up with that requirement. And I think maybe they do it at all factories.

JACQUELYN HALL:

In about '36 they sent the CIO and the AF of L here, so they had a union.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They have AF of L now, don't they?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They had the CIO here [UNCLEAR].

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was the union able to do anything about how high the quotas were, speeding up the machines?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

By that time, you had representatives in each department. The representatives then would take it up with somebody up on the line, if they thought it was unfair. A production line is not an easy job.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was your union representative here the shop steward?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. After so many years, but not at first.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you had grievances, was the shop steward able to get those grievances . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, they usually worked them out.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ever have anything you complained about?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, unless they just put more on you to do than was . . . You know, something like that. Like if they speed up the machines and put more on you to do, why, everybody can make their complaint to the representative of that department, and then they'd have shop stewards, and they'd take it up with [someone] higher up on the ladder.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How long did you keep working there?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I worked until '46, I believe.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was the atmosphere like in the plant then, when you were working there? Was there anything that you liked about the work or didn't like about it?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It was just a humming noise so loud that you couldn't talk and if you wanted anybody to hear you, you would have to holler. But there wasn't no danger of people talking much, because it was too noisy [UNCLEAR]. So they worked.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any time for socializing at the plant?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How about lunchtime?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, yes, lunch. They had a nice cafeteria in latter years. Back in the early years when the plant first opened up, you had to take your lunch, and there wasn't anyplace to buy anything.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Somebody was telling me that in her department they had a birthday club for everybody in the department, and they would have parties.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That must have been the office force, too. I never heard tell of it. It was a different department, or the office force.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did the office force have a lot more freedom?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I think they worked pretty hard, too.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I think they'd go on top of the building to have their parties.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That was the main ones, the top Germans that were down there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They had that club.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, yes, they had the Franklin Club there, but they didn't have that club, though, right at the beginning.

DAVE GALLIHER:

They [UNCLEAR] on top of the Bemberg plant.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They had parties up there?

DAVE GALLIHER:

[UNCLEAR], because I'd go up there.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He worked there at that time.

DAVE GALLIHER:

And you'd see the beer cans and bottles and everything, [UNCLEAR] what they was doing [UNCLEAR] up there [UNCLEAR].

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But that would be the top officials. Nobody that worked on the production line would have been up there.

DAVE GALLIHER:

[UNCLEAR] where they'd been up there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was the Franklin Club just for the top officials [UNCLEAR] ?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

When I worked there the last time, you could buy season tickets to the pool at the Franklin Club, and it was open to the public for parties and things. I used to buy season tickets to swim down at the Franklin Club. But outside of that, I don't know of any [UNCLEAR] some little clique of people maybe got together at lunchtime and have a little party or a little something for their birthday; I don't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were your best friends people that worked down there, or people that were your neighbors?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You didn't run around with people very much that you worked with, after work?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. When you worked ten hours a day and fifty-six hours a week, you didn't do any running around; you rested. You might go someplace on Saturday, and that was it. Of course, when you'd go to church you'd be with the people that you'd always been to church with, and [UNCLEAR]. That's about all. Not much socializing when you worked like that. And no socializing on the job, for sure.

[00:45:02 - 00:49:29]

But I always went to the washroom when I got ready. I didn't loaf on the job, but I never had to ask. It might have been that way, though, in some departments. Each department was different. They did different things different jobs. And it could be that maybe some of them was loafers, was the reason they'd give them an excuse to go to the washroom.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you happen to go to the Southern Summer School?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I believe it was during that strike. I worked for the union, and I met a lot of people—I couldn't tell you their names now—a lot of organizers, a lot of people that was connected with labor. And this old gentleman, a Mr. Handy, was in the pressmen's union, and he paid my tuition for the Southern Summer School.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you know him? He lived around here?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, he might have come here on business. I just don't recall when I met that man, but he was a real old man, and he was interested in the labor movement. He had something to do with the Pressmen's Home in Nashville, Tennessee. He might have been on the board of directors or something. I suppose different people that was interested in the labor movement put up fellowships for each person that went. There were girls there from North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee, I believe.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know what summer it was that you went?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It must have been '29. You can tell it from my birthday. I think I was seventeen.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You all were married at that time.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you mind her going off for the summer?

