ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
Frank Marge
Month ##, 19##
by Interviewer

0:00:15	Started working at the Armory in 1933.
0:00:24	Worked as a salesman for John Hancock Life Insurance during The Depression.
0:00:45	Worked around Wilbraham, Ludlow and then Westfield.
0:01:38	Talks about many people during The Depression giving up their policies.
0:01:48	Had to replace any policy that was lost.
0:02:47	Were not supposed to pay for the policyholders if they were behind, but if he crossed them out he had to replace them.
0:03:50	Worked for three years at it then quit and traveled to the West Coast.
0:04:29	Worked as a maintenance man at nights in a restaurant in California.
0:04:54	Got back to Westfield and took a job in H.B. Smith Co. Machine Shop tool room.
0:05:05	Foreman wanted him to help him repair a vertical milling machine.
0:05:43	Had him hold the spindle but the cable broke and he was injured.
0:06:50	Had to take a test to get the job at the Armory.
0:07:15	Started as an operator then was promoted to an adjuster then a set up man.
0:07:28	Talks about setting up and repairing milling machines.
0:08:38	Talks about reaming out pistols.
0:08:56	Working at Building 104 on machines that were buried 15 ft in the ground.
0:10:13	Talks about releasing the hand of young man who had his hand caught in the vice of a machine.
0:11:21	Kept him on to the end by transferring him to the water shops.
0:12:34	Had a blood test to be ready to be an instructor at Aberdeen but they had him deferred.
0:13:00	Could have gotten out as a 2nd Lieutenant with benefits from Aberdeen.
0:13:35	Talks about coming back late from lunch because he bought a car to commute to Westfield in.
0:14:43	Applied for a job at Stanley and helped build buildings.
0:15:22	Got work as a conveyor repairman.
0:15:51	Talks about suggesting a spiral chute.
0:16:22	Paid $50,000 to put in machinery to the same thing as the chute and it never worked.
0:17:04	Left the Armory around 1945.
0:17:35	Bought a 17 acre lot with some of the pension money.
0:18:10	Went to work at Stanleys and held the job for 23 years.
0:18:27	Retired in 1968 from Stanleys.
0:18:50	Shipped parcel post and freight all over the world.
0:19:44	Did not take a job with the post office and now regrets it.
0:20:14	Wants to understand why they kept him even at the height of the layoffs.
0:21:07	Worked on the receivers, the pistol barrels, bolts an setting up the milling machines.
0:21:44	Talks about problem they had with the receiver.
0:23:45	Had very little spoilage and did his best.
0:24:40	Coming back from California got a job in a Hotel.
0:25:12	Smelled smoke on the floor and discovered a fire in one of the rooms saving the people from smoke inhalation.
0:27:05	Talks about saving a young man from drowning.
0:28:00	Later that year the same young man drowned.
0:29:20	Wanted to be closer to home in Westfield.
Side B
0:30:52	Talks about the women who worked there.
0:31:08	The older women begrudged the younger women because they were faster and got paid more.
0:32:10	Took a cut in pay to come to the Armory from the insurance company.
0:32:38	Had to collect from the families either weekly or annually.
0:33:29	Is now 85 years old.
0:34:00	Some of the women were earning more than he was.
0:34:07	Uncle got a job building an 18-hole golf course in Dearborn.
0:35:00	Met Henry Ford and was given a job there for a while.
0:35:21	Talks about Franklin Roosevelt's visit to the Armory.
0:36:19	Talks about the work he did at the water shop.
0:37:58	Did not belong to any social groups because he lived out of town.
0:38:26	Talks about denying seeing someone smoking.
0:39:10	Got married while he was at the Armory.
0:39:24	Was told to watch the people in his Dept., but had to sharpen cutters, the people made barnyard animal noises while he was gone and he got into trouble.
0:41:29	Would take his lunch to work.
0:41:44	Carried passengers to the Armory.
0:42:43	The green badge allowed him to travel all about the shops.
0:44:17	Talks about a man loosing his fingers.
0:45:27	Talks about someone filling a milk bottle with a white liquid and a man drank some of it.
0:46:20	Remembers warning Mr. Potter about the way he was handling a part and the young man that was working at that job lost a finger.
0:49:00	Remembers one of his coworkers brought in a huge platter of spaghetti for his stag party.
0:50:00	Remembers someone dropping a plastic bag full of water on the head of a black man walking under the window.
0:50:42	Does not remember the bond drives.
0:51:14	Talks about a man who worked at the armory.
0:51:58	One man who worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground who came back got a house to live in.