'. Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 1

IB:

IB:

Ah, this is Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine, we are at the home of
Doris Faustman in Williamston and this is June 23, 1992. We are
going to be talking about Reo memories.

Okay, since we don't have a you know, a lot of background
information about you at Reo, why don't we start with, you know,
when you worked at Reo and what you did there and then we usually
go into other sort of background about you, but because we don't
have that to start with, why don't we start with that.

IA :

That's wonderful.

Faustman: I was first hired in January of 1945.

IB:

Okay. Okay. And where did you work when you came in?

Faustman: I worked in parts and service

IB:

Okay.

• Faustman: with Rellison SwIsher, that was Dollar, people remember him by the

Faustman: Just like bill, B 0 1 1 a r, they called him that for a nickname.

name of Dollar .

Dohler, D a h

IB:

IB:

Oh, what was his name,

Faustman: His name was Rellison Swisher.

IB:

Swisher?

Faustman: Ah huh, if anybody needed a part on their truck or something, they

called him to place an order and he was really good, you know, he
knew all these parts and everything. So I was the one that typed
them and sent the order, you know, started the order then.

IB:

Ah huh, was it just you two that worked in the department?

Faustman: Oh no, it was a quite a big department, parts and service was. He
was under Judd McClurnan, you might have run into him.
was under Pete Hamlick.

AndJudd

IA:

That's a name that I've seen.

Pete .

IB:

• Faustman: Ham

eli

n k. Ham

e ne

1 i k

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 2

IS:

(Can't tell who is talking.) Or Hamelik, okay, okay. Okay, and
how long were you in parts and service doing that job?

Faustman:

I worked see, until about July of '47.

IS:

Okay, there.

Faustman: Ah huh.

IS:

And then you moved on.

Faustman: Well I have two daughters, I went back to work again.

IS:

Oh okay.

Faustman: So I went back to work in ah, probably in '49 and I worked for two

years and until 1951.

IS:

Okay.

Faustman: And then I went back in '67 and worked until it was closed down.

And I went back on the same job although they kept getting a
little bit different.

IS:

Okay, but in the same department part and services?

Faustman: Ah huh, parts and service. And then they became a warehouse and

so my job, I became an order clerk and an expediter and this is
what, that was our group.

IS:

For their regions?

Faustman: Ah huh, and I was back up for all of them. Sut I had my own

IS:

This was your territory

Faustman: No, I was up for all, I was a backup for everybody? And then I

had all the national accounts and warehouses and stuff.

IA:

IS:

Oh my goodness.

So Pat ... was for the south and .... Marty was for the northwest.
(everybody sounds alike) and the midwest.
the Michigan mid-west area, Ohio, Indiana, looks like Indiana,
Ohio and Michigan. And Sara Ward was for the east. Okay.

Clark Cooper was for

Faustman: And so any order for any part went through, you know, through us . •

Those people,

IS:

.

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6-23-92
Page 3

Faustman:

I was responsible for, you know, to back them all up.

IB:

Were you the supervisor of all these people too?

Faustman: No, I could have been.

IB:

You could have been?

Faustman:

No, but he was the only guy and so I, you know, I didn't really
care about getting any further advanced. This was a pretty good
job.
for me, any women, you know.

This was a Class 7 when I was there and 8 was the highest

IB:

So it went as high as 8 and you were a 7.

Faustman: Ah huh, ah huh, and that's what we all were.

And I was really the

oldest one

IB:

MO£e seniority.

• Faustman: more seniority. Really it wasn't seniority because that was

In terms of experience on the job, knowing what

something different, but,

Faustman: Yeah, see when this became a warehouse, they took me and I trained

IB:

all them. So they had to, they had to hire me, even though they
might have wanted somebody else. Because I was the one that, see
I was a getting a, was a level of 5 and all these people working
for me was 7, so when they opened up the job I became, they asked
me to take the, you know, it is not that, what do they call it

IB:

The coordinator.

Faustman: Yeah, but they call it like interviewing and say we were

unionized. And I just didn't want to be with those girls.
could see, you know, I was the oldest gal there and stuff, so I
told Jim Cantline, you've probably talked about him.

I

IB:

Yes.

Faustman: He was our boss.

IB:

Okay.

IA:

Oh okay.

• Faustman: At this time, in

would be better.

the warehouse time and I told him I thought Clark

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 4

IB:

Hum, for the

Faustman:

supervisor. My kids were growing up, you know, pretty well

and stuff and I didn't really want to get involved in that.

So,

IB:

Now you did this after you came back in '67.

Faustman: See I can't remember when the warehouse became.

IA:

Was it in the same area as you'd been in before?

Faustman: Ah huh, see it was always parts and services, it's parts and ah,

if a truck broke down or anything like that and they needed a
part, then they called for us.
we'd have to find,

If we didn't have it on hand, they

IB:

Where it was.

Faustman: where it was, someplace in the United States or some and we had

computers and stuff like that.

IB:

Oh you did?

Faustman: We had a lot of phoning and stuff to do. We were on the phone

almost continually to get that truck back on the road.
our job.

These were the guys that were on the

That was

IB:

The sales.

Faustman: They were on the sales and stuff for

IB:

IA:

Now this is wonderful that you saved this.

Oh gosh yes.

Faustman: I just, I thought I had some other stuff, but

IB:

West ... was in the western area, Ralph ... in central.
saying these for the tape. Richard, Bill Richards was in southern
sales and John
the part sales regional

blanco with northeastern. And they were um,

I'm just

Faustman: Representatives.

IB:

IA:

representatives.

Okay.

So they would be out in the field in their areas and they would be
expediting and troubleshooting, that kind of thing.

Faustman: Ah huh.

•

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• Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 5

IA:

What a job.

IB:

They kind of hardly saw their families very much doing something
like that.

Faustman: Probably a lot of, I'm sure he is dead now, but they probably

IA:

That is west Fort you are talking.

Faustman: Fuller.

IA:

IB:

Fuller that might be passed away.

So were you physically um, based in the warehouse itself.

Faustman: When it became a warehouse. When we became a warehouse in that,
we were well, we had to go out in shop too. You know, and we had
a lot of contact with the supervisors and stuff that made parts.
You know that was responsible for making parts.

IB:

Ah huh.

•

Faustman: But it was really quite a job, but an interesting one.

IB:

It sounds like it would be different everyday.

Faustman: It was and I mean you were busy and I enjoyed being busy.

IA:

Well the problem solving for people across the United States.

Faustman: Then we had, of course, you know somebody would call us and they'd

say well our truck is down and something is wrong, so we'd have
people that would, you know, guys that knew where all the parts
were and everything and then they'd have to go and find the parts.
You know the part numbers for us and stuff.

IB:

Like a big tool crib kind of thing?

Faustman: Ah huh, well, this was office. And then we actually didn't work

in the warehouse. We were the office for the warehouse.

IB:

Okay. Did the office itself physically, did that stay the same,
in the same place or were you moved

Faustman: No.

when you became a warehouse to some other part of the building .

IB:

• Faustman: Yeah. We were always on the third floor.

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 6

IB:

Oh you were on the third floor?

Facing Washington?

Faustman:

Ah huh.

IB:

Okay.

Faustman:

And then when Webic came we went down on first and was over well,
it would have been south of where we were, on the first floor
there.

