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ORAL HISTORY OF JOHNNIE WILLIAMS
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
March 8, 2013
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel and today is March the 8th, 2013 and I am at the home of Mrs. Johnnie Williams. Mrs. Williams thank you for taking time to talk with us. Why don't you tell me where you were born and raised and something about your family?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I was born in Rock Springs, Georgia.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where's that?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Just out of Chattanooga.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. WILLIAMS: In my family there were nine girls and one boy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah we had nine girls and one boy. Then I...
MR. MCDANIEL: Now what year were you born in, if you don't mind telling me?
MRS. WILLIAMS: 1920.
MR. MCDANIEL: 1920, okay!
MRS. WILLIAMS: They told you my age - going on 93!
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you were born in 1920?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did your father do?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, a farmer.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was he?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Uh-huh.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did he have his own farm, or did he share crop, or..?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, he had his own farm, so, and my mother never worked either she just--
MR. MCDANIEL: She just took care of the living, of the children.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, she took care of the family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, I understand.
MRS. WILLIAMS: So after I got older I went to work in Chattanooga. Worked there nine years at Standard Coosa Thatcher's, a cotton mill.
MR. MCDANIEL: A what?
MRS. WILLIAMS: A cotton mill.
MR. MCDANIEL: And what was the name of it?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Standard Coosa Thatcher.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, alright.
MRS. WILLIAMS: And then I decided, Oak Ridge came along and I decided I'd come to Oak Ridge and get a job. So I came to Oak Ridge and hopped over in 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now did you go to high school? When you were in Chattanooga?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, no they didn't have high school and didn't no buses run.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. WILLIAMS: So I went to ninth grade and then after I come to Oak Ridge I went to Knoxville and took the GED test.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh okay.
MRS. WILLIAMS: And passed it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. What year did you come to Oak Ridge?
MRS. WILLIAMS: In 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: 1944.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah in October 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: How did you hear about it? How did you hear about the job?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, on the radio.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really?
MRS. WILLIAMS: And then some friends had already come up here so I followed them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, were you married at the time?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No, no I wasn't.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, so you're 24, came to Oak Ridge single, at the height of the Manhattan Project, with 75,000 people living here.
MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. They was from everywhere.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet that was exciting, wasn't it?
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well tell me a little bit about that.
MRS. WILLIAMS: And the streets was just dirt, mud, and I lived in a, when I came to Oak Ridge, didn't take me long till they cleared my clearance, and then I went to work at Y-12.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. And I thought that was such a big place. I didn't know that I'd ever find my way around. But the next day I found my way back.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where did you live when you first came here?
MRS. WILLIAMS: In the dormitory.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh which one?
MRS. WILLIAMS: You know, I forgot the name of it, but my husband, he wasn't married either when I met him, and he lived in Gosen Hall. I forgot the name of my dormitory I stayed in, but it was up there where the Garden Apartments are now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh okay, I see, I see.
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was a mess then, everything was mud.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did you think when you got here and it was so muddy and messy?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I didn't know. Didn't really have time to think about it though 'cause I went to work and every time I had a day off or a weekend off I'd head for Chattanooga.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, how did you go? By bus?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Bus. Always a bus.
MR. MCDANIEL: I guess you had to go to Knoxville?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No. They had a bus through here, didn't have to go to Knoxville. A lot of times I'd catch a ride with somebody going, you know, so and then--
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. Well would imagine there were some people probably worked here that lived close to Chattanooga and drove every day, didn't they?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah they did. They did. And then I met my husband at the skating rink.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you? Now which - where was it?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Right there across form the Shell station where the bank is now. There's a big skating rink right there. And he'd already been in the Navy, my husband was in the Navy, and he was in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. So he got a medical discharge from the Navy. So he came, his uncle wanted him to come here to Oak Ridge and go to work. His uncle lived in Sweetwater. The he came here, he went to work, he got hired in at Y-12 because he worked at the steam plant. I mean at K-25 first, then he was transferred to Y-12 when they closed the steam plant at K-25, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. Now let me ask you a question: you came here in '44, you were single and you went to work at Y-12 right off the bat.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Right.
MR. MCDANIEL: What was your, what did you do there? You know, you can tell that now.
MRS. WILLIAMS: At Y-12?
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. WILLIAMS: We didn't know!
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, I know you didn't know what you were--
MRS. WILLIAMS: But I was a cubical operator. I don't think they call it cubicle now do they call it something else I believe.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, I think what they call you now is a Calutron girl.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah well I was a cubical operator.
MR. MCDANIEL: You were a cubical operator.
MRS. WILLIAMS: And work shift work. We had to work all three shifts.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, tell me about that job and how they trained you and what they told you and anybody that you remember.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well it was just a big, just a big thing, you know. A big board with all types of knobs and things and if it run good you didn't have to move all night. And some nights it would kick off and you would have to get it back on line.
MR. MCDANIEL: They say that you had that meter and it was at a certain point and it was your job to make sure that that meter stayed at that certain point.
MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. And if it stayed on that point you didn't have no problems at all.
MR. MCDANIEL: Which building did you work in? Was it an Alpha or Beta building?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Beta.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it Beta 3?
