This is a living history interview with William Jeff Green, Jr. William who? 

J? 

Jeff. Jeff, okay. Class of 1936, conducted by Marilyn Summers on May the 10th, year 2000. 

We are at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, and the subject of our interview is his life in general and his experiences at Georgia Tech. Mr. Green, thank you so much for letting us come to your lovely home to talk to you about your story. And I'm ready to hear it. 

Are you ready to tell me? yes okay where did it begin well my father and mother were both from fablin georgia and they married in fablin but he was with a building a railroad in south georgia one of the engineers on the railroad at that time they married in 1912 and but they came to atlanta and had a room at a boarding house on Cortland Street. And this lady was a Straunch Presbyterian belonging to Central Presbyterian Church. I came along in 1914 on July the 3rd, but I was born in Crawford Long Hospital. My dad was still working in South Georgia. 

And the lady that owned the boarding house took my mother, had already taken her, to Central Preventarian Church. 

So I came along, I was carried into the church as a baby and right now I'm thinking the only oldest person actually from life in Central Preventarian Church. We moved and lived on Boulevard, there close to Highland. 

In fact we were there during the big fire of 1917, but I was in Grant Park with a maid during that fire, but she got me back home safe and sound. Your house wasn't burned. No, it wasn't. Yes, that's right. The house was burned all of Boulevard, but two houses because the owner of the house, Mr. 

Featherston, was at home and kept the hose on the house there, and the fire went all the way to Ponce to Lynn from around Edgewood Avenue, that whole distance, and he was saved the house. One of the two houses saved. That's where we had moved to from original Cortland Street. I went to a Forest Avenue school for my first and second grades. 

Then my father and mother bought a house on East Wesley Road in the Buckhead area, which was then in Fulton as a Fulton County. And we moved to it in 1921. 

And then I started the school at Peachtree Hikes School, right on Peachtree Road, right at Peachtree Creek. Later, in my seventh grade, the school was changed, changed the name from Peachtree Hikes to E. 

Rivers School to honor the name of a man who developed all of Peachtree Heights and the part that was across Peachtree Road on the west side, Rivers Road, the nice swanky houses compared to the east side of the road. 

What was Peachtree like at that time? 

Was the mansion still coming from downtown? 

There were houses, yes, nice homes all the way from town out on Peachtree Road all the All the way to Buckhead. Oh really? 

A nice big home. All the way to Buckhead? 

Yeah. Even past the point up there? 

Oh yeah. 

So that was all residential and people just kept moving farther and farther? 

Yeah. 

And how much developed was Wesley Road, East Wesley? 

East Wesley Road just came down to our house which was only about a half a mile down or two thirds of a mile, I mean about a quarter of a mile down was as far as East Wesley went. It went up to Demarest and that was the, it went to Brookwood Drive, excuse me, Brookwood Drive. 

That was the limit of Peachtree Heights subdivision was from Lindbergh Drive now, it was called Mason Avenue at that time. And from Mason Avenue, when Mr. 

Rivers developed it, Mason Avenue to Wesley, that was all Peachtree Heights from Peachtree Road to Aiken. that area was Peachtree Heights and it was a dirt road dirt road at the county put gravel on it and it was a dirt road for a good while at the start Wesley at corner Wesley was the on the southeast corner was the headquarters of the Ku Klux **** which had been there for some time. 

So it was a building that actually said that on it? 

Yes. 

Well, that was known as the headquarters. I don't remember whether it was something on it at the time or not. Wow. 

So they had a headquarters. And that was in there. It was a two -story building that had white columns on the place. What were there on the other corners? 

Was St. Philip's good? 

Well, that was just homes. 

Well, there wasn't anything on the, at the time, on the north or east corner and on the south, well I'm going to saw the southwest corner house side was nice big homes. 

In fact, Ivan Allen's father out of the mayor of Atlanta lived on one of the houses on the west side of Peace Hill. 

So it was definitely residential? 

All residential, nice. No churches? 

No, no churches long. 

They say, well, there was later a Covenant Presbyterian Church at Terrace Drive was constructed there. And there was a northern Presbyterian Church at that time. Of course it's now all consolidated. 

But there was no church until you got to Buckhead. And then there was other churches. 

Isn't that interesting? 

It ended up being called Church Junction because there's three big ones there now. 

But at that time it was all residential except for this Well, at Buckhead, that was the PC Presbyterian Church, that was the only one, actually. It was just starting out, just the young Presbyterian Church. 

And the Ku Klux **** was just a civic organization, people belonged to it? 

Well, that was the rough one. That was the one. That organization was against the ******, completely. That's where it was started. And there was an instance there, a car down on East Wesley, beyond our house, going east. About two blocks was four of the colored houses, and we called them at that time. And they lived there, it was a section, no problem, no trouble, anything else. 

However, one day when I got home from school, from grammar school, I saw this big sign of the tree up at Brookwood Drive in East Wesley. 

I went up there and read the sign, and it had a dagger on it with blood dripping, and it had a crossbones and skull, and it said, if you're not out of here by such and such a date, this will be your blood. And the occupants of the four colored houses moved immediately. How scary that was. 

Well, that's the way the Ku Klux **** operated then, and you see them now on TV hooded so no one would recognize them and that's what they did that's the way it was then so you grew up seeing that image so when you knew that so uh then did you walk to elementary school yes we walked they were a mile down we had no school buses in for anybody we just walked and then later there was just a streetcar from it ran from town out to buckhead and one line went on to fort Oglethorpe, which was there during World War I. And that line, of course, still, I might say operates because they go on out. 

So if you wanted to go downtown, you'd have to walk up to Peachtree and then hop on the trolley going downtown. That's right. What did it cost a ride? 

Well, seven cents is what I remember. They had tickets for seven cents way back. 

And And then when we went to school, I went to high school at Fulton High School, which was located on Washington Street, about where the original Atlanta Stadium was located. And he rode for a nickel on the school ticket. 

But fortunately, I had a gentleman, a neighbor, who went that way to East Point to his job and gave me a ride most of my time during high school. 

Well I was for two years and then we had two streetcars at Fulton High all the way from 8th to 11th grade. 