IA:

IB:

Okay.

Was it difficult
you did?

Faustman:

No, it wasn't.

to come back and go in and out of the Reo the way

IB:

Because we really haven't met anybody, interviewed
was back and forth, in and out of the

anybody that

Faustman:

In fact, I worked with some of the same ones and I can't remember
the last time, Larry Devine was my boss when I went back in and he
hired me because well I worked in there before and people knew me
and you know.

•

IB:

How long did you stay when you started the last time in '67?
you stay until '75?

Did

Faustman:

'75 ah huh.

IB:

Okay.

That's you there until they closed up.

Faustman:

Ah huh.
you felt like you needed to be at home sometimes so stayed home.

Um, and you came back in and out for your family, because

Faustman:

Well I stopped to, I had my two daughters,
I went back to work I had my son.
to work that time until he was about a junior in high school.

Another one.

two girls and then when

I didn't go back

IB:

Oh that's right between

'57 and '67.

Oh no it was '51.

Faustman:

Yeah.

IB:

'51 and '67, so that is a long time that you were out.
was no problem, they didn't have any problem taking you back.

And there

Faustman:

No, no problem at all.

IB:

Did you keep your seniority?

•

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 7

Faustman: Well my records got lost somehow and they never could find them.

Because you know that was

Faustman: Yeah and ah, so I actually, even though I had more seniority than

it showed when it came down legally, I didn't really have it,
because it had gotten lost.

IB:

Now the first time you were in, there wasn't a union?

Faustman: No.

But I probably the last time,

IB:

The last time, it was not the second time, but the last time it
was.

Did that make any changes that you could see?

Faustman:

I didn't like working for the union.

IB:

You didn't like the union?

•

Faustman: Un huh.

I always thought it didn't help the people that wanted to

work, it helped the stinkers.

(laughter)

IA:

IB:

Those that wanted to goof off and didn't want to be

We've heard that from other people too. Why do you think that
happened?
it that way?

You know, what made it that way, why did the union make

Faustman: Well, anyway it seemed to me like it always backed up somebody

that caused trouble, you know, they were the ones that ah,

IB:

Used the protection

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

IA:

of the union?

The rest of you knew your job and were doing, you should be doing
everyday.

Faustman: Most of us, you know, people really enjoyed, I think, putting out

a good days work and stuff. Except you get some people in there
that just didn't, so that made you work, you know,

Less, felt like you didn't need to work as hard.

Or maybe you had to work harder to take up what they had done?

IB:

IA:

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 8

Faustman: Since I've backed up some of them, you know, I usually got them

when they were mad. You know they didn't get their parts and
stuff and when they got me they were upset.

IB:

IA:

So you had to kind of be diplomatic and be the liaison between the
customer and the factory, kind of sooth them down.

Did it improve any, like your wages or conditions

Faustman: Oh yeah. When we became union. Yeah.

IA:

You don't buy a big difference?

Faustman:

great a difference there really. But see it used to be, you

could make on your own merits, but when you became a union, you
didn't get it on your merits.

IB:

You just got whatever everybody else got? How about with respect
to the grading system, did you think that made things a little
fairer in terms of being able to work your way up?

Faustman: Oh I think it made a lot more problem?

IB:

You think it did?

Faustman: Ah huh.

In the mind?

IB:

Ah huh, in your area?

Faustman: At least in that respect.

See we are all classified the same, you

know, actually and stuff, but we all got the same pay except he
got, I think he got 5 percent more or something for being the
leader. You know, all that.

IB:

It wasn't because he was a man that he was being paid more?

Faustman: No, it was because, no that was just

IB:

Just curious.

Faustman: But see what they might have done, you know, they put this, when

this warehouse became a part, they put it on to typing, you know,
and since I was the oldest one and I could type fairly good, I got
all this work training those girls, those people, but I mean
actually work until I complained and then because of the union,
that's the only thing I ever thought helped.

IB:

Ah huh.

Faustman: They had to post the job.

•

•

•

• Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 9

IB:

So they ... about what everybody had to do ..

Faus tman:

IB:

IA:

IB:

But
in
else
In fact, they hired I think three people to do my job when I

And so when they posted the job ,they
turn me down.
they'd rather held me there where it made a lot of difference
the amount of work I did.
See, so they had to hire somebody
to.
left.

When I, you know, left the job that I had on there.

couldn't

Oh I see.

Three people?

My goodness,

that has got to be a little bit of satisfaction.

Faustman:

They didn't have to work like we had to, like we. used to have to
work.

IB:

IA:

Something was just handed
something

else to be handed to them.

to them, they did that and waited

for

Now you said that women didn't usually go beyond

grade 8.

•

Faustman:

That's about the highest

grade there was.

IB:

For women?

Faustman:

For anybody.

IB:

Office work.

Faustman:

Because they became on salary, you know, well of course we was on
salary too, but I mean unless they got

IB:

Managerial?

Faustman:

Yeah.

IA:

Faustman:

That was about.

IB:

I wonder how that was arrived at the numbers?

Faustman:

• IB:

Faus tman:

Well, you know how ... is, you are classified
takes a lot and then they are not always, when they do those job
classifications,

that is not always what it entails.

and stuff and it

Yeah, they are not always accurate

.

Ah huh.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 10

IB:

represent what you are capable of.

Faustman: Sometimes they say in whatever it takes to get your job done.

IB:

Oh they left that open-end there.

Faustman: A lot of those job classifications have that.

IB:

Ah huh, but with the upper limits of the office,

Faustman: Ah huh.

IB:

staff and then beyond that was managerial supervisory, sales,

Faustman: Yeah, sales was .... ah huh.

IB:

Did people jump at all from the eight to the other?

Faustman: I don't really know if, you know, some of them did move up.

But I

don't

IB:

Not many?

Faustman: Un huh.

IB:

Because you know that's what they talk about now, they call it a
glass ceiling. You know, that at least technically you could be
able to, but for many people that are in that clerical labor
force, there is glass ceiling, they can see up there, but they
can't go for it. So I'm just curious if there was something like
that.

Faustman: Well I think probably some of those people probably had more, you

know, experience, college or you know, knew their trucks and stuff
like that.

IB:

And they used that to advance?

Faustman: Advance, ah huh, in sales, but they used to hire people from
outside too. And, of course, with that being resold so many
times, you know, they bring in their people.

IB:

That's right.

Faustman: Like truck or vans something like that.

IB:

So it is hard to tell what the

Faustman: So I never really questioned it too much.

•

•

•

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 11

IB:

Did this guy, did he advance, Clark Cooper?

Faustman: Clark was ah, I don't know what he does now. He never got out of

there, what when I worked there.

IB:

When you were there. Okay.
know, you thought it would be better for him to be the supervisor,
so that he would have more opportunity

Okay, so you were saying that, you

Faustman: Well at that time a guy and he could use the five percent, you

know, it didn't really matter that much, but I thought Clark had a
better chance than any of us girls.

IB:

Ah huh, of going up?

Faustman: Well I mean of being over

IB:

Being supervisor in that area.

Faustman: Well, he was, you know, when the union is .... he is a leader.

IB:

Ah huh.

Faustman: So, that's what you were called.

IA:

IB:

IA:

Hum. Um, I'd like to come back to this, but in a minute, but I
thought maybe I'd get some of the background stuff too, is that
okay, Shirley?

