Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: Yes.
A: And if you got called out on overtime at that time - I don't know whether they still
do it - they come and pick you up. If you get an overtime notice. Once I worked twelve
hours. I went to work at noon and worked till midnight that night on Pearl Harbor
Sunday. And of course for the twelve hours there I got paid fourteen hours, you got overtime
for it.
Shell progressed pretty nice during the war. I recall I didn't go into the service until 1943.
But we were working thirty-six hours a week, and the company I think wanted us to go
on forty-eight, manpower shortage. And we had a big meeting up at the hall. We rented
a hall from somebody down on Ferguson Avenue. And 1 think they still have the meetings
there. I'm pretty sure it's the same place, the same lady is still living 1 believe. Oh they
had different secretaries and the size of the office has decreased I think now. But just
shortly before I went into service they went on what they called the forty-two hour week.
There's a hundred and - is there a hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week, is that right?
Q: Well, twenty-four times seven, sounds about right, yes.
A: Well when you worked thirty-six hours a week you had to have a shift breaker. And
when you worked forty-two hours a week you didn't need a shift breaker so that they could
man the refinery with less men because they were losing men to the servicc every month
you know.
Q: Yes.
A: Considering that they'd have to go be registered, go before the draft board, unless you're
enlisted. And they had voluntary lists of programs and things like that down at thc draft
board that you could adhere to and I got one deferment, one six-month deferment. My
brother went into the service early in 1941. My mother was a widow and I got one sixmonth
deferment. In that meantime I had heard that there was a pipeline engineer group
being formed to, I guess, pump gasoline. That's what they did overseas and in Europe, and
of course D-Day hadn't happened yet but they were preparing for it.
Rut there wasn't any labor unrest during the war. There never was a lot of labor unrest
out at Shell except that the guys would talk up about themselves you know. Shell was a
good company to work for. I guess they'll be shocked to hear me saying that. But they
were. I didn't get along with them too good, I'll get to that later on with reference to my
leaves. So I went into the service and . . .
Q: I wonder, could we drop back a little bit and think of the political aspects during the
1930's. Now in the early 1930's you were connected with the Young Democrat organization.
SESSION 1, TAPE 1, SIDE 1 (EXTRACT)
A: Well, let's see. I didn't get to vote for A1 Smith in the Smith and Hoover - well I graduated
from high school in July, or June, 1927. And thirty days later I went to work for
the Shell refinery and I stayed there until I retired in 1967. I can remcmher you'd hear
fellows argue about politics and all that and I'd get in them.
And then after the 1928 election, why, the tide maybe turned to the Democratic party. That
was the party of my birth, I guess. And I joined the Young Democrats at the beginning
of the - I think in 1930, 1 guess. I'd go to all of the political rallies, both Democrat and
Republican, I'd go to all of them because I liked them. And I was a Young Democrat and
I was on their executive committee and I was a delegate. I got elected as delegate to the