JM: You said that your father told you stories about working on the dairy farm.

JK: Well, one story I can remember. He said he had got hold of a bicycle. And one morning he was going to work, way before daylight. And it was just gravel road back in those days, and he said it was a real moonlit night. He said this big, huge black fellow jumped right out in front of the bicycle and grabbed the handlebars. He said he had never been so scared in his life, ‘cause he had no idea what it was all about. He said he looked at the guy dead in the eye for what seemed like a couple minutes. And then the guy just stepped aside, and my father rode off. He never did find out what the reason for it was.

JM: The other guy might have been as scared as he was.

JK: Yea. It might have been that he thought my father was somebody else. You know, my father lived four or five miles away from where he worked.

JM: So he would have had to go four or five miles on a bicycle?

JK: Or walk.

JM: So in addition to working long hours, you would have to add the hours for just getting to and from the job.

JK: That’s the reason he left before daylight. I also got a story about the first automobile my dad ever saw. I don’t know the man’s name, but this man had the first automobile in Bowling Green. And Dad was at a grocery store, and this guy was there, and Dad asked him if he could ride in it. Well, he gave him a ride, so Dad told him where he wanted to go, and when he got to the place where he wanted to get off, he hollered and told my dad, “Jump, because it’s too much trouble for me to start and stop this thing.” So he jumped off and didn’t realize how fast he was going and tore his knees and his arm.

JM: When the pictures were taken, he was thirteen. Do you have any idea how long he had worked there, or how young he was when he started working there?

JK: No, I don’t.

JM: About how old would he have been when he stopped working there?

JK: I don’t know. He never told me.

JM: How big was your father?

JK: Well, my dad was a short man, about 5’6”, and stout. He probably weighed 160 to 180.

JM: In the picture where he’s holding a crate with bottles in it, he looks like a very handsome young man.

JK: I always thought he was.

JM: How many brothers and sisters do you have?

JK: I got one brother and three sisters.

JM: Where is your father buried?

JK: Fairview Cemetery, in Bowling Green. You know, me and my dad was awful close. From the time I was big enough to get around, I was with him practically every day. And even after I got married and raised my family on my own, I either saw him or talked to him practically every day. We were that close. After I come back from the service, I bought a farm and he was living in town. Dad always liked to farm in the rural areas, you know, and he spent a lot of time with me out here on my farm in his later years.

JM: Lewis Hine was on a mission to go around the country and take pictures of children working in order to get child labor laws passed. Many of the situations that children were photographed in were far worse than your father’s was, such as in coal mines. And some in cotton fields or in cotton mills. Sometimes the pictures were pretty horrible. What do you think about Mr. Hine taking a picture of your father? Do you think he was making a good point?

JK: I think he was, yes I do. I think probably a lot of the factories or places didn’t let him in to take pictures. And then in rural areas like in my dad’s setting, they probably didn’t care if he took the pictures.

JM: I’m sure you wonder now whether your father knew about this picture.

JK: That’s right. I don’t know whether he ever knew about it or not. He never mentioned it to me. When Mr. Hine came to Bowling Green, he must have traveled by rail, ‘cause by that time Bowling Green had a track through here and had the L & N Railroad.

JM: So he would have made a stop right in Bowling Green.

JK: Yeah, right. Do you know whether his pictures had any effect on child labor laws?

JM: They most certainly did. He took thousands of pictures between 1908 and 1917. Many organizations were promoting the passage of child labor laws, and they used the pictures as publicity to awaken people’s consciences. But many families at that point were still dependent on their children working. And so, just like you said, he made this money and brought it home to his mother.

JK: He did. I have no idea what she would have done, if it hadn’t been for that.

JM: I’ve always felt that the people who have the most impact on history are the everyday people who go about their business and do their work. They built the country and don’t get the credit for it. And I’m sure Mr. Hine would have thought that your father contributed just as much to history as the famous people. He had a lot of respect for work.

JK: Well, Dad was an honest man. Like I say, he never did accumulate much, but what he made, he made honestly.