Matewan Oral History Project Collection
Sc2003-135

Eddie Nenni Interview

John Hennen: Sound check on mike one. Interviewer's microphone. August second, 1989. Sound check on mike two, narrator's microphone, August second, 1989. This is John Hennen for the Matewan Development Center preparing to conduct an Oral History Interview with Eddie Nenni of Matewan in his store downtown. It is approximately 2:00 p.m. Okay. Mr. Nenni, if you would tell me your full name and when and where you were born please.

Eddie Nenni: Edward Gerald Nenni. I was born in Matewan at this hospital down here. Down the street. What is it called? Dr. Hodge was in it those days. Matewan Clinic I guess you might want...could have been Matewan Hospital in those days. 1937. May the nineteenth.

J: Okay. That clinic was located in the downtown area?

EN: Yeah. Right in the town.

J: Is that the building still standing?

EN: Still there. Dr. Roy I think's in there today.

J: And you said 1937?

EN: yeah.

J: Okay . And your parents names?

EN: My mother's name was Nellie Gentile Nenni and my father's name was Attilio Nenni.

J: And how do you spell your fathers first name?

EN: A. double T. I.L.I.O.

J: But now, he went by Tillio. Is that correct?

EN: Well, they called him Tilli or Tillio.

J: Okay. And how many brothers and sisters did you have?

EN: I had one sister. She's about...I'm fifty-two. She's got to be about forty-six

J: Okay. So you were the oldest child?

EN: Um-hum.

J: Okay.

EN: I think...I think would have be another one but I think they died in child..child birth. And one of them died down at this hospital from something she picked up at the hospital. So I think there would have been four or five of us. I can't remember for sure. There's just two.

J: So now, you mentioned Dr. Hodge. He'd been a doctor here for quite awhile, was he your childhood doctor as well?

EN: He might have been, you know, I don't remember. Dr. Roy, he's still down there, was...I can remember goin' to him more as an infant that anyone.

J: Um-hum.

EN: Unless..I know I found a receipt were I was born and it cost twenty-five dollars in 1937.

J: Is that right?

EN: To..to...I found the receipt in the safe. And uh...Mrs. Wells worked in the store and I said what's this and she says " That's the cost for you to be born in 1937.' Twenty-five bucks.

J: Well, that's changed considerably. (laughing) In the last fifty years. Tell me something about how your mom and dad got to.. got to America uh...something about their background.

EN: Well, both families lived in Italy and lived about fifteen miles apart over there and for some unknown reason, they moved to America and moved fifteen miles apart over here. This was very unusual. They...the two families really didn't know each other, I don't think when they first got here but the Nenni family would go to Williamson and course in those days, you know, they wasn't to...hotels and everything at that type of place and that the Gentile's ran sort of a big boarding house. Mrs. Gentile had about twenty bedrooms in her...so if they'd go down and spend the day, and maybe they couldn't make it tonight in those days, it took a whole day to go to Williamson and a whole day to get back or whatever. They'd go to Gentiles and stay. That's where my father met my mother. In fact, she was about uh...eight or nine years old the first time he saw her. He was about sixteen. He told Mrs. Gentile, he said "When that girl grows up, I'm gonna marry her" And he did. (laughing)

J: Now, when he would go to Williamson when he was fifteen or sixteen, was he going on...on business with is father?

EN: Yeah. It was usually business. He had to go to court house to pay taxes or..or something to that effect was usually a business trip. The Gentile's had a grocery business and they would deliver groceries and they had a beer distributing thing and made beer and so forth up this way see so they would come up back and forth in those days by covered wagon.

J: Now, your...your dad's father had a business here in Matewan. Is that correct?

EN: Yeah. They started out had a shoe shop and they also had a bakery then they had a transfer business. One of the girls had a beauty shop and uh...trying to think what else they were into. Anything to make a dollar in those days to feed the family and get up five in the morning and bake that bread and daddy had to go out and sell bread and then he had a t-model Ford and they had to go all the way to Sprigg and all the way to Newtown to Phelps and all those areas and pick up shoes to be repaired and bring them back in so the two boys and daddy could fix shoes while daddy picked them up and delivered them and collected the money.

J: So they went out and got the business and brought it back in?

EN: Yeah. And brought it back in.

J: They didn't depend on walk-in business then?

RN: That's right. They didn't depend on it so they got to know everyone you know, and they'd end up...it was late at night and they were up the road somewhere, dad said, he use to carry their silverware in their back pockets. I said "Why would you do that?" and he said "Well, they'd probably use everybody for dinner and we had our own silverware." Made a joke out of it you know.

J: Did they ever have to stay out on the road somewhere?

EN: Probably did I'd say so, yeah. If they couldn't make it back in bad weather or something and he got to know everybody in the area like that you know. They all knew Tilio cause he fixed shoes up. They come in the store today and tell me stories of when he stayed at their house.

J: Was your grandfather's shoe shop on this location?

EN: It was two or three locations in town, it was down in John McCoy's building. You know where John's place is now?

J: Um-hum.

EN: It was in there and it was in a couple other places and they begin...every time they'd do pretty good business, why, they'd start raising rent or something on them so they finally came up into this building that's uh...this building here is the one that Testerman, you know, the one that was..Sid Hatfield shot, alright the building in the middle, I think belonged to the Keatleys in...and they bought that building and put the shop in there

J: Um-hum.

EN: And that...from that building, these other two buildings were purchased and also made into a bigger department store.

J: Um-hum. approximately when did your grandfather start to expand his business? Do you have any idea?

EN: Well you see, they came here I'm thinkin' about 1909 and they stayed in Matewan for a number of years and then they decided to go to Michigan and..and...they thought maybe things were better in CHicago up in that area somewhere and dad went up there and I think the family went up there and then the family came back and I think he went up there and they was a shoe shop up there that had like, in those days, you know, that was a good business to be in and the shop that he worked in, there was fifteen shoe repairmen I that shop and each guy had his own particular job he had to do and in...in...let's see, that had to be in the twenties. Latter twenties and his salary was fifty bucks a week. Which was big money in those days. Cause I think school teachers made a thousand a year you know and he worked up there, saved money and came back and brought some of his ideas and some of his learnings back to my grandfather so that he could show some of the things he learned that they would do in the city on how to fix shoes.

J: Um-hum.

EN: Cause most of that stuff was done by hands in those days. They didn't have any machinery to amount to anything so he come back and saved a bunch of money from working up there and helping buy some equipment and they sort of got into it even stronger and decided to stay here and uh...at that pint...they begin to get the other kids involved in the..the boys involved in the shoe repair shop you know, so they could work in it too.

J: Have you all happened to save any of the old shoe repair equipment that...

