Fries Textile Mill Oral History with Kevin Combs, May 20, 2020 Ms2019-045

Bess Pittman: Okay, so, my name is Bess Pittman, I'm here interviewing Kevin

Combs for the Fries Oral History Project, Kevin, could you introduce yourself?

Kevin Combs: Yep, my name is Ronald Kevin Combs, and I live in Statesville,

North Carolina now. I grew up in--near Fries, outside the town limits a couple

miles away, and I went to Fries high school, and I-- lived in Statesville about

twenty-three years now.

Bess: Okay, so how long did you live in Fries?

Kevin: Okay, so I was born in the late [19]50s in Fries and my parents lived

outside of Fries about four miles away, and then we moved into a house that was

a little closer to Fries the town, in, um, 19--in, when I was eight months old.

So I lived there 00:01:00until I graduated from college, and then moved away for a few

years, came back in [19]90--1990, and lived there until about [19]97. And then

I've been away again since, since [19]97.

Bess: Okay, and did your parents work at the mill?

Kevin: My dad worked in the mill when I was born, and up until I was about seven

or eight years old. My mom never did work there. She worked in at the Hanes

Plant in Galax.

Bess: Okay. And what did your father do at the mill?

Kevin: He worked in the cloth room when I was a child. That was the room where

they inspect the cloth after it was woven.

Bess: Okay, and do you have any impression of what he thought about working there?

Kevin: My dad had a history with the 00:02:00town. My--the reason I grew up in Fries is

what was my granddaddy was a minister, and he was called to the church in

Fries--the Baptist church--in 1929, I think it was, or [19]30, somewhere around

there. And so, they were living in Buchanan County or Russell County Virginia,

and so they moved there. My dad was born in 1922, so he was a kid when they

moved there. And so my granddaddy was the minister of the church until 1945. He

left the church on somewhat-- um-- difficult circumstances, I guess you could

say. And so my dad just, he had a history with the town, so I think it colored

his experience with working in the 00:03:00mill. He quit mill in the late [19]60s and

went to work for a furniture store in Wytheville, Virginia, for whatever reason,

that doesn't suit my dad. He was there about a year and then he went to work at

Hanes plant in Galax. So, um, you know, he, he gave up driving five minutes to

work to driving thirty-something minutes to go to work, and apparently he, he

did not like being in the mill [Laughter].

Bess: Okay and-- what was your impression of the role of the church in the town?

I wasn't aware that your grandfather was the minister.

Kevin: Yeah, um, well, you know there are only two churches within the town

limits, or at that time there were only two. And so you had choice of Baptist or

Methodist and that was about it. Course, there are churches 00:04:00sprinkled all, all

along the outside of Fries, but within the town limits those were the only two

churches. And, when the mill was built, and the town was built, everything was

controlled by the mill, so the mill corporation decided that there would be two

churches in, in Fries, and so, you know, obviously religion was important and,

but the town decided that--the mill bosses, whatever--decided that there would

be two churches involved.

Bess: Yeah, uh, part of the records that we have in the collection is the

original plans for the Baptist church. [Laughter]

Kevin: Oh, uh-huh. Well, my grandfather was living there when, or was the

minister when they built the brick church. It was a wood sided church, I guess,

and he was the minister when they built the new 00:05:00 church.

Bess: Okay. And did you spend much time with your grandfather while he was

minister in Fries?

Kevin: Well no, he left the ministry in 1945, or left the town church in 1945.

And so I didn't really spend a lot of time with my granddaddy. Um, he, uh, moved

to Galax, when I was young, and he had remarried, and his second wife was not

very receptive to our family. So, I didn't get to see him a lot.

Bess: Okay. Um-- I know you said that you worked at the mill--

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

Bess: Through high school and college. Could you describe that for me?