DAVE GALLIHER:

No.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He went over to Marion, North Carolina, They had a big strike on over there. [Laughter] He spent the summer over at Marion, North Carolina.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know Sam Finley?

DAVE GALLIHER:

No.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I know Hester.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She was at the Summer School.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. I know Hester.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They're real good people.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, I liked her. There was another one up there from Marion. Is Hester still living?

JACQUELYN HALL:

Yes. She seems to be in pretty good health.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

And there was another one from up there at Marion.

JACQUELYN HALL:

There was a woman named Lily Morris Price [UNCLEAR], and a woman named Rosa Holland.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Rosa Holland.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Have you ever heard from Rosa Holland since then?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I believe it was Rosa that I wrote and kept up for a while. I don't believe I ever had any correspondence with [UNCLEAR], though.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was the Summer School like?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It was nice. They had public speaking, and English, I suppose. Boy, that really [UNCLEAR]. [Laughter] We had gym. But every evening, we always had group singing, and we enjoyed ourselves. We had a good time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you think about the teachers?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I liked them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they trying to teach you how to be better union members?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Just to stand up for yourself and what you felt was right. Yes, that'd be right, better union members, and to maybe take a little more part in the union.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did they encourage you to stand up for yourself?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Just say, "Well, now, you're all equal, regardless of whether it's an employer or an employee." Now I do remember that. And if you want something, ask for it. They tried to teach you how to go about it, asking for it and not be timid, especially with somebody that would be the boss or so-and-so above you. And you know, I had one foreman. I won't call his name; he's still living. He lives here in town [UNCLEAR], but he's had a rough time, too [Laughter] , ever since his wife [UNCLEAR] went down. He built himself up from a little old [UNCLEAR]; he has pretty high pretensions [UNCLEAR]. But he'd look at you; if you'd go to the washroom, he'd stand there [UNCLEAR] big bully like [UNCLEAR] you know, look, that look. He'd look at you like he could run through you. Well, I just looked right back at him. And if I wanted to go to the washroom, I went to the washroom, [UNCLEAR] If you know what I mean.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. You'd just look right back.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He never said a word, and I wouldn't say a word. And if my yarn was bad and I couldn't get off my production and it wasn't my fault, I'd tell him about it. He'd make an adjustment on it. But he was just the type of person that he had that look about him that would scare most people, intimidate them. There are some people like that; they may not intend to be that way.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I seen him down here a week or so ago.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But he's had a rough time. He really built himself up down there. He was on [UNCLEAR] for the plant. He sells carpet now.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you think that that experience, of being in the strike and going to the Summer School, made you less intimidated?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, it matured you enough to stand pat for your rights or what you thought was right, and then we had channels to go through to get it. At the starting of it, we didn't have any channels, only just to go down and quit. And everybody started to quit. Well, boy, that was really a mess. I don't know what would have happened if that John Penix hadn't called in a labor organizer.

[00:54:55 - 01:08:13]

But he was a carpenter, and they had a labor . . . I don't remember what they called it. Anyway, I've been there [UNCLEAR] office, and it's where different trades . . .

JACQUELYN HALL:

Central Labor Union?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, different trades would get together, and I've been up there. But I'll tell you, I never could get accomplished in public speaking.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you make any speeches?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, I tried to, but

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where did you . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

In the union meetings. I never did get that. But English and oh, yes, economics; you asked about the courses. Economics, English, and public speaking.

JACQUELYN HALL:

During the '29 strike you made some speeches?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That's what they taught.

JACQUELYN HALL:

At the Summer School.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ever think about going back to the Summer School another summer?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I never did give it any thought.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Back to the strike. Somebody told me that before the big strike of '29 when you all in the inspection room walked out and then everybody else followed, that there'd been a bunch of little walkouts, where people would then go right back.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know. The only thing I remember, there was two strikes, and I believe one of them must have been in '28 and one in '29.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Mr. Galliher, what did you do over in Marion that summer?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Oh, I just laid around over there with that bunch who was out on strike.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were just helping them?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How come you happened to go over there?

