UPSON COUNTY, GA - I Remember by Hartford Pryor 2005 ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Hartford Pryor February 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor Betty Sears (deceased—July 21, 2003) worked as a LPN at Upson Re gional Medical Center for many years. She never married, but loved children. Sometimes she would keep some of the doctors' children while they were away on business trips. She would sometimes take children to Six Flags Over Georgia and stay all day long. Sometimes she would pick up several children and take them to Burger King or McDonalds, feed them and then let them play on the playground. She sometimes picked up children late in the afternoon to take them to her house to spend the night. While they played games she would cook pizza for them. After they ate and played a few more games, Betty would be tired and tell them it was getting late and they need to get in bed. After a few times of running the clock up the children caught on to what she was doing. They would then go in the other room and call time and tem perature to see what time it really was. Betty was loved by everyone and is really being missed. [Editor's note] Mr. Pryor's popular column is always receiving accolades. Virginia Crilley of the popular and informative Upson County Rootsweb USgenweb website received a lovely thank you note in response to a posted column of Mr. Pryor's. The column was about life on the Old Mill Village, and a reader of the site sent Virginia a very nice thank you. Mr. Pryor not only is recognized for his column from this Newsletter, but also now online. Many thanks to Mr. Pryor for sharing his memories. March 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor Rev. Ed Clibum said to me once "I have a question to ask you. At Thomaston Mills (Old Mill), what is a water house?" Immediately I said, "Preacher, that is the bathroom." He then asked how it got its name. Before I answer that question, let me tell you this. As I went into my Sunday School class on Sunday morning, I told my teacher (Mr. Grady Cato) I had a ques tion. There were five retirees from Thomaston Mills in this class: Merill Brooks, James Montgomery, James Anderson, Lamar McCrary, and Sam Hammock. I asked them, "What is the water house?" They replied in unison, "It's the bathroom at the Old Mill." Each water house had a bench inside where the workers went to smoke and got all the latest gossip. In the Cloth Room where I worked, there was no bathroom. We would have to use the one in the #1 Weave Room or Twister Room. It was a good five minute walk, so we would have to leave early or walk fast. In the 30's people brought thermos jugs and ice buckets because there were no elec tric water coolers in the mill. Mr. 0. K. Birdsong, who was the manager of the shop, bought a very large ice box then had one of his workers to go to Thomaston Mills Ice Plant for ice. He kept the ice box full. The ice plant lo cated on Second Street at the Peerless Mill, also sold to the public. Mr. Bird song bought a five gallon jug and set in front of each water house. There were approximately seven water houses in the Old Mill. That's where the workers would get ice water. Since the jug was there, people began calling it the "water house." The name stuck. April 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor In 1950, Thomaston Mills re ceived an order for thousands of yards of cloth from the Arrow Shirt Co. We got busy—beginning in the warehouse. We opened the bales of cotton and sent it through the air duct to the card room where the processing began. The first step was to the drawing frames, next to the spooler room, next to the warper room, from there to the weave room where the cloth was made—then on to the cloth room where I worked. We inspected it and separated all the good from the bad. It was then sent to the Finishing Division where it was washed, bleached, sanforized and fi nally sent to Arrow Shirt Co. At this time, Thomaston Mills had a mail clerk who drove a truck to the Post Office 3 each day. The mail clerk picked up the mail and carried it back to Town Office. There the mail was separated. It was given back to the proper plant which was either the Fin ishing Division, the Peerless Division, or the Old Mill. One day, the mail clerk went to the Post Office to pick up the mail. There was a huge box which he carried to the Town Office. When the box was opened, it was found to be full of white Arrow dress shirts. Each male at the Town Office got a shirt, then the mail clerk brought the box to the sales room at the Old Mill. The sales room was in the basement under the cloth room and was managed by Ms. Lillian Hamlett of Molena. She got the word out all over the mill rather quickly that she had Arrow shirts for sale at $1.50 each. They sold like fire. May 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor Many years ago at East Thomas ton Baptist Church I was in charge of the Benevolence Committee. One day we got a call from a lady who said she needed help. I went to her house that was about a quarter of a mile through some woods. As I parked in the drive I was met by six barking dogs and I was afraid to get out of the car. This lady came out