Yeah, I talked with him. I had an experience with him one time.
[Laughter] To show you what a big man he was
(Spencer Love was a big man. Ain't no doubt about
that.)—When I was with the company in Virginia, I had orders
not to let anybody (I was on second shift at that time), not stranger in
that plant, nobody in that plant at night. They didn't have
no fence around that plant and so one night I was standing there at the
end of the weave room and I seen somebody come in the door. When they
come in the door, they seen me about the same time I seen them. He come
down the alley, he was might nigh running. He was just practically
trotting. That sort of peeved me a little bit because that some of them
smart guys in some of them mills up there was going to get in far as he
could through the mill and then if I told him to go out he'd
see what he want to see going out. Or try to. I met him and says,
"Where you going?" "I'm going down
to dope house," he says. I says, "No, you
can't go down there." He says, "Why
can't I go down there?" I says, "Because
it's against the order, aganist the rules. I got orders not
to let nobody in this plant at night." And he
Page 38 says, "Spencer Love's my
name." Just like that. Well see, he knowed and I knowed that if
he was Spencer Love or anybody connected with Burlington Mills,
he'd have a official card. They also told me that. I never
asked him to show it to me. If he didn't show it, I was going
to put him out. He says, "Yes, Spencer Love is my
name." Well I says, "I've seen Spencer Love
twice but you don't look like the Spencer Love that I
know." He didn't, the way he was dressed, and he
says, "Well, that's who I am." Well, I
says, "I'm sorry Mr. Love let's go back
down to the office and I'll call the superintendent and see
what he says." He says, "No, I've got a
card, got one right here in my billfold." But he never
attempted to pick it out. When he didn't take it out I says,
"Alright, let's go down to the office."
Then he pulled out his billfold. and showed me his card. It was Spencer
Love and I says, "All right, Mr. Love, I recognize the card.
You go ahead where you want to go." And I think to myself,
"I'll get my walking papers cause now
you'll have me fired.
About three days, he wrote a long letter and praised me to the very top.
He said that I handled that thing just exactly like I ought to handle it
and says if I'd a told him go ahead when he told me he had
that card, I'd a heard from him. But he just praised me to
the top. Now that showed how big a man he was.