MRS. WILLIAMS: I believe it was Beta 3. So I worked there two years and then they practically laid everybody off at that time, at one time, so I got laid off and they only kept about one person to a building. So I never did go back to work I just, and then I had my first baby in '47 and he lives in Clarksville, Tennessee and he's retired out of the, from the police department.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? So when you came here in '44, talk a little bit about the activities and what life was like then for you.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well I'll tell you right now it was not too good because we had to stand in line for everything.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. After we got married they'd say go to Lafollette and you can get sugar and flour and all that stuff - we'd go up there and nothing. And you'd stand in line for, I stood in line for cigarettes for my husband, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's the reason that you're still with us, probably.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well I don't know, but--
MR. MCDANIEL: But you stood in line?
MRS. WILLIAMS: We'd stand in line and hope to get something. They'd allow you one pack. Very rationed, everything was rationed, you know. So after we got married we stayed in a motel, they had a motel there by where the car wash is, we stayed there about a month then, back then service people got priority over everything so we got a house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you? Okay.
MRS. WILLIAMS: I lived up on Jersey Lane at that time when we first got a house then we moved down here in '66.
MR. MCDANIEL: What year did you get married?
MRS. WILLIAMS: '45
MR. MCDANIEL: '45, okay. What month?
MRS. WILLIAMS: July - I mean August.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, it was right between the bombing and when the war ended wasn't it?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was.
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about the day they dropped the first bomb and everybody found out what y'all were doing. What do you remember about that?
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was exciting. Very exciting, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did you do?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, not a whole lot of anything.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you and your husband-to-be go out? I know there were lots of stuff going on at town site.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Probably still working. 'Cause my husband worked 31 and a half years at the steam plant.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did he?
MRS. WILLIAMS: So, we didn't do a whole lot.
MR. MCDANIEL: What about recreation? I know y'all worked hard when you were here but what about, during the war especially, did you get involved? Did you play sports or get involved in any clubs or groups?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I did just the Manhattan Women's club, I belonged to that. And I reckon the most that we done was go fishing. My husband was a fisherman and a carpenter on the side. As far as a lot of activity we never did, 'cause we were both on shift work.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, right. So, when the war was over, and you got laid off your husband still had his job at K-25 so y'all decided to stay here.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, yes. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: What was Oak Ridge like for those decades?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well it was good, you know, really. I always liked it here. Just a good little town. So we really liked it here. Never thought about moving or anything.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, you didn't?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Still here!
MR. MCDANIEL: So you never went back to work after--
MRS. WILLIAMS: No I never did work after that.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you had two children.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Two, a girl and a boy. 10 and a half years difference in their age.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? So that's kind of like starting over each time.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Both of them graduated from high school here, done all their schooling done here. My daughter got married and my son got married. She went back, she had two girls, so when she went back to, she went to work when the girls went to school, she went back to work so she's a registered nurse now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? Now what was life like for them growing up in Oak Ridge? I'm sure there were lots of opportunities for them.
MRS. WILLIAMS: For my...
MR. MCDANIEL: For your children.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, they enjoyed it. My daughter would go swimming at the pool every day in the summertime. And my son was into football so he played football all though junior high and high school.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where did they go to junior high? Did they go to Jefferson?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Robertsville.
MR. MCDANIEL: Robertsville?
MRS. WILLIAMS: They both went to Robertsville because we always lived on this end of town.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Where did they go to elementary school?
MRS. WILLIAMS: One went to Willow Brook and Jimmy went to Highland View. And my daughter went to Willow Brook.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? Went to Willow Brook?
MRS. WILLIAMS: We'd think about moving and she'd have a fit. She wanted one school and that was Willow Brook- had some good teachers.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure, sure.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Had some good teachers.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, what are some stories about your life in Oak Ridge that you want to tell me? I mean, you can tell about anything.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well...
MR. MCDANIEL: That's what this is for.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't do a whole lot of anything, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, but through the years I'm sure you did.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, the most thing that we would do is go fishing. And we would go to, he was from Birmingham, and we'd travel a lot to Birmingham and Florida and Myrtle Beach and Chattanooga. We'd head to Chattanooga and stop off there and see my family and then go on to see his family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure your family came to visit you in Oak Ridge?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did they think about Oak Ridge? Did you have anybody to come see you during the war?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. I had to get them a pass. And we had to, after they'd open the gates, while we had to have a badge and we still had to go get them in, let them in. So we'd meet them at the Oliver Springs gate and get them. They enjoyed coming up here, it was different, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. What did you think when you first came to work here? I know nobody, very few people knew what really was going on, but what did you think it was?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I didn't know what to think about it really, but it was interesting 'cause you had to have a badge to go in and a badge to get out at the plant, and we'd ride them cattle busses. You had to stand up. But everything was free, we didn't have you pay to ride the busses.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what did they have to wear to work? Did you have uniforms?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, we had to change clothes we had to have a uniform on. Blue pants and a blue shirt. Yeah we had to have a uniform on.
MR. MCDANIEL: What about hair pins and watches?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No, we never had anything about that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, did you ever go in the, I know you I know you worked in the cubicle and there were what, 72 or so in that building--
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, there were a lot of them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about working with the other young ladies? I imagine most of them were all young ladies?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, they was all young, none of them married. Not any of them would be married, you know. But after I got married and moved up in my house, my husband would be on the midnight shift and I'd be getting off the evening shift and I was scared, one of the girls would go home with me and spend the night.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was scared to go by myself.
MR. MCDANIEL: My goodness!