Kevin: Sure. I started working in the mill in 1976, I was a junior in high

school, and worked 00:06:00afterschool. So I had a friend that worked there too, so I

would ride to the mill with him. I mean, it's only [Laughter] It's only a half

mile or so from the school to the mill. And uh, I worked in the spinning room,

as a doffer. And I started, I actually found some old paystubs that I still

have, um, I started out at something like $2.50 an hour, as a doffer. And I

worked on second shift after school from, um-- That summer, during part of the

school year, and that summer. The next summer, was my, year after my senior

year, the summer after my senior year, and I worked on first shift then, again

as a doffer in the spinning room. Then in the next three years, next three

summers, 00:07:00which would have been [19]78, [19]79, and [19]80, I worked on third shift.

Bess: Okay, and could you explain what a doffer is?

Kevin: Sure. So, the spinning room had these machines, I don't know how many,

but I would say in the order of one hundred machines, that took--. knitting yarn

size thread and twisted it down to sewing thread size material. From knitting

size material to-- sewing thread size material. And so there were these bobbins

on, on these machines that had, there were about 250 or 300 bobbins laid out in

a line, that they were spinning, and so, the 00:08:00thread would go down onto the

bobbins and the bobbins would fill up. And so a doffer's job was to go through

once the, the bobbins had filled up, would be to go and take off the full bobbin

and put on an empty bobbin. We had what was called a doff box, which was a

wooden box on wheels, and it had two baskets in it, one basket was empty when

you first started to doff the frame, and the other one was full of empty

bobbins. So you'd take the handful of empty bobbins, take off a full bobbin, put

on an empty one, take off a full one, put on an empty one. And, and so you did

that, you know, what 250-300 times on a frame, or on a machine. And then once

you did all that, you would start the machine back up. And hopefully, you had

all these threads running down, going on bobbins, and the goal was not 00:09:00to-- or

to have all of them start back up without breaking, but inevitably you had, you

know, hopefully no more than fifteen or twenty of the threads to put back up.

And you went through this process taking the sewing thread sized yarn, is what

it was called, from a full bobbin that you had under your arm, and you put it

onto the, to an empty bobbin, and that where the thread was broken, and-- Get

the thread running correctly again. The whole process, you know a good

doffer--which I was not [Laughter]--could do it in fifteen, twenty minutes, you

know I was, I would only work three or four months at a time since I was in

school so I really didn't, you know, have the opportunity to build my speed up,

but experienced doffers could do a frame in fifteen to twenty 00:10:00minutes. And so

your job was to, out of the hundred or however many machines that there were on

the spinning room floor, each doffer would be assigned an area of machines.

Machines all had different, size yarn on 'em. You know you might have yarn that

was, it was gauged according to a number, so you might have a yarn that's a

number nine yarn, which was the very thick yarn, that was used for canvas, I

think that they had a military contract at that time, so they were making canvas

cloth for the military. So a number nine would be a very thick thread, and the

bobbin would fill up very fast on it. We had some that build up in-- half an

hour, an hour. Most of the time it took about three hours for 'em to fill up. 00:11:00Those would be maybe a twenty size yarn, or twenty-two, the thinnest yarn that I

remember was something like a twenty-eight or a thirty, and those might run for

hours--you know, four hours or six hours, or whatever before filling up. So

anyway, the doffer would have an area of machines that he would be responsible

for. And I say he, most of us were men or, or teenage boys. There were maybe..

four or five women that would work as doffers.

Bess: Uh-huh.