We didn't have any 12th grade at all in those days and city schools came on to the 12th so then we rode the streetcar down transferred and came on home. Did you like going to school? 

Were you a good student? 

Oh, yes. I liked school and liked Fulton High. 

But my father, at that time after the railroad, he went to the Atlanta and West Point Railroad from the A/B and the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad. And then he came to the city of Atlanta. He was assistant chief engineer to Mr. William A. 

Hansel, who was chief engineer of construction for the city of Atlanta so we had to move from East Wesley into Virginia Avenue inside the city limits because my dad worked for the city well we hadn't been there long when mr. well during that time of my dad I had a paper route I had started the paper route in Peachtree Hills that was the area around Peachtree Creek off of Peachtree Road East, which is the area. 

I started my paper route at the Seaboard Bridge where the, just south of Piedmont Hospital, and walked down Peachtree Road delivering, and the first apartment started up then. That would be in around 1927, along in there. And then I had to walk all in Peachtree Hills. 

My paper route was five miles long and I walked the whole thing and I delivered a hundred and thirty papers to start with. 

A year later I had two hundred and twenty papers when I had to give it up because I got a deficiency in biology so they said no more paper out. Oh, your parents said that. My parents said that. What paper were you delivering? 

The Atlanta Journal. The Journal. 

So that was the afternoon paper. they took me two hours two hours then I had to go ride the streetcar in the town transfer and go on Virginia Avenue a highland streetcar to go home back in those days so then though in my sophomore year by the end of it Mr. Hansel was offered a job to go to Virginia to open up a coal mine for the Blue Diamond Coal Company. 

But Mr. Hansel was getting old, so he told my dad, I have a chance for you to go. 

It's supposed to be to open up this mine, and then they go, that was in 1929, and then go over to Kentucky and open up another mine, which was going to take a 16-mile railroad to get in it, and since Dad was a railroad man, engineer, that he could then be a good man for that and a job. 

So we moved to Pennington Gap, Virginia. The coal mine was at St. Charles, Virginia, and Dad opened that up. 

It took about two years, but to get in, I was always interested in Georgia Tech, and I wanted to go to Georgia Tech, and I knew that if I could in Virginia, I'd have to take the examinations to get intake. 

So I came back, the dad and mother arranged with my aunt and uncle who lived on Huntington Road in Atlanta for me to stay with them for a year. And I went one year in Virginia and came back my senior year at Fulton High School. 

So you could come back with your friends? 

And go back. And then you could just automatically get into Georgia Tech at that time. 

Well, that was good sense, wasn't it? 

I missed the Tech scholarship by, I think it was a half a point. 

And a good friend got it, Dudley Glass, whose father was the editor of the Georgia newspaper, got the scholarship. 

But I saw by going out, I got the scholarship to Emory. 

But going there, he, I saw, wouldn't do me any good, so I wanted to go to Georgia Tech. You knew you wanted to go to Georgia Tech. 

So I got in Tech. 

Why do you think you wanted to go to Georgia Tech? 

Well, just because that was a college and football, I guess. 

So you went there. That was just it. 

And my dad was an engineer, although he was not a college graduate engineer, but he was a top -flight engineer. And you knew that. And I knew that. Tell me what you knew about the football team. 

Now, they had won the national championship. 

Well, if I... Rose Bowl, was it they won? 

Yeah, that was in 1929, in January. 

And I was aware of all that, but when I was going to school at Georgia Tech during the depression and also the depression on the football team, if I had not gone five years of the co -op, I would never have seen them beat Georgia. They had two losses and two ties, and we won, and that's when they started then in 1936. 

So you're telling me that your time of duty wasn't not as great as it had been prior But Coach Alex was the coach then? 

Oh, yeah. 

But Coach Dodd came in during my period there. That's when he first started. As assistant coach. Let's not rush through Georgia Tech. Let's go back to your senior year of high school. You had come back to Fulton. Fulton High and so I liked military. 

Did you find that you could pick up again with all the friends that you had missed the year before? 

Oh, yeah. I was on the debating team at Fulton High, and we defeated Tech High School over there. Oh, big deal. 

So I had a girl partner, and they had two, they was, of course, all boys' school, Tech High, you know, and city school, Tech Boys High and Girls High. 

But you had girls at Fulton. We had girls at Fulton. 

So the principal that was named Cheney of Tech High, I believe it was, invited us over one morning, entertained us at the Baiting Society, and gave me a pencil with Tech High School on it. I don't think I may have it still somewhere. Wow. I saved it, you know. 

So that was a happy time for you. 

So I had a good time there. I was in the military, but I didn't get to be an officer because I was gone a year. Okay. 

But they did have a regular ROTC program at that time? 

Oh, yeah, Tech. I mean, Fulton High. Fulton High, and you enjoyed that? 

Yeah. 

Were any of your classmates going to be going on to Georgia Tech? 

Yes, there was some that went on to Georgia Tech. 

Well, Dudley Glass went, Ed Stevenson went, A. C. Bradley went. Quite a few of them. And then Bert Moore went, and that's about the ones I knew. And they all finished, too. That's pretty good, lots of companies, so you were comfortable about going. Oh, yeah. 

Well, that's right. Then when we went to Georgia Tech, well, then as a freshman, I carried my lunch. 

Oh, and, well, before that, prior to getting to Georgia Tech, my senior year at Fulton High, they found that the depression had come on. That was 1931, and the pressure was started. 

So Blue Diamond Coal Company decided not to open up the mine in Kentucky. 

So when Dad finished the work there in Virginia, then he was through. 

So my granddad happened to have, on my mother's side, happened to have his vacant house in Fairmont. 

So then we moved back to Fairmont then before the end of that summer. And so I started to Georgia Tech from Fairmont. You weren't a commuter from there, were you? 

Yes, yes. The bus had left Fairmont at five minutes after six. 

So I got on the bus. It cost a dime, and it cost me a nickel, I think, on the streetcar from College Park. 

The bus went just to College Park, then I had to ride a streetcar all the way from College Park in to Rich's and transfer to Lucky Streetcar, and then get out to Tech at that time about ten minutes to eight before the class started at eight o'clock. 

So you were on the road almost two hours before you even got there. That's right. 

So going home was the same way, see, you had to go home the same way. so sometimes I had a late class while I got home at 6 o'clock. 

