Re: T Shirt Factory Deluxe 30 Crack
Cara Eavey
To produce our first polo shirt collection, we sought out this luxury clothing factory in Italy. Our polo shirt factory is located in a small town near Como. In these regions, craftsmanship is learned through a lifetime of experience.
The factory works with the absolute best suppliers of cotton. We wanted to fine a material that was incredibly soft, breathable and yet wore well with time. At the factory, the owner, Gianmarco, suggested to use Filo di Scozia cotton. This is a cotton yarn of the highest quality, produced exclusively from noble varieties of durable and naturally shiny extra-long staple cotton. This Egyptian cotton has an unparalleled shine and durability.
The following is taken from information prepared in November, 2008, by Jeremy W. Williams of Cookeville for a History class at Tennessee Tech taught by Dr. Michael Birdwell. Jeremy is the husband of Katie (Winningham) Williams, and is the son-in-law of David and Kathy Winningham of Livingston. I am most appreciative to Jeremy for his willingness to share this information.
"In 1944, a shirt factory opened its doors in Livingston, Tennessee. It was located on South Church Street just off the courthouse square. Its first location was in a mule barn before a permanent structure was built. Several local women went to work for the first time in a manufacturing facility. To gain perspective on what it was like to work at the shirt factory, several interviews were conducted with former shirt factory employees.
"Ms. Hazel Webb was kind enough to share her insight and prospective for the purpose of this paper. She is a native of Overton County and a wealth of knowledge on many subjects involving the history of Livingston. Ms. Webb worked for forty one years at the shirt factory and was there from the very early years of operation. Ms. Webb's employee number was twenty-six. When she started work, the shirt factory was a large supplier of shirts for the military. The shirts were tailored to military specifications and worn by World War II soldiers. Ms. Webb began her first years of employment in the hemming department. She and others earned around forty cents per hour. When she finally retired forty one years later as a production supervisor, she was taking home roughly six dollars an hour. During her early years of employment, there were no benefits, 401K, pension, or any type of workers insurance. They were tough, determined, and just happy to have employment in those early years.
"One of Ms. Hazel Webb's intriguing recollections took place during a unionization push at the factory. She told her story like it happened just yesterday and in great detail. In the late forties, a group of union miners where trying to set-up shop in the Livingston shirt factory. They had come "down from the mountain" and were standing outside the facility. In a hostile manner, they were telling the workers they better join if they knew what was good for them. Ms. Webb felt this was a poor way to try to win the employee support. The vote to unionize had recently failed and several from the union were picketing out in front of the factory. Ms. Webb was felt they were with in their rights to picket and try to organize, but they went too far. The picketers began to harass, insult, and block entry of workers just trying to go to work. As she experienced this first hand when one morning she was trying to hand in her production totals to her supervisors one morning and was confronted by an unknown to female picketer. The picketing lady keep stepping in front of Ms. Webb and began shouting at her something similar to, "can't you read, there is a strike on here, you ain't going in there, can't you read hillbilly". At that point, Ms. Webb said she punched her square on the chin and dropped her right there then climbed on her and gave her a few more punches before some of her co-workers pulled her off. After that, Ms. Webb and her fellow workers walked in and worked out their day. She said after that event she was never given any trouble by the people pushing for a union and that in the years that followed, the shirt factory never unionized. One could assume that this event provides hours of laugher and good natured ribbing for Ms. Webb and her friends.
"Another interesting person who worked at the shirt factory was Ms. Clara Hunter. Ms. Hunter is also a native of Overton county and spent several years of the employment in the Livingston shirt factory. She brought an interesting perspective to the shirt factory subject because she worked for the factory on and off over the span of three decades. Ms. Hunter first started working the shirt factory in 1949 earning an hourly wage of sixty cents. She was employed until her husband who was in the armed services was transferred to another location in 1951. Throughout their marriage, she and her husband moved several times to different states, primarily Florida. They returned to Livingston in 1955 and she once again took up employment at shirt factory for another four years until once again they were relocated. They returned to Livingston for the final time in 1967. Ms. Hunter was hired for the third time and stayed on until 1969.
