Class of 1936, conducted by Marilyn Summers on November 12, 1996 at Mr. Bailey's home in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject of the interview is student life at Georgia Tech and Mr. Bailey's life in general. Thank you so much for letting us come and visit you today on this bright, sunny day. We are anxious to hear your story. 

Will you begin for us at the very beginning? 

Well, I was born on a farm in Davies County, Kentucky, near Owensboro, and lived there for my first five years, and when my great-grandmother died, I moved to Owensboro so I could go to school and be with my grandmother. And we lived in that house until I was about 18. Wow, so that's where you did most of your growing up then. 

That was high school and I enjoyed school work and I had a great time in high school into many things, and singing, and band, and orchestra. Oh, so you were involved. Compulsory ROTC. How big of a town was that? 25,000, 30,000. A high school of about 600. And then that summer, I really didn't know where I was going to college. I just hoped to go to college. 

I had worked many hours at 10 cents an hour, yard work and various things, chauffeuring a bit and a few other things, and I had saved $325. That was a lot of money in 19... And that was what I was going to five years of college on. Was that 1932? 31. 31, okay. That's the Depression time. It was a tough time. Right in the top of the Depression. or the depths of it, I should say, I guess, and so I talked to a fellow who had been a co-op at Tech and that decided that I was the only way I was going to get through school. You could make your $300 last a long time that way, huh? 

Well, I could get a start that way. Uh-huh. Anyway. Had you ever heard of Georgia Tech before? 

Yes, of course. Oh, you have? 

I had. 

Did you know what you wanted to do, what kind of work you wanted to do? 

Well, I had an idea that I would like to be a civil engineer. Oh, so it was a good choice. 

I had helped my brother in some surveying work, and I figured it was good outside work, and it sounded all right to me. I loved the outside. 

So I came on down and was accepted as a co -op, surprisingly. Why do you say surprisingly? 

You were afraid they wouldn't let you in? 

Well, I was late applying. Oh, were you? 

Mainly. And actually, I really did not have a very good idea what I wanted to do. Had you ever been to Atlanta before? 

I had never been. Wow, so you were coming to a big city. These days, kids don't go to school without seeing the place and knowing a lot about it. And I had never even much more than been out of town. You heard of it, but that was it. That was it. Yeah. 

Do you remember how you got there? 

I paid $13 to come on the train from Orangeboro, and it was an eventful ride. 

It was? 

What happened? 

Because I had another fellow coming down from Orangeboro going to Emory, and he was with me. 

But we ran into a fellow named Rogers on the train who claimed to be a cousin of Wills. And he entertained us all the whole night long. Did he really? 

It was an overnight trip. Yeah. Was he a stand-up comedian then, huh? 

Well, I don't know what he was exactly. 

But he was a cartoonist. 

And among other things, I had a vest on, and he bet me that he could take my vest off without taking my coat off. And this sounds a little impossible to me, but I took him up. There wasn't anything involved, actually. 

But he did it. He got your vest right off of you. He took my vest off without removing my coat, which was interesting. 

So that was quite, it was an eventful trip. You were royally entertained. 

Well, we were entertained all night and I remember I took a cab when I got here and of course I didn't even know where to go. I didn't even know there was such a thing as an administrative building. 

So I said I just want to go to Georgia Tech. And I remember the cab drivers dropped me in front of the dining hall, which was new at that time. The Britton Dining Hall? 

The Britton Dining Hall. You were a long way from the tower then. I was. And I had a tremendous suitcase that I had to wag over there. Oh, boy. You had to ask directions and somebody steered you towards the tower there. That's what happened. And I finally got there and got registered and found me a place to stay over on Williams Street. and I was startled what did you think do you remember what you thought when you got there were you scared well I didn't really know much about what was going on did you make any friends meet anybody that not immediately not immediately no nobody was helping you out huh I didn't know it maybe I didn't know how to make friends even. I don't know. Anyway, I had a roommate who was a senior textile engineer who was very helpful. 

Well, he was a senior. He'd been around for a long time then. And years later, I ran into him over in Alabama and we spent an evening together. 

Well, that was nice. Do you remember his name? 

If you hadn't ask me. You would have remembered, never mind. 

So there you were at Georgia Tech, a college man. Got there. Got there. 

What did you do first, go to classes first or go on a job first? 

Went to class, three months into class, and I immediately learned one thing that I had not studied hard enough in high school. 

I had had too much fun in plays and operettas and bands, operas, and everything like that, and I hadn't really learned my math too well and a few things like that, so it was quite a struggle my first quarter. 