Yes.

Um, we always ask the people we are interviewing about;' where they
came from,where
know, if there is anything you don't want to answer, you can
certainly say it.

their parents were born ..... So but again, you

Faustman: Okay.

IA:

Um, first of all, um, you let out when you were born so I don't
have to ask that delicate question. Women we don't usually ...
(laughter) Um, were you born in the Lansing area?

Faustman: I was born right out here on Noble Road in Williamston.

IA:

In Williamston.

Faustman: Well it is in the country out here.

IA:

Yeah.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
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Faustman: Just a couple miles away.

IA:

Did your parents farm out here then or

Faustman: Yes. They were farmers. Oh my father was a farmer and he kind of

a horse trader I guess you know, he dealt with selling and horses
and cows and stuff like that.

IA:

Okay, and um, were they born here too? They were from here?

Faustman: Um, my mother was born in the Mason area.

IA:

Okay.

Faustman: And my father was born down in Morrency(?), Ohio, so

IA:

Oh in Ohio?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IA:

And they came here to work the land. Okay. Were your
grandparents from the United States?

Faustman: Ah yeah. They were from ....

IA:

Okay.
know.

This is just to find out if they are immigrants or you
Um, and so you went to school here in Williamston?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IA:

Um, through high school?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IA:

Wasn't probably

back then?

Faustman: No, .... when I graduated.... (laughter)

IB:

You had business courses?

Faustman: Ah huh.

I took business.

IA:

IB:

You did?

That's where you learned to do your typing?

Faustman: Ah huh, they had them in the small high school for girls.

IB:

Shorthand, typing and bookkeeping.

•

•

•

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 13

Faustman:

bookkeeping.

IA:

Bookkeeping.
that your first job?

Ah huh.

And um, you hired in at Reo in '45, was

Faustman:

Oh no.
a cashier down at the Kroger store down.

I think the first job I had after I got out of school was

IA:

In Williamston?

Faustman:

Ah huh.

IA:

Okay.

Faustman:

And then I got married and gosh I worked all, I've worked quite a
few different places. You know, small places.

IA:

Ah huh, did you live in Williamston after you got married?
did?

You

Faustman:

Well, went to Mississippi, because it was during the war.

IA:

Oh really?

Faustman:

My husband was in the Navy and so we lived at Gulfport for a year
before we came back here.

IA:

That is pretty.

Faustman:

Yup it is. We went back once after it was, you know, after that
just before the big hurricane that tore it all apart.

IA:

Oh, that's right Camille.

Wasn't it Camille?

Faustman:

I think so.

IA:

When was that?

Faustman:

'69.

IA:'69.

Faustman:

IA:

IB:

I think that was the big one down there. When it ripped
everything up.

Oh it did.

Um, so then you both came back up here?

Faustman:

Ah huh.

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 14

IB:

Did your husband work at Reo too?

Faustman: No, he worked at Lansing Oldsmobile.

IB:

He was at Oldsmobile ....
of the couple worked at Oldsmobile, the other one worked at Reo.
Sometimes

that's, we've seen this a lot where one

Faustman: He retired from there.

IA:

He retired from Oldsmobile?

Faustman: . Ah huh.

IB:

Huh. What did he do there?

Faustman: Well he worked in a lot of places.

He retired as a supervisor in

the toolroom.

IB:

Dh.

Faustman:

It was a grinding room. Anyway skilled trades.

IB:

Did you always, you and your husband, and your children always
live out here in Williamston?

Faustman: Yeah, we've lived here since ah, oh '47.

IA:

IB:

Nice big backyard for the kids to play in.

In this house?

Faustman: Well, we had a litty bitty house first. In fact, about where the

garage is it was tore down.

Dh in the same spot.

So you built this house here?

IA:

IB:

Faustman: Yeah.

IA:

Oh wow.

Faustman: My husband built this house.

IA:

IB:

IA:

Dh my goodness. He did a good job.

Yeah.

That's wonderful.

It is not that old, it is nice.

•

•

•

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 15

IS:

And just since 1947 in the same hum.
your husband you had three children.

Um, you mentioned you and

Faustman : Four.

IS:

Four.

Faustman:

I had one girl before we, before 1 went to work at Reo?

IS:

Oh okay.

Faustman:

So three girls and one boy.

IS:

Ah huh.

Faustman:

And finally had that boy.

IB:

IA:

IS:

Okay, any other, ... covered this sheet, is there any other
personal

No, I guess I can't think of anything.
she happen to go to Reo.

I'm interested now in how

Right.

Faustman:

I guess well my daughter had been born,
Let's see, how did I go.
let me see, now, ... stop, she was born in '44 and my husband was
in the Service, I guess I just went looking for a job.

IS:

IA:

You just went downtown looking for a job.

Maybe they had it advertised or something?

Faustman:

I don't really recall you know.

IA:

You knew about Reo though and did you know anyone that worked
there?

Faustman:

Oh my neighbor down here a couple of doors retired from Reo and he
worked in the shop.

Sut that was no reason why I would have ...

IA:

Just that they were hiring and

Faustman:

They were hiring and

IA:

IS:

•

you needed a job.

Did it have any particular reputation that attracted you, it
wouldn't have mattered if it had been anyplace that you ...~•.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 16

Faustman: At that time you didn't make very much money.

But that was better

than, see the war was on when I went in in '45. Yeah they were
making trucks and, you know, Army trucks and stuff and

IB:

But you obviously did, you obviously um, thought it was a good
place to work since you kept coming back.

Faustman: Wasn't so easy to get a job like that. I might have went

elsewhere if I had had a rough time getting back in.

IB:

Ah huh.

Faustman:

Because, you know like Oldsmobile they paid better than Reo?

IB:

Reo.

Faustman: And I might have, you know, I could go down there and put in my
application and I got hired, or got rehired or something and I
guess that's why I went back there.

IA:

I think it is so interesting, but you know people in the same
department each time, you know, she knows this, let's take her
back here.
too, was there, I know there was a price freeze, I'm wondering if
there was a wage freeze.

Um, wasn't there, during the war when you worked there

Faustman:

There probably was, I can't remember right offhand.
wasn't very much money.
got them on merit.

I know it
And when you got your raises then, you

IB:

On what kind of job they thought you were doing.

Faustman: After you were there for so long and stuff like that.

IB:

Ah huh.

Faustman: You'd get merit raises but

IB:

I like that way of doing.
be rated?

Um, did you participate in the girls club?

I think that is the way people should

Faustman: Not to much.

No I had a family and driving back and forth to work
and for a while I didn't have a car, you know, I had to pay for my
ride, you know, ride with somebody that went back and forth.
And
so we didn't, I bowled with them, you know, I bowled in a league
there.

IB:

Oh you did.

•

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• Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 17

Faustman: Ah huh.

But I don't think I, until after gee, until after I was

back ah, finished up, that's when I, you know, got involved a
little bit more, because I had all my own transportation and
.
stuff. And then you get so confined to .. driver to

IB:

So it was difficult to do a lot of the activities like after work
and things, because you had to get home be with your family and
find a ride, you know.

Faustman: You went with those, when the driver went, you went.

IB:

Sure.
It must have been a little bit easier during the last
episode because your kids were already sort of grown up and didn't
require quite as much care.

Faustman: Yeah, then I had, you know, I had a car to drive.

