Title: Oral history interview with Barbara Hanks, August 10, 1994
Description: Barbara Hanks followed her father into the furniture industry, taking a job in the mid-1980s in the rub and pack department of the White Furniture Company. In this interview, she describes her career there, which saw her earn a position as an inspector, but ended when the company closed. Hanks describes the furniture finishing process, including sanding and oiling pieces to a shine, and recalls the challenges of her role as sole inspector. But more significantly, she describes the atmosphere on the factory floor and the way the factory brought workers together into an environment where they could build relationships with one another. Those relationships, and an older model of work, ended when the factory closed around 1993. At its core, this interview is about the dissolution of the social elements of working and the erosion of one community united by the sound of the factory whistle.
Subjects: Interviews, Furniture workers, Furniture industry and trade, Social life and customs, Plant shutdowns, Furniture finishing, Factory inspection, Women, Employment, White Furniture Company
Places: North Carolina, Mebane
People: Barbara Hanks (1960-)
Time periods: 20th century