But you must have managed somehow. I made it. You made it, yeah. You're worried about it some of the time, huh? 

Yeah, it was a little touchy at times, I think. and anyway got through that quarter I remember one thing that did happen I was boarding at a place over on North Avenue meals that is and the it was sort of a large group and I got pushed. You were either first in line for dinner or you waited for the next shift. Oh I see. 

So we were always trying to get in the first shift you know and there was a broken glass in a French door by the side of the door when they opened for the dining room, and I got shoved into that door and cut my wrist across here, and I didn't realize it until I reached down to pull my chair out, and saw the blood, and there was a black boy that was waiting, he almost went wild. Anyway, all I could do was to get over to the hospital as soon as I could. The campus hospital or the city hospital? 

The campus hospital. Which was? 

Around the corner from the tower. 

Well, it was quite a ways. Yeah, quite a ways. And anyway, I held my arm up and ran over there. Did they have to stitch it up? 

They took six stitches in it. Oh, for goodness sakes. And did you miss your supper? 

Yes. You missed your supper, huh? 

That wasn't quite as important as getting that arm fixed. No, I guess not. 

So then it was time to get your first work assignment. 

Well, yes. How did that work in those days? 

It didn't. I went home without a job, Christmas, and I had $25 left of that $325. And New Year's Day, the day after New Year's, I got a notice of the bank that they had closed. 

So that was running a little close. I guess it was. And And that same day, I had a, I had been to see a president of a small railroad here about a job. And that same day, I got a wire from his wife asking me to come live with them if I wished to. And they would furnish me a boarding room. Wow. if I could make my tuition. Tuition was about $90 a month. I mean, $9 a quarter out of state. 

So I gladly accepted that, but I went back to high school and took a little chemistry, which I'd had trouble with. 

So you went back to the same high school you graduated from? school. They let you just come in and take some classes? 

Just came in and monitored. Oh, that's interesting. Smart move. And I took a little chemistry and enjoyed getting back to high school actually with some friends. 

So then by that time it was the spring. 

But no job, of course. Couldn't get jobs. There were married people. 

In fact, the railroad man I went to see would have given me a job had he been able to, but he said he had union men, married people that had been off the job for years and he couldn't possibly hire anybody outside until he got them back. 

Well how did you get the ninety dollars together? 

Well I had a friend who ran a large factory in Orangeboro and I went to him and he loaned me. He said whatever you need. I said well I've got to have at least hundred dollars. 

So he wrote me a check for a hundred. 

So he was a good friend. Oh, yes, and I came on back to school, started over again, and I guess, let's see, that was... That must have been in the spring of 932. 932. Uh-huh. And I got through that quarter all right, and... 

So then it was time to look for a job again. Then it was time for a job again in the summer of 32, and again no jobs. No jobs. 

So I went back home, and my brother happened to pick up a service station. He didn't have a job either, so he hired me as his assistant service station operator. Oh, for goodness sakes. 

So I had a dollar a day, which was quite a sacrifice for him, by the way. I'm sure it was. He would be lucky to make his own living, but he was sharing it with you. Right. 

So I got through that summer and came back with $100, just about $100 again. And you started your third quarter of school. Third quarter, second year of school there. and that was fall of 1932 and then when that was over I remember I didn't have a single penny to my bed. Oh my goodness, not a penny, huh? 

But you were living with these friends. 

I was living with them friends my friends so they had the school got me a job as a bellhop where at the atlantic hotel downtown which has recently been redone into a new motel for the olympics i've forgotten the name of the hotel now the motel anyway so you went to work as a bellhop that was liberal education. That was your liberal education for sure. 

What was the name of the people you were living with? 

Do you remember their name? 

Yes, Colonel and Mrs. B. L. Bugg, B-U-G-G. That's an easy term. They were a fine couple and he was president of the Atlanta Birmingham and Coast Railroad. And they didn't charge you any room and board? 

They let you stay there? 

No room and board. Wow, that was a good deal. They didn't even want me to do any work around the house particularly. They wanted me to get my education. 

Well, they were very generous. They were a wonderful couple. I can't say enough for them. That's great. And maybe I didn't say enough to them at the time. I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. 

So then you came back to school again after being a bellhop. 

Well, I might mention a couple of things in the bellhop business. Tell us about that. What was it like? 

Did you see anybody famous? 

You had to work. No, nobody famous stayed there. No famous with there? 

You had to pay 50 cents a day to work there. You had to pay them? 

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. What kind of a job was that, huh? 

So you had to pay them to work for them. And then all you made was your tips then. You made your tips after you paid the first 50 cents. 