DAVE GALLIHER:

They wanted a bunch of us to go over there, so I just loaded up and went on with them.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think it just sounds funny, their loading up and going on with them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

The reason I asked if you knew Sam Finley was because he told me that he got in a car with somebody named Roy Price, and they came over to Elizabethton to get some people to come over and help them organize American.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, he went over there. And then more or less, I guess, these fellows up. I don't know about that.

DAVE GALLIHER:

[UNCLEAR]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

And he is Hester Finley's husband.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was the strike in Marion a lot like the one in Elizabethton?

DAVE GALLIHER:

[UNCLEAR] like it was here.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It was a textile mill, wasn't it?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That one ended up with all those people getting killed. Were you around there then?

DAVE GALLIHER:

There was a lot of them got killed while I was down there.

JACQUELYN HALL:

There was a good bit of violence during the strike here. I don't think anybody got killed.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't think so.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Mac Elliott's house was blown up. Do you remember that?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't remember that.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I do.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Was that up 23?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, yes, and somebody shot Dr. Wood.

[TAPE 2, SIDE A]

[START OF TAPE 2, SIDE A]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They always accused John Penix of shooting him.

DAVE GALLIHER:

He'd been shot through that strike some way or another, and accused John Penix of doing it. He was against the union.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

There was a lot of people that was against the union, doctors, stuff like that. But Sheriff Moreland was always fair to the union, wasn't he?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes, he was.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But, on the other hand, I don't know how come the National Guard would be called out. I had forgot about that violence.

DAVE GALLIHER:

They brought us in without force.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

We were out on picket duty. We walked off and left them.

DAVE GALLIHER:

In front of the jail, we just walked off and left them. They didn't take us in; they just brought us down there.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The captain of the Guard was a man we knew, Bob Johnson. He had his car full, and he drove us down to the jail. And he did it purpose. He got out of the car and went inside, and we just got out and left. [Laughter]

DAVE GALLIHER:

Whenever he come down there, he said, "Now go get out [UNCLEAR]."

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

He just got out and went in the jail, and there we were, sitting in the car. We just got out and left.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Had you been up at Valley Forge blocking the roads?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes, we went there.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't think the road was blocked, was it? It seems like there was a bus involved in that, Dave.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Somebody shot through a bus a time or two up there.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But you see, the people who lived up in there, such little bit of money that they made was all clear, because they were all farm people, and they had their own living. And people that lived right here in town, you see, if they came in here—which it did bring a lot of people in here that stayed here over the years—they had to pay board or rent and set up housekeeping and live off of that. But, you see, the people that lived out on the farms didn't have to work.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So were they more likely to be strikers than the people who were in Elizabethton?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know, really. It's been so long, I couldn't tell you the straight of it. It might just give you an outline of what you want to know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was there some sense that the people along Stony Creek were real sympathetic toward the strike, and the people on Roan [UNCLEAR] Mountain were, but then the people maybe out some other direction weren't? Were there any divisions, like certain areas where people were more sympathetic?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't think so, because people had worked at the plants from all over. I don't think there would be anything like that in different areas of the county, because most of them, regardless of where they lived in Carter County, they worked at the plant. But the people in town didn't have only that paycheck to live on, where the people that lived out in the country had their living; they made their living at home on the farm.

JACQUELYN HALL:

In the inspection room, where you were working before the strike, were they mostly real young girls working there?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, mostly young people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they boarding in town?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

A lot of them did. A lot of people kept boarders. But I don't know how it was. I never did live in a boarding house, but I think maybe they just doubled up and crowded up and lived in those boarding houses. There's not any boarding houses that I know of anymore.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I wondered if the girls who worked there had gotten to be good friends by all living together in the same boarding house.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They might have. I wouldn't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where were you and Dave living at the time?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