EN: Oh yeah. Most all of that over the year is not...that first stuff that they had was...wudn't too much to say cause it was all done by hand but most of that equipment over there was at one time uh..purchased like that stitcher over there was bought in 1937 uh..that one stitcher. That's probably one of the oldest one. The patch machine was probably bought in the thirties but basically, they haven't changed. The new machines aren't really. They look more modern but they really don't do any better job than that does. Probably be just as good, but back in those days, everything was done by hand. They had to sew, if they had to mend and cut, anything they had do, it had to be by hand.

J: Yeah. Where did uh...where was the leather for...well, did he..did he make new shoes or strictly repair?

EN: He strictly done repair work. He probably did some...maybe some saddle repair work you know, back in those days, they had harnesses. You had saddles and you had whatever leather work that was related to uh...horse and buggy type situation. Probably had a lot of that type of stuff to uh..to repair. MOstly it was shoe repair.

J: Um-hum.

EN: Because, in those days, people only owned one pair. If they owned two pair of shoes, that was a lot of shoes and they had to get them fixed because they were too expensive to buy again. It is reverse today you know. It's not that situation.

J: Um-hum. Was your father...now I might be wrong about this, but I interviewed your mom and you aunt uh...was your father a witness to the...the shooting in 1920. The Matewan Massacre?

EN: um-hum.

J: Did he ever discuss that with you? Say anything about it to you?

EN: Uh...only thing I could get out of him was when the shootin' started, he had crawled under a building and then after I talked to my two uncles, they said that there wasn't a building, they think maybe he crawled under th...across the track over here. They used to a railroad uh...depot made out of railroad ties an old wood structure.

J: UM-hum.

EN: And he said there was a place right under there where everybody a lot of times, kids would crawl under and they seemed to think that's where it was cause he was comin' down the railroad track when the shooting started. He'd been out selling bread that morning and I think that that's where he was talking about. That he'd crawled under a structure so maybe it was over there so from where he was laying under here, he could see all these people shot. Supposedly.

J: And was it his memory that Sid Hatfield shot the mayor?

EN: No. Now, see, he didn't...I didn't hear him say that. He just said he saw the shoot out but I didn't get the details from him.

J: The shooting was so general I guess,

EN: Yeah. And there's so much of it goin' on at the same time and..it would be pretty hard for him to pinpoint. At least he didn't say in one particular situation.

J: Okay. Let's see. Alright. Get back to you personally. When did you start...or where did you start school?

EN: I went to Matewan Grade School right here in Matewan.

J: un-hun. And that building...I'm still unclear as to where that building was located uh..the old..the elementary school.

EN: Yeah. It's the first big building up here before you make your right turn to go towards Phelps and those areas. It was the first building was the grade school uh...it had huge white pillars. OH, they must have been two or feet thick. Four huge big white pillars in front of the building.

J: Okay.

EN: Now that was where the grade school was and then that...when they moved it, then they made that into a...got a new grade school, then they made that into a high school.

J: Who was...were some of your teacher and the principal at that school?

EN: Stuart Gose and his wife was the principal of the grade school and she taught the first grade. She, at the particular time, they were trying some type of experiment cause I remember she was my teacher in the first, the second, and the third grade. She followed the class for some reason. They were trying some type of experiment they were gonna try. I don't really remember exactly what it was but he was a principal there for years uh...at Matewan Grade School. Mrs. Schinn, I think was a first grade teacher uh...Mrs. Stepp. Addie Stepp, she was a six grade teacher. She just died recently about two or three years ago. Uh...Mrs. Deaton, uh..I think that's her grandson that works at the bank, you know Danny?

J: Um-hum.

EN: She was the fifth grade teacher. Miss Boothe. She was a fourth grade teacher. That was about all my teachers that I had.

J: What was the uh..approximate size of the student body in elementary. Do you remember that?

EN: NO. THat I don't even remember.

J: Un-hun.

EN: Couldn't have been over a couple..if we had twenty hundred, a hundred and fifty somewhere in there maybe.

J: About twenty or twenty-five in each class.

EN: Yeah. something like that.

J: Okay. Now you would have begun elementary school uh...I guess right around the middle of World War II then, is that correct?

EN: Yeah.

J: forty-three...

EN: About the time...that's right. And of course, my daddy didn't have to go because of his nervous situation. He had a nervous break down and they rejected him for service.

J: Um-hum.

EN: And...so he..he didn't have to go.

J: Was he called for a physical?

EN: He went for a physical I think because his nervous condition...he'd had a nervous breakdown seem I was six years...about five years old. Then they wouldn't take him because of that so he stayed...he stayed in Matewan. ANd of course the same thing happened to me when I grew up and time for me to go take a physical, mother left me in the store because he'd had another another nervous breakdown and she didn't have nobody to run the store so...

J: Um-hum.

EN: Then they did the same...made me stay home.

J: Um-hum. So yo stayed her with the business then?

EN: Yeah. I don't think there was any war. What happened in 1957. Was there.

J: Was uh..slacktown, (?) yeah.

EN: There wasn't really anything...but anyway, I was called for a physical and then, of course, they turned me down for flat feet and then they said, why, said you, poor imp, isn't that what they called them.

J: Right.

EN: Yeah. It was mostly because of daddy's situation.

J: So your father then, for several years, was in and out of hospitals or...

EN: Yeah. He was...he was in Radford and he had..in those days you know, they kind of believed in those shock treatments where as today, they're kind of backing off from them you know. And he had ....and he got to the point where he had all those he could take. The doctor told him that he couldn't have any more of those, said his heart wouldn't stand it and of course, he was about sixty some when he told him this. So he'd go four or five years and be fine and all at once he'd get wound up tight and he'd have to go to Radford.

J: Um-hm. I don't like to dwell on unpleasant memories, but what...when he came back from a period of hospitalization after shock treatments. How would...what sort of changes had there been?

EN: Well lot of times, he'd course you know we..mother and I would always have to go in for conferences with those doctors, I felt like a psychologist and they were after so many of them cause we went through about ten different doctors.

J: Um-hum.

EN: And uh...so funny over all these years and everything, different shock treatments he had and...and the doctors would say, they felt like alot of this was coming from bunch of touch childhood because he had to quit in the third grade and he had to go start driving tucks to get him started in the work world to early and he really didn't have enough time to become a child before he became a man and they kind of blame some of that on his problem the reason why he had his problem and uh...now, when he come back form his shock treatments, of course, he wouldn't remember very much cause that's what that does. It relaxes you, it blanks your mind out so that you get all these things that you're thinking off your mind so you can calm down and relax.

J: Um-hum.