And that's sometime, well, while I was working there, that was early 1933, and President Roosevelt closed the banks, and nobody had any money except what they had in the pocket. 

So there probably weren't a whole lot of tips coming your way then. No, if you got a 25 cent tip rather than 10 or any. It was a cause for celebration. You were doing well. Oh my. 

So I did well if I made $50 a month, which I didn't. 

You didn't even make that? 

And I walked from down there to Ansley Park, which is right close to the, oh, the art museum now, 16th and Peachtree. That had to be a few miles. About three miles. At least, yes. And I got off at 11 o'clock down there at night. And walked all the way home. walked home, and that was in the wintertime, and the cigar girl, who was a nice looking little girl, and asked me to, why don't you ride the bus with me sometime? 

I said, I can't afford it. Because it cost a nickel probably. Ten cents. Ten cents. Whoa. 

So I said, you walk with me. And she did one night. And then said that was enough of her. That was enough of her. Oh, dear. Snow was frozen on the sidewalks. Oh, really? 

It was snowing here then? 

She slipped along. She said that was enough for her one night all she could stand. 

But the elevator slipped a little once in a while, a floor or two. And it wasn't a first -class hotel. but it was I guess was an interesting time and experience yes did you make enough to go back to school then well I had my $90 ready when I had to go back to school with without spending anything of course in the meantime except pair of shoes had pennies for three 298 probably I was thinking you must have wore out your shoes walking back and forth. That's right and you stood around for six hours at a time and not a great deal of business of course. Not too many people stay in hotels if they didn't have any money. 

Well they didn't have any money to go on, no travel. 

Well I can hardly wait to ask you what was your next big job? 

Well in the meantime before the next school quarter was out I had a friend working at the Fox and he offered me an ushering job at the Fox. Did they pay their ushers in those days? 

Paid nine dollars a week for 55 hours Wow. Or $5 for half time. 

So I went to work half time at $5 a week after school while I was still in class. 

So you didn't wait for co-op. You went for it right while you were going to school. Sure, I didn't have anything to do with co-op. Did you get to wear one of those spiffy uniforms? 

Yes. I still have pictures of my uniform. 

Do you? 

What was it like to work there? 

Oh, I enjoyed that except a few instances which are interesting. I got knocked down the main stairs one time. Oh, my goodness. We had often had overflow crowds on the weekend. Even though the times were tough, people still came to them. $0.55 and you got orchestra, floor show, full floor show, New York style stuff and sing along and organ concert and movie and shorts. 

So it was a real value then. People needed that and they came out on the weekends particularly if you had a decent movie. 

And, of course, we had the same movie for 20 times, and the musical was very interesting, but an old mystery got a little old for 20 times. After you know who done it, you didn't care anymore. That's right. Did they let you go in and sit down and watch the movie? 

No, no. Oh, you had to stand, huh? 

You didn't watch. Theoretically, you didn't watch. 

That's just between nursing jobs, but that aisle got awfully long, uphill, you know, coming back at times, but I remember one time there was a girl in the balcony, had a baby with her, started crying, and of course this was interrupting the whole theater, and so they sent me up to ask her to she'd take the baby to the restroom until it quieted down so forth so I went up and kindly asked her if she would retire to the restroom until the baby quieted down and she didn't say anything okay or something and sometime after that the baby was screaming again And so the usher told me to get up there and get rid of that baby. 

So I did the same thing again. And she said, I came to see this movie, and I'm going to see it, and you can go to ****. Oh, gee. What did you do? 

I walked off. What are you going to do, grab her by the neck? 

Send in some other usher. 

So she stayed and let her baby cry. She stayed. Oh my. Speaking of staying, the... Excuse me, I have a hacking cough that bothers me considerably. doctors gave up on it. 

Speaking of staying, the ladies would stay in the restroom the rest of the night if you let them, I think. 

Oh, you had to get them moving along? 

Had to check the ladies room after night, after the theater closed, see that everybody was out. And sometimes you'd find people waiting behind. Oh, yes. Just sitting, chatting, you know, while we waited. 

Well, they're very comfortable and they're very pretty. Oh, yes. I took a tour of the fox here several years ago just to see what happened to it. Does it look good like it used to? 

No. 

It was better before? 

The plush carpets used to really mash down about an inch in the carpeting or general oriental rugs and they were gone. 

They'd be replaced with some flat pad of some kind and the stainless, the genuine glass doors were gone. 

Plain glass was put in the doors and things of So you could see a lot of things were not as luxurious. It wasn't a very interesting to go back to, really. You saw it at its prime. Yes, it was. Absolutely a prime. Did you get to see a lot of musical shows there? 

