This was Glen Raven Cotton Mill. In the late twenties when we first came
out here, the average worker in Glen Raven Cotton Mill would make less
than eleven dollars a week.
Page 42 I don't remember
exactly what it was. $10.87 or something close to that. Of course, the
weavers would make a little more and the boss men made a little more.
But it seems to be that there was just one set wage for ordinary work in
the cotton mill. That was for working five and a half days, ten hours a
day, five hours for the half a day. Some of the mills probably—well, I'm
sure that the mills, say Plaid Mills and Mayfair—it wasn't Mayfair then,
the Elmira cotton mill—they paid a little better wages than Glen Raven.
Of course it wasn't a great deal more. Then as time went on the Japanese
stopped letting us have silk and nylon was developed. And opening up in
Burlington and other places were nylon hosiery mills. Mills that made
nylon hosiery for ladies, and they just took the place of silk. Silk
never did come back. But a knitter in a hosiery mill, a nylon hosiery
mill, would make twice the wages or more that a weaver would make in a
cotton mill. All the young men wanting to go into mill work would go
into the hosiery mill.
Back in the earlier days there probably was more class distinction among
people than there is today because a man doing ordinary work in a cotton
mill, making less than eleven dollars a week—he had probably enough to
pay rent, buy him a little something to eat, a few clothes, and that was
about all. Of course, he was probably looked down on somewhat. He didn't
associate socially with the boss men or the owners of the mill, who were
in a different class. Over the years that has been eliminated a whole
lot because of the equalization of wages. People working in the mills
now make
Page 43 a good living wage, and they drive as
good as automobiles as anybody.
[Recorder is turned off and then
back on.]
Probably one of the reasons change came about in our operation… The
supermarkets opened up and they sold for cash and they advertised some
items cheaper than we could sell them, or cheaper than we could buy them
for sometimes. Things they call "loss leaders" that they would entice
our customers on. It got to be, the development started that our
customers would buy these loss leaders, then would buy some other things
too as time went on. Then they would come back to us and have a little
stuff charged. Of course, we tried to pick out the customers that were
good pay. Those we were aquainted with and those we knew. If there was
sickness in the family, hardship, somebody lose a job and had to be out
of work for a while, we would extend him credit a little longer. Our
policy was, to our customers, that your payday is my payday. We carried
some accounts for a week, some for two weeks, and some for even a month.
Just making our customers' payday our payday. As long as they would
cooperate we would go along with that. But when they started going to
the supermarket too much and just giving us the left-over, it got where
we couldn't operate and make expenses. So we decided to phase it out.
And that's what we've been doing now.
[Recorder is turned off and then
back on.]
I can remember back in twenty-seven and twenty-eight—I was a young man
then—going uptown and doing my courting. I'd
Page 44 go
down on Sunday afternoon, and when suppertime came I'd go uptown to a
weenie stand. It's now known as Zack's. I don't know whether it was a
New York weenie stand in those days or not. There was one up there, and
I don't know whether Zack's developed from that or not. But I would go
up there and eat my supper. I would get me two hot dogs or two cheese
dogs and a chocolate milk for a total of fifteen cents. And there was no
tax. Of course, they got right much business for working folks going up
town. They could stand a five cent hot dog, or a five cent chocolate
milk or a five cent drink of some kind. Along about this same time, in
west Burlington, on Trollinger Street, there was a popular cafe known as
Brown's Cafe. They featured barbeque. They barbequed pork and served it.
They had a good business. It was mainly mill workers who patronized it.
Of course, all mill workers didn't have enough money to go there, but
some did. I graduated from high school in Burlington in 1928. We had our
senior banquet—we didn't have a prom back in those days, they didn't
allow us to belly rub sponsored by the school—so we had a banquet at the
Alamance Hotel in 1928. They served a good meal with good silverware.
Some of the boys latched on to some of the silverware. Of course, I
think they got it all back.