EN: And when he would come back, why, he couldn't understand why when he got sick and he couldn't understand what he had done that would cause him to get that way and uh...it was still, as much as they explained it, it was still a mystery as many as all the explanations they can give you, you still, you don't have the one that makes you feel like that's the answer. They never did come up with that, in fact, two or three years, you know, they told him, they said um...Mr. Nenni,now don't you have any more nervous breakdowns said because you can't take no more shock treatments and you won't be able to come back here. He went for ten years without one after they told him that so in other words, what they were telling him, this is up to you, you're the one that's gonna have to straighten this up. Don't think you can come to us, and we're gonna give you the magic word or the magic medicine or to cure you. It's gonna be up to you and I think that was the longest period he went through he didn't have any more of those but of course they kept...they kept him on medication...they kept his anxieties down. They wouldn't get too low or too high and if you got off of those..that medicine, his anxieties would get high.

J: Was this medication he had to take every day?

EN: Yeah. Um-hum.

J: Now, did he..did he change his work habit any? Was he able to do that or...

EN: Yeah. Because see, once I came to the store, he was takin' care of the books, he was takin' care of the buyin' and then gradually, I just took all of it away from him, you know. Only thing he had to do was just maybe take care of the shop and we kind of kept things away from him so we thought maybe that...he just had too much stress and maybe that stress had caused it so mother and I gradually took all that away from him so he could come to the store and work every day yet he didn't have the strain of knowing exactly what was goin' on.

J: Un-hun.

EN: THis helped a lot cause he wasn't..he probably..after what..he know...lot of times, they put guys in those places and then they never come out. He came out every time after maybe six weeks, maybe a month, whatever and sometimes the doctor would say, he, why don't you take him on a vacation for maybe three or four months or something so mother would get a new car and they'd hop in the car and they'd go visit all around the country all their brothers and sisters, you know, and like kindly get him out of here because when he had his first one, he'd worked fifteen years straight with no vacation. Eighteen hours a day and the doctor told him said, "Mr. Nenni, said you can do either one you want to do said, if you'll go on a vacation in the next fifteen years, you wouldn't have to pay me all the money you'd paid me, you could have spent it on a vacation. (laughing) THat sounds pretty good. I think I'll try that so he did. He'd take a vacation religiously every summer you know and go to the beach. He seemed to enjoy it.

J: WHen you were uh..a kid say elementary school, did you all live here over top of the store or did you live somewhere else in town?

EN: We lived at the lower end of the town next to the crossing. Daddy had just built a new uh...little cottage that must have had six rooms in it with the basement and he did most of the work when...he would work in the store and get his girls come in and they would get everything ....and then he would go down and work on his house and then he'd come back up and let them go to lunch and then he'd go back and work on his house then he'd come back and close the store so he was workin' the store and tryin' to build a house at the same time.

J: So he was a carpenter and electrician.

EN: Yeah. He learned it all the hard way. Just do trial and err and he'd get books and read on it.

J: Yeah.

EN: And he figured it out for himself. See, just goin' to the third grade, he taught himself to type on his own and he taught hisself how to repair those shoes practically on his own cause his grandfather didn't really bring his trade form the old country. He learned a lot of that on his own. He did all the wiring in this house down here by buying books on electrician and all the plumbing and all that. He'd read a book and he would know how to do it.

J: Yeah. People don't do that much anymore.

EN: See, in the store see, he read books in the store on how to advertise and what kind of merchandise to put how to set up his accounts receivable, how to send out his statements and he did all that hisself he learned it all hisself.

J: He did his own advertising?

EN: He did all his advertising on the radio stations and the newspaper, he wrote his own copy up cause I kind of picked up from him see and would write all my copies for my advertisement on the papers and so forth that's what kind of got me into that mail order thing when I happen I had experience in the Daily News so that's what caused to think well heck I be lucky to try this you know.

J: Go ahead and tell me about that you eventually moved into...I'll ask you some questions about your boyhood later, but since were on that line you moved in the business yourself and eventually, do you depend largely on mail order for your?

EN: Na, it would be, it could've been a good thing, but the inflation in 1982 is what shut me down, because the advertisement cost was just astronomical it just.

J: I see.

EN: You would have to have somebody that would have a lot of money that could afford tax right offer something to build your list up it could be good you know, but it they'd go to the bank and borrow the money and try to make it they's no way or to get credit to some of these magazines you know put it in on credit and hoping that some of the orders would take care of the that's doesn't seem to be feasible anymore neither at the time I was in it had I got into it maybe 20 years earlier before inflation got so bad, it could've been a good thing because it was bringing the orders in you know four or five magazines ads I was putting in some of those magazines was bringing in uh...$20 or $30 thousand dollars you know in a month's time and that's how a lot of the biggies got where they are today, but that couldn't get there today if they had to start from scratch it would be a little tougher than it was back in those days cause, postage was just a nickel in the '50's and ads was so much cheaper and so forth.

J: When did your father start bringing you into the business? Did you start just as a kid?

EN: Well, no I had nothing to do with it I didn't think I wanted to be in it at all and uh...I don't guess I would've come into it had he not gotten sick I would've went another route I was in school at Marshall I'd probably did somein' (something) else you know, but he got sick and mother said you're gonna have to come home help me with the store said I can't take care of him and take care of the store to if I have to stay at the house with him cause he's been sick the doctor's says he needs it quiet he says so, I alright so I came home and started workin' in the store I kind of got interested in it and I stayed in business classes down there anyway at Marshall and I come back and sort of just stepped in to what he was doing and tried to learn what he was doing and add to it you know and of course at that time we had a shoe repairman, we had 2 or 3 grocery stores and 2 or 3 part timers in those days and uh...Matewan was crowded they was a lot of business, a lot of people here you know it was different than it is today it wasn't the malls, it wasn't the auto...the roads weren't as good the people couldn't afford automobiles they stayed practically right here and bought what they needed whatever you had they didn't go compare prices or go ten buck two to find out if something was cheaper or more or whatever they just bought what you had and that's what they did and they went home.

J: Were there other department styles stores in town at that time when you got involved in business?

EN: Yell, Hope's was in here Hope's Department Store, which was the Ben Franklin Franchise and then uh...Abott's Department Store and Kirk's Department Store, so they was four clothing stores at the time and they might even been seem like Cooper's he had a Hardware Store, but seem like his son also had a Clothing Store for awhile in town back in the '50's.

J: This was Ira Cooper?

EN: Yeah.

J: I didn't realize they had that many department store's down there.

EN: Yeah, one time in those days, what you did if somebody was your customer they were your customer so that meant if the guy across the street had something that they want they didn't go over there and get it you went over across the street and got it and brought it over and put it on the books for them and they bought from you because they didn't go over there and buy from them, cause that wasn't they were my customer they wouldn't buy over there.

