JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
SHENANDOAH VALLEY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Oral History Interview
with
Mary Venable
By Kristen Brady
Transcription by Kelly Keegan and Kristen Brady
Staunton, Virginia
March 22, 2007
JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY:
SHENANDOAH VALLEY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
General topic of interview: Mary Venable is a retired poultry processor. She worked in
the poultry plant for sixteen years and discusses the different work she has done on the
line, the changes over time, and her experiences.
NARRATOR: Mary Venable
DATE: March 22, 2007
INTERVIEWER: Kristen Brady
PLACE: Staunton, Virginia
PERSONAL DATA
Birthdate: 10/31/41
Spouse: No
Occupation: Retired
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Norabelle Venable was born in Staunton, Virginia, and – minus the few years that
she lived in New York – has lived there all her life. Mary has never been married,
however, she is extremely close with her family and cousins. Mary worked in the poultry
plant from 1988 until she retired in 2003.
INTERVIEWER'S COMMENTS
Mary talks very fondly of her childhood, describing school activities and her social life.
For a few years Mary moved to New York but then returned to Staunton to be with her
family and to find work. Although she had a difficult time at first, Mary eventually found
a job working at the Purdue poultry plan. Mary talks about the difficulties she faced in
the job – from dealing with transportation issues, mean co-workers, and technical issues
with the machines to the long strenuous hours, cold temperatures, and injuries that
occurred on the job. Furthermore, because Mary worked for the poultry plant for so long
she is able to offer useful information on how things have changed over time –
improvements in technology, OSHA regulations, and the growing number of Spanish
employees
KEY WORDS
Purdue, Booker T. Washington High School, Staunton, New York, Difficulty Finding
Work, Mike, Kevin, Terrance‟s aunt, Transportation, Production Line, Plant Climate,
Wing Line, Nugget Line, Charlotte Fried, Shifts, Injuries, OSHA, Turkey Side and
Chicken Side, Spanish Workers, Bridgewater, Sue Weimer, Todd, Eric, Betty Long,
Wages, Benefits, Machines, Relationship with Management, Line Leaders, Joyce, 401K,
Retiring.
Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project
Transcription of Interview with Mary Venable on March 22, 2007
at the home of Mary Venable in Staunton, Virginia.
KB: Kristen Brady
MV: Mary Venable
KB: So, I am Kristen Brady. I am from James Madison University and today we‟re
interviewing Mary Venable in Staunton, Virginia and the date is March 22nd, 2007. Um,
so, I guess just to start off, do I have your consent to be interviewed today?
MV: Yes
KB: Ok, thank you. So, I guess just to start off we are going to start off with some
biographical information, some background stuff. What is your full name?
MV: Mary Norabelle Venable
KB: Ok, and where and when were you born?
MV: I was born in Staunton, Virginia October the thirty-first 1941.
KB: And did you grow up in Staunton?
MV: Yes
KB: And I know you mentioned earlier, you lived in New York for a short amount of
time. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
MV: Well I graduated from Booker T. Washington, which is no longer. But then, um, I
stayed here for about ten years after graduation then I moved to New York where my
mother was living. And when I moved to New York I worked at, um, it was called Holly
Stores, which later turned into K-Mart and I worked there for sixteen years.
KB: Ok, and did your parents grow up in Stanton?
MV: Um-hm.
KB: And what are their names?
MV: My mother was Virginia Venable and my dad was Carl Payton.
KB: So she (pause) he took her name?
MV: Yeah, so then my mom remarried and, uh, but they split up long, when we were
kids. So he ended up living in Ohio.
KB: Ok.
MV: Then my mom moved to New York.
KB: So do you, can you tell me anything more about them taking the mom's name and
how is that in that time period.
MV: No not really (laughs).
KB: Ok, I guess current family information. You told us earlier a lot about grand-children
and cousins and stuff.
MV: I have my cousins.
KB: Ok, your cousins. so do you have, like did you or do you have a husband?
MV: No I'm not married, never been married.
KB: Um-hm.
MV: I have a special friend.
KB: Oh a spec-
MV: But um (pause) my cousins are like my children.
KB: Um-hm.
MV: But I lived with Kevin's mother. I lived with Kevin's family when they were all
born. So I was always there with them and then I moved to New York, but we still say
our family is a close knit family. We are more like brothers and sisters than cousins.
KB: Um-hm.
MV: So, um, unfortunately their mother passed when they were very young and (pause) I
think they take me as the next best thing to mom. But not taking moms place because a
lot of people will tell, different girls they'll say "I saw Kevin and his Mom" and Kevin
says "I wish you did" because they really missed her, they really loved their mother. And
their dad, he was still here. But he died, they were still young men when he died. But
Kevin had graduated, he had finished Carolina but Mitch was still going to Eastern
Carolina when he got him to move from way down there because that was so far. Then
Mitch went to George Mason. They were like, actually they were men when their father
died. And I, I've always been with them. They've always been like my children (laughs)
and I just enjoy being with them. And then when I decided to move back home and all of
my family lived in New York except one sister. She never moved away, she stayed in
Staunton. So, then our mother died in, um, '84. So I decided to move back so gradually
each one of us moved back. So we all came back to Staunton.
KB: And is it still close knit now?
MV: Um-hm, um-hm.
KB: And do all the cousins know everyone and everything?
MV: Um-hm.
KB: So it‟s like a big family?
MV: Um-hm. We have, we have both sides of my father‟s side and my mother's side. I
have one aunt left from my mother's side and one uncle. One aunt on my father's side and
one uncle on my mother's side. And every year, we um, it's in Luray. We go to Luray for
a family reunion because we like to stay close to him because he's like all we got left.
KB: Um-hm
MV: Out of the oldest set of our people when its gets any older, its starts out with my
sister and then me. We are the oldest ones. Then we have another cousin. I think she's the
oldest, then my sister, and then me. Out of our whole family of grand-children, great-
great-grand-children then great great-great-grand -children, you know, like that. But
we're still a close knit family.
KB: That's, that's a really good thing, it‟s definitely hard to find these days.
MV: Yeah.
KB: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself growing up. Like your favorite activities
around here?
MV: I love sports. I played basketball for Booker T.
[Note: Kristen Brady transcribed section above and Kelly Keegan transcribed sections
that follow.]
MV: I love school period. I was just so unfortunate that I wasn‟t born with money, and
during the time that we came along it wasn‟t like the scholarships that they have for you
and all that. If you didn‟t have the money you couldn‟t go to school, because I really
wanted to go to college. I had always wanted to go to UCLA (laughs). But I couldn‟t go
to school and that‟s the only thing coming up that really hurt me, that I couldn‟t further
my education. But I enjoyed, we used to have, during that time, it was like sock hops, (?)
hops, socials. Socials was like, we would have them at (???) Park, or maybe somebody‟s
house and you would pay like twenty-five cents or something to go and we enjoyed that.
And then I belonged to the organizations like NHA and school and student council and
we would have cook outs, parties, and we would go on trips like, they still do that now,
like to the Grand Canyons and Williamsburg and all those different places. One year we
even went to the state fair in New York. But we would have different kind of things to
raise money to sponsor these trips. But, I loved going to Booker T. I liked all my
schools. I loved my teachers. Mr. Hamilton I‟m still really close to now. Mr. Hamilton,
he‟s about one of, and then Miss Karen Scott. I think it‟s about only two teachers that
taught me are still living.
KB: What did they teach you?
MV: Karen Scott taught me French and then, um, what‟s the other one?
KB: Hamilton?
MV: Mr. Hamilton, he was science, plus he was the men‟s basketball coach. Then, I
forgot, my home economics teacher was Mrs. Helen K. Lewis, which I think now she
remarried again, but we knew her then as Miss Helen K. Lewis, but she was the
basketball coach and home-ec coach. And I see her a lot now, she lives only a block
down there from me. And Mr. Hamilton spent Sunday with us, „cause he plays the piano
and he played the piano for us at church Sunday. And I, I just enjoyed life full. I‟ve
always liked sports. And even when I was young we lived near Booker T., that‟s over on
Johnson Street. I was born on Johnson Street. We were born at home.
