Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A: Maybe it makes good talking to me, but there was a tremendous lot of family-owned businesses
in Alton. And I think Alton is justifiably proud of that. As I mentioned the Western
Cartridge, the Owens-Illinois, and the nuncan Foundry, and of course the refineries
weren't, but all of that's changed.
Of course, Western Cartridge is still called Owen, but they're - 1 think they've merged with
the, it's Owen-Mathison now, and I believe they've got their headquarters out east, but they
still employ a big number of people. They have a subsidiary out there, just about two miles
on - you see it on Route 3, and that's a sixteen-hour shift. Of course those guys could
shut down. Now like in the refinery, that's an around-the-clock operation because you can't
shut those stills down you know. You might circulate them.
Q: Oh?
A: But Shell came in here, they had their fiftieth anniversary here - I was still in the
assembly. They came in 1918 and that was 1968, and they have been a bulwark of economic
strength to the community, Standard oil has. Of course all of those places I mentioned,
all of the little or big - Duncan Foundry was a family-owned - and it's shut down now
temporarily, but they've been there, hell, for - Christ, I guess they've been there for as
long as I've been alive and longer. I'm sure that they have been there for seventy-five,
eighty-five years. And there are still Duncans around. It's a big family and they're good
people. They're good people.
Q: Well let's see now, you say you graduated from high school in June and went into the
oil company in July.
A: That's right.
Q: How did you get that job so quickly out of high school?
A: Well I don't know. (chuckles) It seemed like that Shell was the better place to apply
for work if you - one qualification, at least you had to be a high school graduate. And
I had average intelligence and went down and took a signed application and took an aptitude
test and took a physical examination and they were just hiring guys, I never had any pull. I
didn't know anybody who had worked there. I knew some fellows that were in the laboratory
when I went in.
I went to work on the fourteenth day of July. On the eleventh of July they had hired me
but the fellow who had been off sick came back to work, and they said, "We'll call you for
the next job." And there was a job open on the fourteenth. We didn't have vacations in
those days. Now this is the gospel truth, talking about that, I got forty-four cents an
hour. I was a bottle washer in the laboratory.
And I went to work the fourteenth. And the pay period ended on the fifteenth. So I had
two days - they get paid the sixth and the twenty-first of the month, and the twenty-first
of July I had a two-day pay period coming. But the following period was a sixteen-day
period from July 16 to July 31, that's sixteen days. And that particular pay period of that
year was three Sundays. We worked seven days a week, we got ten hours for working
Sunday. And I had - well what with the sixteen-day pay, it would be, I think I had eightyeight
hours coming. A hundred and - sixteen days, eight times - would be a hundred
and eight, and had three Sundays I guess. I got, I know, a check - I got forty-four cents
an hour and my mother couldn't believe it. Of course there was no deducts you know. It
was a forty-eight dollar paycheck or something like that. And of course money went farther
then you know and we probably would have been better off if we never grew up in this
country. That wouldn't he right to say that though. (chuckles) Rut T remember that.
Q: What did a bottle washer do? Did he just wash bottles? (laughter)