Yes, a lot of interesting shows. 

I don't remember a lot of them particularly, but going flying down to Rio was one I remember years ago. 

Did a lot of tech people get to work there, or were you one of the few? 

I was probably one of the few. The boy that gave me the job was a tech man, but other than that, they weren't. 

But one time I, it was a pretty rough bunch actually, and I didn't drink and I found a bottle. I said 17-year-old bourbon or something one time. 

So some of those boys were pretty good at drinking. 

So I picked up this bottle and I filled it with iced tea, about half full, I guess. And I took it down there and I said, I'm going to auction this to the highest bidder. 

So they said, oh, I'll give you $5. You know, here they're talking about a half -week salary for a little. A little tiny pint. Yeah. And so I said, no, I'd rather pour it out than take that kind of money for it. You didn't? 

You poured it out? 

I poured it out. You're lucky they didn't kill you. They just about did. They want to pick you up and throw you over the balcony. 

But I guess I had a sense of humor back then. 

Well, and I'm sure you still do. That sounds like fun. 

Do you remember in those days they used to have shirt tail parades and they told us they used to come to the fox oh yeah did that ever happen to you yeah they used to come through the fox and go across the stage can you remember back out again so you did you ever see them do that oh yes did you ever march in one of those parades i don't think i ever did you didn't go in them but you saw them go by yeah no another thing they i remember one game they went downtown and used to have shirt tail parades all downtown. 

And one time a Model T or some relatively light car tried to cut it through the line, you know, and so a bunch of the boys just got picked up the car and set it down between a telephone pole and a light pole, and he couldn't move either way. Took care of that, didn't he? 

He probably had to get a crane to get him out of there. How funny. They were full of mischief in those days. That's right. Full of mischief. 

But the patrons, the people in the theater, didn't mind that they came marching through? 

No, they just... Everybody thought it was funny, I suppose. 

Well, then what happened to you? 

Did you take that job full-time when you co-opted? 

Well, I worked, let's see, I worked full -time for a while because I... Tech couldn't find you a better job, huh? 

No. And I got the NRA, I remember, made them raise my salary from $9 to $10 a week. 

So I was working full-time. Oh, you must have been. Part -time there. Yeah. I think she punched you there. 

So you worked half-time for one quarter, then you went on co-op and worked there full-time, probably for that next quarter then for a while yeah and then it was back to school again back to school okay fall of 1934 and you're going back to school again tell us a little bit about some of your professors maybe that you knew at school well I had interesting one or two one was we had a lot of got a lot of kick out of was a guy named what we call Shorty Bortel. He was sort of short and taught physics. 

And among other things, he was a graduate of the University of Michigan, but he said, now you put this arnoir in the far and do so-and-so. 

And I I don't understand where he got that accent or whatever it was, but so one of the boys in the class got up and said, now, you put this arnoir in the far, and of course he said, sit down, I know what you're doing, you're mocking me, and I guess gave him a big zero. and they, but he used to try to button his, he wore a vest, but he wore it unbuttoned a great time, and he used to unconsciously try to button the vest on a larger button, you know, and of course we all paid more attention to that than we did what he was saying, because we wondered when even going to realize that he was trying to get that small buttonhole over the larger button. 

So everybody was staring at his chest at his vest, huh? 

Yeah, but Shorty was quite a character and then we had a fellow in cement. 

We had to learn how to mix cement and and concrete, and so forth, and called him, his name was Lucas, and he's always wore boots and britches and saw the dirty looking, we called him Filthy Lucas. I haven't heard that one before. I hope these guys are gone. I think they're probably safe. Anyway, he was a member of the Episcopal Church on West Beach Street and North Avenue. All Saints. 

Yeah, and he went up there to a wedding once, but he just put on his lace gown or whatever it was he wore in the wedding over his boots and britches. And we always thought that was pretty funny. and his office was always covered in cement dust, desk, everything, just dust all over. 

One day I needed a little piece of paper to make a note on it too and I didn't have anything with me and so I borrowed a piece from that desk and he came back and he said, somebody's been stealing paper from my desk. He could tell because it was gone and must have left a mark, huh? 

I guess. Anyway, I didn't mean to steal, but I got caught. 

I never did like the professors that wrote their own books, which in thermodynamics once, we had a professor that wrote his own book. Of course, he expected you to know it as well as he did, I think. Not possible, huh? and I never cared for that course particularly. Another course was, I've forgotten the man's name, I can't think of it just as well, maybe. I taught mechanics, and... You taught mechanics? 