MRS. WILLIAMS: One night, I had to go to work on midnight shift and I had seen a big, black dog outside and I called my neighbor next door I said, "Would you come go with me to the bus stop. I’ve seen a dog and I'm scared." He went and stayed with me until the bus run.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, well that's nice. Now were there any people that you met when you first came to Oak Ridge that you're still friends with?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. A few. Not too many, but a few.
MR. MCDANIEL: I guess a lot of people moved off?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Now, I know two people that were in the Manhattan Women's Club that they are still here. One lives in Clinton, one lives here in Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: What was the Manhattan Women's Club? I'd never heard of that until you mentioned it to me.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh really? Oh yeah we just had a meeting and we would do things, do things for people, and just get together and have a good time.
MR. MCDANIEL: What were the requirements to do that? To join?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, really there wasn't any requirements, you could join if you wanted to. And then we had, would take up money every week, and each one person would serve, take turns like that. We had parties, Halloween parties and different things, and go on picnics, and be in the parade when they had a parade. So it was very exciting.
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me a little bit about, you showed me a picture earlier of the Carbide Christmas party.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Now that was something else!
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about that.
MRS. WILLIAMS: I mean, you had to have tickets; they'd give out three a day, in one day. And then they'd give out the tickets and you'd go at that certain time. They'd always have a good show. They would have a good show and always give real nice prizes for the kids. Yeah, they'd have a big bag of prizes for the kids. It was sure different then than it is now. They don't have much now.
MR. MCDANIEL: No. I noticed on the photo that you gave me it said 7,000 people attended at one party.
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was. We would go to the Grove Theatre, where they'd have it at that time, and everybody, the mothers enjoyed it just as much as the kids did.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Now did you and your husband used to go to the movies in Oak Ridge?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Not too many times. I just never, we never were movies goers, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No. But I would, when I first come here there weren't any churches, and I started going to church at Willow Brook school.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah that's where they had the church. So I would go to Willow Brook school until they built the, then I went to Trinity Methodist. Went there years and years until they closed it, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, exactly. I was married at Trinity Methodist.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, did you?
MR. MCDANIEL: I sure did. My wife and I, my father said it was a mixed marriage because she was a Methodist, I was a Baptist, and we got married by an Episcopal minister.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh really? Well she didn't go to Trinity here, did she?
MR. MCDANIEL: No.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, down in Kingston?
MR. MCDANIEL: No, the Trinity here, yeah we just got married there.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I went to Kentucky and got married. We had a double wedding. There's a boy that my husband was, my husband was in the Navy and this boy was in the Army but they knew each other, so we had a double wedding up in Harlan, Kentucky. And the preacher had never married two people, a couple--
MR. MCDANIEL: Two couples at the same time.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah that's right. So it was real nice up there in Kentucky. The girl's parents were really nice where we went.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, good.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah so, we really enjoyed that.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Come back and went to work.
MR. MCDANIEL: Came back and went to work!
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well what else do you want to tell me about? What other stories do you have?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, let’s see. We'd done a lot of skating.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did you?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, that was our, that's what we done a lot. I liked to skate and he did too. We had our own skates. And they always had this man he would play the organ all the time when the people were skating. It was real nice. We enjoyed that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now was it just a big open rink or was it something you had, something in the middle that you had to go around?
MRS. WILLIAMS: No it was a, no it had a top over it, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, right. Big open rink then?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's what I meant.
MRS. WILLIAMS: A lot of people went there for entertainment, you know. And everybody had to go to the cafeteria to eat, you know, 'cause they - one of the only places to eat in Oak Ridge at that time.
MR. MCDANIEL: What was the food like at the cafeteria?
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was good.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it?
MRS. WILLIAMS: It was, it was good. Couldn't complain.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. Now, which one did you go to the Central Cafeteria, is that where you went or the Jefferson?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Jefferson. Of course we always lived down on this end so we'd always go to the Jefferson.
MR. MCDANIEL: And that was the building that became the museum.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, that's right.
MR. MCDANIEL: And that just got torn down just a few years ago.
MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. Like I said, my daughter went swimming every day. She'd roller skate too, she liked to skate. But my son just really in football. He loved the ballgames.
MR. MCDANIEL: So when you came to work here in '44, and you went to Y-12, do you remember, I know they had Connie Bowling was one of the supervisors of the Calutron girls, did you work for him or do you remember kind of the supervisor you worked for?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, Mr. Goldsmith.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mr. Goldsmith, okay.
MRS. WILLIAMS: And I was thinking he was from Virginia.
MR. MCDANIEL: And did you have to go through a training session? Or did they just train you on the job?
MRS. WILLIAMS: We were going through training till our clearance went through. After our clearance went though, you went to work. And I had two sisters come here to work but I got to go to work before they did - my clearance came through first.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. Did they work at Y-12 too?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes they did.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did they do?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Cubicle operator.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh cubicle operator so all three of you were cubical operators there?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you ever have a real big problem? That you know, maybe you messed it up one night or anything like that?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well not, not that I remember. And then, now a lot of times, we'd go to Big Ridge Park, have you ever heard of that one?
MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, ma'am.
MRS. WILLIAMS: We used to go up there a lot and go swimming, so that was our - instead of going to the movies - we liked the outside.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. I understand.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Let's see what else did we do? Then my husband, he got transferred to Y-12. You know they closed K-25 steam plant down.