"During her years at the shirt factory, Ms. Hunter worked mostly in the pressing department and spent most of her time rolling collars. This department was located in the downstairs or the basement area of the factory. She and her fellow employees worked at least forty hours a week with industrial steaming equipment. To say conditions were extremely hot and muggy during the summer months with no ventilation and the heat radiating from their equipment would be an under statement. Though conditions were tough, to say that they were unbearable would certainly be a misstatement because many worked in these conditions day after day for years.
"Ms. Hunter remembered the first thing she ever bought with her earnings was a large cedar chest for five dollars. She mentioned that many of her co-workers were able for the first time to purchase consumer goods such as washing machines, electric stoves, and even some purchased their first cars. She was one of them and proud of it."
"Another longstanding Livingston shirt factory employee was Ms. Bobbie Maynord. Ms. Maynord stated she worked for the shirt factory for forty-eight years. She began in 1953 and recalled her first paycheck for a two week period was around forty-two dollars. She remembers receiving that first paycheck was one of the proudest moments of her life. Ms. Maynord spent her years at the shirt factory sewing on sleeves in the main area of the factory. When she finally retired years later she was making a little over five dollars per hour.
"This mindset is not surprising especially for anyone who has ever toiled at a less than glamorous job such as a restaurant server, a gas station attendant, or manual laborer. This type of ignorance is far separated from reality. If the so called upper class had any real understanding of basic economics, they should have been thanking the men and women who worked in the factory. Their new purchasing power caused more small businesses to be created and existing businesses to thrive. With this in mind, there were several businessmen that purchased one thousand dollar tax free bonds from the town of Livingston to support an expansion of the shirt factory sometime between 1952 and 1956. The bonds were used to finance an addition to the factory so more employees and production capacity could be added.
"Ms. Opel Walker, a native of Rickman, worked for the Livingston shirt factory from its very inception in 1944 when she was only sixteen years old. At the beginning of her employment, she did not work in the big red brick building that later workers would recognize as the shirt factory. Instead, she said the first production took place in the old mule barns. One barn was used for production and one was used to store finished goods. During those early days, sales people would load up an old horse drawn wagon with shirts and push it up to the square to sell out of it. Within in a couple of years, the production moved to its longstanding facility on South Church Street.
"Ms. Walker shared some more detail on the work conditions in the shirt factory. In the beginning, their only bathroom was an out house that all employees shared. One can only imagine the pungent aroma that arose from it during those hot summer days. The heat was the first thing that Ms. Walker drew from her memory. She also described the first fan that they installed to help combat the heat. This was not a fan that was purchased, but one that they crafted themselves. The conveyor belt that ran through the center of the factory was rigged by the employees with rectangular pieces of cardboard tethered to the bottom of the belt. As the conveyor would pass overhead, it would bring a little breeze of relief. However, this improvised central cardboard fan only worsened the lint problem. She quickly pointed out how it was better than nothing and made the conditions more bearable.
"Ms. Opel Walker, like other women that were interviewed, enjoyed working at the shirt factory. She saw it as just one big extended family and one where everybody got along. She said everybody was just proud to have a job and did not mind working hard everyday. Once again, the description of simple country people was used to describe the majority of shirt factory employees.
"Ms. Walker also confirmed that she did perceive there was a second class citizenship placed upon the employees of shirt factory. She felt as though some townspeople thought the shirt factory employees were "a trashy lower class of hill folk." Ms. Walker mentioned that some of high-headedness came from a few of the merchants in Livingston. She stated it was how they were treated or the lack of service given them when they went into some of the stores. With a loud laugh, she exclaimed "they did not mind taking our money," and it seemed that they saw little difference in money earned from working in the factory. This unfortunate piece of their shared history shows how little we have changed from those days and like today, there are those who are thought to be of less value because of their lower socioeconomic standing.
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