There was people that took people in to ride with them, you know, full cars, into Atlanta to work and then back home in the afternoon. During my pre-junior year, I was out one morning waiting. 

I had a 9 o 'clock class so I could ride the through bus from Fairbun to Atlanta, see, when I had a transfer to go all the way up. 

So I was waiting, and a good friend of mine who had gotten to be, I was a scoutmaster at that time in Fairbun, an assistant scoutmaster, then became scoutmaster. 

So this man was interested in scouting. He had a daughter, and he carried people. He had a vacant seat, five of them. Come on, William, and ride with me. 

So I went over and got in the car with him and rode to Atlanta. That was high class, and I was riding in the car. Going first class. And I got to Atlanta and then caught the car and went on out. 

Well, he said, why don't you ride with me every day, will you? 

I said, Mr. 

Cooper, you get to Atlanta 20 minutes to 8, and that's exactly the time that the last street car comes out or the rich britches going to Tech, and I got to be there at 8 o'clock. A month later, I had this same 9 o'clock class, and I was out again for the bus, and he called me. See, he left about 7 o'clock there. 

So, come on, ride with me, and I did. 

While going up the road to Atlanta, he said, why don't you take my car on out to school with you? 

And for three years, that gentleman let me take his car out to Georgia Tech and go back in the afternoon and start at the old Union Station, and at 5.30, everybody was on their way home. 

So you got to be the driver? 

No, I did drive when he was in the hospital one time. 

But he let you take the car. He let me take the car. One time I couldn't leave the axle broke while I was walking. Oh, my gosh. 

Well, he was certainly very cheap. Oh, gee, I never will forget that man and what he did. And that let me go to other activities. I mean, in study, you know, and check some problems I had that I couldn't answer. I could go and get with my class match at the Beta House. They were members of the Tech. Let's talk about what school was like right from the beginning. Were you prepared for Georgia Tech, scholastically? 

Yeah. I was in good shape. 

So you were ready for the math? 

I was ready for everything. 

Do you remember any of your professors at all? 

Does anyone stick out in your mind? 

Well it was Professor Reynolds, who was our math professor. He was top flight. He had the co-ops. See, I remember now, that was that late on. 

The first year you didn't have to worry about it. 

The first year you just learned. 

The first year, well, I had to work, take Spanish. I never had any foreign language, and the regulars had to take foreign language. And I took that, and I did everything. I passed everything my freshman year, all right. Do you remember any of the teachers at all that freshman year? 

And then, well, there was a... 

Was Dean Skiles around at that time? 

Dean Scowls was there, and Professor Smith, who I'd never had, was head of the math department. And then there was another Dr. Love in English. I had him. I can't think of his name. And then we had, I know one thing, we had to write so many themes in the English class. 

And I had a wonderful one on the Civil War, a woman who was a nurse, and nursed some British, I mean, the northern soldiers and all. And the story was, I got back, E, otherwise excellent. I left out one verb. And you got an E? 

It made an incomplete sentence. Oh, my goodness. I never will forget that. No, I guess you won't. 

Was there nicknames for the professors at that time? 

Did the boys used to warn each other about who to take classes with? 

Well, of course that more or less was around the dormitories and all more. I didn't get much in there. You didn't get the word on that. Did you bring your lunch with you? 

Oh yeah, yes. 

A lot of us even from Atlanta, well one of the boys, the graduates, he had old t -model ford and uh parked and we all ate lunch in there down in right in front of the school no parking problems you parked right in there and when you say in front of the school you're talking about the tower north avenue that's right oh yeah the main building and uh so we had we that's where we ate lunch and uh and then we had a locker under the old mechanical buildings where We had lockers for those out of, you know, in the city. Out of commuters. Yeah. 

So it was a place to keep your stuff then. Yeah, so we had a locker. 

For any of the old timers from the beginning, the ones you used to call uncles, like Uncle Hiney, was he still around at that time? 

Yes, he was there. Professor Kuhn. And who? 

Kuhn. No, I don't remember him. Don't remember him. Uncle Hiney was still there though at your time. Yeah, and then there was, yeah, he had charge. there was Professor Snow was the head of the Civil Engineering Department. 

We had a Professor Jack Smith, one of the professors, and then Kenneth Thrash, later a football star, he came back, came into the Civil Engineering Department before I finished. I had a course under him. 

But by and large you were pretty happy there. Yeah. Professor Jack Smith was a good man on civil engineering and all. We had a lot of fun. We laughed. 

So at Christmas time, we didn't have much money, but we all shipped in and gave him a quart. And he just laughed. A fifth. He just laughed about that, you know. The boys do them in there, huh? 

But he said, that won't change your grades. Did you feel comfortable in the school? 

It was a depression for everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah. Nobody had money. Nobody had money. 

But it was okay. It was okay. 

One time I let somebody at school, I had a quarter with me, usually, and I let somebody have my last quarter. 

And I had a streetcar ticket, all right, But I forgot that I did not have but one, and I had a bus ticket, a Fabin, you know. 

I got to Richie's from Lucky Street, waiting on a College Park car, and this couple came by who had this coupe, Ford. 

He was a mail carrier out of Fabin and lived down the street from where we lived, and they offered me a ride. and I got in the car with them and when they got out to Oakland City they said, William, we're going to have to let you out in East Point because of the because we're going to pick up two nieces in East Point but I didn't tell them I was too big to tell them that I didn't have a streetcar ticket so I walked and earlier at Christmas time that was in the spring of 32, I guess it was, and I had broken my arm at Christmas time, my right arm, and I had a briefcase, so I walked from East Point to College Park with a briefcase with all my books in it to College Park to catch that, so I never will forget that. No, I guess not. 

Well, one thing I forgot, though, when I was a freshman year, one of the main things in Fairmont. There was a ball game in the summer after, you know, they had amateur ball games. And they had, I went to the game, you know, between my freshman and sophomore year. And I spotted a girl after that game and I said, I've got to meet her. I asked my cousin, I said, who's that girl? 

Well, I think that was a cousin. 

Well, he didn't know when I walking with him. 