Kevin: But you would have an area of machines, and again, it would depend on how

fast they would build up, so if you had an area of maybe twenty frames, that

would probably keep you busy most of the night. But again, depending on the size

of the thread. The 00:12:00women that worked in the spinning room were usually what they

called spinners. So, their job was to go around and make sure that the threads

kept running. Sometimes because of the humidity or temperature, the threads

would just break, or the knitting yarn size material was suspended above the,

um-- spinning bobbins, spinning bobbins, and so the spinner would have to go

around and put new, knitting yarn size-- bobbins, those were called bobbins too,

but they had the knitting yarn size material. And they would hang those up and

keep it going, you know, through the spinning frame. So you had, you know, 200

and sommin' bobbins of spinning yarn, 00:13:00you'd have the same number of bobbins

hanging overhead that had the knitting yarn size material on 'em. So the

spinners would go around, keep those things full, and then and then make sure

all the threads were running. And sometimes the thread that-- the knitting yarn

size material was going down through a chute into a contraption that had, like,

magnetic rollers running through it, and then it would spin the material down,

or twist it down into thread size material. So sometimes the thread would break,

and it was supposed to go into a vacuum system that was underneath the, the

threads that were being spun down, but and it had a hole where it was 00:14:00 supposed

to catch, y'know, the material that was coming off because the thread was broken

and, and it was supposed to pull it into that vacuum system, and take it down to

the end of the frame-- And where it was collected, you had people going around

who collected waste, but sometimes those-- the thread would break and it would,

instead of going into the vacuum system, it would start wrapping around the roller.

Bess: That's not good.

Kevin: And, yeah, no, that was a bad situation. And you know, so the spinner had

to just kinda patrol her area and make sure that those, those threads were

running and then if she saw one where it was wrapping into a roller you went and

tried to, or, you know, got the thread out and got the thread running again. I

actually worked as a spinner sometimes. I was a spare hand most of the 00:15:00 time,

since I was in college, y'know I got the worst jobs [Laughter].

Bess: Mm-hmm

Kevin: Because, y'know, I didn't, I didn't have any pull or whatever, and I

mean, I'm not complaining I actually liked working there. But sometimes they

needed help with spinners, you know, maybe they had enough doffers, so they

would, um, put me to spinning, and-- There was one room, there were three

spinning rooms. One was on, in the main mill of the fourth floor, one was on the

third floor, and then there was another spinning room, and it's actually still

there. Um, you know that facility where the, the power generation facility is

still there, the fourth floor of that had a spinning room.

Bess: Really?

Kevin: Yeah, yeah. And there was something wrong with the-- ventilation system

in there, the humidity was not right, so that thing would get away, it 00:16:00 would,

you know, the thread and the yarn would start coming out in the floor, and

that's where they would usually put me if I was spinning. [Laughter] It was

a--it could be a bad situation back there.

Bess: So-- were the job generally segregated by gender, at the mill?

Kevin: Yeah, they were. Very much. Again, you know, you, the doffers were

usually men, or male, you know, teenage-- older teenage boys. I started when I

was seventeen. I think you could work at sixteen, I'm not sure. But, um-- you

know, the doffers were usually male, the spinners were usually female there was

an area, the next process after the spinning room was called the winding room.

That was up mostly women. You had the card 00:17:00room was pretty much split between

genders. You had that was the process before the spinning room was the card room.

Bess: Mm-hmm

Kevin: Um-- Then there was the warp room, where the-- It was after the winding

room, and that's where they took and I think they treated the threads before it

went to the weave room and the winding room. And those were usually men. Uh, the

weave room, you had doffers in the weave room, and what they would do down there

is when a, a bolt of cloth came off-- and filled up, then the weaving doffers

would take that bolt of cloth off and put a new, I don't know what they called

that, but it was an empty spool or whatever, that 00:18:00where they started the cloth

back on that. And it was, that was a heavy lifting job, so you did, you know,

you had to have somebody pretty strong to do that. They also had the equivalent

of spinners in the weaving room. I guess they called them weavers, who went

around made sure all the threads were running, and all, you know, the-- shuttles

were going right and all that. And then in the cloth room, I think that was

split by gender, I mean it, you was, you know, intersex, or whatever. That's

where my dad worked. But there were, there were women who worked in the cloth

room too. They were mostly inspecting the cloth. One room I left out was the

opening room, and that's where, when the raw cotton came in from the town--I

mean, from the railroad. It came in in bales, and so they had to tear the bales

open and put it in the machinery to start the process going. That was always 00:19:00male. Then, you know, you had office jobs, and those were, unfortunately, you

didn't have any women in management to speak of. And so the women were clerks,

and you had some male clerks, and then you had male management.