He taught mechanics. 

And evidently one of the early things we had to learn mechanics is the Newton laws of motion, like every force is opposed by an equal and opposite force and so forth, three laws of motion anyway. And I was hard -headed enough that I just didn't want to learn them. 

So he'd call on me every day. Mr. Bailey, would you repeat the Newton laws of motion? 

And I said, I don't know them. Every day, you said? 

Every day. He'd mark me a big fantasy role. 

Well, of course, I flunked the course. And here I was up to my senior, my last quarter in school, before I had to take that course over. Oh, you did have to take it over? 

I had to take it over. From him? 

Yeah. Oh, no. And just because of my stubborn head that I had to do it, it was terrible, really. 

I wondered if he'd have been a little different fella and had sat me down and said, Now, you know, you know what this is all about. And if you don't do it, you know what's going to happen. He'd just let you get away with it. A little man-to-boy talk, you know, would have helped. You could have used it. Yeah, I think at that time. And anyway... 

Well, how'd you do the second time? 

Did you pass? 

I guess I barely passed. 

But the thing was that the quarter before, I had made the honor roll the previous quarter. 

Well, I was very greatly surprised when the graduation exercise papers, announcements came out, and here my name was in gold, senior honor roll, and yet I had passed this one little course, or I wouldn't have even graduated. Just the way it worked out. Just the way. 

Well, all the time you were there, did you ever get a decent job? 

Oh, yes. 

I better tell you, while I was at the Fox, they called me up and told me they had a job with the TVA for me, right in my line of work. they said it's gonna be surveying job and all this kind of stuff and TVA was building dams on the Tennessee River and so I said well I'll have to think about that I you know I had my boarding room here and I'm making thirty six dollars a month, and I had to say, now which can I save my $100, you know, if I go, TBA was going to pay $105 a month, but I had to go someplace and live and board and so forth. 

So they said, well, there's no consideration to it. You either take this job or you're not a co-op. That made your decision, didn't it? 

Yeah, so I made a decision right quickly there. 

Was it a good experience? 

It was a good experience, and I worked about, I guess, four quarters, four remaining quarters with TVA over in, well, I first went to East Tennessee where we had to bathe in a creek, And one time up there, we had Maynardville, Tennessee with a little old crossroads. One time we drove the van into a little garage that TVA was renting with about six of us in it. And it went to the second floor, went to the basement. It sunk. The whole van. Oh, no. Went to the basement. but that's how rotten things were around Maynardville. Oh, my. 

But we bathed in the creek, and I remember my roommate up there. I never saw him again, but he kept a jug of Applejack under the bed. I think he was a local fellow. 

Did you meet interesting people when you were at Chuck for your classes? 

Did you make some good friends? 

At classes? 

Oh, yes. I met, I knew all the co-ops very well and enjoyed knowing them and still enjoy seeing them. 

So you still keep in touch with some of them. And Ray was not a co-op, Ray Keitel, but he was one of my best friends. And I met him at St. Mark's Church Sunday School, Methodist Church down on 5th and Peachtree. And we were weekend buddies at least, and so I saw him down there. What did you do with your weekends? 

Did you have a social life? 

No. No? 

Well, you went to the church. What else did you do? 

That was about it. I studied. No sense going to the movies. You could do that all the time, huh? 

Well, I didn't. After I didn't work there, I didn't. I had very little social life in college. 

You didn't meet any girls? 

I met a few and still have a couple around here in town that I've talked to. 

But pretty much what you were doing was studying for school or working? 

Well, it took just about all of my time. The time I walked both ways. Oh, that's right. You were still walking all the way to Hansley. And studied. 

So when you came back from your TVA job, you went back to living with the Colonel and Mrs. Bogdavid? 

Yes, every time. and that was pretty well settled and I was going back and forth with them each time and I remember East Tennessee the job wasn't particularly easy in tennis in TBA I remember I was the first thing they give you to do is a machete to cut bushes and an axe or maybe if you're cutting larger trees but I was cutting line for surveyors and I cut through a bunch of blackberry bushes and first thing you know I'd cut into a hornet's nest and didn't even realize it till they were in my shirt. Oh dear. You had a lot of accidents, didn't you? 

Yeah. 

It was, you know, otherwise you, part of the job was draining swamps before they cut the trees out of the river bottoms. 

The trees had to be cut, but the first thing you had to do was drain those swamps, and of course that meant you had to find the deepest part of them, and then run a ditch of some kind. To funnel the water off. You had to survey all that to find out what it was. That was a rough job. 