And then the next week, I think it was, I came face to face with her and there she sits over there now. That's how you met Mrs. Green. That's right. You spotted her across the field. Wow. Yeah. She was leaving ahead of me and I spotted her. And that was persistent. 

So you asked her out and started your courtship then? 

Yes. 

How long did it take you to court her? 

Well, we didn't get married until after I got a job and I was out of tech. 

So that was How many years? 

Seven years. You were persistent then, huh? 

Well, she was my sponsor of my military company. I was a cadet captain at Tech, and so she was my sponsor, so she's in the Tech Annual. Let's talk about the freshman year. Is freshman year when you went into the ROTC program? 

Right. 

So right off the bat you got started with that. What did you think about the program? 

Oh, I liked military. Always liked military. It was fine for you then. 

So you had the ROTC, and you were getting involved with some of the campus organizations because you had a little bit more leeway with the ride, and one thing and another. 

But then everything changed for you when you became a sophomore. Yeah, I was able to get enough money then to get up as a co-op. I think my mother borrowed some money, and so Dad was out of work too. He went to work with WPA, one of the first presidents of Roosevelt's programs. And he was in North Georgia, had a bunch of towns that he looked after. 

So he was busy doing that and he decided to go co -op. Did you have to apply for the co-op program? 

Yeah, but I had no trouble getting in. Who was in charge of it in those days? 

Do you remember? 

McDaniel. Dr. McDaniel was head of that. And did they have enough jobs for you? 

No, no, no, no. When I ended my, well, Christmas time, I ended the first semester, you see, of the sophomore year. 

The second semester, I went again. I switched sections. 

I went to the fall section, then I joined the winter section, you might say, and so completed my sophomore year. And then I loafed, well, I loafed that summer between my sophomore and junior year. I didn't have anything. 

So I went back to school in the fall. And then I went to, after I finished, I mean, that semester I switched again. And I got there just before I finished to go out. I got a job with the highway department. They took on some co-ops. See, that was a big problem for the co-op. They just couldn't, because there were a lot of men looking for work, never mind students. We had co-ops that were running the elevators in the hotels downtown. Doing just what they could do. That's right, anything. Green, you were telling me there were no parking problems on Tech and Tech's campus. There was plenty of room. 

Because very few people had cars, right? 

Well, at that time you could park on North Avenue at any time, we parked on Cherry Street I believe it was, and Techwood, there was no place to worry about, but there were not that many cars. All the fellows that I knew, as I say, only two of them had automobiles and they were old Fords. Chip Robert, Jr., whose father was the head of the Robert & Company engineering and architectural firm, a big firm in Atlanta, had a swanky Roadster. I forget the name of the car, but it was not a Ford. And of course everybody was jealous of him because he had that. Some others had it, but in those days there were not any automobiles. You had to be in a junk car to have one. You're driving. 

So with that, but as I say, things is different now. 

I know if I didn't get a chance to park in one of the parking decks at Tech at a football game, I'd be in bad trouble. 

But it was different then. 

Now, you didn't get to participate in much of a social life because you had to get home every night. No, that's right. You had all your transportation problems of your own. 

So you didn't have much of a social life at Georgia Tech. Did you get a chance for a social life in Fairburn? 

Did you get to court your perspective. Oh, yes, yeah, oh, yes. 

What was courting like in Fairburn? 

What was there to do there? 

Well, in Fairburn, well, you had a date, but then, well, my dad had a, one of the cars he had in his work was a Ford Coupe, and he let me have that on Saturday nights, and Cliff and I would drive to East Point to the Fairfax Theater. Oh, so. 

Well, and I was co-oping then, too, you know, I mean, well, even before co-oping. 

But we could go to the Fairfax for 25 cents apiece. Then on our way home, there was a wonderful barbecue stand that we always liked to stop by. And we got a barbecue sandwich apiece, a Coca-Cola apiece, and a bag of potato chips for 35 cents. What a deal. 

So for 85 cents, I had a date. 

That's pretty reasonable, isn't it? 

What was the name of the barbecue stand? 

Do you remember it? 

I don't know. Reinhardt. Reinhardt's Barbecue. And he would wait on service himself, you know, out. 

So that was a date. Of course, traveling then, you didn't have any trouble. There wasn't that many cars. You'd go for miles sometimes without meeting the car at all. 

So we had that. 

So it was a quiet life, but it was a good life. Oh, yeah. Very good. 

Well, there was a doctor down there. I'd been in a scout troop in Atlanta, and also in Virginia, that one year. 

So I came to Fairbund, and I'm living there. I heard that this doctor, a blood sore dentist, who was starting a scout troop in Fairbund. 

So I went down one night, saw him in Sunday Church, and told him I'd been a scout, I wonder if I could help him. And he said, yes, I'd be fine. 

So I went over there and started another troop and became assistant scoutmaster. He made me assistant scoutmaster. How wonderful. And five years later, he turned it over to me as a scoutmaster. 

So besides going to school and working, you were running a troop. How many boys did you have? 

A good number? 

Well, we got about 20 of them to start with. Wow. Some of them were a little older at that time. I mean, older. They were 14 years, 15 years old. And they were smoking. 

Well, I didn't smoke. And I told them that they did not smoke at the meeting at all. And so, you know, today, one of the outstanding Georgia Tech contributors, Charlie Jones, Charles H. Jones, doesn't smoke. And he was one of my Eagle Scouts. He was. Oh, wonderful. 

You set a good standard for him there, huh? 

Well, in 1938, getting ahead a little bit, we moved back to Atlanta and I didn't give up the troop until 1974. Oh, my goodness. I was in Scott Meyer's assistant for 39 years there in Cleveland. 

So you went back and forth and kept it all together? 

I went back and forth once or twice a week. 

And then Cliff and I married in 1939, so we were living in Atlanta, so I'd go, we'd go back and forth. She'd visit her family while I went through, and I produced 27 Eagle Scouts out of 140 men, my boys. What a wonderful satisfaction for you to have. 

So I had that, and that was going on during Tech Time, see, so that was an activity. That's a tremendous contribution to the Boy Scouts of America. 

I think, you see, the better fraternity was a better, I believe it is better, was a co-op or fraternity I believe or something that's where most of the fellows were and I'd go over there and stay. Then I got elected to the co -op club and that and then. 

