0-10 Min: father came from Kassel, Germany to Danbury in 1882, date of interview was his birthday, started hatting in 1882 , born march 27, 1895, 93 years old at time of interview, married 59 years to Hamilton, has 4 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren, recalls that most of her generation did not go to college, but rather got on the job training,
10-20 Min: spent whole life in Danbury, started as a small town when she was a girl, recalls it being roughly 20,000, not having electricity, or paved streets, recalls never having a snow day, lived on Balmforth Ave. , recalls a former enslaved person named Jenkins who did odd jobs had a daughter Nellie Belle Jenkins, graduated high school and became a teacher, father worked on many of the directories for Danbury, democratic registrar of voters for over 50 years in Danbury, has a small photograph of her primary school principal, her teacher Ms. Della Fanton lived to be 109 and Mrs. Orgelman says she has tape recordings of her 106 and 107th birthday parties, Ms. Della Fanton had been to India and Egypt , other various school day memories
20-30 Min: various recollections of her street as a child, lot by lot breakdown, description of who lived where and what they did
30-40 Min: finishes her lot by lot breakdown of Balmforth Ave. from her childhood, recalls that during her childhood that every other building on white st was a saloon, Brainard Wilson factory, noted for the high quality of treatment of employees, worked with Truman Warner's mother there, metal plant
40-50 Min: recalls the specific processes that occurred at the Brainard Wilson factory,women burnished the metals, married in 1915, recalls earning $9 a week when she first started working, hatting was seasonal, and you needed connections to get in, father would not utilize his connections to get his children work,
50-60 Min: recalls raising her children with Truman Warner's mother, they would meet at division street and walk to West St. onto Main St. towards white st, these walks would take the whole afternoon, husband was a mason, depression hit them hard, recalls her husband working for the WPA roughly 3 days every two weeks,
60-70 Min: SKF company, made ball bearings, based out of Philadelphia opened up a plant in Danbury, she worked quality control at the plant, recalls the wages being roughly $.40 per hour, no female supervisors, but did have bench captains , which were in charge of a specific procedure, bench captains got $.80 an hour, during wartime ten-hour shifts five days a week and five hours on Saturday,
70-80 Min: opinions on old age, medicine, meaning of life, lists off her support network which include her son and Truman Warner, 80-90 Min: recalls the war rationing on meat and various other goods, recalls scrap drives and that thwe aluminum drives were wasteful, very frugal times, little disposable income, recalls her husband used to take all the local children to lake Kenosia and taught them to swim when he did not have work.
The interview continues at: https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/items/show/7987