IB:

IA:

• IB:

IA:

IB:

Dh and right, the car.

It gives you more freedom.

That is a long way and we just came 15 miles.

Fifteen miles.

And now you can go on the expressway and you didn't have the
expressway

Faustman: That's right you didn't.

IB:

a few years ago.

Faustman: But they did keep Grand River open real good.

IA:

Did they?

Faustman: I think so.

Some days though, sometimes you'd get snowed in and

you couldn't get out.
you know, the end of town out here.

So sometimes we couldn't even get past the,

IB:

It must have been interesting taking that route over all of these
years, how much it has changed.

Faustman: It is really something to go by the Reo and not have nothing

there.

IB:

Isn't that a shock, even though I know I'm not going to see
anything, I'm still shocked when there is,

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 18

IA:

Of course, Silver Lead is there now with their warehouse, but you
know nothing else is in it.

Faustman:

It is kind of weird going down South Washington Avenue.

IB:

IA:

How different it is.

To see that big empty field.

Faustman: Yeah and territory, I mean it is not a place I'd want to walk at

night.

IA:

And it was different when you worked at Reo?

Faustman: Well, of course, I wasn't around there at night, you know, but the

downtown, we used to go down there for lunch and stuff like that.
But it is different.

IA:

IB:

It was a safer world then. You could walk.

Did you see, ah, Lansing as sort of your area when you went
shopping and everything, or did you living out here in Williamston
see the town down here as your town?

Faustman: Well we used to have a lot more stores, you know, like grocery

stores down here, so we usually did most of our grocery shopping
here.

But for other things

IB:

IA:

You'd go down to Lansing.

That was sort of the center that you used.

Faustman: Yeah, before there were malls and the other things, Washington

Avenue, Maurice's was down there and J. C.

Penneys and Knapp~.

IB:

Right, my husband used to shop at Knapps when he was a kid.

Faustman:

I used to work at Knapps.

IB:

IA:

That was the store and Arbaugh's was a close second.

And then the Reo shut down in '75,
Lansing changed around the same time? That changes started
happening in Lansing around the same time or before or after or

do you think all the stuff, the

Faustman: Well I don't know.

IA:

You don't know.
I'm just trying to get what Reo had to do with
all that, you now, whether that was responsible or just sort of
another, just one more thing that was ....

•

•

•

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 19

Faustman:

I'm sure it was a lot of downfall, because there was a lot of
people put out of work and stuff when they left.

IA:

Ah huh, that was a very bad time, wasn't it?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IB:

Did that happen to you, you were just put right out of work?

Faustman: Well, I was out of work, I ended up having surgery and I took time

off for that and stuff and then I went back to work at Michigan
State as a Kelly Girl in Office Services.

IA:

Oh ah huh, oh so you worked at State.

Faustman:

For four years I worked up there.

IB:

Which departments did you work in?

Faustman: Allover,

mostly Athletic.

IB:

Oh.

Faustman:

I worked at Theater and Agriculture Engineering I think probably
the most.
So, I enjoyed doing that. It was interesting to see
how different areas of the college worked.

IB:

But you said you found your job at Reo interesting too?

Faustman: Ah huh, I did. You know you are on the phone and talking, well

you are busy, you know, it was interesting.

IB:

Ah huh, and you said that urn,you didn't think the Reo paid as
much as some other places you might have worked?

Faustman:

I don't think as much as Olds.

IB:

IA:

Olds, okay. Right.

Maybe the benefits were greater at Olds too, I don't know.

Faustman: Yeah, it was really back then Olds was a better place to work, you

know.
be tore down.

We had an old, old building that Reo, it really needed to

IA:

Or renovated or something.

Faustman: Yeah.

IA:

Ah, were the office workers over at Oldsmobile unionized?

•

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 20

Faustman: You know, I don't know.

IB:

Because I was very surprised when I first found out that they were
unionized at Reo, because office workers weren't really unionized
that much.

Faustman:

I think maybe we might have been some of the first ones or
something.

IA:

Yeah.

Faustman:

I know they were recalled at aIds, but

IB:

I'll have to look into that because I'm not sure myself.
was the UAW that was unionized then, the office workers?
like the automobile workers.

And it
Just

Faustman: Ahhuh.

•

IB:

Was it, it wasn't in one big union though, right, Tmean you had
different

Faustman: Yeah, it was changed.

I didn't really get to involved with the

union. You know, you had to take part in certain things and stuff
like that and stuff, but I don't know if she gave you Marty Tumi,
she was an active

IA:

Union person?

Faustman: union person.

IA:

ah okay.

Faustman: Really.

IA:

You mean Doris gave us her name?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IA:

No I don't think so.

Faustman:

She is still working someplace.
year, but she was, you know, she like she went up north there to
that ah,

I've seen her at the reunion last

IB:

Black Lake?

Faustman: Yeah, Black Lake and went through that, took that course that they

give up there. And she was a real active person.

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 21

IB:

Okay.
you must have sensed that the end was coming, did you?

Well we were coming close, we talked about the Reo closing,

Faustman: Well you got so you couldn't get parts and it just got to be a lot
of, a lot of headaches and the money you could see, you know, what
we worked in, you know have to check on how much the dealers owed
and stuff like that, you could just see things weren't right.
They weren't running smoothly or efficiently anymore?

IB:

IA:

That must, was that difficult to be on the phone to someone on the
other part of the United States and you didn't have what they
wanted, what they ordered and you didn't think it was going to be
produced?

Faustman: Of course, you know they are upset sometimes because they've got

this truck that cost a fortune for them and they need parts and
they can't get them and we can't get them for them and so you know
a lot of stuff, one thing Reo did they customized a lot of stuff.

IB:

IA:

Yeah, we found out.

So thinks weren't interchangeable, you had to have those parts for
that engine.

Faustman: Yeah, and they had to be made, you know, if they called in and

maybe had to be made from scratch. You got some that was really
hot.

IB:

Were you able to work with them and solve the problems?

Faustman: Most of the time.

IB:

Most of the time you could get something for them.

Faustman: Yeah, and like we had, we had these

IB:

It seems like that would be kind of stressful it seems like the
last few years.

Faustman:

It was, but anyway, I mean this was a normal thing. The jobs we
had, these people, you know, it is just like you break down one
side of the road and you got to have a part and the people don't
have it right there, then they are calling, or the dealer is
calling .... And sometimes it is the dealer can't satisfy them,
then the person gets on them that owns this truck.

IB:

Oh dear.

Oh.
other ownerships, White Motors and ... and then at the last when
Capered had it? Was the stress load kind of the same or

Did you notice as much change with some of the

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 22

Faustman: Well I think after Capered got in, everybody could almost see what

he is doing, you know, he is just taking all the gravy out of
there, you know, .and

IB:

Squeezing it dry.

Faustman: Ah huh.

IB:

IA:

Yeah.

Letting people go.

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

Did anybody, any of your supervisors were they let go, w.ere they
out under Capered's reign? We've heard that a lot of supervision
was just suddenly given, you know, you are done, clean out your
desk and I just wondered if any of your bosses, that happened to
them?

Faustman:

•

I was trying to think, you know, when we became a warehouse and
left our, you know, our ar'ea , you could see a lot of people going,
you know, and you really didn't know why.
here so busy that you don't have time to talk and stuff, you are
kind of buy yourself.