Once you had a job and you were working co-op going to school off the back and forth, the system worked pretty good. 

Yeah but you see my job first one was out at Bremen, Georgia the highway, paving the road, delaying out a road for pavement between Bremen and Tallapoosa, Georgia. I got, let's see, $65 a month. That was my pay. My room and board for a month was $20. And then I came home on the weekend and had to ride a train. I think a train was about 85 cents or something like that. 

But then I rode, you've heard of a sewer manufacturing company that makes suits, sewer suits. They were just starting out building big business back in those days. They're still in operation. I'd ride, George Longino, he was a tech graduate, and we'd ride home with him. We worked five and a half days a week then. 

So I got a ride with him to Atlanta and then go back to the Turnmill station and catch a 11 o'clock train and go back to Bremen Sunday night and be at work Monday morning. Started all over again. All over again, $65 a month. And the good meals, real good meals, far better than some of you get now for $15. And so then I had that job, but that job started in 1934, I guess it was. And then Governor Talmadge, you've heard of Gene Talmadge, I know. He came into the office, and of course he fired the co-ops. He didn't need the co-ops. And so they, I didn't know what I was going to do then, but my alternate was one that lost out. 

But the Geodetic Survey came into play, U. S. 

Geodetic Survey, and they were running up and down the railroads, locating the railroad and also the country for maps and all. 

So we got a job with them that was $60 a month. And lived in South Georgia most of that time. And I enjoyed it. Got to know people in towns, in these small towns and all. And so that part finished up too. That was the end of that. And they stopped having the co-ops. And of course I was the only one. I had an alternate. 

But that just job here and a job there and whatnot around. 

So then I had just my senior year have to look forward to. And I'd gone through my first half of my senior year as a co-op. 

So at Christmas time I didn't know what I was going to do for the term that started after Christmas. And so I got a note from a person I did not know who needed an alternate with an engineering firm. 

And he didn't, he was sort of, didn't give you all the facts and the other, but meet me at the post office such and such a day at 8.30, 9 o'clock. 

So I was up there. I met him because he needed an alternate. He told me that. 

Well, he was the same age as I was, but he took two years off and went to Merchant Marines and decided that he wanted to go to Georgia Tech while he was gone, and he came back and got in as a co-op with an engineering firm, Wiedem & Singleton. He met me at the post office and he told me it would be $10 a week, that's what you will make. 

And I said, well, I didn't care because I just needed one more work term, then I was going to be through Tech and be hoping to get a job. 

So I went up with him that morning up to the firm and what he was doing as a co-op was getting the mail and running errands and answering the phone and things like that for the firm. 

So I went up there to Mr. Wiedemann's office and walked in and he said, Hi you Bill. That's the first time I've ever been called Bill. Mr. Wiedemann. 

Well, Mr. Wiedemann, my dad had worked for Wiedemann Singleton, but I hadn't told John that, just John King. I hadn't told him that I knew indirectly Mr. 

Wiedemann, because after I sized him up, he might not even take me up there, because it turned out he was that type of fella, you know. 

And unfortunately, years later, and he married two later, and he asked me if I should marry that girl. and uh just an odd type boy you know in a way and he walked out one time just walked out of the farm quit quit and had a chance to go right on up went out on the farm can never figure out what people were thinking huh so anyway I started with Wiederman Singleton so Mr. 

Wiederman was happy to have you come in come in and you hired him as a co-op right yeah well yeah that's right but he paid me $15 a week and John had just gotten promoted to $15 a week and he had worked three months and that shook him too when I got $15 off right then so I went ahead and graduation came up of course in the military that's when Cliff was my sponsor for my company ordinary co-ops in military you had at Tech you had Coast Artillery, Infantry, Signal Corps, and Ordnance. Signal Corps was an ordnance for the co-ops. 

The electrical engineers took the Signal Corps and then the chemicals and then the civils, the mechanicals, all were ordnance people. And I was elected by the class was about 15 hours in there. I got the vote to be captain for that captain. Oh how wonderful. 

But I love military anyway because I'm a lieutenant colonel in the reserve now because I'm out. 

But at that time did you get awarded your commission at graduation too then? 

Well the regulars, I say regulars at school, four -year men they went to camp during their junior and senior year and got their commission but co-ops had to go after we graduated we graduated in the Fox Theater that morning but one thing I'd like to say before I go further the co-op that was named Smith he had gotten a job I didn't know where I was going to work because Mr. Wiedemann told me he didn't have any work coming in. 

So I didn't know. 

But this boy had been offered a job with Alice Chalmers, big company you know, for $300 a month. And he was the outstanding mechanical engineer of our 1936 class. And he was a co-op. and his name is on the plaque in the mechanical engineering. He was co-op or regular. He was the highest man, about four point something. 

He lacked one lab exam I think to take and another boy had bought a motorcycle and they rode on that motorcycle one Saturday afternoon about two weeks before we were supposed to graduate out to Stone Mountain. Coming back, they came to an intersection. There was a lot of dust because of an automobile. All dirt roads back in except the main highway back in those days. And they started through the intersection and a car hit them and killed the Smith. And Howard Duvall was the other one. He died about two years ago. 

And you talk about in the Fox Theater sadness when his father was in line and walked down and got his diploma. 

But we had to leave immediately and beat it to the terminal station to catch the train down to Fort Benning. The co-ops did. 

Well, infantry too. 

All of us had to go to camp down there for six weeks and that's where we ran into the graduates from the Auburn. 

I mean not the graduates, the ones in the junior year between junior and senior from Auburn University and other places. And we had training for six weeks and we got our commission and we were free. 

So in August First I came back, it was about the 18th of August I think it was, just about the 15th. To see Mr. 

Wiedemann, he said, Bill, I haven't got anything right now, but I'll call over the state and they called over there and they looked after the mosquito control and things like that for the state and he sent me over there and I got a job, $150 a month. Better than nothing, right? 

Yeah, that's right. That was a good job, man, you know. And I was going to leave, and I came on back. I had two weeks before I'd go down, and I was supposed to go to Brunswick, malaria control. 

And then you'd be put out in some county or something like that as an environmental engineer or something. And so I came back, and I was supposed to leave on Monday, and I got a call. My dad called me and told me Mr. Wiedemann wanted to see me. 