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly. How long was he at the steam plant before he went to Y-12? How long was he at K-25?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Not too long. Seemed like about a couple of years. Well he always worked shift work too. Yeah because that steam plant had to have a day and night.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did he do when he went to Y-12?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Steam plant. He wanted hiring as a carpenter, he was a good carpenter, and had his own machines and everything, but they told him he didn't know anything about wood so they kept him in the steam plant.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. I understand. What did he do there? I mean, what specifically did he--
MRS. WILLIAMS: At the steam plant?
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. WILLIAMS: I guess keep the boilers going. I guess back then they use coal. Just like now when we lived up on Jersey Lane, we had to heat with coal. They would come fill up your box whenever it was empty and the house was furnished when we moved in the house would be furnished.
MR. MCDANIEL: Some people talk about that coal would just cover everything in your house.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wouldn't it? That black coal smoke?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, oh yeah. And it wasn't real warm either. Wasn't real warm.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And I had somebody tell me that when they came down the hill in the morning, from up on the ridge, they'd come down and go to work and they'd see just that smoke, especially in cold weather, that smoke just hanging on the tops of the houses.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah it would be. It really would be. I was glad, we didn't have air conditioning but we finally put air conditioning in the window.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah so that helped out some 'cause it got pretty hot in the summertime.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now was, I guess you worked for Union Carbide, is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, uh-huh.
MR. MCDANIEL: And your husband worked for Union Carbide until they changed it to Martin Marietta I guess came along. Were they pretty good to you?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. They were. Real good. Oh yeah. He worked from, retired from - he got a medical.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did he?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: When did he retire?
MRS. WILLIAMS: When?
MR. MCDANIEL: Yes. How old was he?
MRS. WILLIAMS: 51.
MR. MCDANIEL: 51, okay.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Because he had a heart attack and he had to go up a lot of steps and the doctor told him he couldn't do that. So he retired.
MR. MCDANIEL: With a medical leave, he got a medical retirement.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, right.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, I guess he traded that work for a fishing boat didn't he?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. Yeah that's right he loved to fish but he got where he wasn't able to fish.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, well, that happens.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Had to give that up. But he lived 10 years. He died when he was 61.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really? Well, so you've been by yourself a long time then, haven't you?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yep, about 28 years, about 28 years. So I just had my house here thought well I might as well stay here as long as I can do for myself.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure exactly, exactly. Now did you get involved in any community activities after your husband passed away?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well not really. I just go to church and do activities at the church when things are going on.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, you seem to have quite the collection of knick-knacks.
MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, I collect those. Not so many now but over the years, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure exactly. Well anything else you want to talk about? Any stories you got to tell? As I tell people, now's the chance! Now's your chance!
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I just, I've enjoyed living here, and my family has too and they enjoy coming here and visiting, and I look forward when you come. And I've got two granddaughters and two grandsons, and four great-great granddaughters and one great-grandson.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. And most of them, all the grandkids live in Knoxville, the great-grandkids live in Knoxville. And one of my granddaughters lives in Virginia and she's a nuclear engineer - she took after her daddy. Wasn't going to let him get ahead of her. So she went through UT and she's a nuclear, she works for AREVA up in Virginia.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, if you don't have anything else? I appreciate it!
MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, alrighty!
MR. MCDANIEL: Thank you so much.
MRS. WILLIAMS: I was here in the early, early days, in the mud.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yep, oh yeah.
MRS. WILLIAMS: So, I reckon that's about all I can tell.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
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| Rating | |
| Title | Williams, Johnnie |
| Description | Oral History of Johnnie Williams, Interviewed by Keith McDaniel, March 8, 2013 |
| Audio Link | http://www.osti.gov/COROH/Audio/COROH%20-%20WILLIAMS,%20JOHNNIE.mp3 |
| Video Link | http://www.osti.gov/coroh_video/media/Williams_Johnnie |
| Transcript Link | http://www.osti.gov/COROH/Transcripts_and_photos_%20JH/Williams_Johnnie/Williams_Final.doc |
| Image Link | http://www.osti.gov/COROH/Transcripts_and_photos_%20JH/Williams_Johnnie/Williams_Johnnie.jpg |
| Collection Name | COROH |
| Interviewee | Williams, Johnnie |
| Interviewer | McDaniel, Keith |
| Type | video |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Oak Ridge (Tenn.) |
| Notes | Transcript edited at Ms. Williams and family's request |
| Date of Original | 2013 |
| Format | flv, doc, jpg, mp3 |
| Length | 31 minutes |
| File Size | 104 MB |
| Source | Center for Oak Ridge Oral History |
| Location of Original | Oak Ridge Public Library |
| Rights | Copy Right by the City of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge, TN 37830 Disclaimer: "This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise do not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof." The materials in this collection are in the public domain and may be reproduced without the written permission of either the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History or the Oak Ridge Public Library. However, anyone using the materials assumes all responsibility for claims arising from use of the materials. Materials may not be used to show by implication or otherwise that the City of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Public Library, or the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History endorses any product or project. When materials are to be used commercially or online, the credit line shall read: “Courtesy of the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History and the Oak Ridge Public Library.” |
