|
678. Charlie Farrar - 2010-02-08 21:02:34 |
| I heard dat, I know dats rite |
|
677. Howard Underwood - 2010-02-08 19:42:08 |
 WHO DAT OH DAT WHO  |
|
676. - 2010-01-24 09:11:09 |
Happy Birthday Marie Estes Dunn on your special day  |
|
675. Hollis Rogers - 2010-01-18 01:29:55 |
| Yep, the pay wasn’t great and it was hard work, but to many folks coming to Lagrange to work in the mills, it was an improvment in working conditions and pay from their parents generation. My Dad (Alton Rogers) came to LaGrange I think around 1947. He grew up in Heard county in a family of 11 children. My grandaddy raised them by farming, painting houses, carpentry, and I’m not sure what else. They were dirt poor. But, they were some of the finest people i ever knew. I feel that way about the people of Dunson mill village also. i’ve always been proud that I grew up there. The adults at Dunson Baptist Church, and Dunson mill influenced me as much as my parents. |
|
674. Hollis Rogers - 2010-01-18 00:52:02 |
| Charlie, Dunson and Dixie Mills were both closed permantly in 2004. I dont know if Dixie has been sold or is for sale or anything about it. Dunson mill was purchased by Raymond Vaughan a few ears ago. I beliieve all machinery is gone but not sure. Dunson is being used as warehouse now by Mr. Vaughan’s company. The Vaughan family has operated a trucking company in LaGrange since the late 50’s or early 60’s. |
|
673. Jake Thrower - 2010-01-15 00:29:00 |
| Until I went to work at Dunson I did not know that my Mom and many of your Moms and (Dads for that matter) had to work as hard as they did for so little pay and under such adverse conditions. My issue was "Why the folks who ran the mills couldn’t or wouldn’t try harder to raise the pay and improve conditions." It wasn’t just Dunson or Dixie it was most mills especially in the south where there was little threat of labor unions comming in. Never was a fan of unions but looking back cotton mills sure could have used at least that threat. Our folks labored there because it was a way to keep us clothed and fed, a responsibility they accepted the day we were born. Sure wish things could have been better fo them. |
|
672. Wynette Wright Little - 2010-01-13 16:52:23 |
| Well said, Howard. |
|
671. Howard Underwood - 2010-01-10 02:11:14 |
It’s been a while since I checked the guestbook. I was just reading it and thinking back about growing up in the Dixie and Dunson Mill villages. Charlie Farrar can tell you, my memory was one of the first things to go. A good many of the guys I grew up around went on to graduate college, land a good job, marry and live enviable lives. Calvin Bates was one of those. He did well. I always liked him. Others I knew enjoyed bending the rules. Some of them never made it to adulthood. For obvious reasons I won’t name them. Many of you knew some of them. I was close to several of them. Guess I was somewhere in he middle. I worked at Calumet, Elm City, Dixie, Muscogee and Fairfax. I never felt like a second class citizen nor was I ashamed my parents had worked there also. I felt a sort of kinship with many of those working there along side me. Of course, as in lots of families, we had a few "crazy-in-laws" we didn’t claim. I was a hard worker and took some amount of pride in that, but the generation ahead of us, that had left farms and pulpwooding to come work in the mill, will tell you we didn’t know what hard work was. When I left the mill I was made twice the money doing half as much work. I’ll never look down on anyone that does a day’s work for a day’s pay while they provide for their family. I know most of you, like me, don’t regret your cotton mill connection nor your mill village upbringing. They are what we were meant to have. Thanks for them.
Your turn Charlie |
|
670. Wynette Wright Little - 2010-01-04 21:00:06 |
Happy New Year everyone....hope you all had a great Christmas I haven’t logged on to the Dunson site in a while. I hope people continue to log on and write something.
I remember both Swanson and Brenda Cole. Thanks for the info about their passing. It’s kind of eye-opening when my age start passing. I was thinking about Brenda not too long ago and wondered whatever happened to her. She was in Ms. Speights’ first grade class with me.
Someone remarked about our parents’ working in the mill because there was nothing else available....that’s true but a lot of our parents came in from Heard County and other surrounding counties where they had been poor dirt farmers...they were likely sharecroppers and frankly the mills provided a step up with a stable income. My parents were at Dixie Mill. Not sure exactly when they moved to LaGrange from Heard Co but it was after Theo (born 1935) and before Cathaleen (born 1937). I don’t think Mother went to work there until sometime between Patricia’s birth (1945) and mine (1948). They didn’t want us to work in the mill but I think both brothers did for a short time....on the way to something else. My brother J.Q. went to GA Tech and got a degree in textile engineering. He spent many successful years in textile sales..so there was still the mill connection. My first job was at Industrial Suppliers (O.F.& C.W. Nixon, Eugene Floyd and O.T. Kersey) and that company supplied all the textile mills in LaGrange, the valley and surrounding area....so I got my start with a mill connection as well. I think sister Ann worked in the office at Callaway before heading off to work at Ft. Benning.
I received a clipping from the Lagrange Daily News not too long ago (Oct or Nov?) from Mrs. Margaret Stephens. I had talked to her to let her know I was not coming to the reunion and she had told me about the Veterans trip to D.C. She sent me the article about that trip -- with her photo. She turned 90 last year and she had served as a WAC. She and family (Jean and Ann) lived across the street from us on Mountville Street and most of the Dixie folks will remember that she ran the Dixie kindergarten for years. She was like a second mama to me.
Oh, my how I did run on.....so I’ve done my part...some of the rest of you need to chime in.......
 |
|
669. Charlie Farrar - 2010-01-02 11:49:02 |
Marion Edward Swanson photo on the home page.
I remember him/them. They lived on Cary and his father worked for Pabst.
He had polio or something because he had to use crutches.
Good people. |
|
Sign guestbook