Bess: In the mill itself, the jobs that were mostly men, were those because it

was more physically demanding, or did it just kind of fall out that way?

Kevin: [Sigh] Well, I'd say it was mostly because the physicality, you know. The

doffing process in the spinning room was, it took, uh-- some, some strength and

dexterity. You had-- Once the--I mean, not dexterity, the 00:20:00endurance--so I've

told you there was a wooden doff box.

Bess: Mm-hmm

Kevin: That you, that you had, and you pushed it along as you went down the

frame. So, you had an empty basket when you started out on the frame, and by the

end, time you got to the end of the frame, the basket was full, and that

weighed, I don't know, forty or fifty pounds probably. So, that was one reason

that mostly men were doffers. But again, there was some women doffers in the

spinning room.

Bess: Okay. Moving to kind of a more general picture, what effect did the mill

have on life on Fries, as a resident? You know, were you there when they still

kind of controlled everything?

Kevin: So, I'm-- You know, I was born in the late [19]50s. I think the mill

started letting go control in, in 00:21:00maybe the [19]50s or [19]60s. I'm not real

sure about that, but by the time I was a teenager, you know, the mill, pretty

much, kept to the mill property. They might have still run the company store,

I'm not sure. But, you know, they didn't control the town like they did earlier.

The school system had gone to the county at that point, as far as running the

school. I don't know if the mill still kept the property or not, but you know,

it was-- It was actually a pretty ideal time, when I was growing up, because the

mill had let go of the authoritarian control that they had, you know, in earlier

years. But yeah, it was, the mill was working pretty good, so people were pretty

well employed when I was a teenager.

Bess: Okay, 00:22:00 um--

Kevin: But I do know, from hearing my dad and my uncle was still alive, he's,

uh, eighty-six years old, and he was, you know, he was born in Fries, so, born

in [19]34. And he, he tells me stories all the time of, you know, about how,

with a, what an iron hand they ran the town with. I'm sure you've heard this

before, but if, um-- If a girl got pregnant out of wedlock, for example, you

know, they would, she would get shipped out of town, and, maybe come back with a

baby a few months later. If somebody was a troublemaker, you know, had a alcohol

problem or whatever, the town, I mean, the mill, which was the town, got rid of them.

Bess: Uh-huh. Can you tell me what it was like to grow up around Fries as a kid?

Kevin: Yeah. So, like I said, I grew up about, 00:23:00a couple miles outside the city

limits, in a rural area. Um-- You know, it was, it was very quiet, um-- Again,

I'll say it was, it was just an idyllic time. There wasn't much crime, hardly

any. Hardly any crime. Especially in Fries. Um-- You know, you could-- pretty

much, have the run of, of the town, or, just, I mean, you know, nobody really

bothered you. Um-- You didn't have, you didn't have to worry about, um, crime.

Um-- You know, in the [19]70s the economy wasn't great, but we just really

didn't feel it. You know, didn't know any better, I guess. My dad, my dad and my

uncle, you know, talk about how bad the depression was, but they, they had

enough to eat all the time-- Uh, they, 00:24:00you know, they just, um-- It was calm.