J: That's interesting so it's almost like uh...well I don't want to put that wudn't like turk battles or something like that was it?

EN: Well, in the sense maybe you might but by the same token he would do the same thing, if he had a customer they wouldn't come over and buy from me, then he'd come over and get the item and I'd charge it to him and he'd put it on the books for them.

J: So, the customer would ask you if you had such and such an item.

EN: Uh...hmm!

J: And you'd say...

EN: They were faithful.

J: No, but I know where I can get it then you'd get one for them.

EN: They were faithful customers in those days where today you know there's nobody faithful to any particular store in the United States, they just go were ever they can find what they want, because there isn't the array of merchandise back in those days as there is today to.

J: Well, so much shopping is done at chain stores now you know.

EN: Yeah, and see the automobile makes it feasible for them to drive a hundred miles to this shopping mall and two hundred miles to the other wouldn't think a thing about it, well they wouldn't have done it in those days.

J: What sort of uh...what was downtown Matewan back like back a little bit farther say when you were ten, twelve, fourteen years old was it a busy town back then to?

EN: I can remember on Saturday's it was packed out on Saturday's. Scott Nickel's bus company ran buses to Matewan, from Matewan to Williamson to Thacker to North Matewan to Newtown and the bus would be so packed that you couldn't even get a seat you had to stand up most of the time and not only coal miners going back and forth to work cause you remember in those days they couldn't afford automobiles a lot of 'em and they'd ride the bus to wherever they were working, but those buses ran just like the bus ran from here to Williamson maybe took an hour to get there than it ran back ran all day long like that and it was usually packed all day long too and on Saturday's the streets were just packed with people if they weren't shopping they were on the street talking I think we had four or five beer joints in town and the music was coming out of them places all day up to 12 o'clock 'til they had to close at night and it was a busy little town you know it was just unreal the show house was packed out and they were lined up from the show house all the way to the end of the block and around the block just to get in to see a movie on bank night it was just unreal you know compared to what it was.

J: What was bank night?

EN: Bank night, well they call a bingo night what they do for $500 dollars you know and people you had to go buy a ticket well you necessarily didn't have to go to the movie, but if you bought the ticket than that ticket number qualified you for that drawing you know and ah...man it was packed out for that drawing for $500 dollars.

J: What they draw in between features or something?

EN: Yeah, and then you ever had that number won that money you know I can...

J: I see your the first person that mentioned that sounds like a big deal your the first person that's mentioned that to me anyway.

EN: And this one lady come in the store and she told me she said "in 1937 we went over to the movie one night and we won five dollars I don't know what the drawing was they had different denominations of money that was involved and she says "you know five dollars in 1937 was a lot of money and said I came over to your dad's store and bought my first pair of high heel shoes she says I went next door to your grandpa and he had a restaurant over there says I bought me a uh...two hot dogs and a pop and she said now you know that was livin' it up in those days.

J: You was running the movie theater?

EN: Frank Allara.

J: Frank Allara.

EN: He had three of 'em one here and one in Delbarton and I don't know where the other one was if it was in Gilbert or where, but he had three I can't remember the other location.

J: When did the movie house shut down do you remember?

EN: Seem like it ran up until the '60's maybe the later '50's I'm not sure seems like it, well you know the televisions were that's about the time everybody started gettin' televisions '48, '49, '50 and '51 in that era they started runnin' TV lines to the mountains everybody and uh...individuals had to in those days because uh...nobody had really come up with an idea to run their own line and start hookin' everybody on to it I know we were the first in the lower part of town to do that and I remember daddy saying "man it cost $600 bucks time he got through runnin' a line from the house to the top of the mountain between buyin' the cable and settin' up the transformers and clearin' off the top of the hill, puttin' the cable up and get the railroad permission to put a line under the track you know and all this stuff we had spent $600 dollars it was just a lot of money in 1948.

J: So, everybody that wanted TV service had to do that then?

EN: Yeah, in like in 1948 we did that and we had one channel black and white to get this spent on that money for one channel Okay three years later the Sisson put in a TV line at the top of the mountain and they came back and told dad said that uh...I'll tell you what I'll do he said they wanted $50 dollars to hook up or something dad said take all that stuff up there and just hook me on he said Okay so he give it all to 'em.

J: You say you got one channel say in 1950 were was that station?

EN: WSAZ...TV...channel three, Huntington, West Virginia you'd watch TV in those days regardless what was on just for the thrill of having the set in your house. Howdy Doody time you remember the old and we used to watch Farmer Cligg not that we liked farmer Cligg, but just the fact that he was on and it was something to watch you know.

J: He was on real early in the mornings as I recall.

EN: Yeah. And of course when your set went out a lot of times you had to I know one time dad come home for supper and mother couldn't find him and she called the store and couldn't find him and what he had done he had gone across the track in those days you had those TV lines and had the two wires that went up the hill they were open they weren't rubber covered or anything they were bare wires and they went all the way to the top of the mountain on a little like a little wood piece that come out with two little spindles and they were hooked to that well if the twig or something come down and twisted over and those things would touch then you didn't have any television well he started up the hill with his top cut in his hat and a suit on thought well, I go just a few little you know and ended up with a top of the mountain with his shirt and tie and top coat on all the way to the top and it got dark on him and he didn't have a flash light or nothing and finally about 8:00 o'clock mother said well, you think maybe he went up to run that television line so, I went up there I hollered sure enough he said yell I done fell over one cliff said but, I fell in some leaves "laughing" he said so I had to go get him to take him home.

J: He sounds like uh...pretty determine type.

EN: He was.

J: Person.

EN: He had a very forceful personality, very understanding you know and very intelligent you know anybody today how many people sit down to read a book and have a house with five bathrooms in it and have one leak you know it just wasn't anything he wouldn't tackle, if he figured it could be done if any means were doing it you know that's what he would do and of course maybe they were more people back like that in those days I don't know see that house that mother had that they had down there it was a ten room house he called the electrician to get him figured he said I can't afford that that's when he got a book and started reading on electrical work and he wired the whole house.

J: When he was workin' the transfer business and deliverin' for the bakery and the shoes and that kind of thing, did he do the mechanical work on the trucks to?

EN: Yeah, they did just about everything of course back in those days I can hear him sayin' they just you could use uh...a pair of pliers and a screwdriver and some mailing wire you know said you could just about keep them going.

J: Yeah, a lot easier to work on then. Where did you all hang out when you were kids around Matewan? Did you have a gang that you ran with or?