KB: At home? Really.
MV: Mmhmm.
KB: Were all of you born at home?
MV: Um, yes. All of my sisters and brothers were born at home, but the younger set of
them were born, but all of my sisters and brothers were born. My house is not there
anymore, they tore it down, but the one right beside it, one granddaddy lived in one, one
granddaddy lived in the other. And we were all born at home and the lady was the
midwife, was Mrs. Brickenbridge. And I even used to, after I got bigger, and she would
come, when I would see her come and I knew it was time for a baby (laughs). And she
always smelled so good, just like something fresh, I don‟t know, I guess it was the baby
smell. But she was, then my doctor was Dr. Waller, he was a black doctor, one of the
only black doctors we had in Staunton when I grew up. And we usually played up on
Johnson Hill. Then my sister was the oldest, then it was me, then I have a brother that
came next, then a cousin, that a lot of people thought we was just given some older
brother. And most people thought he was our brother, but he was really our cousin, but
we were that close. And he lives in Pennsylvania now, but he comes every summer to
visit, I think he‟s coming Easter as a matter of fact. But we just had a good time. I mean
we could hang out, play, and when we were kids we weren‟t allowed off Charleston Hill,
but we made up games. We used to, my uncle and them used to caddy, you know like for
golf. They would bring like the golf balls and clubs, so we would make holes in the yard
and play golf, because we weren‟t allowed to come down the hill and play with the other
kids (laughs). So, then we would make up games to play.
KB: Were you not allowed because your parents didn‟t want you traveling far?
MV: Well it, no, yeah that was it. But we just had to go right down the hill, I don‟t know
what it would mean to us. But, Sunday after Sunday School in church, we would come
home and change our clothes and we could go down the hill and play with the other kids.
But then in those days, you eat dinner around three, four o‟clock. Everybody sit at the
table, together, and eat. It wasn‟t no you over there, TV is on, because we didn‟t have a
TV. But I mean, radio, but everybody sit at the table and ate dinner. But we be eating,
you know, till somebody would speak up, because we lived with my grandmother and
grandfather, but my mom was there, always. But we lived with, my grandmother and
grandfather, was kind of strict on my mother and them too (laughs). So, we all lived
together. And we be eating fast because we wanted to go back
KB: And play
MV: I don‟t know why you eating like that because you‟re not going back down the hill.
And that day was finished. You know, you didn‟t want nothing to eat, you had this love
here, you looked down at everybody else and wave at them „cause they still down there
playing, but that‟s the way it was. And then we had another set of cousins that lived next
door to us, and it used to be us four, my older sister mostly, me, my cousin Ann and her
brother Jim, us four. And I didn‟t like my cousin Ann because she took my sister from
me, that‟s the way I thought, was that, she always had her first and I was kind of jealous
of her. And I used to, I was the littlest, I was the smallest, so I used to do like bad things
to her. One thing I used to do really bad, I used to spit on her.
KB: (Laughs) Oh god.
MV: (Laughs) And that I know was wrong. Now knowing it, it was wrong, but it was
like jealously, so she never could catch me though.
(Both Laugh)
MV: So then this lady donated Montgomery Hall Park to us. So my parents didn‟t like
for us to go to Montgomery Hall Park because of the train tracks, and we could trek
across the track. And not only would we cross the track, we walked the track. So we
would sneak out to Montgomery Hall Park and somebody would catch us and tell our
parents and we would get a whippin‟. And we got whippin‟s. It wasn‟t no, I‟m gunna
get a one on you for beating me up, or I‟m gunna get child abuse, we got whippin‟s. And
sometimes everyday for doing the same thing you got whippin‟ yesterday for because we
kept sneaking to the park. We would be the only ones in the park and they got a pond out
there right now that they have sand in it. So it used to be water in it when we were kids,
when they first, the park wasn‟t really open, but it was there. And they had goldfish in
this little pond, so we used to walk around and around the pond, around and around the
pond. And I was short, stout, I used to fall in the pond.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: And took of all my clothes in the park and hung them up on the fence to dry, so they
put them back on me so that wouldn‟t no body know we had been out. But somebody
would see us and tell on us.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: So, I never really cared for doll babies but when Christmas came along they would
give them doll babies. I would rather have what my brother and cousin had, the cap guns,
and we used to have, we got wheel barrels. And now they have that thing, like the
scooter, what is that thing you do with?
KB: The scooters?
MV: Yeah, well they had them like that too, but not like advanced as the ones on now.
But my brother and them had all those things, big trucks, and I wanted that, but I had
them doll babies, and strollers.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: So then as we got older we moved from Johnson Hill down further, closer to, right
at Booker T. So, we played on the field right there at Booker T. We would play softball,
baseball, and our friend, one of my girlfriends, had a brother that I was so in love with,
from little, so he played baseball good. So when it was morning, summertime came, I
was out of school, I was out there early to play ball with him. I think that‟s really how I
got into sports.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: And we would play ball and then we all grew up and we never really dated but we
would all go out together, to parties and socials, and everybody started graduating and
leaving town. So, some of my friends I went for twenty to thirty years before I saw them
again.
KB: Wow. What was this boy‟s name?
MV: Robert Vaughns.
KB: Have you seen him lately, or?
MV: Umm, twenty years ago. When I moved back to Staunton, before I was in New
York my sister said he came to Staunton with his aunt, and his aunt brought him to her
house and, umm, but I wasn‟t here. And my sister said “oh he‟s still so handsome.” But
when I saw him, it was his uncle died, and I had moved back to Staunton and he came to
the funeral. But the only thing was he had got bald headed, because he had pretty curls,
you know, but still was handsome. But he had twin sisters that were one year younger
than me, him and I were the same age, his older sister was a year older than us, but they
were pretty girls with big braids that hung down their back. And the girl that he married
looks like his sisters. And so when they came to the funeral and I got to see him, so we
was hugging again, so his mom was talking, she‟s like “Bobby won‟t be coming back to
Staunton by himself no more, I can tell you that.” (Laughs) I said, well I wouldn‟t do
that, you know. But, and I saw him, that‟s been about twenty years ago and I haven‟t
seen him since. And another fella that I really liked after we were in high school, we
liked guys, we usually talked to fellas from Waynesboro or Charlottesville, and I had
these two cousins that were both very very faired skins with red hair. So, I talked to both
of them, which was mean, but.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: The first one I talked to, he was the one that took me to the prom. We had NHA
ball and all that stuff, I went to that stuff with him. And we were supposed to be getting
married because he graduated a year in front of me, and he moved, he still lives near, in
upstate New York. And then while he was gone I met his cousin.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: And then we hung around together, then I left. So we, my cousin Jerry started talk
to this, after I moved back to Staunton, I moved back to Staunton in ‟87, so my cousin
Jerry was living in Charlottesville, so he met this girl in Charlottesville, started dating.
So one day she came and we started talking, and she told me who her husband was, and I
knew her husband back in the fifties and sixties, because I graduated in 1960. And then
when I started talking, I said “Well you ought to know this fella named Purcell Berkley,”
she said, “That‟s my children‟s god father.” So we went on talking and I knew everybody
she knew I knew, but she lived in Charlottesville and I lived in Staunton. So one day the
phone ring and I answer the phone and it was this fella, Purcell, he had came in, he lived
in Jersey, and he came to Charlottesville and he called on the phone. And I hadn‟t seen
him since, I would say, 1961. And he called me in ‟98 and I had talked to him on the
phone and he said, “Well can I come see ya?” Of course! You know, and they came over
from Charlottesville and he still looked the same, older person, but he still melted my
heart when I saw him. But, I could have been married a lot of times, but I just don‟t
know why. I said, yeah, then I would change my mind.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: But I have my sister, she‟s never been married, then my baby sister is married. My
older sister is married. But the two of us in the middle, and both my brothers married,
were married. And then right now, I really, am more to… My brother stayed in New
York but then he had a stroke. But he lived a wild life, so he had these strokes and now
he‟s like really needs help. So I finally talked him into moving back to Staunton, so I
really have to take care of him a lot. And my older sister had kidney problems, so she
was on dialysis for about five years, and one morning out of the clear blue skies they
called her and they had a kidney for her so she had a kidney transplant.