So a Saturday morning I went up to see Mr. 

Wiedemann and he said, Bill, some workers come in and know what you wanted, but I can give you $100 a month. And there was $150 and there was $100. Today what would they take? 

Which one would they take today? 

Well, I took the $100 one. Because you knew what you were getting. And so I was getting back in the firm and never been sorry. Never, never been. 47 AF years. I guess that's longevity if I've ever heard of it. 

Eventually a partner and managing partner and then we went back to a corporation and the vice president of the corporation and retired from it. Wiedemann Singleton did water and sewage only. 

At the time that I went to work there were only a total of three engineering engineering firms, real engineering firms in Georgia, J. B. McCreary and Robert and Company and Wiedemann Singleton. 

Now there are hundreds of engineers, over a hundred engineering firms doing that work. Was it right in Atlanta, your office in Atlanta? 

Yeah, it was in the old counter building. 

So you actually started working for them at the end of 1936 then? 

It started in August of 1936 actually. And you had to start, you still had to keep up your courtship with Cliff. Oh, yeah. We finally married in 39. 39. You finally talked her into it, huh? 

Yeah. And where was your first place to live here in Atlanta? 

We lived with my family up here. Oh, you moved right out on the same street we're on right now, on East Wesley. 

Well, I did get a raise at two years. I was making $125 a month. And when we married, three years, they gave me another $12.50 raise, so I would make it $137.50 when we married. Isn't that amazing that you could get along on that? 

Oh, yeah. 

When did you feel that the Depression was finally leaving the Atlanta area? 

By what time did we see any kind of prosperity? 

Well, longer than the late 30s, we began to get more jobs. 

You had the Public Works Administration, they'd make a grant to a city, 55% grant, and the city had to get the other 45% up. 

All towns would need a water, additional water, and also sewage was coming in place, sewage treatment plants, the basic types and all, just the Emhoff tank we called it, a little bit of a glorified septic tank, what it was. And that was your area? 

That was our area and we covered. We had places and we had some jobs in Florida and Alabama and not in Tennessee. Tennessee you didn't work up there. They had their own engineers. I mean by that the consulting engineers had that locked. We had some work in South Carolina and that's where we were. 

But then after that's when work came in and really moved fires, but at one time things slowed up and there was a time when, well even after I went to work, I was dusting off the books in the bookcases, you know, engineering books and all, and I wish they had more so I could have my job last longer. 

But finally some work came in, and I guess along about 38, 39, business really picked up. 

Well, then the war came along. The war came along. And how did that impact you? 

Well, in 1951, Cliff and I came home, no, 41. 41, okay. 41, Cliff and I came home from, I think, seeing a movie downtown, and there was a paper from and the government on it, report to Fort Bagg on May the 9th, May the 8th, 1941, and I reported up there and I'd ride a train up there. I was a second lieutenant, you know. In heavens, you had your commission. Yeah, so that was one good thing. 

And how did the war use you? 

What did you do? 

Well, I was supposed to be assigned to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center over there as an ordnance officer over there, and that was my orders, but I went to the ordnance office there on the post, the main post at Bragg, and Colonel Nebelow, who later became General Nebelow, he was Lieutenant Colonel then, and Colonel Rising was the the Ordnance Officer at Fort Bragg, and he and one of them saw a shell that had not blown, and when he went over to it, it blew. And the boy was in the hospital, unfortunately, the family, after months in the hospital. He didn't do much damage to Colonel Rising, fortunately, but he did to the soldier. 

So Colonel Nelblow said, we do all the work for the Refill Artillery Replacement Training Center, we take care of the guns, we take care of everything like that, so we're going to keep Green over here and we'll have his orders changed and assigned him to headquarters. 

So I was there then until about December of 42, and orders came in for the lieutenant, no, I was a captain by then, to be transferred to headquarters in Atlanta, the Forest Service Command out of Fort McPherson. 

So that was nice to be going, but Cliff and I had just gotten an apartment and she was getting ready to move up there when that happened. 

Of course, This, I bought a car, the Philippines, you know, the attack, well not the Philippines but a chance to buy a Chevrolet, two-door Chevrolet, a car with 8,000 miles on it. This officer got orders for the Philippines. 

I often wondered whether he was still, you know, lived through the war or not, or whether he was killed, because he got over about that time of invasion or not. 

And I bought his car for $700 and I was able to, well I was riding back, somebody was riding back but I thought I was going to get to Atlanta like I wanted to. 

So, but to tell you then we could drive the 400 miles in 8 hours, no trouble, that's 50 mile an hour average and I would hate to do it today because in other states you might be able to do it. 

But it was about three hours that came back and forth every two weeks until the war actually started, you know. 

So then we got mortars in Atlanta and I moved in and reported Fort McPherson to the Lieutenant Lieutenant Colonel, I'm trying to think of his name. It'll come to you later. 

So how long did you stay at Fort McPherson? 

Well, when I went in, McCartney, McCartney. He was an old line. 

So many soldiers, then he was a top sergeant I think, you know, but he had a commission, and reserve commission, see a lieutenant colonel. And one that was over me was Major Pendlin. He was also a sergeant, you know, and top flight man, you know. 

But the colonel that was the ordinance officer for the Fourth Service Command, of course, was West Pointer. 

But anyway, I reported in to Colonel McCartney. 

He said, well, Green, I guess you need a place to live, don't you? 

You got to find the time to find a place to live. I said, no, Colonel, this is my home. ***** number two. 

I said, what's ***** number one? 

He said, you're a troop agent in general service, aren't you? 

I said, yeah, I wasn't at 30, 32, 30 years old. And he said, well, I found out later he couldn't remember names but not faces. 

And my orders should have been for a good friend of mine I had made up that Veltry who was signed up there and became his ammunition officer. And he thought he was ordering Veltry in when he ordered me in. See Veltry was over 40. And so he could have been one over -aging grade. 

But the one I was replacing, Lieutenant Ornillion, he was already ordered to Mississippi. He wanted field duty. 

So the colonel said I could stay until they ordered me away and I was there the rest of the time. 

So that was your tour duty at Atlanta. 

