Transcript

Location: 1401 St. Andrew St.

Howard Fredricks (interviewer): What time did you start work?

Herman Tietz: Well, you could start work any time you wanted to. At six o’clock, if you could go and you could get in there and start work on your bench, you could work on your bench and—and, uh, start making your shoes!

Fredricks: And could you come with—

Tietz: And when you get done, why, you could go home! For the amount—now, unless they give you extra shoes to make.

Fredricks: Well did you have a quota? Did you have to make so many?

Tietz: Everyday, you had so many on a ticket. If your ticket called for a twenty-four pair, why you have twenty-four pair. Well, you get them done and you could go home! Lots of times you worked ‘till—from six to six. And, uh, at night, you know, then that’s when they cured the work and put them in a—well, it was an oven is what it was. Put ‘em in there and then in the morning, they’d open it up and then they took them out for the rack.

Fredricks: What if they didn’t pass inspection?

Tietz: Well, then they’d throw it out and you wouldn’t get paid for it. They would deduct four seconds. I knew a fellow by the name of Riley that worked in front of me. I thought I was going to get canned that time. I had some eights and he didn’t have any size eight shoes but he got my stamp and he stamped his shoes with my stamp and I never looked at my stamp and he stamped his shoes with my stamp and I never looked at my stamp and he threw his stamp over to me and I didn’t know it and was stamping mine without looking, but I didn’t have the same size shoe as he did and that is how I found out. They called me down to the office and showed me the shoes. He was a rotten shoemaker. He would just slam them together anyway. He wouldn’t roll them, he would just take his hand and slap it on. He made poor shoes. They called me in and I said, “Those aren’t my shoes. I made size eights.” I said, “That wasn’t my number.” I said, “That is my number the the eights have Riley’s number on them and Riley’s number is on my shoes. The next morning he came in and I was so mad I walked right up to him even though he was older than me and I smashed him a good one and broke his nose. He bled like a stuck hog. Yost was the superintendent, and he called me in. I thought I was going to get canned. He asked me why I had hit him and I told him that he had taken my stamp and put it on his shoes and he threw his stamp on my side and I used his stamp. But I knew we hadn’t made the same size shoes. He said I shouldn’t have done that. I said, “I probably shouldn’t have,” but I was so mad. He makes poor shoes and I always made samples for the salesmen and here now I have all these bum shoes. Well, I didn’t get canned.

Fredricks: Did Riley admit he had done that?

Tietz: No he wouldn’t admit anything. Heck no. I can see him yet. He was a regular Irishman, but he wasn’t as tough as a Dutchman.

*laughter*