KB: That‟s great.
MV: And I think I saw the girl that, the story of the girl she got her kidney from on
Oprah. Because it was, my sister had her transplant on, umm, July 19th and this girl got
killed in a car wreck, and they told my sister that the kidney she got was a young girl that
got killed in a car wreck over near Charlottesville. And this same story, this woman was
on Oprah, she helped start something about kids at prom and stuff, you know. And I‟m
almost sure that her daughter was the kidney that my sister got. But they didn‟t want to
meet but my sister wrote a Thank You, you know. And now my brother, he is going to
have to go on dialysis. So I‟m like taking care of him and he‟s a veteran, so he got, I
don‟t like driving long distance, I used to when we were younger, we would drive from
New York to Staunton, but I don‟t like it now. So we got to find rides. We got to go all
the way to Martinsburg. Then from Martinsburg, we went last week, my other two
sisters, me and my brother, we got to Martinsburg then we had to catch a shuttle bus from
Martinsburg V. Hospital to, umm, VA Hospital in Washington. And next week I got to
take him up there and be gone for two days because he going to have to have, when you
have dialysis, I don‟t know if you know much about it but they put the (showing down by
the lower stomach area)… Yeah, well he‟s got to get that done, but the surgeries gunna
be done in Washington. (Laughs) So that will be two days out of my life next week I
know what‟s going to be done, you know.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: But I take care of him and I really think I do a good job. I do more than the rest of
them. He gets mean with me at times, and I get mean back, because when we were
growing up I used to beat him up all the time when we were kids, you know. But then he
told me back, he had all the monies, he thanked the lord for me. Because, which he‟s
right, if I wasn‟t around I don‟t know what he would do. So then he, my brother, he lived
a rough life. I mean, not rough, but he liked hanging out and drinking and he fooled with
illegal drugs and all that stuff in New York. But he was always a good person. That‟s
why so many people around here always like him because when he used to come visit
Staunton they just loved it. You know, so, he got these little fellas near that would come
to see him, live in DC and around and bring him, he loved donuts and all that stuff. But, I
mean, he‟s like, when his stroke made him a different person. As my aunt told me, one
day she said, “If you a person that‟s evil and have a stroke they usually turn pretty good.
If you got a good person and they have a stroke they usually turn mean.” But my
brother‟s like two different people. So, I gotta go most of the time and take care of him.
I‟m shocked he hadn‟t called today. But he‟s straight because this fella took him all these
donuts and stuff the other day and soda so…
(Both laugh)
MV: And he gets his meals on wheels. But he‟s younger than I am, but most people
think that he‟s older than I am, but his hair is white. And I say, well he probably got that
from my dad‟s side of the family, but then, he lived a rougher life than I did.
KB: So, when you went to New York, I remember you telling us earlier before we
started recording, you came back to Staunton and you got a job.
MV: Mmhmm
KB: So do you want to go into some more detail about that?
MV: Well when I first came back I was looking for jobs, but I didn‟t want, poultry plants
I knew nothing about because when I like left Staunton, they weren‟t really hiring us for
that stuff. Staunton was still slightly segregated when I left, so I didn‟t even know
anything about a poultry plant. So, when I came back and I tried to find a job at what I
was good at, and I couldn‟t, but I needed work. So one man was gunna hire me and then
he told my girlfriend, she work for them, he said, “she‟s gunna have a heck of a time
finding a job because she‟s over qualified, and people aren‟t gunna hire her.” And they
didn‟t. So when I went to Purdue for a job they did a, before I went there I had little jobs,
I worked at Downtown Inn, and also…Is it still going?
KB: Yeah.
MV: Also at Walwood (??) Park, which is a retirement center. And I did jobs like that,
just passing time, but I was drawing unemployment so I had money. Then I put my
girlfriend, Terrence‟s aunt, we were always close, and she got hired at Purdue. And
Mike, Kevin‟s brother and sister, they worked at Purdue, Tanya. So they told me to put
an application at Purdue, and then I wasn‟t, I didn‟t have a vehicle, in New York you
didn‟t need a vehicle. So I said, they said, well try to get a job and work in the same shift
as they were. But of course when they did hire me I wasn‟t on that same shift or timing.
But those poultry plants, you need the transportation because everybody‟s working
different. Today I might go in, and our line will run „til seven o‟clock tonight. Then I
might, and whoever I‟m riding with, might got off at eleven o‟clock this morning.
KB: Yeah
MV: So then you‟re stuck with how I‟m gunna get a ride. So finally, I told you, I went
down there and I tried to get the job for computers and they didn‟t hire me. They called
me and told me to come for an interview for a production line.
KB: What year is this?
MV: It was 1988.
KB: Okay.
MV: So I went for an interview on production line and I got hired with about seventeen
other people, we all started the same day. And when I retired in 2003, I was the only one
that was still there out of the people I got hired with. And I will see a lot of them, when I
was still working, [they would say,] “Are you still at that place?” It‟s hard work. For
one thing, not so much as the work being hard but the climates. You freeze, it‟s cold,
then it‟s hot.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: You might go to one part, uh, cook part, and you burn up. Then you go to another
part where you‟re doing nothing but dealing with frozen meats. We would have the
meats like, I worked on the line, I got hired on the line which is called the “wing line.”
So on the wing line, the most we fooled with was like wings and tenders. But, it was
hard the first couple days and on the production line, and wings wasn‟t so bad because
with the wings you kind of like scatter them into a tray to make them good. But tenders
and that stuff, you had to pack them as this thing is going by you got to pack these things
perfectly in a tray. And it was hard. The first couple nights I was ready to walk out.
KB: What made you stay?
MV: I, I just made up my mind, you can do this. So, then next thing I know I was like,
and you went through a lot of, the people were kind of mean and nasty. Even the girl that
I been knowing all my life, she wasn‟t helpful at all, and we worked on the line together.
KB: Mmhmm. Who was this?
MV: You want me to call her name?
KB: Oh, you don‟t have to now.
MV: Oh
KB: It‟s up to you.
MV: Well is it going to be on TV?
KB: No
MV: Okay. Charlotte Fried (??) This child I been knowing all my life. So, when I
needed a ride, I asked her for a ride and she hung hauled, like she didn‟t really want to,
so. But I said if you don‟t want to give me a ride you don‟t have to, I mean, because I
never did anything in general, like, why, you know. So then there was another girl I
asked and I had little nieces that lived near to her but she didn‟t know they were kin to
me. I wasn‟t gunna give her no ride anyway. And so her daughter told us, she said, “I
think they are kin to her,” talking about my little nieces. My niece came right back and
told me. So one time we at ??? Her daughter was working, her daughter asked me “Are
you any kin to Natasha and Candace?”
KB: (Laughs)
MV: I said that‟s my nieces. She look at her mama, “I told you. I told you.” And I
started to say something to her, I say no, let bygones be bygones, who cares. They gunna
need me before I need them. So, we worked and so I started riding, she would, we were
working on the same shifts but when you knew, you get the dirty jobs. I used to have to
go in, me and about four or five girls that all got hired together, but they were all white
girls, little young, they were much younger than me. But they, they would give me the
rides, we would all work together, but then they want me to hang out with them after
work. And I would go sometimes and I would say, “I‟m going home.” So they would
bring me all the way to Staunton and then they‟d go back to Harrisonburg and hang out.