We lived down on Main Street. Urban renewal tore that house down. But my sister lives down there at 411 South Main, and my mother still lives there. We lived down there on South Main Street at that time, but we didn't have to pay any rent. I just don't know how we could have been survivors if we hadn't had a shelter, but we had a shelter. And then that was tough, to provide the necessities. It was really tough. No, I just don't see how young people could be survivors nowadays, not unless they'd just go out and camp. And that's about the way we lived [Laughter] , about like camping.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were some of the workers really strong in favor of the strike, and some of them really against it?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I guess you'll always find a certain number of people that would be against things. Oh, yes. Now you mentioned violence. I suppose what caused that violence was that they brought strike-breakers in here— I don't remember where they came from—who would work at the plant. I don't know how they got them, unless they advertised for them, but they brought people in here that went to work, and of course that took the jobs of the people that were striking. But they got to keep those jobs, and they got the benefits of what the other people were striking for. And it's always been that way, and it'll always be that way. And then there's a lot of people down there that doesn't belong to the union. I guess when the thing went broke . . . But I'd help out some over at the union office, maybe a week at a time, when they'd hold election or something like that. But even then it wasn't 100 percent; there was a lot of people working there that didn't belong to the union. But they had the union, and the majority, I suppose, did belong. Yes, I think people benefitted from it. At least they got a living wage, and in the past few years, since I worked there last in 1946, I think they do about as much as anybody would on a paycheck.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How come you quit in 1946?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I had just had this boy, and a boy is different from a girl, and he's so demanding.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who had been taking care of him while you worked, right after he was born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

His sister took care of him in the summertime. And my mother, my grandmother. But he was so demanding. In the summertime, though, she [daughter] looked after him; she was so much older than he was. And when she was little, I'd pick her up at school when I'd get off. By that time, we got off at three o'clock. And they did start a shift that you'd come off at two o'clock. But I would pick her up at three, and we'd go to the movies. Of course, I'd be beat to death from beating on them machines. And that way, I'd get rested.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You'd rest at the movie?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, and she'd enjoy the movies and getting to go somewhere with me. And then we'd stop at the store and get our food and come on home and cook it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That sounds nice.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, it come out real well with her. But now him, I couldn't have done that. He's just so much different from her.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When was she born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

She was born in 1930.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You had a pretty small family. Well, your mother only had three kids, didn't she?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

There's three of us.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Had you decided just to have two kids?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. Well, there was a premature [baby who died] before David was born. [Interruption]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Tell me a little bit about your mother. What is she like?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

She's just a scrapper and a worker. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

What do you mean, "a scrapper"?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, the neighbors laugh and say things, which is really true, you know, but they get a kick out of it. One gentleman that lived down there said, "Well, you could turn Cozette loose on top of Lynn Mountain with a pan and chickens, and she'd make a living." [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Maybe that's where you got your ability to survive.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, I don't know. I know we had a tough time surviving.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you were growing up, did you have a hard time?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, my daddy always had a job. My mother always stayed at home, but she worked. She did all that canning, had a garden. Anything that needed fixing, she'd fix it. She'd sew; she'd cut her hair; if her shoes needed fixing, she'd fix her shoes. I'm going to have to see if she's able to fix my shoes. I can't afford to go down to the shop.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Is she still in good health and living by herself?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. She's in good health considering her age, but a lot of things she doesn't know what you're talking about. She's just getting feeble.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did she take in boarders or do anything like that?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. Well, one girl which was a distant relative came from Shell Creek down here after she got out of high school, and she stayed with Mama. But her parents wouldn't have turned her loose in town without an older person over her, and Kathleen stayed there several years, didn't she?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I think she stayed there two or three years.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Outside of that, I don't remember anybody else that she kept as a boarder. And that was back when money was scarce, and a girl was lucky to get any kind of a job. Why, she just worked at the ten-cent store, didn't she?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I think it was.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Our daughter worked at the ten-cent store when she was in high school. She worked Wednesday afternoon and all day Saturday, about ten or twelve hours, and she got five dollars for it. She laughs about that yet. You know, she's inclined to be like us; they have plenty, but she's not wasteful. Her husband's like that, too. You can't be a spendthrift and accumulate.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did your mother have any feelings about you being involved in the strike and the union?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

If she did, I didn't know it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were living away from home by then.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, yes. I think maybe she was quite worried, though, when, I believe it was during the forties, that Bemberg started sinking down there. Huge holes would just wash out from under it. They kept trucks going day and night hauling cement and gravel, filling up those holes. And you know, I didn't give it a thought, and I'd go on down there and put my shift of work in. I didn't give it a thought that I was in any danger, but it could very easily, just the whole thing, went right down in the ground. How long did it take them to fill that up?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I don't know. They was there for . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It must have been a honeycomb back under that land, because there's a river at the back of it.