and ran the dogs off and we went into her house where I meet her husband and four cats. I ask her what her need was and she said she needed groceries because they cooked the last of theirs this mom ing for breakfast. I ask her how did she feed all the dogs and cats. She said from the crumbs off the tabie but on the other side of the room there sat a 50 pound bag of dog feed and a 25pound bag of cat food. In the drive was a brand new shiny truck. I ask her whose truck it was and she said it was her husband's that they had bought that week. He had to have one to go deer hunting because that was their only way to get meat. I went to the House of Care anyway and got them some groceries. Mrs. Ruff said we had done our part and they would have to give account for them selves. July 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor In 1939 when I was 16yearsold, I went to work in the Thomaston Peer less Mill; it was about 1,000 feet long. Behind it, parallel, there was another building that burnt coal to create steam for the mill. The shop joined it and so did the warehouse, where stuff was stored to be shipped. The Thomaston Mills ice plant that sold ice to the pub lic was in between these buildings. There was a trestle that dumped coal. Thomaston Mills sold this to the em ployees. The railroad track went on up to the Mill where it was to pick up goods to be sold. The train burned coal and when it came between the build ings black smoke was so bad that we all had to run and close the windows to keep the smoke from damaging the cloth and yam being made. Now here's a different story about the Peerless Mill. When Robert Alien was plant supervisor and everything was so hot and people had no way to get ice water in them days. He had the carpenter shop to build a very large box and cover it with tin. Then inside he had the plumbers to build a coil out of water pipes. He put a spicket on the outside of the box and kept the box full of ice at all times about five or six hun dred pounds. People could then come from inside the Mill and get water any time. In those days in the pines behind the Mill people raised hogs and had cows to milk. There were also a lot of blackberries in the woods that people picked. When people went to slop the hogs, milk the cows and pick blackber ries, they would always stop on the way back to get a drink of water from the big box. August 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor In 1943 I was working at Thomaston Mills at the Peerless Divi sion. I was drafted into the Army and served until Dec. 1945. When I came home, I went back to work with Thomaston Mills, but at the Old Mill. Right away I discovered the mill had two big problems. These problems were with cold and hot air. The mill was heated using old fashioned steam pipes. These pipes were hot, and we had to be careful not to touch them while running our jobs. As far as the cool air, the only way you could get some cool air was to raise the windows. They were very heavy win dows and had to be propped up with sticks. As years went by, glass blocks were inserted in all the windows except the Cloth Room. Years later, air ducts were in stalled overhead in all departments except the Cloth Room. In there was a fan blowing through the ducts (not air conditioning). I went to the office and talked with Mr. Jack Ormand, who was one of the mill officials. I asked about getting several fans for the Cloth Room. In about three weeks, we had seven big fans which helped us a lot. The Cloth Room only ran two shifts a day. At midnight everything would shut down. One morning when we came in at 8:00 a.m. our fans were gone. Workers in other departments had come and taken them to their jobs. After this happened about three times, Ronnie Thompson—who was in charge of maintenance—went to Kilpatrick Hardware Store. A young fellow by the name of Chrales Kersey (former Mayor of the City of Thomaston) worked there. Mr. Thompson brought chains and locks, locking our fans to our jobs so no one could remove them. We used the fans for many, many years until Thomaston Mills and Clayton Electric Company installed fans overhead. The overhead fans were very nice and were still in use when I retired in 1988. How long they lasted after tha, I do not know. September 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor In 1936, as I entered R E. Lee High School as a freshman, it was com pulsory for all boys to take home eco nomics. That's when I became inter ested in cooking and still do some now. When I finished school, I went to work for Thomaston Mills (Old Mill) Cloth Room. There were four sections in the cloth room and sometimes I would cook a cake and give to one sec tion. Then often I would carry one to all the other three sections. We had one young man named Carl Chaney that worked in there with us. Regard less of where I set the cake, he would hunt it up and get some. He loved cake so much. After several months, he was transferred out to the Cloth Room to drive the mail truck. He distributed mail to all three mills. Quite often as he'd come to the Old Mill Office, he would walk across the yard to the Cloth Room to ask if we had any cake. After Thomaston Mills closed, he went to work for