But, she would, this girl was very evil about riding me. She would get mad and
sometimes they would put you on another line, and I can‟t tell these people I got to go
because I got a ride, you‟re supposed to have transportation. One night she told my
supervisor, “Well you tell her if she don‟t hurry up and come I‟m leaving.” So, he let me
off and I came on home, but she was very evil. So then things went on and I learned the
routines of the job, and I started packing and caught up, and I could keep up with the line,
and I was outdoing her. So, I don‟t know, I was more educated than she was, and I had a
supervisor that I thought held that against me because her and I never got along.
KB: Mmhmm.
MV: And she liked this other girl that I‟m talking about that was evil to me because I
think she thought that she was, like, down. And I mean, I talked back for myself, they
didn‟t say nothing to me, I answered them back. So, then she asked me one day, her and
I, they would give you grades for evaluation, so she asked me what did I do and I told her
and she said “I thought you had did a different job,” I said I never knew a thing about
poultry plant in my life. So I came back to Staunton and got stuck with it. I‟m here for
necessity (Laughs). Not because I want to be. And we would work, when I first started
we worked night shifts, and it would be so cold when you would come some nights.
When you take off your clothes and you get home you could feel your body and
everything was cold.
KB: How late were your night shifts? When did they start and end?
MV: You have no shift, no time, that‟s the only thing about a poultry plant. You know
when you‟re going but you don‟t know when you‟re getting off.
KB: What, how, did they just tell you?
MV: No. See the first night that I worked I thought I was working three-thirty to twelve,
so I was really, I don‟t like this, I can‟t do this. So when I looked at the clock and it was
like almost twelve o‟clock I started getting happy, oh boy, it‟s time to go home. And
when twelve o‟clock came around we were still working. So then I say, “when are we
going home?” I got home at two-thirty.
KB: How many breaks did you get?
MV: One, you got your lunch and your break, but like I‟m saying after that if a machine
would break down you got to wait „til they fix this machine. They try to get whatever
pull that they have set up for that day, they try to get it done. But all you have to do is
have one thing on a machine to break down, you fell behind. And I got, I‟ll never forgot,
before I left from there they had it like, Christmas Eve and all those times, night shifts
and second shifts, wouldn‟t have to work at all because they say they want them at home
with their families. But the first year that I went to Purdue I worked Christmas Eve and I
got off about two-thirty in the morning, Christmas Eve. So they look at the pictures right
now at where everybody was celebrating Christmas Eve, and everybody, because I had a
friend that had one of those cameras say, “Where are you? At Purdue?” I got off at two-
thirty, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning.
KB: So, what would be one of your most vivid memories working there?
MV: The cold and the heat.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: It would be so cold sometimes. Then when I got older and had surgery and had a
hysterectomy, and would get these hot flashes, and it would be so cold and then I would
be standing up there with sweat coming off me, and “Mary are you alright?” But then
once that goes away you freeze more, your fingertips hurt so bad.
KB: And you didn‟t wear gloves?
MV: Yeah, but you had to wear gloves but they, like, gloves that a doctor wear.
KB: Mmhmm, like the latex.
MV: But you had liners under them but it still didn‟t, umm, then when they used to take
us to another part they would have the big piece of meat that would be cut up like a big
turkey, a big piece of chicken. Then they would have these, the tenders come in little
strips, but they‟re frozen, so we got to take this meat and hunt for bones. And you got to
do this for eight, nine hours all day in this cold meat that‟s got ice on it and ice in it,
trying to make sure that you get all the bones out.
KB: Did you ever had like any injuries from this?
MV: This hand right now doesn‟t work right and I think that is what it‟s from.
KB: Your right hand?
MV: This has no feeling, that little finger. See, it doesn‟t do like that hand, and I think
that most people have problems with legs, feet, and the hands and stuff because from
being in the cold. And then we had to wear like boots and stuff because it was wet. It
was always wet.
KB: The floors are?
MV: Mmhmm
KB: Is that because of the frozen like melting and stuff?
MV: Mmhmm. When I first went it wasn‟t as clean as when I left because OSHA really
came down on them.
KB: Is that, what is that?
MV: That‟s like, umm.
KB: The inspectors?
MV: Yeah, but its called, it‟s a big thing called OSHA. And they really came down on
those plants and stuff because we would even, when they had the, umm, these water
drains that run through and, because you constantly have to be using water holes and this
kind of stuff so the floors stayed wet. Because where I worked if you had batter, big old
batter machines that‟s used, and this stuff gets all over the floor, then the people, you got
to come by and wash this floors off so then won‟t somebody slip. So your floors are
constantly wet. But where I was, my regular job wasn‟t quite as bad because I dealt more
with cooked products. So if I stayed on my line, my line wasn‟t hard at all, because we
were cooked and it wasn‟t cold. But then they went, they didn‟t need everybody on your
line they had to clause that they could send you anywhere they needed help, and that‟s
when you would end up freezing.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: But I try to make it as much as I could. Then they would send us sometimes to
places that was so hot you couldn‟t stand. And we used to have to wear hairnets, hard
hats, glasses (laughs), boots, and a jacket. But some girls were so cold that they would
have on that jackets plus the jacket, but I never needed any of that. But my line wasn‟t
really one of the main lines because we were a nice temperature, the food being that it
was cooked so it wasn‟t that cold. But we went to some of the other places, especially
turkey, I worked in chicken, we had chicken. At Purdue it was chicken side and a turkey
side, like some of the other plants are mostly all turkey. I think that‟s what that caught,
yeah.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: But at Purdue we were turkey and chicken. So when they would send us to the
turkey side it was usually the rough part for us, but even, it was just as bad for them
because when they would send the girls from turkey to our line they were like lost like
we were to them, because they didn‟t know how to pack like we did by hand. Then the
worst line there to me was called nugget line, and you had like eighteen pieces or more in
a tray. And you got to pack each one of them rows perfect, and this line is going, you
know your tray comes to stop and you got to pack it, you don‟t get it finished it‟s gone.
And all that‟s rejects. If it‟s not packed right, or don‟t have the amount that‟s supposed
to be there, you throw all that stuff off. It‟s got to be reopened and get over again. And
the nuggets line, the girls that was on the nuggets line when I first went over there were
sweet girls. We had to go help them. They would help you. But then they, actually the
plant was more Spanish. Most of Purdue now is all Spanish.
KB: When did that change happen?
MV: Oh, I‟ll give you about, I‟ve been gone there now since 2003. Not anything against
them, I like the Spanish, because they‟re hard working people, but you had some little
mean ones. There can be some mean little women when they want to be, but some of
them are sweet as gold, you know. Some of them would help you but then all the old
girls that we knew mostly quit and left, so that happened maybe, oh I guess ten years,
maybe about ten years ago. But it‟s mostly all Spanish now.
KB: Is it mostly women?
MV: No, it‟s men too. See the men mostly work in the turkey part because they have
these jobs where they got to lift a lot. Then they got people that work in the part where
they bake, cook. And when you have those turkey rows and all that kind of stuff that‟s
where usually the men work. But it‟s more women than men, but it‟s quite a few men too.
Then they have the sanitation department which comes in every night to clean and mostly
all of them are men and mostly that, the whole sanitation is mostly all Spanish.
KB: Did you find that you had to know a lot of Spanish?
MV: You mean language?
KB: Yeah.
MV: Well if you wanted to but it didn‟t bother me. I knew a little because I lived in New
York and when you live in New York you live with everybody. (Laughs) I mean,
everybody, and I never felt the way some people felt. Some people actually, literally
hated them. I never felt that way. I told them, I say, because I have friends from North
America, South America, India. In New York, when we work with people you got every
nationality in the world lives in New York. So, I didn‟t feel that way about them. And
they had taught me some Spanish when I lived in New York so I knew some of it. So I
just, I always get along with people. I don‟t like, when a new person comes on the job I
tried to treat them nice because I know how it feels myself when I go new and people
treat you nasty. So I always have a lot of friends and all nationalities, and when I quit
and I had these cutest little fellas that I just loved, and I told the girls, “You all better be
glad that I‟m an old woman because I would take ya‟lls man.”
