American Experience

Interview with Anna Novak, Packing House Worker

Interviewee: Anna Novak
Birth: Wisconsin, about 30 years ago
Ethnicity: Polish
Family: Married with two children, boys, ages 10 and 13
Education: 8th grade and one and a half years of high school in St. Hedwig's Orphanage
Occupation: Packing House Worker
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Date: April 25-27, 1939
Interviewer: Betty Burke

Interview Excerpt: "How long have you worked in the stockyards?"

I've had eight years of the yards. It's a lot different now, with the union and all. We used to have to buy the foremen presents, you know. On all the holidays, Christmas, Easter, Holy Week, Good Friday, you'd see the men coming to work with hip pockets bulging and take the foremen off in corners, handing over their half pints... Your job wasn't worth much if you didn't observe the holiday "customs." The women had to bring 'em bottles, just the same as the men. You could get along swell if you let the boss slap you on the behind... I'd rather work any place but in the stockyards just for that reason alone.

Excerpt from the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writer's Project Collection, Transcript #07051009.

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