Because weare

over

IB:

I see.

Faustman:But

you'd see some of our ones that were under or something they

are combining jobs and stuff. But I worked for Jim Cantline under
that, you know, when we became a warehouse and he left ah, after I
did, but he went to work at the 01ds for a long time.
retired.

He just

IB:

Yeah, Marjorie Koehler wlajust talked with her and..she

Faustman: Oh Marge?

IA:

IB:

IA:

She mentioned Jim, in fact, ah , weren't those where the notebooks
came from?

Yeah.
from 1916.

She showed us some pictures that he gave her of the old Reo

That he saved before the end. Because I imagine, I don't know,
but I'm assuming that maybe a lot of things were just being sent
to the trash or something when the offices were being emptied .
And he saved a lot of negatives and things.

IB:

Yeah, beautiful photographs.

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 23

IA:

Oh yes.

Faustman: Have you met Jim Cataline.

IB:

Not yet.

Faustman: He's a nice guy.

•

IA:

IB:

Very much like to.

That's what Margery said too. She said, yeah,

.

Faustman: He was my boss for a long time.

IA:

IB:

IA:

IB:

IA:

Ah huh, and he was a good man to work for?

We saw pictures of him at her retirement.

Oh that's right.

She had her retirement party I think, we saw some pictures.

That's right, we did. And then there were some pictures of the
some of the different supervisors
the girl's club, I don't mean the girl's club, I'm sorry, the
clubhouse, did you ever have any dealings in the clubhouse?

Um, how about

•

Faustman: Well, you went to them. My husband can remember when they used to

give those movies and going to those movies, because he lived in
Lansing, ..... go down to them. But I never went to any.

IB:

How about the big picnics or the dances or any of the other things
that the Reo sponsored?

Faustman: Well he used to go the fairs.

IB:

Fairs, yeah. He'd go to some of those things.

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

With your kids sometimes?

Faustman: Well I never took my kids to too many things up there.

IB:

IA:

Okay.

Hilda Smith was telling us about the Christmas baskets that the
office staff used to

•

•

Doris ···Faustman
6-23-92
Page 24

Faustman:

Yeah, they used to do a lot for. You know, they would kind of
look after their people that worked there too?

IA:

At the Reo?

Faustman:

Ah huh.

IA:

Yeah.

Faustman:

It was kind of a family, a lot of them, they still kind of cling
to each other.

IA:

Ahhuh.
way as much as some other people did?

you sound like you don't feel that you didn't feel that

Faustman:

No, we still have lots of friends, you know, that I worked with
there.
of the year, it makes a lot of difference.

But you know after we retired and go to Florida six months

IB:

IA:

•

Ah huh, well it is hard to keep up as much.

There are a lot of Reo people in Florida too. And I guess this
year was the first year that they haven't had a big reunion down
there during all that sort of thing, they finally have decided
that they are scattered and it is too much work for whoever has to
coordinate all this and I guess this is a first year since ...
memorial that they haven't done it.

Faustman:

I didn't know they didn't have it this year, but we've gone to it
a couple three times.

IA:

But you have down there in Florida? Where did they used to have
it?

Faustman:

Over at Bradenton.
there.
can't remember what the place is called, but that's

It is not at Bradenton, but it is right near
It is like you got through Bradenton ... to the beach, I

IB:

IA:

IB:

IA:

•

Hum, where is that, I don't know anything about Florida?

Sarasota?

Below St. Petersburg.

Okay, I've never been to Florida in my life.

I've been there a few times, my sister-in-law lives in Bradenton
.... Bradenton are ... you can't find any in that town,
directionwise laid out so crazy and the other thing was ah, I
loved the beach, Cocana Beach, I thought, that was my favorite
watching the Cocana shows

.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 25

IB:

in what you thought were

Um, I'm very interested as a historian
the big changes when you hired up, from between when you hired on
in '45 to when you finished up in '75, because you were there, I
mean obviously not continuously,
but over the course of 30 years
And what you've been more or less in the
which is a long time.
same department, but I'm just curious how you felt things changed
at the Reo?
beginning

'What was different about working there from the

towards the end, to towards the end?

Faustman:

Yell, I think that you could see a lot of difference
the people, you know, in the job pride.

in the pride

IB:

Okay, how the people felt about their own work.

Faustman:

A lot of it is, you know, towards the end, just to get in their
time and get their money and stuff, they just didn't

IA:

IB:

IA:

They didn't have the same kind of commitment.

Why do you think that happened?

A lot of people are concerned about that now too, you know, that
people don't care as much about their jobs.

Faustman:

I don't know, I don't know if it is the way they were brought up
or what it is.

IA:

I wonder if some of that might have been because they felt it was
going down.

Faustman:

Yeah, but I noticed that at Michigan State too.

IA:

IB:

Oh.

So you think it had more to do with the time period.

Faustman:

Ah huh, yeah, because I just don't think, these people just easy
come, easy go and they don't care whether they do stuff or not.

IB:

And you didn't see that so much in the '40's and in the '50's when
you worked the first two times?

Faustman:

No, see you know, if somebody said they were going to do something
they usually did it.
But boy once you got after them two or three
times, you know, they just didn't do stuff.
away without doing it, then they didn't do it.

So if they could get

IB:

So that was like a change in peoples work ethics.
ethics seemed to go down a little bit.
true where you worked or was that in the shops too.

That work

Do you think that was just

•

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 26

Faustman:

Well I think it was in the shops too.

It was everything,

it was

I think so, you know, those people just didn't put out.

They got so they took all these breaks.
day we were some place and ah, where was it.
the hospital, my brother has been in the hospital,
you about that and ah, he said that

It is just like the other
I think it was up at

I maybe told

IB:

Oh yes you did.

Faustman:

Oh anyway they were going

Ah, I forgot what I was going to say.
to do oh, it come to me, wheeled somebody out in a wheelchair,
person was ready to go and ah, didn't come and didn't come and
they said well they been on their way.
says I could have crawled on my hands and knees and got there
faster, but I think they took a break, you know, a coffee break
before they came down there.
wheelchair
Anyplace
everybody
they are there for.

Here sets this old guy in that
But I just don't think.

in the hospitals and stuff, I don't think you find

that, they are there to get their money and that's what

and he gets really upset.

And he says, this old guy

IB:

We've undergone quite a change in this country, .you know, morally,
ethical.

Faustman:

I have some of their stuff in here.

IB:

IA:

IB:

Also, I'm curious how things may have changed· over time

Oh good.
about the equipment that you used and the machinery
know, the technology to do the office work, was there a big
change?

We talked a lot with it was Mabel

or the, you

Mabel Mcqueen.

who started out on a very old-fashioned
machine and then by the time she retired it was very, you know,
fancy and high tech.
getting close.

Did you see any change in that too?

I mean it wasn't a computer yet, but it was

kind of a bookkeeping

Faustman:

Oh there is a lot of difference, because you know we used to type
on these old typewriters.

IA:

Old manuals.

Faustman:

Ah huh.
cards

And then it got so when we tried to put it on these punch

IA:

Punch cards, sure.

Faustman:

and stuff like that to make it faster, but that didn't work
because we had so many customized

things and things like that that

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 27

couldn't put all the information on them and things, so they took
that off, but when I left, we were having a computer to check for
how much parts were on hand

IA:

Dh I see.