(Both Laugh)
MV: They got some good-looking Spanish men. So they, right now my girlfriend is still
down there, she say “They wanna know when you come to visit?” I hadn‟t planned on
going to visit, you know, but I might run into people here and there. But I say it‟s been
about ten years now that it‟s mostly all Spanish. Mostly all Spanish.
KB: Was it a close-knit group that you worked with?
MV: Mmhmm
KB: Like did you hang out with them and talk a lot?
MV: Yeah, well I talk a lot, period. Can‟t you see?
KB: (Laughs) That‟s okay with me.
MV: But I always, that‟s why I have so many friends. I always talked a lot. I would go
to a line and get along with everybody else on the line. But towards the end, like I‟ve
said, some of the little Spanish girls, they had all that nugget line, were very nasty young
ladies. And I just couldn‟t get along with them and we would have arguments and
fussin‟. And I always thanked my two supervisors, which was Betty Long and Todd
Ashby, towards my last year they gave me a job off of that line because it was like killing
my back. I just couldn‟t pack those nuggets, I couldn‟t do it. So they offered me a job of
taking, you got to take temperatures of the meat, that where the meat is in the ovens, then
when it gets at the end of the oven it comes out of the oven before it goes into what is
called a freego(?) because it all has to be frozen at a certain temperature. So, as the meat
came out of the ovens I was right there and I would have to take the temperature of the
meat, cooked meat, and I would take the temperature of the meat, get all that wrote down,
and make sure nothing went through that was undercooked. Because if anything
undercooked got to that freego that was the finish of your day, because you would have
to, you don‟t want anything raw and cooked to meet up. So, it was an important job but it
was a good job that I enjoyed.
KB: Mmhmm.
MV: And I did that for almost two years and that was my last year there. I had started
with the driving, I didn‟t like the driving back and forth to Bridgewater everyday. But I
told them if it was close to home I would still be working, because that job was really
easy.
KB: And it was in Harrisonburg?
MV: Bridgewater
KB: Okay, Bridgewater.
MV: Yeah, Purdue was in Bridgewater.
KB: Okay.
MV: So then I had a wreck with a deer one morning and that really got me. So I just got
out of the transportation, but if they had been close to me that I didn‟t have to, I would
still be working.
KB: Was the relationship with most of the workers and management a good one?
MV: Yeah.
KB: Do you remember problems like in the earlier days as management switched out or
was it always a pretty good relationship?
MV: It wasn‟t always good, but it wasn‟t good with every person in management.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: Because I told you it was one supervisor that her and I never got along. Her name‟s
Sue Weimer (??). And I never got along with her, and I hate to say I didn‟t like people
and I never liked her. But she was, I just don‟t think she liked me and we never got
along. But then there was some of the other ones, like one of the heads, all of them
always got along with me. But I always got along in my work and, I always got along
with the males better. I would rather have a male boss any day than a female boss.
KB: And why is that?
MV: I don‟t know, I just got along with them. Even when I worked in New York, my
boss, they used to whenever they wanted something done the girls would go say “You go
ask him, he‟ll let you do it.” So, like if we wanted to work a couple hours of a day so that
we could have our Christmas party or something, have two hours off, could we only take,
„cause we only had lunch for an hour, take lunch for they‟d say “Go ask him, go ask
him.” And I got along with, always got along with male men, with males. But I could
get along working with males better than I can with females. And the same ones that was
my boss, Todd and the other one, Eric, I see them right now. And I saw Eric, we was
down at the Rines(??) eating one day, Eric say, “You ready to come back to work?” I say,
“Not that I know of.”
KB: (Laughs)
MV: But when I left they told me, “If you ever want a job, you just call on the phone.”
But I say “Eric, I don‟t plan on coming back.” But you know (Laughs). And I see Todd at
the ballgames, his son plays for Buffalo __ (??) and I was at the game the other night and
somebody was hollering at me, and there he was. But him and I used to have words, but
that‟s because I talked. Some people let you say what you want to them and don‟t say
nothing, but if you said something to me and I didn‟t like it I came back to you. But I
always got along with the, this women was the only woman. There‟s another lady named
Betty Long and I thought the world of he. And I see her at Wal-Mart and Pennies and
around all the time, but I thought the world of her and still do because she‟ll say, “I‟ll see
you at Wal-Mart Mary.” You know how the people be at the door with the carts, I say,
“I‟m not gunna say you won‟t see me.” But I haven‟t got there yet but. I liked her, she
was terrific, but it‟s just that one.
KB: So you said that you worked there for necessity, but was that the case for most
workers?
MV: Umm, well a lot of people that worked in poultry plants used to be uneducated.
And I think that‟s why they worked there. But I think a lot of them there really liked it. I
never heard the Spanish people complain, never. And they would get mad if you don‟t
work long. You know, like, we have sometimes we have work seven days a week and
they love it because they like the money because they send money home and all that kind
of stuff. People talk about those kind of people but those people, good people, bad
people, and all people, but that‟s the working people. And they came here, we meet them
when they come and they don‟t have anything, they live over across the street in them
trailers and this and that and a whole bunch of them living together, but when I left them
there most of them little girls had their own homes, two or three vehicles, and their
husbands and them both was working right there. But they would work seven days every
week if you asked them to.
KB: Were the wages good?
MV: Not really. I started out at five something, but when I left I wasn‟t even at ten
dollars an hour.
KB: And you worked there for?
MV: Sixteen years.
KB: Wow.
MV: What it is now, I don‟t know. But when I left in 2003, last of 2003, I wasn‟t even
making ten dollars an hour.
KB: So is that what it‟s like for most workers there?
MV: Yeah. Everybody make, you go in, like if you were to go there today and get a job
they will start you off at a certain salary, which must be minimum wage probably. Then
after you‟ve been there, with me I think it was sixty days, but now I think its ninety days
and if you make that then they raise you to, I could have been there fifty years and in
ninety days you and I be making the same thing.
KB: Were there benefits with working?
MV: Yeah.
KB: And what were those?
MV: Yeah, yeah, pretty good benefits. You had all your, doctor bills, I mean the benefits
were good compared to some of the people I talk to now at these big plants. My sister
work for United States Government and the benefits I had were better than hers. She
work for the post office. I mean we had, you know, doctor, hospitalization, life, you
know, everything. And dental.
KB: So you started in the eighties working there
MV: Yeah, ‟88.
KB: What were the biggest changes from that time to when you left?
MV: Umm, machines that were doing things that we did by hand.
KB: And did that make things easier or more difficult on the workers?
MV: Oh much easier.
KB: But did it like create more jobs? Or take more away?
MV: It kind of took some jobs, because the line that I started on they did away with
completely. By the time I left it didn‟t exist anymore. They stopped even doing, but they
sent it to another Purdue plant. Wings they don‟t, they didn‟t even do in Bridgewater
anymore. So that means, but they found us other jobs if you wanted to do that job but if
you didn‟t want to do that job then you was out of a job. That‟s why a whole lot of us
had to end on a line we hated was that nugget line.
KB: Mmhmm.
MV: But we needed a job. So then a lot of girls didn‟t, and they quit. But our line closed
up completely. Then they had like, umm, some of the girls that left our line got better
jobs like in the office or something, they did away with a lot of them, they quit, because
in order for them to keep a job they would have to come back to production and they
didn‟t want to. But machinery helped in some ways and hurt in others.
KB: Mmhmm. So you‟ve had a pretty good experience working there, was there ever a
group that got together because they didn‟t enjoy working there?
MV: A group?
KB: Or didn‟t enjoy management or felt that they deserved more?
MV: Not in particularly, you might have some people that felt something was wrong but
it was never made into anything big.