WalMart as manager of the produce department. Now quite often as I shop there and he asks "What kind of cake are we eating today?" Three years in a row at Christinas, I have carried him a threelayer choco late cake. Just the other day (March 18, 2005) I carried him a surprise sheet cake called "Combread Cake." He was so happy to receive it. I enjoy seeing how much he enjoys getting it. October 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor Thomaston Mills was well known for making a variety of products. Russ Johnson was in charge of the sales de partment with salesmen under him trav eling to different states and different companies selling Thomaston Mills products. Melvin Sawyer was selling knit ting yarn by the trailer loads to custom ers in Alabama and Tennessee. This yam was used in making socks. Ken Duncan was selling 59" 2.35 cotton osnaburg to the coating trade for use in automobile headliners and wall covering. David Wright sold #10 cotton duck made at Thomaston Division. It was dyed and finished by the Finishing Division for Land's End and used to make luggage. Jim Franklin was selling the tubu lar woven and bias cut fabrics made in Thomaston Mills to vbelt customers. Wilhe Ellerbee was selling insti tutional sheets to various customers in the New York and Philadelphia area. John Carson was in charge of the consumer division and one of Thomas ton's largest customers was Sears. We made sheets and pillowcases for Sears. George Hightower, Jr. developed the Rattler brand of hunting products. The Rattler brand shake chaps were made at the Northside Plant and Marie Hammock was in charge of this opera tion. Other items manufactured by Thomaston mills were: towels, diapers, tire cord, backing for carpet, Teflon for bullet proof vests for the U. S. Govern ment, Army pup tents and rain coats. Other items were rubber stickon soles for shoes, and table clothes. We also made thermal blankets. I have one of these blankets on my bed today. All the merchants on the square were strongly supported by Thomaston Mills employees. One merchant made the comment that people coming into her store were all a bunch of lint heads. This comment spread over Thomaston quickly and people became angry. About two or three weeks later, Thomaston Mills, who paid off each Thursday and Friday by check, decided to pay their employees in two dollar bills. Thomaston Mills stated each time a merchant received a two dollar bill, it should be noted that it was coming from a mill employee. Now the merchants could see where much of their business came from. November 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor I was traveling on Hannah's Mill Road, where everything is covered in kudzu, and it brought back memories of East Thomaston in the 1930s. There was no television, nor air conditioning in the homes. When families were fin ished with their daily chores, they would visit with neighbors — sitting on the porch and talking. The sun made it really hot though, and people could not afford awnings for shade. Someone had the bright idea of planting kudzu vine. Pegs were driven into the ground and nails driven overhead in the porch. String was run for the vine to grow on. Kudzu grew extremely fast and it did not take many days for the vine to shade the porch. Some people didn't keep their kudzu trimmed. It would grow on top of the house and around the chimney, or even under the house. As a 10yearold boy, I crawled under Mr. & Mrs. Billy Lindsey's house and trimmed runners. When it began to turn dark, peo ple would go back to their own homes. It was time for the radio programs "Amos and Andy" and "Lum and Abner." These were fiveday continued talk programs that were very interest ing. December 2005 I REMEMBER By Hartford Pryor In 1942 there was a group of la dies in Thomaston that took in sewing for their income, making mostly women's clothes. There was a Mrs. Fair at McCorkle's Curve that had a oneroom shop built onto the service station. There was also a Mrs. Nellie Floumoy that lived on Railroad Street that was a very good seamstress. She once made me a white dress shirt for three dollars. It was as good as any Arrow shirt you could buy. Others were Mrs. Nellie Bu chanan who lived on County Road at Five Points, Mrs. Pauline Dorsey who lived at The Rock, and Mrs. Mary Bal lard who lived on Cherry Street. Mrs. Losia Woodson kept Mrs. Ballard busy all the time just making clothes for her. Also on South Main, there was a Mrs. Lennie Legg that had three daugh ters, Jo Ann, Marie, and Lorraine. She stayed busy making dresses for those three girls. Her husband, Warren, worked in the Bleachery and had ac cess to lots of pretty cloth that compa nies sent to be washed, dyed, san forized, and bleached. Mrs. Frost at Frost's Boarding House on South Main had twin girls, Charlene and Marylene. Mr. Frost, who worked in the Peerless Mill, had access to lots of cloth in the sales room. What I am about to say may seem unbelievable, but it is so. On East Main on the Square, the Birdseye's Chicken Feed Company had a store and all then feed was sold in cloth sacks of printed material that women used to make dresses. According to Madie Brooks, some even used it to make their under garments.