DAVE GALLIHER:

They hauled cement in all those holes for days and days.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Day and night, cement and rock to fill up that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I guess they finally got it filled up.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, but since it's been abandoned, if anything was to happen to it nobody'd know it. I mean they wouldn't be able to fix it up. But it really cost that company something to do that. It was just such huge amounts of it that went in there, and that rock and gravel and cement's expensive.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you happen to get a job with construction, building the plant? What were you doing before that?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I just went down there, and they wanted to know if I wanted a job, and I told them yes, at public work. [UNCLEAR]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, his brother was the foreman, I think. [Laughter]

DAVE GALLIHER:

In the Bemberg he was a foreman, but on the construction he wasn't.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, he wasn't with construction.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What construction company was that?

DAVE GALLIHER:

That was Hughes and Folkro [UNCLEAR].

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It may be folded up by now. That company may be nonexistent.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did people think when they first started building these plants and when the plants came in? Were people real happy to have the plants built?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think they just took it as a matter of course. People in this part of the county back at that time had always just took things as they come, as a matter of course. It was just a way of life. I don't guess they thought it would change their life much. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

But once they got in, they weren't very dissatisfied.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I never did hear anyone say that they were dissatisfied with the plants being here, did you, Dave?

DAVE GALLIHER:

No.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

But I think it was a bad thing, though, when the War broke out and the government took the plants over. It never did do as well after that. I guess it was mismanagement; I don't know.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What changed?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The Bemberg and the Glanzstoff plant was German-owned. They brought their own German people over here to supervise it, and [they] stayed on. Then when the Second World War came up the government took it over, because it was owned by the Germans. I don't know why, unless they was afraid that there might be something manufactured down there that would be toward the War effort. But anyway the government took it over and they run it, but it went from bad to worse.

[01:19:22 - 01:23:52]

Now I tell you, German people are smart. I'm a descendant of Germans. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

What do you know about your ancestors?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

My grandfather was a very silent type of person. He never talked much, but one thing he always did, if you didn't have but very little on the table, he'd always say grace. I think he was born in Germany, or else his dad was born in Germany. I know my mother was on one of those quiz programs in Johnson City during the Second World War, and they asked her what her name was and she said, "Hinkle." They said, "You know, they have a manufacturing company of Hinkle in Germany. Are you any relation to them?" [Laughter] You know, just a little old man on the street probably done that. But Mama can pick a banjo; she can pick a guitar. She taught herself. She made her first banjo when she was a little girl. She's just a self-sufficient person.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did your daddy play any instruments?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She didn't learn it from her parents? Did they play?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. She just learned it herself, and she made her first banjo out of a cigar box. And I believe she told me she was about twelve years old when she did that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Amazing. Do you remember the songs that she used to play?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I can't remember. I could play all those songs myself on the organ. We had an organ. Those songs were ballads, and I'd just love to have them now, because I have forgotten them. It's just amazing, and people entertained theirself.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was there any music during the strike? Did people sing songs and play music?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think maybe our best slogan was that "United we stand. Divided we fall." [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

That's a good one.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. And I don't remember any music. Do you, Dave?

DAVE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They had a bunch of films that were made by the company at the time that show people marching and picketing. Have you ever seen those films? They're silent films.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, I was in some of those that was made, but I don't remember who made them, whether it was the union or not.

JACQUELYN HALL:

But they showed a band marching in front of the parades.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They might have had it; I just don't remember. I have some old pictures here that go way back to then, but I guess I'd have to tear the house down to find them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You don't remember anybody that at the rallies would play music or any songs that people would sing?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. We'd just have a meeting over there at that building that they called the tabernacle. It was a crude building; the seats were just planks nailed together. But it would hold a huge crowd, and I'll tell you, it was always full. And I don't remember any music or anything that they had, do you, Dave?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I don't think they had any music over there. They might have had sometime when we weren't there.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Fifty years is an awful long time to remember.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was there any feeling at the time that it was sort of unusual for all these girls to be out on the picket line and taking such an active role in things?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

That they should stay at home?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Not that I know of. It was just their right, and they wanted a raise, and that was what they were after. [Laughter]

DAVE GALLIHER:

There wasn't near as many of the women as there was the men. Of course, there was several women, but still there was . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, now, I'll tell you, Dave, all those textile departments were women, most of them.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I know they was, but the places I was at, there wasn't no women at all.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, you went places that we didn't go. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

You mean during the strike?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

You went places that we didn't go. They had big dark secrets, I think, the men did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And you didn't even know what he was doing?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you ask?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. It didn't dawn on me to ask. You know, you just go on about your business.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you know that secret things were going on?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

At the union office I'd hear some of them whispering around a little bit once in a while, "We went so-and-so last night."