KB: Mmhmm
MV: Because on a whole the benefits were good. And then, like I‟m telling you, I would
talk to the young girls, don‟t get stuck in this place. And I got one that sends me
Christmas cards every year. She‟s married with her two children, she‟s still at Purdue but
she‟s in an office somewhere. And I told a lot of other ones, and I went and pass them on
the street right now, little girl she told me, she was like “You told me to get out of there
and I did.” Because why are you gunna be twenty-one, twenty-two years old and stuck in
a poultry plant? Go do something with your life, I had did mine. It was my own decision
to move back here and I would have to take what‟s left. Once you get, which they say
they don‟t, but once you forty-five and fifty years old it‟s hard getting a job. They say
they don‟t discriminate but they do. So, and I would tell them, I would see them right
now, “Mary I got out of that place,” and they doing something with themselves. But I
wouldn‟t advise anybody to work at a poultry plant.
KB: And why?
MV: The work is hard, it‟s dirty, you‟re wet, you‟re cold. Most people probably end up
with arthritis and all that different stuff. The only people that have it made are supervisors
and they have a person that‟s just before the supervisor, line leaders are like that because
they don‟t have nothing to do, so they enjoy it.
KB: So they just walk around and make sure –
MV: Yes, and we had some that was our line leaders, they would go on break and stay for
two hours, they would go on lunch and stay another two hours. But then when work was
over, they got to do all that paperwork and they would be there doing paperwork two
hours after work and come in early two hours before, of course they loved it, they were
making a good salary.
KB: Did they start off on the line? Or did they just immediately start –
MV: Some of them started off on the line. Most of them started off on the line. But then
when you become a line leader, it was only a couple of them, you had some line leaders
that pitched in and worked with you, ours didn‟t.
KB: Where did they pitch in?
MV: When you, for instance, suppose this day, it takes a certain amount of people to run
a line, you got to have enough packers, then you got to have the people to grade the
packages, you got to have case packers, if you have a day that five or six people don‟t
come to work then your line is short. You‟re going to work your tail off because you
going to be doing double that, triple jobs. And we have did it. But other lines would be
like that and you would go over to that line and their supervisor and line leader be on that
line with them. Ours be like this (makes gesture of just sitting there).
KB: Even on days when people didn‟t show up?
MV: Until we finally got kind of upset with them for awhile then they would help. But
snow days, we were always late on snow days. I don‟t like driving in the snow and we
would come in late, me and that same girl that didn‟t want to ride with me in the
beginning, I had to end up riding, I never told you all the rest of that story. But, we would
come in late and they see us and they start clapping, “Oh boy, oh boy!” Gradually people
would start coming in, you know, we had some people come from West Virginia. And
people would come in late and as more people come in, the line start filling up, they get
happy. As soon as people come in they get off the line.
KB: So, speaking of snow and winter, season to season was your day different? As was
the same thing all year –
MV: There was no difference
KB: Even with production, the same amount?
MV: (Nods head)
KB: So it‟s a pretty consistent –
MV: It was never, seasons, nothing changed, it was always the same. That‟s like I said
you knew when you were going to work but you didn‟t know when you were going to get
off. You never could plan and say I‟ll meet you at four-thirty today, maybe I would and
maybe I won‟t, unless you put in and ask to get off early or something. If you had an
appointment you always had to put in a slip to get off, because believe me, don‟t think
because I got off yesterday at three-thirty I‟ll be off today at three-thirty, no.
KB: Did you work with anyone that was like older than you that had been there for a
really long time?
MV: I worked, um, yeah I worked with, when I first went there there was quite a few of
them that had been there, but before, when I left they were all gone, but I worked with
about, my line consist of people that had been there for a while. And the nugget line, both
of those lines were people that had been at Purdue for a long time. Terrance‟s aunt was
there before I was..
KB: Did she say that it was a lot different –
MV: Oh yes, because see when, she got Cancer, but she had already got something with
her legs and stuff, but I think it was the Cancer that bothered her because when they
found out that she had Cancer it was already all over her body almost. But everybody has
a problem with your legs and that kind of stuff, but she worked in the coal mostly, but she
got a good job towards the end too. She worked in what‟s called the spice room, that‟s
always nice, air condition and all that. She just had to weigh up spices, you know, for
different lines. When they talked to me about when they went, it was a whole different
thing. I tell you, most of the people were upset more about the Spanish people. That was
most of them‟s problem. Because once they came they said everything changed.
KB: How did they think it changed?
MV: They said the work was worse because they always say that they‟ll do anything.
That they‟ll do the jobs that won‟t nobody else do, so if you‟re not going to do it they we
can always hire him. But they said that once they start hiring all of them the whole place
got worse and then when I see them they‟re all “Girl you ought to be glad you‟re gone
from there it is gone to nothing.”
KB: Do they feel like their jobs were threatened maybe?
MV: Ahuh.
KB: Wow. So, when you came did the older people help you out with training and stuff?
What was that like?
MV: Some of them were terrific, but I told you the one girl that I knew all her life, she
was one of the nasty ones. But this one lady, we had a little falling out between groups on
the lines but she was really one of the good ones that really helped me, but she worked
now at the levee. But something happened with some young girls and something, and
somebody told a lie, so we really stopped speaking before she left. But she really helped
me. And it was a couple of them, maybe a couple of the line the older ones that helped
me. Now the nugget line had a lot of girls that really helped you, that have been there for
a while.
KB: Was it easy to learn or difficult?
MV: No, it was because of the speed. Nugget line would be flying. And see when it gets
to, you all stand in a row, one of that side one on this side, a group on that side a group on
this side, and when your tray come to you, you waiting for it to pack these eighteen
nuggets straight. Then it stops and you got to pack up (makes noise to show fast packing)
KB: How much time did you think you guys had? Like ten seconds –
MV: Well the nugget line when they had the experienced people they would turn it up.
KB: So what was the average time you had to do that?
MV: I don‟t know if it was any more than about two minutes.
KB: Wow.
MV: And sometimes they get to me, I just let it go.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: And you got to, and see, for one thing with the Spanish women did it easier because
they‟re short. And you got to bend over. I‟m tall so all of us got to bend over to this tray
but they little short women so they right at it. And they were all good at it, I don‟t know
if it was something that they did before with their hands or what but they were good at it,
all of them. They would come in there, in two weeks time and they be packing like they
had been there.
KB: How long did it take you to get the hang of it?
MV: I‟ve never gotten the, know how to pack the nuggets, because I wasn‟t trained on
that line. But when they took away our wing line completely that‟s where they put most
of us. They opened up more lines of the nuggets because that was the seller. They
opened up more lines so they made more people. But I just never got it.
KB: With the wing line how long did that take you?
MV: Oh, a week.
KB: So it was pretty easy to learn?
MV: Mmhmm
KB: And you had good help with that?
MV: Yeah
KB: So the social atmosphere there, would you say that you guys would hang out after
work? Or was it just a kind of during work thing?
MV: No, we would hang out.
KB: Where?
MV: After work and then we used to really enjoy, you know, some time if the machines
break down they would send you all to the cafeteria. And we have sit in the cafeteria,
now the day is beautiful. Machines, sometimes we go downstairs in the morning and
start at eight o‟clock or whatever, seven-thirty, start work and the machine break down.
So you‟re standing around waiting for the machine operators to work on it, don‟t get
fixed, so instead of us standing around they send us up to the cafeteria. Go upstairs and
take your break and everything while you‟re up there, so when the machine get ready
they say – everybody lets go, go downstairs and start work. We have, sit and got paid for
all day. The machine never got fixed. Then we would go outside to the smoking area,
and all of us be hanging outside and all around, walk over to IGA – that‟s on Main Street
over there – all day long and you got paid for it. Then finally they would come by and
say, “Everybody go home.”
KB: So the machine breaking was seen as a good thing?