So you'd tie your watch on your neck or something, and your big band, your dollar watch, and and wading through the blackwater swamps with your machete in one hand to kill the snakes. That sounds awful. 

Well, I decided about that time I wasn't sure I wanted to be a civil engineer. Could it kind of make you wonder if you were on the wrong track? 

Yeah. I thought maybe I should have been an architect or something. It was too late then, though. You were pretty far along with your studies by then. 

Well, they didn't offer architecture in co -op at that time. Anyway, the TVA was good to me, I guess, and I worked a year for them after I was out of school. Oh, you did go back and work there. Yeah, they offered me a job. Do you remember your graduation? 

Yes, at the Fox. It was at the Fox. Right. Did you think you would ever get there? 

I wasn't sure that we would. And after graduation, I still had to go to ROTC camp. Oh, because it was required then. ROTC was required. 

I had had compulsory ROTC in high school in two years, and I thought I would get credit for half that. Some schools did, but they said, no, you start over here. 

And so you had a rifle for another two years, and then they said you could, that was in infantry, of course, and then you could either go to ordnance or you could take German, either one you wanted. That's the only choice I had in school the whole time I was there of subjects that I wanted to take. What did you choose? 

I said, I don't know what ordinance is, but let me have it. You weren't taking on German, huh? 

I didn't want any German, so I took ordinance. And then I got out of school. you went to camp after you graduated and you got your your commission and that's what I bought that ring with and been wearing it ever since it cost me $18. You bought that with your money from the $18 from your camp. 

Well that turned out to be a good souvenir for you then didn't it? 

Well it cost $60 the day I think to have this the set replaced I'd worn the set out where it fell out anyway it was I'm still on the army payroll which is nice did you ever have to go serve other than that I served five and a half years in World War II and then I was called back I was a major after at the end of world war ii and i was called back in during korean war for another 14 months and so i had about seven years all together seven years over two wars wow i've been a lieutenant colonel for 40 years that's a nice claim to fame and i still am still am i kept my reserve up. All the time. 

I didn't, I just thought things were too, well they weren't settled enough after World War II to be confident just surrendering my commission, so I kept it up. I found out I had 17 years towards retirement, so I said, well I'll So I'll just keep it going. And that's what you did. 

So I got my reserve retirement. 

After you returned then from boot camp with your commission, that's when you took the job with TVA? 

TVA. I think I still have that telegram around offering me $100. I think they raised my pay from $105 to $115 a month. They wanted you to come back. Dangling all that money in front of you. 

So I was sort of made an office manager and payroll and calculator and so forth. And I was doing the computing for two surveying parties. and they would go out and run a line and then bring in the figures and I'd figure out where the property line corners were and give it back to them they'd go out and run the property line at that time one time I the party chief came back and was a little upset and he said you've got us something wrong here. And I had him a thousand feet off the line up on the hill. He knew he should be down closer to the river someplace. 

Okay, so then what happened after you finished up with that particular job? 

Well, I was, went back with tennis, with TVA after graduation, and was eventually transferred to Parrish, Tennessee, and on another dam, and I was asked to join the church choir there, and, and I did. 

You were quite a singer in your day then, huh? 

Well, I'm not bragging, but I did win the Kentucky High School bass solo one time way back in 1930, I think it was. Didn't you sing when you were at Tech, too? 

Well, I joined. I went out for the Y Singers and the band and lacrosse. What was the Y Singers? 

What was that? 

Well, sort of the Glee Club. They didn't really have a glee club at that time. I guess it would be the glee club At this time a large group of you that got together to sing. 

Yeah Did you do any performances with what you say? 

No just saying for each other? 

We just well we sang at the first Baptist Church or something Oh, well, then you did do a little bit of performing. Yeah, just a little under whose direction A fellow named Mel, M-E-L-L. And years later, I ran into his son in Arlington, Virginia. And he looked so much like his dad and was named Mel. You knew it had to be Mel. And I said, had to be, you know. And he was in some similar type of business. 

Is that a good memory for you, the times you spent with singing at Tech and other places? 

Well, not particularly. I didn't stick with it. 

I just found the band and lacrosse and all these extracurricular was sort of more than I could stand living where I did and I was expected to be home at it was a rather formal home with a cook that put dinner on at six o'clock and if you weren't there at six o'clock it wasn't very convenient and so as long as it was free meals and so forth i figured i'd better be there so you had to give up some of that so i gave up my ex -curriculars and all i tried to do was get through school but you did sing with them for a little while well yes off and on so when you got up to paris tennessee it was just natural for you to go out for the choir then well i had done a good solo work back in years before in my high school days and you know singing at the Rotary and the various clubs and churches and so forth and so a friend in Tennessee happened to be the choir director and asked me to join the choir and my story is that she saw me in the choir. 

