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Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting

Audio Titles

"I always look to being ahead, I always like to be a leader."
"I always taught them that work is the most honorable thing."
"I always try to live up to the family tradition."
"I always used to see myself working on my own."
"I always wanted to go in business."
"I applied for a veteran's peddlers license."
"I became a lawyer, began to practice in January 1975."
"I began selling newspapers early. I always worked."
"I begin work at 6:30 or 7 o'clock in the morning, I finish at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, seven days a week."
"I bought my grave about thirteen years ago."
"I came here in exile during Bautista's government in Cuba."
"I didn't have the minimal idea of what I was coming to - I knew I was coming to America but not where."
"I didn't know anything about the little small four-inch pies."
"I don't think we're going to see generation after generation on 21st Avenue with the new groups."
"I don't want to ever go to bed at night and not have something to do when I wake up in the morning."
"I even did these two ladies' [hair] after they passed away, for the casket."
"I feel that being a Latina gives me an advantage."
"I get up about 5:00 in the morning, I get home about 5:30 at night."
"I got a job at Wellworth's Pickle Factory."
"I got my education on the streets of Paterson."
"I guess, we had about 300 people working in that factory."
"I have quite a congregation, people come in for coffee."
"I haven't advertised in forty-five years, maybe more."
"I haven't seen any prejudice where anyone who tried to open a store wasn't able."
"I just came hoping for a job; it was really tough."
"I learned from looking."
"I left Paterson in 1953."
"I left the sign the same, but now it's Doug's Food Market."
"I like the control I have being in my own business."
"I like to see things grow and I like to eat fresh vegetables."
"I lived on the farm until I was about eighteen years old."
"I lived on the other side of the river, the 'over the river' section of Paterson."
"I made all my children's dresses."
"I only sleep at home."
"I put an ad in the paper for help, I have 30 or 40 phone calls by 1:00 in the afternoon."
"I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!"
"I really feel that the age of stores like ours is past, I really do."
"I really never had headaches putting a machine together."
"I remember all the feasts in Paterson."
"I remember the first day of business -- it was scary."
"I serve now in one week like I used to serve in one month."
"I speak Italian 95 percent of the day."
"I started here at Watson as an office boy."
"I started off as a picker."
"I started work only three days after I got to this country."
"I take the measurement of the people, and with the measurement I make the pattern."
"I think in the 60s it changed, because that was decline of the silk mills in the city of Paterson."
"I think it might teach them what unity means because we brought a lot of people together that come from different backgrounds."
"I think it's time for me to retire, I can go no further."
"I think the Paterson people love hot dogs."
"I used to walk and talk to everyone."
"I was born in Paterson."
"I was born in Puerto Rico."
"I was busy all my life."
"I was known as the fastest twister in Paterson at that time."
"I was never afraid to face anybody and speak my mind."
"I was only there a year when we had a strike."
"I was the king of the uncontested divorce."
"I was the second Spanish-speaking business in this area."
"I wasn't expected or told that I should start working until after high school."
"I wasn't going to stay here at all."
"I went from a machine shop to hardware business."
"I went into the barbering business with my niece's husband."
"I worked for the tourism department in Puerto Rico."
"I would like to sell the business and go into teaching hairdressing."
"I wouldn't touch a chicken -- all I sold were the innards and the ends."
"I'll never do anything that I think shouldn't be done -- not for the sake of making a buck."
"I'm single and I'm trying to make ends meet; imagine these other people who just come to this country, imagine what they're going through."
"I've always been an entrepreneur, even early on."
"I've got a television, I put it on only when there's a game on."
"The idea was, if it doesn't go, we're young, we can always go to work."
"If it wasn't our business, I wouldn't do it."
"If they were still running the foundry, I think I'd still be there."
"If you are going to be an attorney, you're going to have obstacles, you're going to fight them; I've fought them all my life."
"If you drive a truck everyday, you have some type of feeling for it because that's what you depend on."
"If you give me a garment, I can tell you how to make it, how much it will cost."
"If you want to run a business and make a success of it, you must be friendly."
The importance of grinding your own cutting tools
"The important thing is she doesn't spend time on the streets, I know when I call her she's there."
Important things to know to do well as a garment worker.
"In a big business, people don't take the time to show you how to do things."
"In my mind's eye, we're trying not to be custom."
"In our section there's a mixture -- we have Arabs, we have Hispanics, we have Italians, we have Blacks."
"In the Dominican Republic 10, 15 years ago, they didn't have a lot of factories, so women had to work in the house."
"In the eigth grade I was working in a barber shop."
"In this business you cannot get rich, but you can make a good living on your own."
"In those days the criminals were drunks and people that didn't pay their child support and stuff like that, but there were no really hard, hard criminals like today."
"In those days you had to fight to survive, but I made it."
"Industry-wide, business was good. No one knew what recession was in those days."
Introducing the Hot Texas Wiener to the Public
"It doesn't take long to be very aware of what type of personality you're dealing with."
"It was a family business started in the '20s."
"It was a very busy area, and it was a mix of people."
"It was a very wonderful town, full of life and energy."
"It was an after hours restaurant."
"It was an industrial community in every sense of the word."
"It was different back then."
"It was her responsibility to peel the potatoes and put them on the stove, and then she would prepare dinner for the kids."
"It was interesting, you know? You finish one lot you've got a new style to do."
"It was rough, but we made it."

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