But when they went to Japan, invaded Japan, I had been through the infiltration course over at Fort McClellan, you know, went through that and were all ready to go to Japan when the war ended. You got saved by that big battle. 

I had charge of all the officers, of ordnance officers in the Fourth Service Command, which is the whole southeast states, you see. four service commanders, north and south Carolina and Florida and Alabama, I forget Louisiana, I think about six of them, six states. 

So it was a good experience because you liked the military, you liked that whole thing. You got to stay home. Yeah, I went there, but I didn't get to be major until after I was in the reserve. And you went right back to Mr. Wiedermann and got back into the group of the engineering and had a pretty good life. That's right. 

Now, tell me about your family. You had a child, and we're with Paul Warren. 

Well, we lost two babies. We had a little boy born in 47, and he lived three days. The little girl was first. She lived three days. And then the little boy was born in 50 and he lived a day and a half. 

So we, that was very discouraging in a way. We were still young so we took a trip that was in 1951. We went to Cuba, Havana, Cuba. It was in Miami. 

It was in, that's right, it was in Miami, the American Water Works Association, I belonged here at the National Association. 

And we went to the National meeting down there and they had a side trip for anybody after the convention to Havana, Cuba. 

And so we went, took that boat trip, it was overnight, and then stayed in the National Hotel down there. Took some tours. And there were six of us got in, unfortunately, into one car. And they were very nice people and got to be real good friends. and Mr.. what? 

Kate Roberts. Kate Roberts. Yeah what? 

Roberts, what? 

Chick. Chick Roberts. Chick. Chick Roberts, that's right. 

Chick Roberts, in the British Breviation Roberts Filter Company they made filter equipment for the waterworks field for all the contractors and all from Pennsylvania. 

So we got to know them and got our friendship right on until he died too many years ago with him. 

We never will forget we were going out on a tour and we were six hours in this big limousine driven by this Cuban and the street was across the streets and no traffic lights and I remember it. 

Lo and behold we saw this car coming across the street at the intersection and we all started praying. 

Well we made it but the law was down there whoever blows first has got the right of way and our man blew first and we went in the other cars jamming on his brakes and stopped. Quite an experience. 

And then we came back to Atlanta and while we were driving and I stopped by to see a friend that had been in the army with in to Tampa, and we came on back to College Park. I had a job out there. 

So I called my mother and told her that we were here. 

And she said, what did she say? 

Yeah, she said, oh, is she the one who told me, Cleo? 

And she said, well, you're a father now. I said, what do you mean? you all have a baby. 

And so sure enough, our pediatrician who had been a friend of the family and been known for years and he came from Fairbun too. And this baby being born by an Agnes Scott senior. And he thought of us as obstetricians. 

And that turned out to And it turned out to be Paul and he had taken our attorney who Cliff worked for, she worked for an attorney and although we were not working then, he took, he got a hold of the attorney and got all the papers signed and everything handled and we had a son whether we wanted him or not. And you did want him. And the father was an emery student, and Cliff knows something about it, but I never did. They didn't tell us, you know. And he was a brand-new baby boy. Six days old. Five days old. Five days old, Cliff went out and got him at the Crawford Long Hospital and brought him home. Of course, we had everything for a baby, see. You were ready. And we had bought this house, just bought it just before we went to Havana, this house. 

Because we knew if you're in adoption, you can't have over three people, adults, in a house when you adopt. 

Well, we had applied for this, whatever it is, welfare. Welfare. They didn't like it either because we got the baby that way. You know, the doctor got it. 

But anyway, so we had this house. And so we had to get equipped and everything. And this house is actually just down the street from the house that you had with your family. Yeah. It was a wonderful opportunity. for everybody. Mr. Green, tell me about your work life, the highlights of that work life. Forty -seven and a half years is a long time. 

When I went to work then formerly with Wiedemann Singleton, after graduating from Tech, of course, I was an instrument man. I would run an instrument. 

Mostly they'd take me out and tell me where they wanted a civil line run and over town or whereabouts or a whole area and then I'd stay in and get me somebody to rod for me and hold the rod and I would do the work and then come in and plot up my notes and turn them over then for them to some draftsman to get them up and I'd draw them up and then they'd get up for a contract. 

So you were the first man out on these drafts? 

I was out on that and that's where I got to know the towns and all and the first This town I went to was at Cedar Town, the first job I worked on over there, and that was a WPA job, and that's when people, WPA was when men that had jobs were digging ditches to make a living for their family, and it was top flight work. 

We got real work in latter years, it was 40 years later quite different getting some fellows to do the type of quality of work that they did there. Of course then to have them a job they used pick and shovel. Of course later you used a regular ditching machine. 

Well anyway I had jobs that way, water jobs, sewer jobs and usually Mr. Singleton or Mr. Wiedemann or Mr. 

Cady who was our top hydraulic engineer would take me out to this town, show what they wanted, and then maybe I'd stay there for two weeks, because after all, you didn't go back and forth on the weekends like they do now. If I'd walk back in the office on Saturday morning, Mr. Wheaton would fire me right off, because I worked Saturday morning in town. 

And so then I had a lot of towns over Georgia, South Georgia and North Georgia, which I really appreciated. 

Then time moved on, and I did more and more, and I did, got to a point where then naturally I was doing more getting jobs, going out and meeting with the council, the land council. I never will forget Mr. 

Singleton went with me at a big job that was coming up down in Statesboro and he sat back and let me do the presentation and after that they never went out with me to get a job and left it up to me to get a job. 

And so I got to have real good friends in towns and kept on doing work and sometimes never having a contract with them. Gentleman's agreement type of thing. 

But that's entirely different nowadays. 

And yeah they just knew that and when they we started out I mentioned earlier about those Robert and Company and J. B. McCrary Company in Wedham and Singleton. Riding down the road to where the client we were going to, I asked Mr. Singleton, well, who's the engineer of this town? 

Robert and Company. 

Well, who's this one? 

J. B. McCrary. They didn't go into that town to try to get a job away from somebody. Again, it was gentleman's agreement. Gentleman's agreement. 

Nowadays, and later on, it grew that they were going in there, And I've been told by some of my friends, Bill, six engineers have been in the past week trying to get work. And we told them about you, and they went on the way. 

