Della Faulkner (F)
(4:51) Mrs. Faulkner discusses her experiences working in the Sweetwater sewing factory in Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s. 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 st...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/122 |
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Electronic |
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Oral Histories Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Della Faulkner (F) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Cotton industry |
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(4:51) Mrs. Faulkner discusses her experiences working in the Sweetwater sewing factory in Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s. 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 6 of 8
Julian Losey: Let’s talk about the factory again. How many people did they have working there back then, the Sweetwater factory?
Della Faulkner: There was about a hundred in that factory there then.
JL: Who did they have? Did they have any kids working there back then?
DF: No, they wasn’t. Now in the, in the Ashcraft Cotton Mill they did have kids that worked there. But they never did down there when I worked, in the forties. They didn’t have them. I think the law, wasn’t it in ’40 or ’41 sometime, is when it come a law that they couldn’t work somebody at a certain age, but before then they, they did work children. Anybody could do anything. Carrol was a water boy down there at Ashcraft Cotton Mill. He carried water and any oil. He oiled the machines.
Joy Weekly: Was that next to the sewing factory?
DF: No, Ashcraft was back down that other way. It tells in that book, I read it a little bit, about the Wagon Factory and all them.
JL: So, do you have any, ah, any other good stories about working there? Did you have any friends at the factory?
DF: Yeah, I had a lot of friends, yeah. And a lot of them were, our husbands was in the Army and we was good friends. Belle Morton worked there and we was good friends. And, ah, the, well I can’t think of her name now, my mind’s not working good. Poseys? Yeah, Posey, she was, her husband, my husband was cousins and we talked about them a lot while they was gone. You know that, that was war time, just women, you know, all their husbands had to go nearly and, you know, left and there was just a lot of people there that, we sewed and made drawers and shirts and stuff like that. And I, and that old machine I run cut, cut my material off and sewed it up at the same time, trimmed and sewed it at the same time. My sister went to work down there, and she couldn’t take that. She just worked one day and quit after she—they put her on a machine like I had.
Rhonda Haygood: Were they good to you, to the employees?
DF: Yeah, they were good to me, yeah.
JL: How long did you work there?
DF: I worked from ’41 to ’70 for as long as they—might have been ’75; ’70 or ’75 when I quit working there. I reckon, I don’t know if they’re there now or not or I think they went out of business, now.
JW: That’s the one they bulldozed down, I think.
DF: Yeah, when Elaine, you know, was working there. It went dead then, didn’t it?
JW: Well, you’re talking about TJ’s.
DF: Yeah, well that was part of this down here. Um-hm. You know, Paul Wylie run that and his mother worked, we worked together and Paul used to be a bottle boy down there where we worked and then he, he took the, you know he got that one out there. And it’s all from this mill down here.
JL: TJ’s?
DF: Um-hm. See, Flagg-Utica, and then Genesco, and then whatever he— T.J., whatever they called him, all come from this place down there in East Florence. We used to have a, a girl that worked down there that worked before I did and she said they played when they didn’t have no work and they, they played leap frog. And she had her first check she ever got. It was just thirteen cents and she kept it. I thought that was funny. We all talked about that and laughed, cause she’d show it, she kept it all these years.
JL: What did you do when you had a break?
DF: We ate. We’d go across the street, there was a café across the street and we’d go across there and eat, and when we had a break. When I first went to work, I went to work at four o’clock, got off at twelve and we’d have our break at nine, and run and eat something.
JL: What would you get?
DF: Well, they had stew. The Porter’s run that cafe down there and they’d have good stew and we’d get that and sandwich, hamburger, hot dog, whatever we wanted. It was something.
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| title |
Della Faulkner (F) |
| titleStr |
Della Faulkner (F) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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FLCPLoral_hist122 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/122 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/122 |
| _version_ |
1782468787962904576 |
| spelling |
Della Faulkner (F)Cotton industry(4:51) Mrs. Faulkner discusses her experiences working in the Sweetwater sewing factory in Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s. 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 LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryDella Faulkner2009-5-14sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishIs part of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library collection.Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.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 6 of 8
Julian Losey: Let’s talk about the factory again. How many people did they have working there back then, the Sweetwater factory?
Della Faulkner: There was about a hundred in that factory there then.
JL: Who did they have? Did they have any kids working there back then?
DF: No, they wasn’t. Now in the, in the Ashcraft Cotton Mill they did have kids that worked there. But they never did down there when I worked, in the forties. They didn’t have them. I think the law, wasn’t it in ’40 or ’41 sometime, is when it come a law that they couldn’t work somebody at a certain age, but before then they, they did work children. Anybody could do anything. Carrol was a water boy down there at Ashcraft Cotton Mill. He carried water and any oil. He oiled the machines.
Joy Weekly: Was that next to the sewing factory?
DF: No, Ashcraft was back down that other way. It tells in that book, I read it a little bit, about the Wagon Factory and all them.
JL: So, do you have any, ah, any other good stories about working there? Did you have any friends at the factory?
DF: Yeah, I had a lot of friends, yeah. And a lot of them were, our husbands was in the Army and we was good friends. Belle Morton worked there and we was good friends. And, ah, the, well I can’t think of her name now, my mind’s not working good. Poseys? Yeah, Posey, she was, her husband, my husband was cousins and we talked about them a lot while they was gone. You know that, that was war time, just women, you know, all their husbands had to go nearly and, you know, left and there was just a lot of people there that, we sewed and made drawers and shirts and stuff like that. And I, and that old machine I run cut, cut my material off and sewed it up at the same time, trimmed and sewed it at the same time. My sister went to work down there, and she couldn’t take that. She just worked one day and quit after she—they put her on a machine like I had.
Rhonda Haygood: Were they good to you, to the employees?
DF: Yeah, they were good to me, yeah.
JL: How long did you work there?
DF: I worked from ’41 to ’70 for as long as they—might have been ’75; ’70 or ’75 when I quit working there. I reckon, I don’t know if they’re there now or not or I think they went out of business, now.
JW: That’s the one they bulldozed down, I think.
DF: Yeah, when Elaine, you know, was working there. It went dead then, didn’t it?
JW: Well, you’re talking about TJ’s.
DF: Yeah, well that was part of this down here. Um-hm. You know, Paul Wylie run that and his mother worked, we worked together and Paul used to be a bottle boy down there where we worked and then he, he took the, you know he got that one out there. And it’s all from this mill down here.
JL: TJ’s?
DF: Um-hm. See, Flagg-Utica, and then Genesco, and then whatever he— T.J., whatever they called him, all come from this place down there in East Florence. We used to have a, a girl that worked down there that worked before I did and she said they played when they didn’t have no work and they, they played leap frog. And she had her first check she ever got. It was just thirteen cents and she kept it. I thought that was funny. We all talked about that and laughed, cause she’d show it, she kept it all these years.
JL: What did you do when you had a break?
DF: We ate. We’d go across the street, there was a café across the street and we’d go across there and eat, and when we had a break. When I first went to work, I went to work at four o’clock, got off at twelve and we’d have our break at nine, and run and eat something.
JL: What would you get?
DF: Well, they had stew. The Porter’s run that cafe down there and they’d have good stew and we’d get that and sandwich, hamburger, hot dog, whatever we wanted. It was something.
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