Faustman: and the money.

IA:

screen, ... screen.

Faustman: Yeah.

And um, we got to the point where just the orders

automatically went in, you know, and stuff like that.

IB:

Did it print out the bills?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IB:

It did. That's pretty good for 1975.

Faustman: But one bad thing that I found cost a fortune for them to go on

and never really .... like it should.

IB:

Problems?

Faustman: Yeah, there was so many problems and stuff.

IB:

They hadn't worked out the bugs.

Faustman: It just

IA:

So you had to end up doing some things by hand.

Faustman: It was faster and more accurate, that was the bad thing about

IB:

It was so early in that technology, that is 12, you know that is
almost 20 years ago now.

Faustman: But we did, you know, when somebody would call us for a part, we'd

go and punch it in and see if we had it on hand.
might be or something like that.

And where it

IB:

So that was helpful.

Faustman: Ah huh, so when they take inventory and stuff, then they come up

with a lot of changes or something that they found parts that they
didn't really have .... But it was computerized.

IB:

Did you have any problem working on the computer?

Faustman: No, not really.

•

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 28

IB:

It didn't scare you?

Faustman: It was kind of a gradual thing. You know, you came out with maybe
one punch in a dealership or something like that and get that, you
know, information. But I know now, like everybody else, I'd have
to take a course in it.

IA:

If you were to start now? Yeah. But you didn't feel that way

Faustman: I didn't, but a lot of people didn't like doing that.

IA:

Ah huh, so anything that is something new.

Faustman: Yeah.

IA:

Well the secretary where we work I know still has trouble with
that. One of the secretaries still has trouble with it doing
letters and things on word processors.

Faustman: Is she older?

IA:

Yeah .

Faustman: It makes a lot of differences because these young kids are coming

up from almost like kindergarten

IA:

IB:

I know.

With computer awareness already.

Faustman: So that's, you know,

IA:

It feels natural.

Faustman:

... it is a mess.

IA:

That's right. And if you don't know how to do it, you know, by
hand, then you are really in trouble. If you only know ...
computer then you are really in trouble.

Faustman: Yeah, you sure are.

IB:

Well the person putting the information on those discs has got to
know what they are doing too and that would result, and then
there's time when all the computers are down due to some
electronic glitch and everything stops .

Faustman: What's scary is that somebody punched something and erase all that

stuff.

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 29

IB:

Yeah, and in the beginning the computers were sensitive to
electric shocks and people walking by and it would erase the
memory bank and all that.

Faustman: How cool they were, you know, they had to have a certain

temperature.

That's right.

Yeah, that's true.

That's right it couldn't be to hot.

Sixty degrees or some such thing.

You said you thought the office was old and old-fashioned and

IB:

IA:

IB:

IA:

IB:

Faustman: Well it was an old, old building.

IB:

It.was an old building.
it, it looked like the machinery and the desks and all that seemed
pretty up to date.

Okay. Because we saw some pictures of

Faustman:

Some areas it was.

IB:

IA:

Yeah.

But didn't put much money back in to.

Faustman: Well I think probably they lived within their budget, but you

know, it kept changing. You know, first it was just Reo, then it
became White Truck Company, and then Diamond Reo and stuff and in
certain areas, well sales department always looked pretty good.
You know they get that.

IB:

IA:

Because it was for the public.

Yeah, that's what shows.

Faustman: Yeah.

And ours just looked like an old ... I can't remember, once

we had a great big office, and ... sat way off like that, he was
telling me and he chewed tobacco and every once and a while I'd be
typing along and oh ping, (laughter) and here is Tony doing that
again. He had foreign stuff and he really was quite a smart man,
he knew a lot of languages and things like that.

IA:

He did the foreign market?

Faustman: Ah huh.

•

•

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 30

IB:

But he chewed tobacco.

Faustman: He chewed tobacco and even though it was a great big room, he

wasn't separated by

IA:

Right, petitions. We saw that. There was a picture of that.

Faustman:

It was a huge space.

IA:

IB:

Was hit Margery that spoke about how hot it was where she worked
on the third floor?

Yeah.

Faustman:

I worked with Margery?

IA:

Did you?

Faustman: Ah huh.

•

•

IA:

She spoke about the heat and she said they didn't wear nylons and
things because it was just so hot up there. Outside her window
was this tar paper roof that reflected the heat back in and made
it even worse .....

winter and

summer.

Faustman: Then we had the bats, you know, we, the birdhouse was out in hack

of our office and those bats would come in once and a while and
swooping down over the desks.

IA:

(laughter) Creating a lot of chaos and screaming.

Faustman: Yup.

IB:

I don't like bats.

Faustman:

I don't either.

IA:

Well they startle you too, swoop.

Faustman: You know they always said well, you know, they get in your hair.

IA:

Like Alfred Hitchcock.

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

Did any of your kids work at Reo?

Faustman: No.

IB:

They didn't.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 31

Faustman: Un huh.

IB:

We've been noticing some families, you know, so that's what we
always ask about parents and kids also if any of them worked in
there.

Faustman: A couple of my sisters worked in the shop part.

IA:

IB:

Oh really?

Oh did they really? What did they do, do you recall?

Faustman: You know, I can't remember. Um, Eileen works, she is at the

business office at Michigan State now and my sister, the other
one, she retired from the State Police Personnel Department. So

IB:

IA:

You know we'd love to talk to them if you will let them know about
us.

We had not had an opportunity to talk to very many women who
worked in the shop during the war.

Faustman: See they didn't work there very long, but they

IB:

IA:

That would be okay. Yeah.
know about us.

If they are interested?

Faustman: Okay.

If you would let, you know, let them

IB:

Yeah, we are not going to, we won't bother them, but you just let
them know that they can call us.

Faustman: Okay.

IB:

And we'd love to talk to them. And I'm right at State, so we
could even come to her office during lunch or something if that
would be convenient.

Faustman: Yeah, you might even know Eileen.

IA:

Eileen?

Faustman: Nortman.

IA:

Un huh.

Faustman: She's over in

•

•

•

• Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 32

IA:

In the Hannah Building?

Faustman:

No she's over in Athletics.

IA:

Oh she's in Athletics.

Faustman:

Athletics, business office.

IA:

Oh kind of where you were in the Athletic Department.

Faustman:

Well, yeah, I worked most of the time in Munn Ice Arena.

IA:

IB:

Oh.

Oh.

Did that allow you to see the games for less?

Faustman:

We went to a few. My sister does, she gets ..... you know, but
she"s been there for a long time.

IA:

• Faustman:

IA:

What have you here?

Oh, this is well that was just something that ah, has happened
since we had the girl's club, you know, they used to this is just
something I had on hand.

You can have it if you want to.

Oh the 16th, oh you have an .annual girl's club dinner too.

Faustman:

Well I don't know if they still do that now or not.
have that monthly one, that goes on at the the Goldengate.

They ... to

IA:

Ah huh, they do that every month, yeah, the fourth Thursday or
something like that.

Faustman:

Yeah.
know, got that, that was a Diamond Reo .....

This is a, this is just, well that is a mess of , I don't

IA:

IB:

Oh from 1986.

Oh.

No we didn't get this, I think this

Faustman:

That's what

IB:

IA:

Doris keeps hold of this.