They had the same situation; had the run of the town, um, when I was in school,

um, you know, I was, I was not a troublemaker, and my grades were decent, they

weren't wonderful, but, they were decent. And so, the teachers, you know, would

trust you to just come and go as you please. I remember, I had a friend, um,

that we would go off campus and walk downtown and get something to eat or go

down into Blairtown and have lunch and really didn't, you didn't have to check

in with anybody. Nobody really cared. Um, we had the river right outside, you

look out the window and see river, but people weren't as enamored with it as, as

they are now. They kind of took it for granted, 00:25:00unfortunately. And the town was

still, um, pretty busy. The, most of the stores were still open in the [19]60s

and [19]70s. So, you could get pretty much anything you wanted, you know, or

most necessities, in, in town. At that time. And people were nice, you know,

didn't have many real bad troublemakers, you didn't have anybody that, uh--

Don't remember anybody being mean or anything like that. It's just, I think of

it as an idyllic time, and I don't, I don't think I'm, you know, just

remembering the good stuff. I think-- That's pretty much the way it was. [Laughter]

Bess: Yeah, most of the other people we talked to described it very similarly,

as just kind of, picture perfect small town life.

Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was. Kind of 00:26:00like Mayberry. You know.

Bess and Kevin: [Laughter]

Kevin: You had characters, you had characters, you had people that maybe stepped

out of line occasionally, but in the end they saw, saw the light or whatever. I,

I don't know. It, it was just a, it was a good time. And you know people used to

tell me when I was in high school, oh this'll be, these are the best days of

your life. And, you know, I don't agree with that, um-- I, I've had a good life,

and, uh-- I mean it's not like I'm painting it with a rose, looking at it

through rose-colored glasses, um, you know, I'm-- I don't consider it the best

days of my life, but it, they sure were good days.

Bess: Yeah, sounds like it. Do you remember when the mill closed?

Kevin: Yeah, I was-- where was I? I, I was either in Birmingham, 00:27:00Alabama, or I

had moved to Abington, Virginia, or close to Abington. And I know I was in

Birmingham when I heard that it was going to close. I, but I think I was living

in Virginia when it did close. I, I w- I actually went into the mill, um, I

wanted to show m- my wife at the time what the ill looked like, and I went in

there, and they had already moved a lot of the machinery out, and it was, it was

really sad. Uh, there were some mach- I think some of the spinning machines were

still operating. But, uh, in the, in a weird twist, when I, in the early [19]90s

I went into the auction business with a, another guy that lives in, uh, the

Fries area, that's, um, why, one reason I was back there in the [19]90s. And we

sold, um, some of the dregs of what it, what was left from the mill at auction,

uh, in probably [19]91. Um, It brought something like 00:28:00$1600, I mean it was just

nothing. All of the machinery had already been taken out, anything that was any

value had already been taken out. But we sold, um, you know, just some whatever

could be found, and, uh, uh, for the town, the town was the beneficiary of the,

of that sale, because they had been left with the mill building.

Bess: Uh-huh. And how was Fries different after the mill closed?

Kevin: Oh it was sad. People were-- Well, first of all, people were convinced

something would come back in, and occupy the building, and they, they spent

several years trying to, um-- Find a tenant for it, but, you know, nobody was

interested in a ninety year old building with four stories and you know, no

access, it was, it's-- You know, what, twenty to thirty 00:29:00minutes to either

interstate, 77 or 81, um, by that time the railroad track had been taken up, so

nobody, nobody would have been interested in it, but they held onto the hope

that it would be. And, um-- People started, you know, found work in other

places, and there are some good jobs around-- Around in other areas, you know,

Galax, Hillsville, Dublin, Wytheville. But yeah, people were just really sad to

see, to see the mill go. And, you know, that's one thing that I'm, ah-- Really

passionate about, is the fact that the corporate owners just left the town to

pick up the, the debris, you know. With the building was halfway there, I mean

it was there, but-- It had to be torn down, 00:30:00and the power generation facility

was us, given away by the last owners, and you know, given away from the town,

and so the town doesn't get the benefit of that anymore.

Bess: Mm-hmm

Kevin: Um, yeah, the water plant, that was donated to the town by the corporate

owners because, became too expensive to operate and they figured that the town

could get grants, which they did, I think. Um, but you have all these, all this

infrastructure there that's supporting the town that is now 100 and-- 120 years

old. And it needs help. And, you know, it's just, uh-- There's, um-- No one to

help with that. It's, you can't expect a town of, what, 00:31:00something like 300

residents now, to, to support that kind of infrastructure.

