John Dempsey: 1909

Fiskeville's only about 10 miles from where I'm typing this now. Many of my relatives including my mother worked in the textile mills of Northern Rhode Island before they made the move south after World War II. Now many of those mills are either renovated apartment buildings or burned to the ground.

Many times I have looked at the folks in the pictures displayed on Shorpy and wondered what their lives were like. Its one thing to read an article or obituary from a newspaper, it's another to "hear" from a relative about the life these folks led. So, reading the interview with John Dempsey's son James was (for me)fascinating.

Great job.

I found Joe Manning's interview fascinating. James Dempsey's story of childhood abuse, paternal neglect, dropping out of college and serving in the Army, sad. Then the turnaround, going back to school and graduating and then earning postgraduate degrees is a tribute to him and the greatness of this country. The GI Bill again, that great class equalizer, shows that with education the path to a productive life is obtainable.

Joe Manning's interview with James gives tremendous insight into how life in an American Mill Town was. I enjoyed reading it.

I can relate to working in a factory as I went into the Henry Ford Trade School in 1936 at age 14. There were rules against talking to each other, and we did real work while learning the tool and diemaking trade. We repaired things that were needed out in the factory such as valves and conveyor chains. This was before the auto plants were unionized and I was glad to get the 12 cents an hour we earned. Gave my mother, who was widowed in 1929 with 10 children, most of the money I earned.