EN: There wasn't too much, there was of course the pool room you know cause when I was growin' up mom and dad wouldn't let me go to the pool room so I never did learn to play pool, but now a lot of guys that's where they hung out was at the pool room where the Chatter Box is today that's what it was called when I was growin' up now we looked around in there and drugs stores you know that was popular in the '50's, but uh...that was about the only two places as I got a little older I started playin' music they was a VFW club that I played music a couple of nights a week that was in the '60's, but other than that in high school seems like they parents would control kids more in those days than they do today and they didn't let you do as much.

J: How about that bus station did people hang out there much?

EN: Yel, John McCoy was the one that owned that and he fixed hot dogs and hamburgers you know and so forth and Scott Nickel's bus company pulled into that place of course it was open 'til those buses quit runnin' 'til the last bus run at 12:00 o'clock in the night.

J: Now late '50's early '60's was that pretty good economic times for the coal industry I'm a little vague when the boom times were?

EN: Well, you know in the early '50's in about '50 I think the early '50's must a been pretty good, but the later '50's is when they closed down Island Creek Coal Company at Red Jacket and in those days if they had uh...if they had a million or two million dollar mine you know which was a lot of money that might have had five thousand people workin' in it were it's totally reversed today they might have uh...hundred million dollar mine they got five hundred guys workin' at it, but uh...in those days when I first came in store in 1957 they at the high school they used to kid and said it was reading, riding and route 23 to Columbus and everybody took off for Columbus.

EN: And that happened for years, because they just didn't want to move up in Ohio they born and raised here I guess they thought they was gonna die here they didn't want to move, so that's what they did and on weekends we were up in Ohio town our business would be bad during the week, but we'd make up for it on Friday and Saturday cause they'd bring those pay checks from Ohio back this way see.

J: Where did they work in Columbus would it be like in the steel mills or whatever?

EN: General Motors Plants, General Electric Plants uh...whatever different type jobs, but least it was employment up there see were they wasn't anything here once the coal fields went down why and weren't mining coal why that's been the story of Matewan since the beginning.

J: Now the next generation say that started migrantin' now they felt no reason to come back on the weekend or?

EN: Na, but then of course when the '70's hit and we had a boom time in the '70's you know everybody was coming back this way they come in the store lord they was just tickled to death to move back my husband got a job they was gonna make good money you know and the '70's of course it was good times were boomin' in this area for about another ten years.

J: Now you mentioned this is something I want to ask you about to, you said that you started playing music in the '60's and as I understand you're a saxophone player is that correct?

EN: Yeah.

J: How did you get started playing music?

EN: When I was in high school some boys wanted to start a band they had a vocalist, they had a guitar and they had the bass player and, but they didn't have a sax player and they ask me if I wanted to play and I said well I never played sax before I played clarinet and I said uh...shouldn't be that much the transition shouldn't be that complicated, so we started playing and then we went to Logan I don't remember how this happened and in Logan County a girl heard us play and she wanted to manage us and we played in the in those days they used have a Dick Clark which I'm sure your familiar with The Dick Clark Record Show is that right in Charleston they had the Dick Heed Record Hop thing which was a copy of the national thing and they had all these teenagers you know that were on the show so what we would do we were connected with that Record Hop that would come into Charleston and we'd have a thousand to two thousand kids in the army there at Logan that would come by Record Hop and we had a four piece band called The Continental in those days so that's what I did on the weekend when I wudn't workin' in the store I'd be gone to Logan and she would book us into Charleston or whatever she could come up with for us and uh...those were great days.

J: Now these shows like at the Armory would they move in and have those on the radio or in the paper or anything?

EN: What they would is they would I don't remember if they exactly had 'em on if they would come to Logan and film those things like they do today, because they didn't have the portable equipment you remember in those days that they do now, but they would advertise it on the TV show that were going to be in Logan and the Continental will be there this weekend record of the Crystals whatever the band was that was coming in see was gonna be in it. Teenagers would just pack it out it was just unreal two thousand kids you know to come into a place that over in Logan the population over there is just five thousand in those days so we had to be pullin' 'em from all around to get that many teenagers in that place I think they charged a dollar a head in those days.

J: Did you go to other places and play to?

EN: Oh, yeah, we'd go to Charleston and play and after 3 or 4 years with that band than I had another band we had in Matewan I played over at the club for about 3 or 4 years then I went with another band in Charleston-Huntington played with them for 6 years and every weekend we played in Huntington, Charleston and Logan or Williamson or just where ever we could find to dance to our bookings you know proms, country clubs over in Chesapeake Ohio we played over there in Ironton, Ashland all in that area and every weekend we had jobs to do.

J: Now where was the club in Matewan that you played at?

EN: We played at the VFW Club it was over right next to the town hall and it was washed away during the "77" flood.

J: Never rebui...VFW didn't rebuild?

EN: No, see they were...when we first went over there they were they couldn't make their payments on their place, because they just didn't have any business one man approached me and ask me said think you can get a band together if we could get that place open he said "maybe we could get that place remodeled and get it fixed up and get some people coming in so I said alright we'll just take the door you can make it off the food or drinks whatever he said alright and so we start packin' in out and he started makin' his payments about two air conditioners remodeled it, paint it and fixed you know we had it packed out every Friday and Saturday night and we began to get back get the place paid for.

J: Now if you will give me a run down on these bands, there was the Continental.

EN: That was my first band.

J: Then just take it from there?

EN: And the next band I played in...with I don't even know if we had a name, but we it was Truman Chafins our Senator he played the drums for me, Joe Ball was down here played the keyboard he had Baldwin Auto and Supplies and Junior Hatfield's boy from down Hatfield Bottom he's got uh...Traded Buds Dodge in Columbus now he sales automobiles he played guitar and we played over there for four years I think on every Friday and Saturday night and then after that one uh...the boys out of Huntington called me and wanted me to come to Huntington and they their group was Clegents and I played with them for six years we went to Nashville we cut records with the Jordaire Singers that's Elvis's.

J: That's Elvis's back up group.

EN: back up group yeah, and then we also had uh...Charlie McCoy that plays French Harp you know he plays harp on all these commercials on television we got him to be on some of our records we had to pay him for so much an hour to come to the studio and work with us and we rode the road with Johnny Tillison, Jerry Lee Lewis and we were on TV show in well, this after we cut about fifteen records we were on television show with Otis Redding about the week before he died.

J: Is that right.

EN: Yeah, we liked one week with him and the next week he got killed.

J: You were backin' him up or playin' in it?

EN: No, we was pushin' our record and he was pushin' his cause see we had records out about fifteen 45's out and we were tryin' to push 'em to get 'em to sell and we were on that one week he was a forceful guy you know he was something else.

J: I guess you met him haven't you?

EN: Yel, we met 'em and talk to him, but I think that was either a week or two after that I don't remember if he died of a heartattack or plane crash I can't remember.

