| Summary: | (3:23) Mrs. Faulkner discusses her memories of the Great Depression in the Shoals area and her husband's work at Reynolds Metals company in the 1950s. This interview is part of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Alabama Historical Records Board, managed by the Alabama Department of Archives and History staff, using funds provided by the National Historical Preservation and Records Commission.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Della Faulkner
May 14, 2009
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
(Also present: Joy Weekly)
Clip 3 of 8
Juliann Losey: Now where did you live before you moved here?
Della Faulkner: I lived in Tennessee.
JL: And you lived there during the Depression, right?
DF: In Tennessee? Yeah, yeah.
JL: Yeah. What was, what was that like?
DF: Well now, that was rough. In the thirties? Yeah, it was rough. You know, you didn’t hardly, at that time, you know, we didn’t have nothing. And you know, the crops didn’t grow at that time. It was dry and we had a famine on top of all that, you see. And everybody was out of food almost, at that time. It was bad. Just like the Depression they say today everybody’s gonna be without, and they won’t be making anything. And it was bad back then.
JL: Were things better when you moved to Florence?
DF: Well, I was working and making a little money, you know. We had enough to live on after I come to Florence, yeah.
JL: What did you spend your money on?
DF: [laughs] Living. You know, by the time I paid my rent and bought us something to eat, that was it. What little you made at that time, you just survived. That’s what we need anyway, isn’t it?
JL: So, now, somebody in your family owned a café, is that right?
DF: Yeah, my mother-in-law, down there in East Florence, Mrs. Jones’ Café.
JL: Was that in Sweetwater, or—?
DF: Yeah, that was called Sweetwater. You know where the, down there—
Joy Weekly: Stagg’s.
DF: You know where Staggs’ is? Right—she was right by Staggs’.
JL: What did she serve?
DF: Well, she had anything, meals. She made her dinners, meals, and hamburgers and hot dogs or anything.
JL: How much would a hamburger cost back then?
DF: Ten cents. Hot dogs, you know, five cents.
JL: Did you eat there much?
DF: Well, I worked there some.
JL: Did you work anywhere else in this area?
DF: No.
JL: No?
DF: Unh-uh. I helped her out at times when I wasn’t working.
JW: Daddy worked at the Stove Foundry.
DF: Yeah.
JW: Made the Florence iron skillets.
JL: What was the Stone Factory like?
DF: Martin Stove was the name of it and they made pots and pans and things like that.
JL: And, what did your husband do there?
DF: Well, he poured steel, you know. It was heavy, what they did down there. But he got a job at Reynolds and went to work at Reynolds and then he, he was better then. He made good money over there. It helped me now, him working at Reynolds, yeah.
JL: When did he start working at Reynolds?
DF: In ’52.
JL: What was Reynolds like back then?
DF: Well it—I don’t know. It was just a good place to work. He worked in the, in the pot room over there, where it was hot. I know they didn’t work not long at a time, he read a lot over there, because they couldn’t stand the heat. And he took books and read them. And, ah, then he’d work about a—long as he could and then they’d get out of the heat. So, it was hot over there, where they worked. But he laid in there.
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