| Contact Information | For more information or if you are interested in providing an oral history, contact: The Center for Oak Ridge Oral History, Oak Ridge Public Library, 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike, 865-425-3455. |
| Identifier | WILJ |
| Creator | Center for Oak Ridge Oral History |
| Contributors | McNeilly, Kathy; Stooksbury, Susie; McDaniel, Keith; Reed, Jordan |
| Searchable Text | ORAL HISTORY OF JOHNNIE WILLIAMS Interviewed by Keith McDaniel March 8, 2013 MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel and today is March the 8th, 2013 and I am at the home of Mrs. Johnnie Williams. Mrs. Williams thank you for taking time to talk with us. Why don't you tell me where you were born and raised and something about your family? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I was born in Rock Springs, Georgia. MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where's that? MRS. WILLIAMS: Just out of Chattanooga. MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. MRS. WILLIAMS: In my family there were nine girls and one boy. MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah we had nine girls and one boy. Then I... MR. MCDANIEL: Now what year were you born in, if you don't mind telling me? MRS. WILLIAMS: 1920. MR. MCDANIEL: 1920, okay! MRS. WILLIAMS: They told you my age - going on 93! MR. MCDANIEL: So, you were born in 1920? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes. MR. MCDANIEL: What did your father do? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, a farmer. MR. MCDANIEL: Was he? MRS. WILLIAMS: Uh-huh. MR. MCDANIEL: Did he have his own farm, or did he share crop, or..? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, he had his own farm, so, and my mother never worked either she just-- MR. MCDANIEL: She just took care of the living, of the children. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, she took care of the family. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, I understand. MRS. WILLIAMS: So after I got older I went to work in Chattanooga. Worked there nine years at Standard Coosa Thatcher's, a cotton mill. MR. MCDANIEL: A what? MRS. WILLIAMS: A cotton mill. MR. MCDANIEL: And what was the name of it? MRS. WILLIAMS: Standard Coosa Thatcher. MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, alright. MRS. WILLIAMS: And then I decided, Oak Ridge came along and I decided I'd come to Oak Ridge and get a job. So I came to Oak Ridge and hopped over in 1944. MR. MCDANIEL: Now did you go to high school? When you were in Chattanooga? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, no they didn't have high school and didn't no buses run. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really? MRS. WILLIAMS: So I went to ninth grade and then after I come to Oak Ridge I went to Knoxville and took the GED test. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh okay. MRS. WILLIAMS: And passed it. MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. What year did you come to Oak Ridge? MRS. WILLIAMS: In 1944. MR. MCDANIEL: 1944. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah in October 1944. MR. MCDANIEL: How did you hear about it? How did you hear about the job? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, on the radio. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really? MRS. WILLIAMS: And then some friends had already come up here so I followed them. MR. MCDANIEL: Now, were you married at the time? MRS. WILLIAMS: No, no I wasn't. MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, so you're 24, came to Oak Ridge single, at the height of the Manhattan Project, with 75,000 people living here. MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. They was from everywhere. MR. MCDANIEL: I bet that was exciting, wasn't it? MRS. WILLIAMS: It was. MR. MCDANIEL: Well tell me a little bit about that. MRS. WILLIAMS: And the streets was just dirt, mud, and I lived in a, when I came to Oak Ridge, didn't take me long till they cleared my clearance, and then I went to work at Y-12. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. And I thought that was such a big place. I didn't know that I'd ever find my way around. But the next day I found my way back. MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where did you live when you first came here? MRS. WILLIAMS: In the dormitory. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh which one? MRS. WILLIAMS: You know, I forgot the name of it, but my husband, he wasn't married either when I met him, and he lived in Gosen Hall. I forgot the name of my dormitory I stayed in, but it was up there where the Garden Apartments are now. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh okay, I see, I see. MRS. WILLIAMS: It was a mess then, everything was mud. MR. MCDANIEL: What did you think when you got here and it was so muddy and messy? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I didn't know. Didn't really have time to think about it though 'cause I went to work and every time I had a day off or a weekend off I'd head for Chattanooga. MR. MCDANIEL: Now, how did you go? By bus? MRS. WILLIAMS: Bus. Always a bus. MR. MCDANIEL: I guess you had to go to Knoxville? MRS. WILLIAMS: No. They had a bus through here, didn't have to go to Knoxville. A lot of times I'd catch a ride with somebody going, you know, so and then-- MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. Well would imagine there were some people probably worked here that lived close to Chattanooga and drove every day, didn't they? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah they did. They did. And then I met my husband at the skating rink. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you? Now which - where was it? MRS. WILLIAMS: Right there across form the Shell station where the bank is now. There's a big skating rink right there. And he'd already been in the Navy, my husband was in the Navy, and he was in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. So he got a medical discharge from the Navy. So he came, his uncle wanted him to come here to Oak Ridge and go to work. His uncle lived in Sweetwater. The he came here, he went to work, he got hired in at Y-12 because he worked at the steam plant. I mean at K-25 first, then he was transferred to Y-12 when they closed the steam plant at K-25, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. Now let me ask you a question: you came here in '44, you were single and you went to work at Y-12 right off the bat. MRS. WILLIAMS: Right. MR. MCDANIEL: What was your, what did you do there? You know, you can tell that now. MRS. WILLIAMS: At Y-12? MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah. MRS. WILLIAMS: We didn't know! MR. MCDANIEL: Well, I know you didn't know what you were-- MRS. WILLIAMS: But I was a cubical operator. I don't think they call it cubicle now do they call it something else I believe. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, I think what they call you now is a Calutron girl. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah well I was a cubical operator. MR. MCDANIEL: You were a cubical operator. MRS. WILLIAMS: And work shift work. We had to work all three shifts. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, tell me about that job and how they trained you and what they told you and anybody that you remember. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well it was just a big, just a big thing, you know. A big board with all types of knobs and things and if it run good you didn't have to move all night. And some nights it would kick off and you would have to get it back on line. MR. MCDANIEL: They say that you had that meter and it was at a certain point and it was your job to make sure that that meter stayed at that certain point. MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. And if it stayed on that point you didn't have no problems at all. MR. MCDANIEL: Which building did you work in? Was it an Alpha or Beta building? MRS. WILLIAMS: Beta. MR. MCDANIEL: Was it Beta 3? MRS. WILLIAMS: I believe it was Beta 3. So I worked there two years and then they practically laid everybody off at that time, at one time, so I got laid off and they only kept about one person to a building. So I never did go back to work I just, and then I had my first baby in '47 and he lives in Clarksville, Tennessee and he's retired out of the, from the police department. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? So when you came here in '44, talk a little bit about the activities and what life was like then for you. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well I'll tell you right now it was not too good because we had to stand in line for everything. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. After we got married they'd say go to Lafollette and you can get sugar and flour and all that stuff - we'd go up there and nothing. And you'd stand in line for, I stood in line for cigarettes for my husband, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: No. MR. MCDANIEL: That's the reason that you're still with us, probably. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well I don't know, but-- MR. MCDANIEL: But you stood in line? MRS. WILLIAMS: We'd stand in line and hope to get something. They'd allow you one pack. Very rationed, everything was rationed, you know. So after we got married we stayed in a motel, they had a motel there by where the car wash is, we stayed there about a month then, back then service people got priority over everything so we got a house. MR. MCDANIEL: Did you? Okay. MRS. WILLIAMS: I lived up on Jersey Lane at that time when we first got a house then we moved down here in '66. MR. MCDANIEL: What year did you get married? MRS. WILLIAMS: '45 MR. MCDANIEL: '45, okay. What month? MRS. WILLIAMS: July - I mean August. MR. MCDANIEL: So, it was right between the bombing and when the war ended wasn't it? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was. MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about the day they dropped the first bomb and everybody found out what y'all were doing. What do you remember about that? MRS. WILLIAMS: It was exciting. Very exciting, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: What did you do? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, not a whole lot of anything. MR. MCDANIEL: Did you and your husband-to-be go out? I know there were lots of stuff going on at town site. MRS. WILLIAMS: Probably still working. 'Cause my husband worked 31 and a half years at the steam plant. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did he? MRS. WILLIAMS: So, we didn't do a whole lot. MR. MCDANIEL: What about recreation? I know y'all worked hard when you were here but what about, during the war especially, did you get involved? Did you play sports or get involved in any clubs or groups? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I did just the Manhattan Women's club, I belonged to that. And I reckon the most that we done was go fishing. My husband was a fisherman and a carpenter on the side. As far as a lot of activity we never did, 'cause we were both on shift work. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, right. So, when the war was over, and you got laid off your husband still had his job at K-25 so y'all decided to stay here. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, yes. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: What was Oak Ridge like for those decades? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well it was good, you know, really. I always liked it here. Just a good little town. So we really liked it here. Never thought about moving or anything. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, you didn't? MRS. WILLIAMS: Still here! MR. MCDANIEL: So you never went back to work after-- MRS. WILLIAMS: No I never did work after that. MR. MCDANIEL: And you had two children. MRS. WILLIAMS: Two, a girl and a boy. 10 and a half years difference in their age. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? So that's kind of like starting over each time. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Both of them graduated from high school here, done all their schooling done here. My daughter got married and my son got married. She went back, she had two girls, so when she went back to, she went to work when the girls went to school, she went back to work so she's a registered nurse now. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? Now what was life like for them growing up in Oak Ridge? I'm sure there were lots of opportunities for them. MRS. WILLIAMS: For my... MR. MCDANIEL: For your children. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, they enjoyed it. My daughter would go swimming at the pool every day in the summertime. And my son was into football so he played football all though junior high and high school. MR. MCDANIEL: Where did they go to junior high? Did they go to Jefferson? MRS. WILLIAMS: Robertsville. MR. MCDANIEL: Robertsville? MRS. WILLIAMS: They both went to Robertsville because we always lived on this end of town. MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Where did they go to elementary school? MRS. WILLIAMS: One went to Willow Brook and Jimmy went to Highland View. And my daughter went to Willow Brook. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? Went to Willow Brook? MRS. WILLIAMS: We'd think about moving and she'd have a fit. She wanted one school and that was Willow Brook- had some good teachers. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure, sure. MRS. WILLIAMS: Had some good teachers. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, what are some stories about your life in Oak Ridge that you want to tell me? I mean, you can tell about anything. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well... MR. MCDANIEL: That's what this is for. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't do a whole lot of anything, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, but through the years I'm sure you did. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, the most thing that we would do is go fishing. And we would go to, he was from Birmingham, and we'd travel a lot to Birmingham and Florida and Myrtle Beach and Chattanooga. We'd head to Chattanooga and stop off there and see my family and then go on to see his family. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure your family came to visit you in Oak Ridge? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: What did they think about Oak Ridge? Did you have anybody to come see you during the war? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. I had to get them a pass. And we had to, after they'd open the gates, while we had to have a badge and we still had to go get them in, let them in. So we'd meet them at the Oliver Springs gate and get them. They enjoyed coming up here, it was different, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. What did you think when you first came to work here? I know nobody, very few people knew what really was going on, but what did you think it was? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I didn't know what to think about it really, but it was interesting 'cause you had to have a badge to go in and a badge to get out at the plant, and we'd ride them cattle busses. You had to stand up. But everything was free, we didn't have you pay to ride the busses. MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what did they have to wear to work? Did you have uniforms? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, we had to change clothes we had to have a uniform on. Blue pants and a blue shirt. Yeah we had to have a uniform on. MR. MCDANIEL: What about hair pins and watches? MRS. WILLIAMS: No, we never had anything about that. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, did you ever go in the, I know you I know you worked in the cubicle and there were what, 72 or so in that building-- MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, there were a lot of them. MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about working with the other young ladies? I imagine most of them were all young ladies? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, they was all young, none of them married. Not any of them would be married, you know. But after I got married and moved up in my house, my husband would be on the midnight shift and I'd be getting off the evening shift and I was scared, one of the girls would go home with me and spend the night. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was scared to go by myself. MR. MCDANIEL: My goodness! MRS. WILLIAMS: One night, I had to go to work on midnight shift and I had seen a big, black dog outside and I called my neighbor next door I said, "Would you come go with me to the bus stop. I’ve seen a dog and I'm scared." He went and stayed with me until the bus run. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, well that's nice. Now were there any people that you met when you first came to Oak Ridge that you're still friends with? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. A few. Not too many, but a few. MR. MCDANIEL: I guess a lot of people moved off? MRS. WILLIAMS: Now, I know two people that were in the Manhattan Women's Club that they are still here. One lives in Clinton, one lives here in Oak Ridge. MR. MCDANIEL: What was the Manhattan Women's Club? I'd never heard of that until you mentioned it to me. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh really? Oh yeah we just had a meeting and we would do things, do things for people, and just get together and have a good time. MR. MCDANIEL: What were the requirements to do that? To join? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, really there wasn't any requirements, you could join if you wanted to. And then we had, would take up money every week, and each one person would serve, take turns like that. We had parties, Halloween parties and different things, and go on picnics, and be in the parade when they had a parade. So it was very exciting. MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me a little bit about, you showed me a picture earlier of the Carbide Christmas party. MRS. WILLIAMS: Now that was something else! MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about that. MRS. WILLIAMS: I mean, you had to have tickets; they'd give out three a day, in one day. And then they'd give out the tickets and you'd go at that certain time. They'd always have a good show. They would have a good show and always give real nice prizes for the kids. Yeah, they'd have a big bag of prizes for the kids. It was sure different then than it is now. They don't have much now. MR. MCDANIEL: No. I noticed on the photo that you gave me it said 7,000 people attended at one party. MRS. WILLIAMS: It was. We would go to the Grove Theatre, where they'd have it at that time, and everybody, the mothers enjoyed it just as much as the kids did. MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Now did you and your husband used to go to the movies in Oak Ridge? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Not too many times. I just never, we never were movies goers, you know? MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: No. But I would, when I first come here there weren't any churches, and I started going to church at Willow Brook school. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah that's where they had the church. So I would go to Willow Brook school until they built the, then I went to Trinity Methodist. Went there years and years until they closed it, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, exactly. I was married at Trinity Methodist. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, did you? MR. MCDANIEL: I sure did. My wife and I, my father said it was a mixed marriage because she was a Methodist, I was a Baptist, and we got married by an Episcopal minister. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh really? Well she didn't go to Trinity here, did she? MR. MCDANIEL: No. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh, down in Kingston? MR. MCDANIEL: No, the Trinity here, yeah we just got married there. MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I went to Kentucky and got married. We had a double wedding. There's a boy that my husband was, my husband was in the Navy and this boy was in the Army but they knew each other, so we had a double wedding up in Harlan, Kentucky. And the preacher had never married two people, a couple-- MR. MCDANIEL: Two couples at the same time. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah that's right. So it was real nice up there in Kentucky. The girl's parents were really nice where we went. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, good. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah so, we really enjoyed that. MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure. MRS. WILLIAMS: Come back and went to work. MR. MCDANIEL: Came back and went to work! MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: Well what else do you want to tell me about? What other stories do you have? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, let’s see. We'd done a lot of skating. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did you? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, that was our, that's what we done a lot. I liked to skate and he did too. We had our own skates. And they always had this man he would play the organ all the time when the people were skating. It was real nice. We enjoyed that. MR. MCDANIEL: Now was it just a big open rink or was it something you had, something in the middle that you had to go around? MRS. WILLIAMS: No it was a, no it had a top over it, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, right. Big open rink then? MRS. WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. MR. MCDANIEL: That's what I meant. MRS. WILLIAMS: A lot of people went there for entertainment, you know. And everybody had to go to the cafeteria to eat, you know, 'cause they - one of the only places to eat in Oak Ridge at that time. MR. MCDANIEL: What was the food like at the cafeteria? MRS. WILLIAMS: It was good. MR. MCDANIEL: Was it? MRS. WILLIAMS: It was, it was good. Couldn't complain. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. Now, which one did you go to the Central Cafeteria, is that where you went or the Jefferson? MRS. WILLIAMS: Jefferson. Of course we always lived down on this end so we'd always go to the Jefferson. MR. MCDANIEL: And that was the building that became the museum. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, that's right. MR. MCDANIEL: And that just got torn down just a few years ago. MRS. WILLIAMS: That's right. Like I said, my daughter went swimming every day. She'd roller skate too, she liked to skate. But my son just really in football. He loved the ballgames. MR. MCDANIEL: So when you came to work here in '44, and you went to Y-12, do you remember, I know they had Connie Bowling was one of the supervisors of the Calutron girls, did you work for him or do you remember kind of the supervisor you worked for? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, Mr. Goldsmith. MR. MCDANIEL: Mr. Goldsmith, okay. MRS. WILLIAMS: And I was thinking he was from Virginia. MR. MCDANIEL: And did you have to go through a training session? Or did they just train you on the job? MRS. WILLIAMS: We were going through training till our clearance went through. After our clearance went though, you went to work. And I had two sisters come here to work but I got to go to work before they did - my clearance came through first. MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. Did they work at Y-12 too? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes they did. MR. MCDANIEL: What did they do? MRS. WILLIAMS: Cubicle operator. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh cubicle operator so all three of you were cubical operators there? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: Did you ever have a real big problem? That you know, maybe you messed it up one night or anything like that? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well not, not that I remember. And then, now a lot of times, we'd go to Big Ridge Park, have you ever heard of that one? MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, ma'am. MRS. WILLIAMS: We used to go up there a lot and go swimming, so that was our - instead of going to the movies - we liked the outside. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. I understand. MRS. WILLIAMS: Let's see what else did we do? Then my husband, he got transferred to Y-12. You know they closed K-25 steam plant down. MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly. How long was he at the steam plant before he went to Y-12? How long was he at K-25? MRS. WILLIAMS: Not too long. Seemed like about a couple of years. Well he always worked shift work too. Yeah because that steam plant had to have a day and night. MR. MCDANIEL: What did he do when he went to Y-12? MRS. WILLIAMS: Steam plant. He wanted hiring as a carpenter, he was a good carpenter, and had his own machines and everything, but they told him he didn't know anything about wood so they kept him in the steam plant. MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. I understand. What did he do there? I mean, what specifically did he-- MRS. WILLIAMS: At the steam plant? MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah. MRS. WILLIAMS: I guess keep the boilers going. I guess back then they use coal. Just like now when we lived up on Jersey Lane, we had to heat with coal. They would come fill up your box whenever it was empty and the house was furnished when we moved in the house would be furnished. MR. MCDANIEL: Some people talk about that coal would just cover everything in your house. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: Wouldn't it? That black coal smoke? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, oh yeah. And it wasn't real warm either. Wasn't real warm. MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And I had somebody tell me that when they came down the hill in the morning, from up on the ridge, they'd come down and go to work and they'd see just that smoke, especially in cold weather, that smoke just hanging on the tops of the houses. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah it would be. It really would be. I was glad, we didn't have air conditioning but we finally put air conditioning in the window. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh did you? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah so that helped out some 'cause it got pretty hot in the summertime. MR. MCDANIEL: Now was, I guess you worked for Union Carbide, is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yes, uh-huh. MR. MCDANIEL: And your husband worked for Union Carbide until they changed it to Martin Marietta I guess came along. Were they pretty good to you? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. They were. Real good. Oh yeah. He worked from, retired from - he got a medical. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did he? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. MR. MCDANIEL: When did he retire? MRS. WILLIAMS: When? MR. MCDANIEL: Yes. How old was he? MRS. WILLIAMS: 51. MR. MCDANIEL: 51, okay. MRS. WILLIAMS: Because he had a heart attack and he had to go up a lot of steps and the doctor told him he couldn't do that. So he retired. MR. MCDANIEL: With a medical leave, he got a medical retirement. MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, right. MR. MCDANIEL: So, I guess he traded that work for a fishing boat didn't he? MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah. Yeah that's right he loved to fish but he got where he wasn't able to fish. MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, well, that happens. MRS. WILLIAMS: Had to give that up. But he lived 10 years. He died when he was 61. MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really? Well, so you've been by yourself a long time then, haven't you? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yep, about 28 years, about 28 years. So I just had my house here thought well I might as well stay here as long as I can do for myself. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure exactly, exactly. Now did you get involved in any community activities after your husband passed away? MRS. WILLIAMS: Well not really. I just go to church and do activities at the church when things are going on. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, you seem to have quite the collection of knick-knacks. MRS. WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, I collect those. Not so many now but over the years, you know. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure exactly. Well anything else you want to talk about? Any stories you got to tell? As I tell people, now's the chance! Now's your chance! MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, I just, I've enjoyed living here, and my family has too and they enjoy coming here and visiting, and I look forward when you come. And I've got two granddaughters and two grandsons, and four great-great granddaughters and one great-grandson. MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? MRS. WILLIAMS: Yeah. And most of them, all the grandkids live in Knoxville, the great-grandkids live in Knoxville. And one of my granddaughters lives in Virginia and she's a nuclear engineer - she took after her daddy. Wasn't going to let him get ahead of her. So she went through UT and she's a nuclear, she works for AREVA up in Virginia. MR. MCDANIEL: Well, if you don't have anything else? I appreciate it! MRS. WILLIAMS: Well, alrighty! MR. MCDANIEL: Thank you so much. MRS. WILLIAMS: I was here in the early, early days, in the mud. MR. MCDANIEL: Yep, oh yeah. MRS. WILLIAMS: So, I reckon that's about all I can tell. [END OF INTERVIEW] |
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