Bess: Moving onto to perhaps a slightly happier note, what is your favorite

story about the mill or about Fries from your, your time in the area?

Kevin: Okay. Well, I, I've got a lot of great memories. Um, I remember, you

know, going with my dad down to the town in the mid [19]60s, you know it seemed

to me like walking along the street in New York City. It was, um, you know,

bustling, a lot of people were there. On Saturday morning, is what I'm talking

about. And people going about their business, doing banking, shopping at the

stores, going to the restaurant. And, um, going to the post 00:32:00office. And to a

little kid who wasn't around a lot of people at any one time, it looked like a,

just really bustling situation. There were two police officers in town when I

was a teenager, Buster Mottesheard and Earnest Carey, and, Buster took the day

shift and Earnest took the night shift, and so when I was about fifteen or so,

and I can tell this story because statute of limitations is run out [Laughter].

Bess: Excellent.

Kevin: When I was fourteen or fifteen, I had a neighbor who was letting me drive

her car, and she just meant for me to drive up and down the street--the dirt

road that I lived on--but I got the wild hare one night to drive it down to

Fries. I didn't have a sign of a driver's license, and so I drove through town

and met Buster or Ernest on the street, and he just threw up his hand and kept

going, and so-

Bess: [Laughter]

Kevin: 00:33:00and so did I.

B and Kevin: [Laughter]

Kevin: But it was, it was stuff like that. It was just, you know, innocent, and

fun, and-- A lot of good memories. But, probably my favorite story is when I was

a junior in high school, we would have a prom, you know, like any other high school-

Bess: Uh-huh.

Kevin: And, it was a junior-senior prom, and juniors sponsored the prom, but the

seniors, they paid for it. So it was, our junior year, it was time for us to put

on the prom, and we would do it in the gym there, in Fries, which is still

standing, and so whoever was in charge of getting the band found a band and

somewhat locally, maybe in Wytheville or somewhere, but, um-- They contracted

with the band several months out, maybe six months 00:34:00out, and so the prom came,

and it was-- it was in May, and so we all show up, all dressed up and ready to

party and everything, and-- the band's not showing up. And so, you know we're

asking, so, asking people who contract with the band, well, where are they? And

they said, well, we don't know, we haven't talked to them since we signed the

contract with them, you know, we didn't think to, call and follow up, you know,

maybe a week or two beforehand, or even a month. So, somebody had a number for

one of the band members and they called the band and the guy said, oh, we broke

up three months ago.

Bess: [Laughter]

Kevin: So we had a, um, jukebox in the cafeteria which was, a lower level from

the gym, so a couple of guys, a few guys went down there and got the jukebox and

carried it upstairs, and we had the jukebox was our band. [Laughter] For the

Junior-Senior 00:35:00 prom.

Bess: That's great!

Kevin: [Chuckles]

Bess: And, so you mentioned you kind of passed the police officer while you were

on your joyride.

Kevin: Mm-hmm

Bess: Was it a town where everybody knew everybody? Did he know who you were, or

was it just--?

Kevin: Well, I don't know, it was at night--

Bess: Uh-huh.

Kevin: And so, there were street lights. I doubt he knew who I was. I think he

probably would have stopped me if he had known, if, that I was underage. He may

have recognized me and didn't know how old I was, you know. I don't know. But it

was just a--you know, when I saw him, my heart started racing, I figured I'm in

deep trouble now, but he just waved his hand and went on.

Bess: So, what do you want people to know about Fries or the mill, if you had to

give them kind of your elevator pitch for the town?