I didn't really know that much about it, only just I caught on, catching on to it.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So since 1946 you haven't worked anyplace?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You raised your kids and took care of your house.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you like that better than you did trying to work and take care of the kids?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, I did, because it's too much to work and raise children, and it's hard on the children, too. But I've been with David most of the time since he's been born. See, I took a leave of absence when he was born. Paula was five years old when I went to work the second time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Oh, you stayed out for five years?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You went back in '35?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, she was five years old.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you were working, did you do all the housework and the cooking, or did you share it?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Of course, he always helped. He'd help to do what needed to be done. But it was rough going. And Paula was always such a good little girl. When I went back to work and her five years old, I was so surprised. The first shift I worked three to eleven. I came in that night, and she'd washed her panties, her hair ribbon—she had long curls— and her socks and hung them on the back of a chair. She was very inventive at five years old. [Laughter] It was sort of a ladderback chair, and she'd wrapped her hair ribbon around the post, and it didn't have to be ironed. You know, at that time you had to iron everything. And she just started doing little things like that. She's thoughtful; she's still that way. She's very thoughtful. She's always bringing us something. This house is junked up with new stuff that she's brought here, appliances and things like that. The kitchen's too small to use them. But Mama's always had a garden, and she sewed. If anything needed fixing, she'd fix it. And a lot of things that didn't need fixing, she'd fix it. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you feel like you took after your mother or your father more?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know. That'd be hard for me to say. Sometimes I think I've took after him, because sometimes I'm so silent and quiet, and I can remember him as being a quiet man. And my grandpa was a quiet man. They didn't have much to say. Sometimes I get carried away and I talk too much, so I guess I take that after my mother. [Laughter]

[TAPE 2, SIDE B]

[START OF TAPE 2, SIDE B]

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

What kind of a judge is he, Dave? He's Circuit Court? Hill.

DAVE GALLIHER:

On the Circuit Court.

JACQUELYN HALL:

His mother is somebody you used to work with?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I used to work with his mother, Nell Hill, winding at Bemberg.

JACQUELYN HALL:

In '29 or in '35?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I suppose it was in '35.

JACQUELYN HALL:

This Lawrence Range?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Lawrence Range and his wife, Selma.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they working there in '29?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, they worked there real early. I think Selma was working there about '27, anyway.

DAVE GALLIHER:

Where do they live at now?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know where Lawrence lives. I get the impression they live out in the country somewhere.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You see them at church, did you say?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What church do you go to?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The First Christian Church.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would they be in the phone directory?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. Let's look it up and see.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were either one of them involved in the strike?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't know whether they were or not, do you, Dave?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I don't know.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They might have worked right along through it.

DAVE GALLIHER:

There was so many that you couldn't . . .

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

You know, it was 5,000 people out down there at one time.

DAVE GALLIHER:

It's hard to keep up with that many.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

And when you work with different people from year to year, you just don't remember. You look. Sometimes I can do better than others. My eyesight's bad.

DAVE GALLIHER:

After I left from down there, I stayed with the city thirty-nine years.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do with the city?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Drive a truck.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they blackball people so that people couldn't even get any kind of other jobs in the area, and they had to leave altogether?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Just where you was working there at the plant.

JACQUELYN HALL:

"Lawrence Range, 513 Broad Street." Here's another one, "Rural Route 4."

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That's where he lives. At Broad Street is his place of business.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What does he do?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Real estate. Lawrence is in bad health. I wonder if he's got a boy that's running that now. I went to school with Lawrence.