Who saw you in the choir? 

My wife, my future wife, saw me in the choir and joined the choir and was at the choir practice, the next choir practice. And her story is that she's been in that choir for 10 years. And you were the one that came in. And I came in. Anyway, that's where we met. It doesn't matter who's story's right. That's where you met, huh? 

We have fun over there. Anyway. 

So you had yourself a serious girlfriend. Yeah, serious girlfriend. And her name was Mary? 

Mary Turner. Mary Turner. And we coded for five years. You were slow. It took you five years to talk her into Mary. 

Well, I wasn't in town. 

Oh, you traveled a good bit? 

I was not I quit the TVA so you did and did you have a better offer well I thought it was but it didn't necessarily turn out that way in 1937 I quit the TVA I was well they thought it didn't have much to do in Paris we were so over staffed I think when they got all the other fellas were finished from the dams before, and the fella didn't know, so I wasn't especially challenged there, let's say. 

So I went to pay this hundred dollars back to the gentleman had loaned me. 

He saw it all ties in, and he said, I tried to pay him compound interest and he said don't want any interest if you want to pay the hundred back that's fine. How nice. 

So I paid the hundred off among the first hundred I made after school I guess and saved and he asked me if I would come to work for him which he was in the radio tube light bulb business about, well he employed about 4,000 people in Oswald. Wow, that was a pretty big company then. 

And so I worked in the production a little while and then I was sent to Dallas for a couple of years as sales. 

So you were corresponding with Mary all this time. Right. 

So you had a long distance courtship then. That's right. You were in Dallas for two years. 

And you're lucky she waited for you, aren't you? 

Well, we got back together on my My trips back to Owensboro and so forth, I just happened to stop by Paris, Tennessee. Anyway, we finally got together. And when did you get married? 

After I was in the Army. 

So it was in 1940? 

Well, about 1940, I went into the Army. I volunteered. I wasn't too happy with the job in Texas. I figured you might as well go in the Army. Everybody else was going, huh? 

Well, it meant considerably more pay. Sure, because you were commissioned off. Yeah. 

So I went in the Army and went to Aberdeen, which has been getting considerable publicity lately. Just lately. Yeah. 

And I enjoyed that very much, but I went to Aberdeen July the 1st, 1940, and we were married in January of 41. Oh, okay. 

So you had established yourself as an army man. Yeah. 

So you came, you brought Mary, and to live where in 1941? 

Well, I had just been transferred to Detroit to engineer tanks, and I was stationed at Cadillac Company, which is a little unusual. Yes, very unusual. 

But because of my engineering degree and so forth, and I went from there to the Fort Rouge plant and then I was in charge of both of them and so forth and they were designing tanks and vehicles and I say I had my foreign service in Detroit. 

So you spent a good number of years there then? 

I spent the rest of my army career there. 

Well, you were serving your country. That's right. I had no, I had nothing more to say about where I was than the man out in the field had to say. 

And, but that was an interesting, good engineering experience the whole time I was there in Detroit and engineering and supervisory experience and became a major before I got out. 

So, that's. 

So when the time came, the war was over and you were going to get out. Well. 

What did you think about doing that? 

Again, I didn't know what I was going to do until I was visiting Ray Keitel one time. 

And he said, come on down to Louisville, and he'd introduce me to David Reynolds, who was one of the four brothers who owned Reynolds Metals Company. and so I went by and I had lunch with Ray and David and was hired for the Atlanta office. 

Well, so wasn't that good that you had that tech connection? 

That's right. That was good. You got hired into Atlanta. 

Yes, so I served here four years as head of the office here, And, well, I was a while, of course, getting some training, several months, before I came down here. 

But eventually I was needed up to Dayton, Ohio, because of military background, I guess. 

I was the company representative at Wright -Patterson Air Force Base where we had several research and development contracts. And did you, after that point in time, pretty much stay with Reynolds? 27 years. 27, pretty much, yeah. Except the time back in Korea. And they let you go for that and took you right back. Right. What happened with that career? 

You got called up? 

I got called. Where did you serve? 

Detroit. 

Really? 

They sent you back to that outpost again, huh? 

Were you working on tanks or something else this time? 

I went to the Chrysler Tank Arsenal this time. They were having trouble with the tank turrets not quite operating as they should. and I guess they decided I was a tank turret expert. 

You must have been by that time, huh? 

So I was called back to straighten that job up, which I guess we got it straightened up. 

