Interview with Homer Brunelle
By: Sean M.
What was it like to work in the mills?
What was it like to live during that time?
On April 12, 2007, I had a chance to interview my Great, Great Uncle, Homer Brunelle, age 98. He worked in the mills of Ludlow starting as a young boy. He remembers his many years of working in the mills. He was honored to be interviewed for information about his past and answered some questions about the mills in Ludlow.
Q: When did you start work in the mills?
A: I started work at 14 years old [1923]. I began work at seven in the morning.
Q: Where did you live at that time?
A: I lived in a four-roomed house with no hot water and no bath tubs.
Q: How long did you work?
A: I worked eight hours a day and got one hour for dinner. I worked with
one shift. I
stayed working at the mills for fifty years.
Q: What was your job in the mill?
A: I had many jobs. I worked as a plumber, an electrician, and in textiles. Before
I had a
job, I had to go to the textile school and that’s where I started to learn more about the work.
Q: How much money did you make?
A: The pay I got was fifty cents and hour and seven dollars a week when I was
in textiles.
My wife made
twelve dollars a week because she worked in the mills’ office
away from the area I worked.
Q: What was the work like?
A: I had it hard because I was left-handed, which made it hard to keep up with
the system
because I
would get in everyone’s way in the textiles. It was long and repetitive.
I wasn’t allowed to work more than forty hours a week when I was young.
From this interview, I learned about the possible problems a worker could have being left-handed in the Ludlow textile mills. I also learned that my uncle saw his wife there for the first time. Comparing my life at fourteen to Homer’s life at fourteen, there are many differences. For example, I am in school when he was working. I now know what Homer Brunelle did many years ago from the interview.