J: Plane crash.

EN: Plane crash Okay and probably others that we met you know but I can't remember I knew they was some girl groups that were popular in those days some colored girls, but I can't remember what the names of 'em were that we were on some shows with them and like I say that thing with Jerry Lee Lewis we were in Cincinnati and he had a show to do and we were one of the bands that backed him up and then we played also why we were there.

J: Now this band this is the Clegents your talking about?

EN: Yel.

J: Did the personnel stay about the same the whole time you were playing?

EN: Ya, for the six years I think we changed out a guitar player and the only reason we did that was because he went to the service or something we picked up a new guitar player and then we also picked up a keyboard player the last two or three years, but other than that the five or six of us was the same guys that were together from the first almost to the end and only reason we had to quit was it just got to the point were we had to start going nation wide we done all we could do locally you know and then the guys were gettin' married and some of 'em were out of school they had families and they either gonna have to do something else you know or decide what to do and most of the wife's didn't want 'em going the music route so we finally just had to break it up.

J: That's a...I guess that's the business that's really exciting, but it can wear you down.

EN: Oh, yes it takes a lot out of ya, its very demanding.

J: Did you all have a bus that you travel in?

EN: We had a trailer for awhile that we had bought and fixed up and painted on the side you know Clegents and then went from that to one of those little Volkswagen buses that they traveled in of course being as most of them were from Huntington they would take the bus and they'd call me and I'd met 'em where ever they were and I would drive from here to wherever the dance jobs were and like I said we stayed booked every Friday and Saturday in those days in Huntington the Frederick Hotel was the place to go and Friday and Saturday night they had about 3 or 4 ball rooms and they wouldn't be anything on a Friday and Saturday night to be going on in each one of them ball rooms so when you played somebody be from the other band would come in and see what you were doing and you'd go check them out to you know and that was the place I guess in the '50's and '60's.

J: Now was your, would you call yourself a rock'n roll band or dance band or?

EN: We played a little bit of everything, we had a country skit we did for about an hour we'd put cowboy hats on and we'd do country songs for maybe a set and then we'd do old favorites of the '50's you know something that Glenn Miller did like Misty or Tenderly or In The Mood and so forth and then we also did some of the current you know like Shake It Up Baby some of the some of the so we were a little more versatile than most groups in those days and that was why we could play for the older crowd where a lot of bands would just cater swiftly to the young kids you know and they couldn't get the older people to play for them.

J: Did ya make any LP's?

EN: No, we were right to the point, but like I said we had fifteen 45 RPM's we'd cut so the only thing we had to do was take those and put 'em on an album so we could have done it easily, but like I said we drew the line there and quit.

J: Did one of the guys in the band act as manager did you have an agent or a manager.

EN: We kind of...we kind of all worked together who ever would get a bookie in that particular area like I went up in this area so then if I got anything from Logan or Williamson or people knew us you know they would call me and I would book up here, where Larry would book down there and we were in the union in those days because you couldn't play in Charleston and Huntington as far as them doing anything for us you know they I don't think they got us one bookie in all those six years as far as that part was concerned and we didn't have an agent uh...we did most of all this stuff on our own took records around to the radio stations and tried to do our own promotions try to get going.

J: So, this would be the musicians union?

EN: Yeah.

J: And you would be booked into a club that only a band couldn't play unless they were in a musicians union?

EN: Well, see back in those days you didn't have that problem as bad, but we did have to belong to the union, but the union didn't do anything once we belonged to the union we could go out and book and do anything in the six year period one time a guy came to us from the union and said "being as a union man we've booked you in over here" we said "we've already got a job with Tear I said that's tough you'll have to cancel that and go over here to were this jobs booked because you're a union band so we had to take a third less money each guy and go play this other job over there that the union booked that's the only thing he did for us the six years.

J: Cut you out of a job.

EN: Yel. "laughing".

J: Was that in Huntington. "Laughing".

EN: That was in Huntington, but we had to pay those dues every year they'd come around and check ya you know if you wouldn't play, but I think it was ten or fifteen dollars a year something dues you know now that's the only thing he did for us in six years.

J: Did you ever play in a place called The Meadow Brook in Huntington?

EN: Yeah, played there sure did I played about everywhere in Huntington I can remember in Charleston they was a lot of clubs in those days we played in down in Ashton was a place called the Jolly Rogers I remember playing in there like I say I can go down there and show you every work in my life when I go down there I'll say we played here, we played there you know Huntington-Central, Huntington High School all the schools down there all the paternity-authority houses, country clubs you know we played at all of 'em Motels we played 'em all.

J: Were you still uh...playing music when you were married?

EN: No, by the time I got married I quit, I was working in the store every you know six days a week and then on the weekend I'd be gone to Huntington and if I had if we had four or five jobs booked for a weekend say like we had a Saturday afternoon pool party and maybe a Saturday evening dinner music then a job that night why I just go stay maybe the whole Friday, Saturday and Sunday we'd come back a Sunday night or something like that.

J: I guess being a musician can be a lot of fun for a single guy can't it?

EN: Yeah, I enjoyed it back in those days I had a Corvet convertible I just go stay the weekend and we'd go water skiing on Ohio and whatever you know party through the weekend and come back to work Monday I was ready to work for the week.

J: Did you buy that Corvet here in town?

EN: W & E Chevrolet the one I had it was a "64" model first one I had.

J: Was it the only one in town?

EN: There was only two in the county not just in town just maybe three in the county at the most in those days and the Corvets weren't plentiful in those days $5000 thousand dollars is a lot of money to pay for a Corvet and uh...Wirt Marcum over here had one he had a "63" and I had a "64" and the boy in Williamson had a burgundy "64" model and I think they was all there was there wasn't anymore.

J: What color was yours?

EN: It was blue with a navy blue inside and a white convertible top.

J: It was a convertible?

EN: Yeah, with a 3 hundred 327 with a four speed transmission today I'd wish I had kept it.

J: You're talkin' six figure automobile aren't you. Now that was fiber glass body I guess right?

EN: Yeah, 4975 was the sticker on it in 1964 and they tell me their bringin' $30 and $40 thousand dollars today.

J: Did you have a sax player excuse me a sax player that was a particular favorite of yours that you modeled yourself after?

EN: Butch Randolph he was the guy that came along that didn't wasn't the type of sax player that you saw playing in Glenn Miller's he kind of broke away from that he came out and was playing with the guitar, the bass and the drum to back him up and the keyboard or organ whatever and he sort of improvised and did these things on his own out of his head more so than what they were readin' off the music that was sort of the era that in the later '50's or when rock'n roll came out so then that sort of inspired me so I kind of copied a little after his style of play.