MV: But it was going to make you have to work mostly on Saturdays. Because that‟s the
whole day lost. So, if it broke down for a little while and you caught up, or you had a
second shift coming in – see some lines had a second shift coming, so they had to stop.
But if you were on a line that had a second shift you got to finish. See then as it went on
they started two nugget lines, so they had a second shift coming in, so they knew they
were going to get off no matter what. But our line, wing line, didn‟t have a second, so we
had to finish whatever we started. You know they had these big tanks, that big, full of
wings and this machine dumps them, and it dumps them and they got to go through
batters and all of this, and then into the ovens to cook. Now as long as they keep
dumping these, they have a quota set up for that day, so many – maybe they say we got to
do fourteen tanks of wings a day, and if it breaks down you‟re gunna have to come back
downstairs and work because those wings are sitting there ready. So they can‟t hold
them, they got to be cooked.
KB: How many hours a day would you usually work?
MV: Umm, (long pause) I say nine.
KB: So when you guys left where did you go to hang out? Like at a bar or?
MV: Most of the time we came home because you‟d be so tired.
(Both laugh)
MV: But then I went to daylight. You know, once we went to daylight you came home.
But at night they would go to people‟s houses. We had this one man who was a
supervisor, they would even go to his house „cause he had a swimming pool and all this
stuff (laughs). But I still see him right now, I guess he‟s still living because he had had a
bad bug with Cancer or something but he was still hanging around, driving a pretty sports
car. But he would come around sometimes and holler at us sometimes down at the job.
But since I left from there, that‟s been what? Four years ago now mostly, I don‟t know.
KB: So what was your worst experience there, working there?
MV: Let me see, what would be my worst experience? Packing those nuggets. That was.
It was terrible!
KB: How often did you have to do that?
MV: Every day. All day. When they closed that line that‟s where they put me. That was
my job.
KB: And so your back started hurting and they moved you?
MV: No! My back hurt and I still had to stay there. But then a job opened up and when
my seniority, I used to be the one they used to send to this job when the other person
wasn‟t there and they‟d say, “Mary you want to do so-and-so,” I‟d say, “yeah, I want to
do it!” So then when the job came open they gave it to me, and I loved it.
KB: What would you say your best experience would be?
MV: Hmm, probably leaving.
KB: (laughs)
MV: But some of the best experiences was we would have, when some of the girls would
be expecting children and we would have parties for them and, you know, gifts and
everybody bring gifts, something like that. Because they used to have the Christmas
parties but I didn‟t participate in them. Because I told them they were phony all year long
you done treat us like bad and you gunna sit up in here and “hee hee” and “ha ha” for a
Christmas party. They would get mad at me because I wouldn‟t go. „Cause I don‟t care, I
don‟t want to come. I don‟t want to go to your Christmas party. Then the company
always gave everybody a dinner for Christmas and Thanksgiving. And then we hit a
certain milestone like safety dinners and that kind of stuff, and they gave us jackets and
would, oh I think we made three million safety hours, and shirts with writing on them,
you know, something like that. But that was probably, most of, best part was seeing the
expression on those girls‟ faces, you know. And then one girl thought she couldn‟t have
no children and then when she did get pregnant, you know, and we had this big thing for
her. And then they tell me last year that she‟s pregnant again. But she‟s a little
Mennonite girl, very pretty.
KB: So the relationships like really made the job worth it?
MV: Mmhmm. Because see it wasn‟t so many American people there. So it was kind of
like Spanish people stayed together, American people stayed together – white or black, as
long as you American. (Laughs) And like when we would go outside when it was pretty
days for lunch, and the Spanish would be on one side and the Americans on the other
side. That‟s the way they always did I guess. But I‟d eat food with all of them, didn‟t
make no difference to me.
KB: Did anyone else try to bridge the gaps between those two?
MV: Yeah some of them bridged the gaps because the girls was after the guys.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: Lot of people in there got married, you know, met up at the plant and got married.
We got a lot of mixed marriages, you know, like with the Spanish and the white, because
a lot of Spanish guys like big women. And I had a girl friend, I still have a girl friend,
she just had a baby, she‟s a big woman and they loved her – Joyce, she lives over here on
Eighth Street near my sister. She just had a baby last month. She got a little chinchilla,
good-looking husband. But she left her husband, but now she got a little man that‟s
maybe about (motions with hand) that tall.
KB: Does she still work there?
MV: No. She quit before I did because she‟s one that got a better job, an easier job. And
then they cut the job out completely and she had to come back on the line and she hated
it.
KB: So why did you leave? Why‟d you decide to leave?
MV: I just retired.
KB: Mmhmm. Did good benefits come with that?
MV: Not really, mostly my social security. But I tell you one thing I really missed was
401K. When I went there to work they only gave 401K to management. And two years
before it was time to retire they gave it to everybody, which would have been a big help
to me if I could have took out 401K for sixteen years, because one of the fellows who
work with me, his wife worked there too but she‟s management, he said, “My wife got
eighty thousand dollars in her 401K plan and I don‟t have nothing,” because he wasn‟t
management. Kevin, he said it don‟t make sense, and he was there before I was. And
that‟s the only part of it that I hated was that I couldn‟t have a 401K plan the whole time I
was there. By now I‟d probably be somewhere traveling. And I would have been able to
get my Chrysler 300Z. (Laughs) But they didn‟t give me the money. So that was about
the only thing that I wish that we could have had in all the time I was there.
KB: When you left was it peaceful? Like, it was good partings?
MV: Yeah, oh yeah. Because, I left, Christmas was on a Thursday so I think we was all –
is it still working? (Looks at recorder). I don‟t know if we were off Christmas Eve or not
because sometimes we would have Christmas Eve off, sometimes we wouldn‟t. But I
didn‟t really care because I only got a couple more days and I‟d be finish. So Christmas I
was off so I went to work that Friday, day after Christmas, that‟s the day I used to hate to
go to work, day after Christmas. Most of the time I could get a paper in and get it off. So
when I went back to work that Friday and I had been at work maybe two hours and the
supervisor from the back called me on the phone. Where I work is between the cooked
meat and the raw meat, I was in this whole space by myself. And she called me on the
phone and asked me do I want to go home early? This is about nine o‟clock or nine-
thirty. I said, “You know good well I want to go home.” So she said they had too many
people so if you want to go home, yeah. So I left. So I came home that Friday, then we
had Saturday, Sunday, and I was supposed to be back to work Monday and everybody
like, “What you going back to work for? You ain‟t got but three days,” because New
Years was gunna come and I wasn‟t going back after that. So that Monday morning they
laugh at me. I wasn‟t going to work Monday. I think it was you had to call in maybe
four o‟clock or something, I set the clock so I could wake up at four o‟clock to call them
and say, “I won‟t be in today.”
KB: (Laughs)
MV: But I made sure I didn‟t leave them hanging. So the girl I was telling you about,
Charlotte, she asked the girl that was our line leader, Geno, she said “Geno have you
heard from Mary?” He said, “Yeah, bless her heart, she calls every morning and say I
won‟t be in today.” Which was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – that the last three days I
called, but he say “I think she gone hung it up.” (Laughs) But I left with good terms
because see when you‟re going to retire and you know, I got everything straight two,
three months before. When I got everything straight, all my social security, everything,
two or three months before it was time for me to retire all of that was ready. So when I, I
really didn‟t want them to give me nothing, like have no little dinner or nothing, I didn‟t
want to go the last day anyway. But I called them every morning and made sure, but
people was dying for that job anyway. They had people already dying for my job
because it‟s a good job. So they had no problem putting somebody up there and I think
this little lady that I think was older than me, I think she got the job when I left.
KB: Do you miss anything about working there?
MV: (Shakes head)
KB: Not at all?
MV: I don‟t miss anything about it. I miss some of the people but I don‟t miss anything
about the job, not at all.
KB: And you still see some of the people that you worked with.
MV: Mmhmm.