Oh yes.

Faustman:

• IA:

That was my, when I got laid off .

Salaried personnel status change from Diamond Reo Trucks.
hum, this is a slip that you got when you were laid off?

TOP "..

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 33

Faustman:

I think that is the one wasn't it.

IA:

IB:

1975.

It said laid off from Department UIn, 42B reduction in force,
Cataline, Hopper, Ellers, Saunders, Eaton. Was this when you were
let off for your operation?

Faustman: No I had that after that, that was when we was done.

IA:

Oh this is the very end, April 24, 1975 when you got your pink
slip.

Faustman: Got my pink slip

IB:

IA:

It is a pink page.

Yeah, it is interesting, I've not seen one of those before.

Faustman: Oh I should give you this back.

IA:

IB:

I know there is more things I'm just not thinking about right now.

Were there a lot of other ah, women that worked in parts with you
before you went to the districts kind of thing? Was it quite a
large force?

Faustman: Yeah, there was a lot of girls that worked in there.

I don't

really know how, you know, how many.

IB:

Oh I didn't mean, I Just was curious if it was just a small office
of may just yourself and

Faustman: No. Now see Marge Coor.

IA:

She said she did the catalog.
you remember that?

She said she spe-ntmost of her, do

Faustman: That's right.

IA:

That they had thousands of parts for the truck and that she worked
primarily in compiling and typing the catalog that listed all the
different specifications for the trucks.

Faustman: And see she kind of worked with all these field men too.

IA:

Did she?

Faustman: Ah huh.

They kind of reported in, you know, like to her for, you

know, she was a secretary.

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 34

IA:

For the information?

Faustman: Yeah,.yeah and stuff, but she kept track I think of where these

guys were on the road and stuff too. But there must have been 15
girls in that office I would think, you know.

IA:

When you first went there and as you kept, you know, coming and
going, did you need any particular training, a specific training
to work in that department or just your high school typing and
bookkeeping was enough to get you started?

Faustman: Well you got somebody you know, you learned things gradually I

guess.

IA:

Somebody showed you the ropes?

Faustman: Ah huh.

IB:

So on the job training?

Faustman: Yeah.

That's really about what it was.

You know, then after you

were there for a while, you got a raise because, you know,

IB:

You learned the job .

Faustman: you learned it, but some people, you know, after.a while people

come in with union, they started as much as maybe you were getting
and you've been there for years.

IA:

Gee that's got to be hard to take.

Faustman:

It does, it makes, you know, it doesn't make fora very good
feeling amongst the older people.

IA:

No that would be kind of a breakdown

Faustman:

Because nobody can come in and start doing what the person has
been doing for years.

IA:

IB:

And you

Weren't there ranges within the different classifications?
you started out at a lower range and then you work your way up to
the higher range?

If you are in class 7 for example.

I mean

Faustman: Yeah, right. Well, see it used to be it was merit until after the

I think the boss probably figured you were doing a good

union.
job, you know, you'd get a raise or something.
you got a pay raise and then they were after one.
of

Somebody else hear

So, it is kind

•

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 35

IA:

Well did you have like a yearly evaluation to go up from one range
to another?
Or they just, or the super, your boss decided when it
was time?

Faustman: Yeah, I think your boss just

IA:

Called you in and said look you've been doing a good job, I'm
going to raise your classification.

Faustman: Well I don't

IA:

I was just wondering how that was done.

Faustman:

I know they do evaluations now, but I can't remember

IA:

It was more personal then.

Faustman:

I guess we did have some at Reo, but I couldn't, I don't remember
very well.

IB:

Generally speaking, it was just what your boss noticed on a daily
basis.

Faustman: Well see, I think after we became unionized, I think they had to

IB:

Do it regularly.

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

IA:

IB:

Yeah.

Yeah.

Somebody else we were speaking with, maybe it was Mabel said that
before the union, if you had too much of a workload they couldn't
get it all done, somebody at the next desk who maybe wasn't as
busy would come and help you. And after the union you never saw
that again.

Faustman: That's right.

I know I worked for Ed Bankin before

Oh

did you talk to him?

IA:

Ah huh.

Faustman: Is he back living in Lansing area?

IB:

Yes.

Faustman: Is he?

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•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 36

IB:

Ah huh, remember he said he moved back from Florida or Texas

Faustman:

Texas.

IB:

Texas, he said he moved back from Texas. He didn't like it, so
he's back and they are in an apartment I think.

Faustman:

I liked working for Ed.

He was

IA:

He is nice.

Faust~an:

There was another girl and I when we were in this area, see it was
my boss and ah, he backed you up in stuff, you know, and when the
dealer or somebody would call us and say, ah, I want this part,
you"tell him what you were going to do to get it or something like
that. And ah, then they'd call me to find out when I had ... or
something like that and then they'd say I want to talk to Ed.
they did talk to Ed and he'd say well what did Doris tell you.
And he'd tell and he says well that's just the way it's going to
be then.

He really backed you up.

So

IA:

That's good, that's makes for good feelings, doesn't it in the
department.

Faustman: And I had what they called LSD orders, it was Lansing Shipped
That was before LSD was a drug.

Direct.

IA:

Yeah, I was going to say.

(laughter)

Faustman:

The orders came in for parts and stuff and then another girl that
worked at the other desk, there was just two girls.
warranty stuff, you know, stuff that was under warranty.
mine might be 150 orders a day that I had to get out, where maybe
she'd have 10 or something like that. But he always said if one
is setting around, both of them would be setting around.
get after them.
off you had to do their job too.

Because sometimes, you know, if the person Was

They had

And he'd

But, now

IA:

So you might as well learn it and help out.

Faustman:

So you could step in and do that. But not when it became union.

IA:

I was just interested in tracing a path, somebody calls you

Yeah.
from say Texas and they need a dealer needs parts and then they
call you directly and then you look at see if you've got the part
and then do you go ahead an order it to be shipped out?

Faustman: Ah huh.

You put in an order just like if you were calling, say

you wanted to address you know, the order from someplace, you got
With
the size of the part number and how much it costs and stuff.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 37

these parts, it didn't have to be a truck down, ..... but they
wanted on hand or something. And maybe like the dealer, he'd
order it, but you'd ship it direct to his customer.

IB:

IA:

Dh.

Dh.

Faustman:

See like that.

IA:

That's what your LSD was.

Faustman: Ah huh, Lansing Ship Direct. Shipped right out of Lansing too.

IA:

Yeah, right out of Lansing too.

Faustman: Wherever you want, you know.

It might be the dealer that wants

it, it might be

IA:

So you were the one that was responsible for the shipping part,
plus the billing.

Faustman: No, it wasn't the billing.

IA:

You didn't do the billing.

Faustman: Un huh.

IB:

That went on somewhere else.

Faustman: That was, we after it was shipped to you we got it and then we

forwarded it to

IA:

Where did the order go from you like down to a receiving or
shipping department and they actually packaged it up.

Faustman: Ah huh and shipped it out.

IA:

Sent it out to the airport or whatever.

Faustman: And then when it was shipped it came back to us and ... down to

our areas.

IA:

The papers came back then.

Faustman: And then they were sent the billing.

IA:

I see.

Faustman: To be filled out and stuff.

