JM: I understand you were quite surprised by the photograph.

SY: I sure was. I had no idea about it. It's something that we can show my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Let them see how it was when my mother was growing up. My mother used to tell me that she had to work. But I just couldn't believe it. But when I saw the picture, it really hurt me to think that she had to go through that.

JM: The picture has your Aunt Viola in it as well.

SY: Right. I never did know her. She had the flu and died early.

JM: And the girl in the middle, I don't know who she is.

SY: I don't either. She must have been a neighbor.

JM: Did your mother ever talk about what it was like to work in the mills as a child?

SY: I think she said she was eight years old when she started in the mill. And I said, ‘How were you able to do that?' And she said she would have to stand on a box to reach the machines. I asked her if she went to school, and she said they had certain days when they were in school.

JM: Did she tell you that the work was hard, and whether there were bad conditions or long hours?

SY: I don't remember. As she got older she developed breathing problems. All that lint, it was not good for her health. But I've ended up with asthma, and I didn't work in the mill.

JM: Did she work in the mill at any time when you were a child?

SY: She tried it one year at the mill where my dad worked. She said we needed some extra money for something. But it didn't last long because her health wasn't so good. After I got married, I would go with my daughter to her house during the day and watch after her so Daddy could work.

JM: Did she have medical care? Was able to afford it?

SY: Where Dad worked, they had insurance.

JM: Did you finish school?

SY: I graduated from Gastonia High School.

JM: Did you work during your life?

SY: I didn't work that much while I had my three children. After they got into school and were older, I worked in an insurance office taking care of auto insurance.

JM: When you were growing up, were you pretty content with your life as a child?

SY: Oh, yes. We had a nice house. I think we had to rent it from the mill. They furnished it. So we were in this neighborhood with all our friends. You weren't the only one whose parents worked in the mill.

JM: You married Paul Yancey. Did he work at the mill?

SY: When I married him, he was still in school. His dad was in the building business, so my husband got involved in it. Then he started his own business building homes. He passed away a few years ago. But I have a son that's still running the company, Yancey Construction. It's one of the best house-building companies in Gastonia.

JM: How did your mother meet your father, Frank Jenkins?

SY: I think she met him at a little party one night that some neighbor had. They finally took off to York, South Carolina, and got married. He got a job in a Gastonia weaving mill, where the conditions were much better than in the mill my mother worked in.

JM: What are your fondest memories of your mother?

SY: She was always having fun with us. She would tell you little jokes. Everybody loved my mother. Her friends would come see her, and she'd make them laugh, because she would entertain them.

JM: Was she called Pearl, or was she called Pearlie, like it says in the caption on the photo?

SY: I never heard anybody call her Pearlie. Her name was Pearl Mae.

JM: Was she a religious person?

SY: She was a Baptist. She loved to go to church. When she couldn't go, she got upset about it.

JM: When you were growing up, did your family dress up to go to church?

SY: Everybody did. That's what they were told. My mother sewed and made a lot of our clothes. She always wore hats and dressed up.

JM: The picture of her is very flattering. She is dark and has beautiful eyes.

SY: She had pretty eyes, and her hair was black. I didn't get that black hair. I wish I had.

JM: Did you immediately recognize your mother in the photo?

SY: Yes.

JM: Had you ever seen any pictures of your mother as a little girl before?

SY: She had one similar to that.

JM: What was your father like?

SY: He was hard-working man. He was not as outgoing as my mother was. He was quiet. He'd take us to buy shoes and to the grocery store.

JM: When you were a child, did you have a car?

SY: We had one, but it got old and fell apart, and we couldn't afford another one. We ended up having to do a lot of walking, which was alright.

JM: Have you lived all your life in Gastonia?

SY: Yes.

JM: Do you feel like you were blessed that you grew up in a small town where you knew everybody?

SY: It was great. People helped each other when someone got in a bind or something. My husband died of cancer, but I've got a lot of good friends here.

JM: Do you remember anything that your mother used to say that she seemed to say all the time?

SY: She would come in the door and say, ‘What have you been doing? Did you do anything bad today?'

JM: In the picture, she looks like she was very proud.

SY: Yes, sometimes she was too proud. She always wanted to look just right when she went to church or anywhere else. She got after us, too, me and my sister. She would say, ‘Always look nice when you leave.'