J: But, you didn't like you say you didn't trade under anybody you taught yourself how to play.

EN: I'd take records I'd buy those records and take 'em home and listen to 'em and learn the parts Bill Dog it was popular in those days Ace Cannon played saxophone and he was real popular some of those other type groups that I can't think of anymore right off.

J: Art Copper was his name?

EN: yeah, just like uh...your clarinet player played sudate (?) on New Orleans what's his name?

J: Al Hurt and Pete Fountain.

EN: Al Hurt and Pete Fountain of course I copied some of my clarinet from him that was my idol in those days when I first started playing.

J: So, you could pick an instrument and teach yourself how to play about the same way your dad would train himself to wire...

EN: I guess I kind of picked that up from you know I figured why he now I had a on the other side of the family they was two brothers and mother's daughter's mother's sisters daughter she went to conservatory music and played professionally, so when I was a little guy coming up I went to their home on Sunday you know there was like 20 or 30 of 'em there and that's all I heard was music, because one of 'em had an orchestra and the other played in the band and she had a three piece combo that she did it professionally, so here I'm hearing all this stuff as I'm growing up, but didn't realize the impact that it had on me 'til I got older and the thought well what am I doing out playing music, but it was because I was exposed to that stuff when I was little and my Uncle Sam talked about having Greyhound bus and the other bus broke down you know and they had a gig over here and they didn't get paid and they paid you know the story and I guess I never thought of that too much as I got older and I thought what am I doing out playing music it had to do with that I heard it so much every weekend when I'd go to the family and visit and they would play the piano I even played twenty-five or thirty songs on the piano and it was the old songs that they played back in the '40's and '50' and that's the only thing I can come up with that 'cause me to sit down at a piano and play those songs without any music.

J: You just picked it up and played it?

EN: Yeah, it must have been in my sub conscience I guess that's what it was I'm sittin' there playin' Blue Moon you know I'm sittin' there playin' a lot of these old songs that were popular in those days The Cords and the Leadar that's the only thing I can come up with.

J: Sure. Do you still play in a band around?

EN: Yeah, I play in about three now two or three of 'em I play in, because there's no sax player and when they got something booked they'll call me and I'll go out and play.

J: Where do you play?

EN: I played up at Doug's, I played down at the Country Club for Smoke's Brew for the Schiener's, played at the Elk's club for a dance, played over Willard Country Club over at Hayside Virginia last before Christmas, played Elk's New Year's Eve, played down at Savino's for a little dinner music, played over at Belfry Fire Department, Turkey Creek Fire Department, Belfry High School we played for a thing over at their school not to long ago so I'm you know I'm not playing pretty often.

J: You still play then. When did you get married?

EN: I was 30 years old a mishap 22 years ago.

J: "67" I guess.

EN: Yel, about 67 or 68 somewhere in there.

J: And your wife's name?

EN: Shirley Louise McCoy.

J: So, you married a McCoy Okay, and was she a local girl I guess?

EN: Yeah, she's from up Blackberry Creek they lived right off next to the school up there their family she's got three sisters and a brother and her other two sisters are in school teachin' just like she is.

J: And you all have children?

EN: Have one little boy that's twelve years old...Todd.

J: I wanna ask you about uh...the flood the 1977 flood I know that had a big impact on your business and on most people around here if you can just give me the tell me what that period was like the flood itself and the rebuilding process gettin' back into business how you went about that?

EN: Well, it was funny you know about three or 4 months or five months before that mother ask me she said you need anything she said you know I was doing pretty good our businesses just about out of debt we just got this note paid off she said I've got a little money in the rent she said how are you gettin' money you need any I said don't tell me how much money you got I don't wanna know and I says I been in here just long enough to realize by the time you start to get along pretty good something happen it wasn't six months after that we just paid our note off at the bank we remodeled our store in 1964 and we just paid that thing off like 6 months prior to this and the flood comes in and just takes everything away from us just totally inventory, fixtures uh...they wudn't anything left, but a shell here and of course the same way with the house it took mother's house it didn't take it away from the foundation, but the little one she next door it washed it totally away it was nothing there but the foundation, the other house was so big and built so good that it was the only house in town that survived the current the rest of 'em washed away, but it went all the way to the width of her house it must have been at least 30, 35, 30 to 35 feet deep right there where her house was and even trailers coming down and hittin' it they'd bounce off and go on so the house was constructed to survive that thing but like I said we lost everything we didn't have any choice we had to just start all over and it was either that or just forget it of course those SBA loans were available so low interest rate it seem they attracted it then now it doesn't seem to attractive in other words the economy was stronger then when we back into a 3% loan for a couple hundred thousands dollars didn't seem like nothing, but you know you don't what the future gonna bring and now its a burden its not only a burden to us its gonna be a burden to anybody else that got one of those loans that's tryin' to survive during these kind of times its just not feasible to pay the money back because they can't get the volume of business now whether after the flood hit the economy was strong from 77 to 82 now about 82 with the inflation and also with the mall moving in down there those two factors cut our business down in half I'm almost sure that's got to be what it is, because about the time my advertisement on my stocks doubled about the same time the store business fell down in half so, you can tell there had to be in that were talkin' about New York City and wherever those publications are you know there havin' the same problems were havin' back in Matewan, so that wasn't necessarily a local problem it must have been uh...nation wide and like I say that 2% sounded great, but it don't sound so great now when you have to pay it back and of course they put most of that interest on the first part of that loan were you end up payin' big interest at the first of that thing and uh...in the last 20 years or 15 maybe you'll grow up and just play principal I don't know.

J: Did uh...the people who did rebuild and go back into business here was pretty much from those SBA loans or was the bank involved also?

EN: Uh...I don't know probably everybody had a different situation, just like on my house they wanted to come in and take over my bank loan on my house and also give me what I needed to fix it back up I think in those days I was payin' 8% interest on my loan, so they would have taken the whole thing over at 1%, but they wanted to dictate to me what I did and they wanted to come in and tear out all the walls and everything and do it from scratch well I would have owned 3 times more than the house is worth and I wouldn't take it and because I only took enough to fix it back just from what I'd lost like just the furniture maybe just cleanin' up and paintin' it and moving back in they wouldn't take the rest of my loan over the only thing they wanted to do is give me two loans I had to keep the one at the back and take one from them for 1% so that really wasn't a big lot of help other than savin' that 6 or 7% I would have had if I'd just borrowed the money from the bank and uh...so I and other people of course you hear so many things you don't know what to believe, but in some situations I heard where they did that but again that was just gossip so I couldn't believe that.

J: When the flood hit here was your father still involved in the business?