DAVE GALLIHER:

That's his boy who has got that real estate business down on Broad Street.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I have an idea that Lawrence is retired and doesn't do anything, because his health is not too good. I worked with Judge Hill's mother, Nell. She's a mighty fine person.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do these two names ring a bell, Jackie Rose and Dorothy Stone?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

I saw their names in these old issues of the newspaper, that they were in the union. They worked in the reeling department.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know anything about Margaret Bowen, where she was from?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I believe she was from Sweetwater, Tennessee.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was she doing here, working in the plant?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

She just came up here and got her a job, I suppose.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was she one of the spokesmen, one of the people that did a lot of talking?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, she was the first secretary that they had.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What about Lucille Ratcliffe?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Evelyn Heaton. She got run over during the strike. Do you remember that?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I don't remember it, but I knew Evelyn Heaton. You remember Evelyn Heaton, Dave? That's the girl that your brother dated.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She worked in the plant?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. Where was that girl from, up about Butler, up in the mountains?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I really don't know, Christine. I think she was.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I wouldn't even know what her married name would be.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How about somebody that they called "Texas Bill", a girl?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Who was "Texas Bill"?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I don't know, Christine. They called her "Texas Bill." Now she come in here from somewhere else; I don't know. She wore clothes just like a cowboy all the time.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Did she come here during the strike?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was she one of the ringleaders?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Maybe she was an organizer.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I don't know what she was. She just like a cowboy.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I thought when she said "Texas Bill" that she was probably talking about Bill Donnelly.

DAVE GALLIHER:

No.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That was a woman that acted like a man, sort of rough, mannish ways about her.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was she somebody that was involved in the strike?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't think so. There was a lot of nice people worked down there, and there was a lot of rough people worked down there. I suppose you'll find that anywhere you go.

JACQUELYN HALL:

In '28 and '29 when you were first working down there, were the people kind of divided into the nicer people and the rougher people then, or did they get rougher in later years or the other way around?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I suppose it was just about equalled up, because you'll always run into some people like that. See, that's what my son can't take about working in a factory. Oh! He just go on. I say, "I know, David, I know. I've worked with all kinds." And "Oh, you don't know what they do." [Laughter] He'd always been used to working with a nice group of people. He'd worked nine years over at Holston Ordinance, and he was laid off over there. He got a job over there right after he came out of the Army. And he liked the job, except the trip; he drove back and forth to Kingsport every day.

JACQUELYN HALL:

John Penix is not alive, is he?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Oh, no, he was an old man then. Anyway, he got the credit for shooting Dr. Wood.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were you raised in the First Christian Church?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How far did you go in school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The first year of high school.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When you decided to quit school and go to work, did your mother or father want you to keep on going to school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

They didn't say anything.

JACQUELYN HALL:

They don't sound like they were very strict parents, or were they?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, you didn't go anyplace. It'd be hard for somebody your age to understand that. Everybody stayed at home. They had work to do. There was little jobs that kept everybody busy.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have chores to do when you were a kid?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do around the house?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I always had to keep the lamps clean and filled up. I had to do the dusting, wash the dishes. And then in the spring when we housecleaned, which I think of so much as I get older, we had to take a feather and put it in kerosene and go around every little tiny hole about the bed and the bedsprings. After they were washed and swept and scrubbed, we had to do that, me and my sister. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just to be sure every little crack was clean?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I guess Mama had chickens; I have an idea that that's where she got her feathers. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did the two of you meet?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Well, now, this I'd hate to admit, but I have seen it on TV lately. You know you asked what there was for entertainment. They had medicine shows. Now you're going to get in deeper. [Laughter] I saw on I believe it was the South Carolina program this older man; he was still in the medicine show business.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Oh, yes, there's a medicine show that comes around Pittsboro.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Anyway, it was at a medicine show. Mama and my sister and I were there. Usually, maybe a family or two would get together and go someplace like that. It was over on Elk Avenue where those buildings are; I just don't know which one. But it was a vacant lot at that time; there used to be houses through there. And he said, "Let me take you home." I said, "Well, I don't know you." [Laughter] And that was the first time I ever saw him, and so I don't remember how we really did get together. But the first time I saw him was at a medicine show. Now that'll make interesting reading, but I wouldn't want the people around here to know. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you decide to get married? Did he ask you?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Would he come over to your house to visit?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Just kind of court you.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. Or we could maybe take a ride in his T-Model. And if it was a trip, Mama went with us.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did he have to go in and ask your father's permission [to marry]?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. I told you, we're sort of independent people.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You just decided to get married.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Just do it on your own. You do; you do it. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you get married at the justice of the peace or at a church?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