I had, I went out to the desert just south of the, what's the Dead Sea? 

Not the Dead Sea, but what's the... Out in the west part of the country? 

Yeah, California. Salt Lake City? 

California desert. And had about 10 tanks out there. and I was sent out there New Year's Eve one year, 52-1 or someplace along there, and to test the tank turrets out in the sand and cold and oh that snow went through there horizontally along with the sand. And anyway, it was another interesting, and I was glad to get out. You were glad to get out of the Army that time. The Army again. Yeah. And you went back to Reynolds then. Went back to Reynolds and went to Chicago for three years. 

So you got to see a good little part of this side of the country then. Yes. You were doing all the hot spots. 

And then I went to Dallas as manager down there, and then I went to Washington as about a year after Dallas. And in Washington, I was traveling all over the U. S. 

And I was manager of government sales and technical services, so I traveled almost, someplace almost every week. 

Well, along the way, anywhere, did you have a family? 

Well, I took the family with me all the time. 

Well, what was the family? 

Oh, one daughter. Who did you have besides Mary? 

One daughter. And her name? 

Born in 1944. We were married in 42. 

So she was born in Detroit then. she's born in Detroit and what was her name Susan and she's now here in Atlanta as a lawyer and she's has two boys so you have grandsons the older boys 21 yesterday I guess it was he's in budding chemists in Rice University he was offered a full scholarship at Georgia Tech but that being at home. He didn't want to stay home. And his father being a professor at Tech, he didn't quite see going to Tech. 

When you think of how hard you struggled to save your nickels to get through Tech, it's kind of hard to understand isn't it? 

Now he's spending my nickels at Rice. And the younger one? 

The younger one is two years younger. He's a freshman at New College, which I never heard of. 

It is the New College of South Florida, and it's a premium, I don't know how else to, they were both straight-A students over at Padilla School here in Atlanta and both got good scholarships. Good scholarships, that's great. 

Now you said that Susan's husband teaches at Tech? 

Yes. And what is his name? 

He's in Botany Biology. He's professor who? 

Professor Lloyd Dunn, D-U-N-N. 

So there's still a tech connection here. Yes. Interesting, but after I fell, there was not much reason to go elsewhere than in Atlanta. We had looked all over Florida at the retirement homes and so forth. 

It's kind of nice to be here where family is, though, isn't it? 

Well, yes, I was starting to say we shouldn't have been anywhere else but here because Susan comes out here about every Saturday. 

And, of course, lately when Mary couldn't go and I don't drive anymore, she has almost taken care of us, shopping and everything else for us. That's wonderful that you can all be so close. 

She had everything all arranged for us when we got here because our furniture came ahead of us the way it happened. 

Well, and you're close to your tech friends here too, or some of them. Yes, a few of them that are around. And several of them have been to see me out here, and they're invited for lunch anytime. Anytime they want to come, standing invitation. I don't go out. Mr. 

Bailey, when you think back about this, are you glad you made all those sacrifices to go to Georgia Tech? 

Oh, I think so. It was well worth it. Was it? 

I would certainly recommend it to anybody today that felt they couldn't go through school. I would say you can't. Co-op program worked even when you had to find your own job. Sure. At least it gave you that chance to go through school. I mean, today... And how else would you ever have been a bellhop? 

Yeah. Yeah. You had never gone down like that. Just think of all that experience I had. Yes. 

So the tech experience has been a good one for you then? 

Oh, definitely. I mean, I wouldn't have had... 

My other possibility to have gone to college would have probably been to Kentucky, Westland, where I could have sung my way through college, let's say. my sister did and but I came to Tech I got a commission which served me well and your civil engineering degree which served you well and if you hadn't had that you wouldn't have gone to TVA and you wouldn't have met Mary so there you go there's lots of things those little decisions mean so much in future years that you never know Oh, and I would certainly say to anybody in college, make good friends. Because they stay with you for a long time. That's right. 

So there's been no regrets. No, no regrets whatsoever. That's wonderful. We've been married, what, 50, be 55 years in January. And that's worked pretty well, I'd say. I'd say that was a good partnership. Certainly is. And your partnership with Georgia Tech's been good. You've been using this information all these years. I've had an interesting life and very few regrets. And I certainly would. Do it all over again. I'm for Tech, win or lose. You'll do it all over again. That's right. 

Well, thank you for sharing your story with us today. We very much have enjoyed listening to you tell us about it. 

Well, thank you for coming over. 

For the wonderful little stories that we might never have heard about some of those Georgia Tech professors and what it was like to be there. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you.