As someone who lives in the center of the dying textile industry I'v seen the sad side effects of it. Our town emblem carries a threa spool and my husbands family has lived at the back door of a Parkdal dying plant for almost a hundred years. My mother in law and much o my family spent their lives in the textile industry and now th plants are closing and being torn down. It angered me to see th fuss made over the Kannapolis plant because Gaston County has los many more jobs than that but in small spurts and no one ever stood u for us, no one paid our people what they are paying the pillowte workers.
For us younger people in this area we are learning that the textile are not an option anymore and education is the key. Perhaps this i good and perhaps bad. Fortunately, or unfortunately I'm torn betwee the two sides of this issue. I am dissapointed to see textil production move out of the US but at the same time I can understan the difficulty of sustaining a profitable business with the cost o labor in the united states. Perhaps it is a case of american wanting it all but maybe it is not a bad thing for some stuff to b produced overseas. The production of goods is helping to stabilis economies in countries where there is a desperate need for work. Because of much lower costs of living wages can be lower (althoug this in no way excuses abusive behaviors by businesses who tak advantage). I'd like to think that in the long run, as we continu to have a more global economy it will balance out and we will see higher standard of living across the board
Of course I would never claim that there is an easy answer. It break my heart every time I drive past a spot where a mill once stood. There is a sense of loss not only of jobs but of our heritage. I bothers me to think that my children will never realize how thei grandparents struggled and worked the mills with the hope of more fo their grandchildren.
I'll say one last thing and then I'll shut up. At christmas they tor down the mill where my mother in law had worked. I was driving m nephew home from school and telling him and my kids (who are still t young to understand) that grandma Jo had worked there for years and hope someday they would realize the impact that textiles had i building this area. My nephew got a funny look on his face and sai "yeah, grandma jo said the same thing when she took me to school thi morning". I hope someday he does realize
This a picture I took on Christmas day, the plant is the one on m parents road. It is parkdale mill #7. The mill closed about tw years ago but up till then it was a dye plant. Getting a picture o a rainbow over the mill was just a little bit symbolic for me. Hop that doesn't sound to mushy LO Angel Harris