It wasn't at a church; it was at a preacher's house.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You were really a young girl when you got married, weren't you?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes, but people just don't give much thought to the more serious things. And at that particular time, people didn't know it. They just did what come naturally. [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know your father's father?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was his name?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

James Hinkle.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know when he was born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I can sort of guess at it. It's been about fifty-one years since he died, and he was ninety-seven years old when he died.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know where he was born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Or how far he went in school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What he did for a living?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. He never did do anything after I knew him. He had been married three times. [Laughter] My daddy was by the last marriage, and he had two sisters. And as Mama always put it, "He'd marry again if he could have found anybody to have him." [Laughter]

JACQUELYN HALL:

What was his last wife's name? Did you know her?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, she died before I was born, but that was my grandmother, Jane Chambers.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know how old she was when she died?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You don't know when she died?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Maybe in 1911.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know where she came from?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Up around Elk Park, North Carolina, I believe.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you know your grandparents' names on your mother's side?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I knew my grandmother, and she had been married two or three times. She was Nellie Blackburn, but she was a Deloche [UNCLEAR] when she died; she was a widow.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know somebody named Sweetie Deloche?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Is she related?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Sweetie's husband probably would have been maybe a cousin or something to him.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So your grandfather's name was Deloche?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, my mother's father was a Blackburn.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You don't know where Nellie Blackburn was from, do you?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Somewhere in North Carolina. So was her mother.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did James Hinkle come from North Carolina?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't know where he came from.

JACQUELYN HALL:

He's the German side.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes. I don't know where he came from.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did I get your father's name?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No. Virgil Randolph.

JACQUELYN HALL:

And your mother?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Cozette Blackburn.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know when they were born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

My mama was born in 1897, and I think he was ten years older than her, which would have made it 1887.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know where they came from?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think my daddy was born here in Carter County.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How far did they go in school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

About fifth grade, I guess.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you know when they got married?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No, I don't.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have two sisters and no brothers?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

No brothers.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What were your sisters' names?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I'm the oldest. Ina Nell's next, and then Hannah Bell. She goes by the name of Hannah; she dropped that "Bell."

JACQUELYN HALL:

When were they born?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Ina Nell was born in 1914. Hannah was born in 1923.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Both in Elizabethton?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you all have just been in Elizabethton all your lives.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they go to high school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

The youngest one did, and then my other sister took a correspondence course; then she passed the high school test.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they ever work outside the home?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Both of them worked, but Hannah hasn't worked since she married.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It was Hannah that did work at Bemberg for a while?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Hannah worked at personnel, and the other one worked at personnel, but Ina Nell worked at Bemberg in different departments until she went . . .

JACQUELYN HALL:

They're both still alive?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

[Yes.]

JACQUELYN HALL:

Is your real name David?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

When were you born?

DAVE GALLIHER:

1908.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Where were you born?

DAVE GALLIHER:

Abington, Virginia.

JACQUELYN HALL:

How did you get down here?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I just wandered off down here, is all I can tell you.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

His daddy came here first and got a job with the plants.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I was working in West Virginia whenever I come down here, and so I just drifted off down here.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What were you doing in West Virginia?

DAVE GALLIHER:

I was working for the Gibson Hill [UNCLEAR] Power Company.

JACQUELYN HALL:

So you've done a lot of different jobs.

DAVE GALLIHER:

I've done a few different things, not too many.

JACQUELYN HALL:

You worked for the power company and then for construction and then at the plant and then driving a truck for the city. What did you do at the plant?

DAVE GALLIHER:

First I was in the chemical building there at Bemberg, down in the pressroom.

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

That is, after they got it built. You first went to work as a construction worker.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What year did you all get married?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

I think it was the last day of December, 1927.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Now your children. What's Paula's last name now?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Simmerly. And David Randolph. My husband is David B.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did they both graduate from high school?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Yes.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did David go on to some other training?

CHRISTINE GALLIHER:

Just what he had in . . .