•

•

•

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•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 38

IA:

Did you ever have any big snafus where a part didn't get sent or
it never arrived at its destination or

Faustman: I had one where I was so unhappy, I had worked on getting this

part name in and it had taken a lot of shop work and a lot of
hours and

IB:

You had to have it specially made huh.

Faustman: And then a dealer came in from Chicago and he needed that part and

he was out there and he seen it.

IB:

Being made.

Faustman: No he seen it was done.

IB:

Oh okay.

Faustman: So the person took and let him have that. Well boy I was just

IA:

Oh without letting you know or

Faustman: Sure if I had known he wouldn't have got it. But anyway, he took

it.

IB:

Oh because you were having it made for someone else.

Faustman: But I mean he was charged for it and everything.

IB:

Ah huh, but except you didn't know where it went and it was
suppose to be for someone else.

Faustman: Yeah, so then I had to go through and I had quite a time about

that. That was

IB:

So you had to have another part made then and hurriedly shipped
out.

Faustman: Hurriedly, it took a long time to get it made as it did for the

other, but you know you used to, you had to follow up on those
things to make sure they were gone. Because stuff happened liked
that.

IB:

I wonder if you ever had a part that was shipped off to somewhere
and it never arrived or

Faustman: Yeah .

IB:

And then you'd have to have another one shipped out.

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 39

•

Faustman:

IB:

IA:

It seemed they'd have to, I think we used to have a lot better
mail service than we get now, you know,and
trace that down and find out where it went and sometimes

But you had to
.....

stuff.

Oh really?
department.

Really.

Kind of like an unsolved case in the police

Lost in space.

Faustman:

But you know, they may not get charged for it and so

IB:

It sounds like you took a lot of initiative on that job.
wasn't just sitting at a desk all day.

It

Faustman:

No it wasn't.

IA:

That would be more satisfying, wouldn't it?

Faustman:

It was because, you know, you had to go out in the shipping

Yeah.
department and sometimes if they'd say well we don't have that
part, you have to be out there and look in the bin and find it,
but you had to make sure that it was the right part.

•

IA:

You had to know your parts, didn't you?

Faustman:

Well, you know, you learned a lot of things, but I didn't really
know the parts.
to get a .... plan of it or something.

But you get a part number and then you maybe had

IB:

Did you catch it at all when you used to go out there and look at
stuff, you know, like a lady coming out from the office and
looking at all of those, working down there?

Faustman:

But I got along with most of the guys.
guys talking dirty

You know they talk about

IB:

Yeah.

Faustman:

but I still think that if you don't talk like that, they know how
much they can say.

IA:

They are going to respect you more and treat you the way that you
act.

Faustman:

Yeah.

I think that is true.

IA:

That is an interesting observation.

•

• Doris Faustman

6-23-92
Page 40

IB:

So you didn't have any trouble going down there.

IA:

If you came out and found the part still in the bin that they said
they didn't have.

Faustman:

Most of the guys were real nice.
problems with them, no.

I don't recall having any

IB:

That's interesting.

Faustman:

But I know, even my husband tells me, you know, the guys talk
different in the shops than they do at home.

(laughter)

IB:

I think that's probably true.
time and I worked with mainly with women, there were a few men
there and the women talked dirty and the men didn't.
mother had worked in the Reo, so I mentally maybe was prepared,
but not like walking in being there. And that really surprised
me.

I worked in a shop for a period of

And my

~

Faustman:

Yeah, he says the women talk filthy.

IB:

Yeah, I don't understand unless they are in a jna l,e , previously
male kind of dominated areas, say in the shop on production lines.
And whether they think they have to be that way to measure up or
prove they can do, I don't know.
It always kind of amazed me.
They weren't very friendly and there was a barrier between the
women down on the line where the grease and the dirty and the
noise was and the women that worked in the office.

Faustman:

Oh they are definitely

IA:

IB:

There is a barrier.

Yeah, because somehow you feel that they think,they
sure, when you just feel like the dirty shop rat down here and if
it weren't for me they wouldn't have their job up there and then
they come down with their safety glasses and holding their skirts
away from me, you know, just to walk a think line to get into the
cafeteria for fear that, you know, you would have that feeling.
I'm sure they aren't like that, but you know so there is a
barrier, I don't know if there was then, but

don't, I'm

Faustman:

Sure, I'm sure you know, there was.
with a lot of them out in the shop, but

I didn't have ·alot to do

IB:

There weren't that many there by the '60's either anyway.

•

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 41

Faustman: No, there wasn't so many.

IB:

Yeah.

Faustman: During the war

IB:

Right there were more.

Faustman: But at that time, I didn't have much to do except with the

shipping department.

IA:

Ah huh, that must have been very busy during the war with the
military contracts and all the trucks and parts that they might
have needed.

Faustman: I used to be so busy I can remember I didn't have much time to

IA:

IB:

... not being busy.

You were just learning the job.

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

So.

Faustman:

when I first went there.

Side B

that does that.

IB:

Didn't catch I think.

Faustman: I've got more coffee if anybody would like some.

IB:

IA:

... go.

This is fine forme
Mr. Swisher.

anyway. Ah, you mentioned earlier a

Faustman:

Rellison Swisher.

IA:

Rellison I just wanted to get the name spelling for whoever is
going to type this.

Faustman: Yeah, ReI

1 i son

IA:

ReI

1 i son

and it is S w ish

e r?

•

•

•

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Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 42

Faustman: Ah huh and Dollar is ah

IA:

And that's what he was called?

Faustman: Ah huh. Dollar.

IB:

I think thatts, I wonder how he got that nickname.

Faustman: I don't know.

IB:

Maybe he'd ah,

Faustman: But he'd always say that's the way it is.

IB:

That was his expression?

Faustman: They could call him on the phone and he knew right what part

number they needed and everything. That was always remarkable. A
little guy, you know.

•

IA:

IB:

IA:

Oh really.

With a name like that he would have to be a character.

Yeah, that is what I was thinking.

Faustman: He was a nice guy. I worked for him both the first and second

time, you know.

IB:

Now you didn't go into the Reo in '45 because your sisters had
gone in during the war?

Faustman: No.

IB:

It had nothing to do with that either. Okay.

Faustman: But I was just looking for a job, I think.

IB:

Did you go to do more work or just to get a job.
going in to answer the call for people to work for the war effort?

I mean were you

Faustman: No, I was just

IB:

IA:

Just to get a job at that time.

And your husband was away in the Service?

Faustman: Yeah.

IB:

And he was away.

•

I

Doris Faustman
6-23-92
Page 43

IA:

Okay.

Faustman:

I had a daughter then that had been born the October before.

IA:

Military pay wasn't that great.

Faustman: No I got $50. I got $91 a month .
.. . .. .. ... . .. . ... . . . . . . ..... . ... . .. . . . . . .

Faustman: That was a total, that is what I got. He had a special allotment

for $50 and I got $41. So that was one reason why I went to work.

IB:

Yeah, you needed to have the money.
you with your girl when you went to work?

Did you have your family help

Faustman: My mother.

IB:

Yeah.

Faustman: Took care of her most of the time.

It is nice to have family

around.

That's right.

It is very important. Yeah.

IB:

IA:

Faustman:

It surely is.

IB:

IA:

IB:

IA:

Alright I'm all set, are you all set too?

Yes I am.

Alright.

Thank you very much for talking with us today.

•

•

•