KB: So what do you do now?
MV: Mostly the TV. But my sister has doctor appointments, my brother had doctor
appointments. I have other people that ask me to take them places, like Terrance‟s
grandmother. When all them have doctor appointments and grocery shopping and all that
kind of stuff, I do all of that in between when I got to go to the doctor and do for myself.
But most of the time I‟m constantly going. That‟s like yesterday I was gone all day. And
last week Terrance‟s mother called me early in the morning and asked to, she had a
doctor‟s appointment and, and Terrance‟s mother had a doctor‟s appointment the same
day, so she couldn‟t take her because she had to go one way, so I took her into the doctor.
I have another cousin that has Cancer and he needs to go for his treatments, I would take
him to the hospital for his treatments. Most of the time if anybody need a ride I‟ll tell
them that I‟m not doing anything, call me. Because I know in Staunton you need
transportation, well this area that don‟t have, but now see it‟s a lot better for people
because they got all those little catch buses and all that kind of stuff. But they‟d still
rather ride in a private vehicle. But that‟s what I do mostly.
KB: Well thank you for doing the interview.
MV: I hope I didn‟t talk you all to death.
KB: Oh, no.
MV: (Laughs)
KB: That was a really, like I enjoyed it, definitely. Is there anything else that you would
want to say?
MV: No. Like I said I just appreciate that I got the job because at the time I needed a job,
you know. But it was rough in the beginning and then once I got a hold to the job, what I
was doing, it wasn‟t no problem. So the worst part of it, after I had the accident one
morning with a deer, it was the driving that really got more to it. Like I told them when I
was leaving, if it was like somewhere closer, Verona or something like that, I would have
stayed there. Because I never, I mean, I‟m sixty-five now but I retired at sixty-two, but
I‟ve never been sick that I can‟t work because I hurt. One time I had some of my leg
swollen, the doctors didn‟t even know what that was and they found out, they told me it
was, specialist was called it, it was Lymphodema. And it‟s something that most people
that have Cancer and it‟s an aftereffect from your lymphnoids, but I never had no Cancer.
That‟s why they didn‟t look for that. But, I had to a massage, I mean go to a therapist and
she massaged it, every day, bathed it and massaged it and it went down. But she said that
it‟s a disease that they should have, people should have been known about long ago
because Cancer patients do it have it, they‟ll swell so bad. Because I saw some, after I
had it, I saw women on TV that had it and they was terrible. I mean their legs and feet
that was like that (motions down to show how swollen their feet and legs were). But they
had had Cancer, but they say that something when your lymphnoids stop working. And
they say it goes to the weakest part of your body. I told them mine was, probably my legs
are probably the weakest because they too little for my body.
(Both laugh)
MV: But, I would have stayed at that job. I told you when I see Todd and Betty and them
I always thank them, and I thank them for giving me that job that I had when I left,
because it was easy. It wasn‟t what you call easy because you had to keep your mind
open and make sure that that raw meat don‟t go through there, because they would get on
you for that. A girl just lost a job from there for doing something wrong. But once that
raw meat goes through there you gone lost a whole day. Because if raw meat and cooked
meat get together, you in trouble. So, but it was a job that I enjoyed doing. And like I
told them, I would have never retired. I would have stayed right there. But I just hated
that driving, especially when you wake up in the morning and it‟s snowing. Then at night
they say we‟re gunna have a snowstorm we should come about two, and you can‟t sleep,
people out the window seeing if it‟s snowing. Because I had, my brother-in-law, he
passed away now but, he didn‟t like to drive in the snow and he worked down here at
ASR, so they called for snow one night (laughs) and he said “I ain‟t going to work in no
snow in the morning.” So he sat up and about three o‟clock in the morning he called up
the supervisor and said, “I won‟t be in,” they said, “Why?” They called him “Blue”
because he had blue eyes, “Why?” He said, “It‟s snowing.” They said, “Where‟s there a
snowstorm?” He said, “I saw a flake. And they‟re calling for snow.”
KB: (Laughs)
MV: But when we had snow, but when he saw the first flake he called up and said I
won‟t be in today because its snowing.
(Both laugh)
MV: But I just, I think it‟s the age, because when your young that stuff don‟t bother you.
You know, I mean, I used to drive in the snow and spinning around, and Kevin and Mike
and them would go out there. They loved it when it snowed, they‟d go out and spin the
cars around and do all that kind of stuff. And I liked that. I think it has a lot to do with
age, then you get scared more, you don‟t have the nerves. Because back when I first used
to go in the snow the lady I was telling you about that didn‟t want to ride me, she lost her
vehicle so she asked me one time, “Uhh, could I ride with you? Until Christmas?” And
this was like maybe Novembe, “First of the year I‟m going to have my car back.” She
wrote with me for seven years.
KB: Oh wow.
MV: And all that nastiness, the way she was to me, if it wasn‟t for me she didn‟t never
have a job because she was so nasty to people didn‟t nobody want to ride her. And she
rode with me for seven years and then she finally got a car and then she lost that one.
And one day we left Purdue, you come out of a place then you got to walk through this
alleyway, like to the parking lot, so they always rushed. I had nothing to rush for, what
am I rushing for? So she was rushing, so when I was going through the alley she coming
back, so she says, “Can I get a ride with you today?” I said, “Where‟s your car?” “Same
thing happened to other people‟s cars.” Now she needs a ride and this is the way she
answered me. And I after I found out that they repossessed the car I started to say, “That
ain‟t what happened to everybody else‟s cars.” So she rode with me again for another
two years more. And when I left from there she almost lost her job because at Purdue
you get eight occurrences and you automatically fired. That‟s for not coming to work.
When you miss days they give you an occurrence, then you can work it off within a
month or something like that. But after you get eight they fire you, you instantly fired.
She got up to there because she didn‟t have me to ride with. And she was scared to drive
in the snow and stuff and she didn‟t have no transportation. But she was so mean and
nasty to mean when I first went down there and if it wasn‟t for me she wouldn‟t even
have the job. She retired two years after me. Now she lives right over here behind me.
KB: (Laughs)
MV: But I told them, I said, that‟s okay, they‟re going to need me before I need them,
because I ended up with three vehicles. (Laughs) Because my friend he already had three
of his own and then I had mine, I switched vehicles each day, because I drove a big, one
of those big excursion-like vans. People used to ask me, “How do you drive?” One day I
stopped at the service station and this man “Miss, how do you drive that big old vehicle?”
I said, “Ain‟t nothing like it.”
KB: (Laughs)
MV: I liked it because you could see up high, you could see the road better, you could see
everything. And first when he told me to drive it I said, “I can‟t drive that thing.” And I
started driving it and I wore it out, in Charlotte, broke the seat in it. But if it wasn‟t for
that vehicle we‟d didn‟t ever make it. And I thank him everyday for his van because
that‟s what took us to work for about ten years. And she rode everyday, and when it was
snowing and I wasn‟t going to work she‟d be calling on the phone, “Are you going in
today?” “Nope! Find somebody else to take you.” Her grandson used to be right there
with her with his big cars and he wouldn‟t even take her himself. Then when she got
towards the last year and she couldn‟t get to work because she couldn‟t drive, she almost
got her occurrences. She did, she walked out. She went and took her retirement and stuff
and she wasn‟t supposed to quit until after September, but she quit about May. She just
didn‟t go back to work. And she told that supervisor that I was talking about that liked
her and didn‟t like me, that she sure missed me because I would have made sure she got
to work. I said, “Yeah I told you I was gunna come.” But, it‟s okay but I wouldn‟t
advise you. Keep doing what you‟re doing.
KB: Well thank you so much.
MV: Unless you in the office or something like that. Don‟t ever make no plans to go
down and work on no production line at no poultry plant. I have never talked to anybody
that talk good about them.
KB: Okay, well I guess that‟s where we‟ll stop. But thank you so much we definitely
really appreciate it.
End of interview