EN: He was only taking care of the shop you know he wasn't really involved a whole lot in the store other than I would discuss things with him you know and try to get him involved to and so he would have something on his mind, but I not enough to bother him you know what I'm trying to say we would discuss things doctor told him for us not to put to much pressure on him so mother and I usually did that she took care of the books and I did all the buying and took care of the girls on the floor and dress windows and saw that the place was mopped and clean or whatever else had to be done some of the apartments if they had to be rented or cleaned or whatever had to be done up there most of that I did I'd discuss it with him and he give me some ideas cause he did have a lot of experience and that was you know that was invaluable somebody that many years as he'd fool with it from his experience sometime just a little something he'd say would get me on the right track you know so I listened to what he had to say cause he had a lot of good a lot of good years under his belt so to speak.

J: How long were you all shut down approximately?

EN: Seems like it was 6 months let's see the flood hit in April and we didn't open the store 'til December that's about six months, but the problem there was you know in something like that hits all the contractors are tied up, we would have been open in a couple of months if we could've had a contractor come in and start right that day, but he was he had two or three other places and he said it would be two or three months before he could even get to us so 90 to 120 days he was out of here.

J: So once he got started it didn't take long?

EN: Once he got his men and got his crew here and started workin' they got it done, but they were tied up with other flood projects at the time and they couldn't move in.

J: Now did you have to employ contractors that were Okayed by the government since you had a small business loan?

EN: I can't remember seem like I did, but he was a reputable company he was already involved in doing other peoples flood work so most likely see they approved his work I'd probably could have got it done for a whole lot less money and just got me some local people you know and pay them a lot less money, but I didn't want to get involved in that, because I felt it would take me to much time and I didn't know exactly where I was going were as he would work with the uh...people from Minnesota that did the fixtures and they seemed to get along it seem like a good working relationship and I think I got by with half as much money if I'd just done it on my own some way, but uh...it was at that particular time it seemed like such a huge thing that were as now as I look back on it I can see my mistakes its just normal, but like I had a one carpenter I had to pay him $25 dollars an hour the head carpenter you know that seem like a lot of money now.

J: 12 years ago.

EN: Yeah, and that was a lot of money then you know.

J: Where were the contractors from that you used?

EN: Gosh, you know seems like he was from Charleston he would come in fly his copter in over there about once a week and check on see how their progress was going and so forth and then fly back out the next weekend come in periodically and check and see how the boys were doing they did pretty good work, but like I say seem like the labor end of it was just eat ya up.

J: I'm glad you mentioned the socks a little while ago, cause you market socks that you claim last a lifetime is that correct?

EN: Ya.

J: How did you get involved in that line?

EN: Uh...I read an article on mail order and I thought well you know the way Matewan's economy goes up and down I thought if I could get a mail order business going along with the store business that maybe during the tough times that that might help me to survive and so I started puttin' ads in magazines on different products to see what people would buy and what they wouldn't buy and uh...somebody ask me said well why did you sell socks I said I didn't sell socks cause I wanted to sell socks I sell socks because they wanted to buy 'em uh...its like a guy opening up a bar if he's just selling water they ain't nobody gonna they don't want water you know that's not what they came here for well anyway the way the ad was worded that's the socks lasted a lifetime it would pull the orders in alright then I had to go that route I didn't have any choice so that's what started me into selling the socks by mail then after I got my foot in the door so to speak they started buying the socks then I created me a brochure that had all the stuff in the store so they thought well here I might even check I'm buying six pairs from this guy I think maybe I might need some T-shirts over here or maybe my wife needs a bra or a slip or you know a pair of coveralls so I listed these other items on there and also with the free gimmick of the socks what happened was is they'd be sending back for socks maybe for free replacement and their conscience start to bother 'em that they gettin' these socks for free you know and they'd kind of feel obligated maybe to wanna buy a little something else so that had a little tendency to work to although I do have a few people that still take advantage of me and them wearin' them socks for a little while and then sendin' 'em to get free replacements all the time and I mean...

J: And don't buy anything else.

EN: Yeah, that they's gonna be a few of those you know some people they recognize a good thing when they see it and other people look at it as not a good thing, so that's what kind of got me into the sock business it wasn't that I wanted to it was what was so funny about that is the fact that the socks has been out on the counter you know since back in the '40's when my daddy opened the store and he bought from the same sock company and all at once why I was selling ten thousand, twenty thousands dollars a month and uh...of course the girl called me from the company and before I knew what was happening up there of course I had to kid her I told her I said well you've always heard people in West Virginia didn't wear socks didn't you I mean didn't wear shoes she said ya they don't wear socks neither well I said were gettin' 'em.

J: "Laughing".

EN: Just broke her up.

J: Startin' to wake up the socks uh...

EN: And then I explained to her what was really happening.

J: Who manufactures this?

EN: They come from 740 hundred street out of Burlington, North Carolina.

J: Are people able to get flood insurance around here?

EN: Yes, you can its rather expensive.

J: What's your uh...I'll ask you this one more question what's your projection or your what would be a best case senecio for the business climate Matewan say over the next ten years do you think this flood wall offers any brighter outlook?

EN: Well, its gonna be a totally new and different Matewan with another generation that's gonna move into this housing and business era uh...its gonna be a lot like up at uh...Newtown you know they had that housing development up there after the "77" flood and must have been I don't know 20, 30, 40 house seats up there and there was two or three houses up there for ten years nobody would move up there and I think same things gonna happen after the flood its not gonna happen over night when they got these new areas to be developed people are not gonna jump in there right quick it may be another ten years before we begin to gradually start feeling the effects of that thing it not gonna happen over night, but I think it will it will be a new generation that doesn't have any of the memories of what we've lived through and their gonna move in this place and it gonna be nice, its gonna be modern, it gonna be new and its gonna offer 'em hope and faith and their gonna jump right on it I believe, but it just gonna take time.

J: Right now you mentioned just before we got started that clear me up on this business is you pretty much do most of your business over just a couple of days of the month is that what you're saying?

EN: Yeah, that third of the month is probably a good day just like at the bank you know they might do a tremendous amount of business that first and any other days of the month maybe not maybe that's their best day and it be probably be one of my best days, but I have to also do a certain amount of business all the other days of the month, I couldn't survive on that one day.

J: Do social security and uh...say black lung check come in at the same time of the month?

EN: I don't know I know that social security comes the third because those things are dated about the third of the month see and you've also got miner's pension, you've also got compensation checks, you've also got other retirement checks and everything, but most of 'em come in along the first of the month like usually the last of the four or five day period from the third either way you know what I'm tryin' to say and then after that it goes back down to normal or abnormal whatever you want to call it.

J: "Laughing".

Matewan Oral History Project Collection