Kevin: 00:36:00Well, you know, again, I would say that we went from having just a great

place to live and work, and to really struggling. Of course I don't live there

now, but I do have a house there, that, a summer home kind of, or a weekend

home. And I'm not so concerned about myself, but-- A lot of people there are,

are struggling because water rates are very high. Um, and then the

infrastructure like roads are, our roads are, are deteriorating, and it's just

going to get worse. So, you know, what I would like for people to know is, that

the town needs help. And, you know, that at the state level or whatever, even

federal level-- I would like for people to understand that the town is in

trouble, and it needs 00:37:00 help.

Bess: You said the water rates are high?

Kevin: Yes. Mm-hmm. And, you know there's--they have a great water system in

Fries, as far as the water processing plant. Of course, the water

infrastructure, the mains and that kind of thing are, what, a hundred years old?

I don't know when they were, the water system was put in underground, but, you

know, again, who knows when those are going to start giving way, but, yeah, the

rates are high just to maintain the processing facility.

Bess: Okay. Just as a kind of-- final one of my questions, and then you're free

at the end to-- add any additional thoughts that you had, but, what do you hope

for the town?

Kevin: Well, you know, Fries would be a great place for people, and I've thought

this for 00:38:00years and maybe with this virus situation, this may become a reality,

but Fries would be a great commuter, telecommuter community. Uh, it's close to

Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Roanoke, Blacksburg, and-- it will, uh it would be an

ideal place for someone to live and be able to telecommute into work, and you

know, maybe go in once a week or whatever, if they were working out of somewhere

like Winston or Charlotte. It's a great place to live still. And I would-- I'd

love to see people come in and build up the tax base, and so the town would have

the funds to make some of the improvements that they need to make. Grayson

County I think has gotten 00:39:00a grant or maybe not, maybe not the county, but maybe

Appalachian Power has gotten a grant to deliver 5G to the area. Into Grayson

County, and so it's supposedly one of the first government sponsored projects in

the country. So-- You know, the telecommuting infrastructure would, will

probably be top-notch, and even as it is now, just normal high-speed internet is

good in the town of Fries. Now, you get outside of Fries it's sometimes it's

hard to get internet, but in the town they have, they do have access to good internet.

Bess: Okay. Is there anything else you want to add, anything you'd like to

elaborate on, anything I skipped?

Kevin: Well, I can't think of anything, you know I can sit and talk 00:40:00about Fries

all day long but,I think we hit most of the high spots. [Laughter]

Bess: Okay, well, thank you so much for sitting down with me.

Kevin: Sure, yeah. Glad to do it.

Bess: You're welcome to come to Blacksburg if you want to check out the

collection. We do have the finding aid for the collection published on Virginia

Heritage, if you want to take a look at that, see what kind of stuff we have.

Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah I have, I have looked at the, index, or table of contents,

of what you have, and it's very interesting. I will say that I'm a photographer

and I spent a lot of time photographing around Fries. My website is kcombs.com,

www.kcombs.com, and I've got a blog on there so if you're interested in, I have

do have some memories of Fries, and have a lot of photographs of that area, so

if you're interested in taking a look at 00:41:00that, it might be of interest to you.

Bess: Yes, we would definitely be interested. We don't have many pictures, most

of the pictures that we have are from-- the [19]80s--

Kevin: Mm-hmm

Bess: And they are mostly at, like company functions, like the 4th of July, or,

you know--

Kevin: Yeah

Bess: The staff appreciation lunch.

Kevin: Sure

Bess: I don't have even very many of those, so pictures are always valuable for us.

Kevin: Mm-hmm. Well, you know the pictures I have are from around 2004, I don't,

I don't have a lot of pictures from say, my teenage years, unfortunately. I do

have, done a lot of photography in Fries of the current conditions.

Bess: Yeah, that sounds lovely. I'll take a look.

Kevin: Okay, sounds good.

Bess: 00:42:00Alright, well you have a great night and thank you so much for talking to me.

Kevin: Alright. Alright, thank you very much, enjoyed talking to you.

Bess: Bye

[End of recording]