And I know that one famous Charlie Jones, I mentioned, that grew up with me and started, went to Georgia Tech. He was one of my Eagle Scouts, Georgia Tech, and came to work with us, worked two years. And he came in one morning and he said, William, I'm going to leave you. 

Well, Mr. Wiedemann had two sons coming along. Mr. Singleton did not have any children. And I knew Charlie was smart and was going to do a good job. He had a brother, an older brother, that was a retorted tech. and then went out and became head of the mechanical engineering department at Texas A&M, one of those schools out there. 

The other brother was a pediatrician right here in Atlanta. Charlie was number three. 

So I knew he was going to go good. 

So I couldn't hold him back. I didn't talk to him. He went out with Bill Jordan who had left us. And Bill Jordan was a tech man. And so Jordan and Jones, they started out in some small jobs. Bill had started out checking he had money behind him so he could start nothing. And Charlie didn't have anything behind him really, but Charlie was better than what they needed. He was a good man, better than Bill for getting jobs. 

And so they formed up a good job and then Randolph Golden, another tech man who worked for us, lived next door to Mr. Wiedemann. He left and went with them. 

So it was Jordan Jones and Golden. 

They have 400 employees right today here in the city of Atlanta doing work everywhere overseas and all. 

Charlie just retired about a year ago from work but he never and nobody from his firm ever went into one of my towns. I know he just said told me to stay out. It's professional courtesy that way. He asked me to come to work with him one time. He said come on and work with him. 

But I didn't do it and I stayed with Wiedem and Singleton and uh and you never regretted one minute of that no well it's a different organization now unfortunately but my time was enjoyable with Mr. Wiedem and Mr. 

Singleton we had a big group and all over the years you've accumulated many honors and awards for you. That's in 1970. 

I was I think at that time I'm president or not yeah I believe I was president of the Georgia Water and Police and Control. 

The Georgia Water and Police and Control Association started out as the Georgia Water Association and it was one of the top men was Dr. who was the president of Georgia Tech. I mean, whose first ward I got? 

No, Tech. Dr. Hugh Wyckoff was chairman of the biology department at Georgia Tech. They had named an award for him. He was one of the founders of the Georgia Water Association back about 1932. And so I got his award in 63, my first award. 

That was a real honor because I had biology under him at Tech and so that was such an astounding 1970 while in Savannah well we had always gone the Georgia Water Association was composed of operators of water plants and sewage plants all over the state of Georgia consulting engineers and members of council, anyone tied in the water and sewage. 

So we decided to go, we met either Atlanta or Macon, but when I was president we decided to go down to Savannah and we wondered how I would do. We had 400 people there and now they have around 1,200 to 1,500 at the meeting. 

But we didn't have too many members at that time, so we went down there as president, and I was presented with the Water Policing Control Association, now it's the Water Environmental Federation, and that was the, who was it, the first one? 

The great honors that were bestowed on you by your peers. In 1972 I was given the American Water Works Association, the, oh gee I can't think of that name. The important thing is that you were getting recognition from your peers. That's right. What year did you retire in, sir? 1984. 1984. 

So you worked until 1984. 1984. 

During the time I got the Alva Story Award and before I retired they named an award after me and then there was a scholarship and that's the local. 

The water and the sewage was combined as the Georgia Water, but then later they changed the name of the Georgia Water and Sewage Association, and that's Pollution Control, the Georgia Water and Pollution Control Association. 

And they founded a scholarship in your name at Tech? 

It was one at Tech, $1,500 scholarship each year. How wonderful. And so far two girls have gotten it. Isn't that good? 

All right. I like that. Yeah, they've got to be a son or daughter of a waterworks man, a member of the association. I see, I see. 

And the awards given, they won't operate, just work and whatnot, so that makes me feel honored on that. I think that's a wonderful honor to know. 

And then we went to, during our tour with the American Water Works Association, I was, as I say, chairman here in 1970, was the Georgia Water Association at that time. Then in 1980, I was chairman of the southeastern section of the American Water Works. Georgia belonged under that. 

So I was chairman of that section. 

But then when I, and then that became, they've taken it over, the Georgia section is under the Georgia Water and Police and Control Association now. And South Carolina goes that way. When I was the director, I was elected director in 1983 at the American Water Works Association. 

And then when we changed, and when we turned it over, I turned my directorship over to two directors, one in South Carolina and one in Georgia. And that's where it's been. Correspondingly with your work thing, you stayed with the military, and you retired in the reserve. Yeah, I retired from the military. What was your rank? 

As a lieutenant colonel. Lieutenant colonel. And you also kept up your boy scout work. 

Yeah, well I did that for 39 years, retired from that in 74, but stayed on as a member than not an organization. I make a contribution and pay my dues to every year to the Boy Scouts. And you've probably gotten awards from them too for all of you. 

Well I got the Silver Beebe Award. Doesn't get any better than that. That's the biggest one. Then in 1995, I was elected to the Water Industry Hall of Fame. And that's only two people out of 50,000 can get that every year. 

So I feel really honored. What an incredible honor. 

Well, the main thing, I've been active so much in that and all, in water. and then I looked after the little towns and they're all over and they knew that and what not. 

And you've had a recent claim to fame in connection with that in that you made a movie about water pollution. 

Then the Georgia Water Pollution Association decided to get up a movie on telling what the organization is and what it does and what So they called me and asked me to be grandpa for a short part in the picture. A starring role. Of course I was old enough for it. 

So then I went out and had a nine -year-old young girl who was a member of one of the state watermen, daughter, to be my granddaughter. and we are pictured sitting on a dock fishing in a lake and she asked me about the association and what it does and it ends up then they have a break and then they tell the history of about the Georgia water pollution control what it does and shows pictures of the laboratory work you know and lakes and all that about a 10 minute long feature and it ends up with the with us ending in the picture going off. She caught a fish. She caught a fish. She caught a fish. She caught a fish. How wonderful. From clean water, thanks to you. Mr. Green, it's been one heck of a ride, hasn't it? 

You've had a very, very good life. You've accomplished a great deal. You kind of started on East Wesley and here we are still on East Wesley. That's right. You've watched a lot of things. I was walking on East Wesley and I'm still walking back Now you're walking back again. 

It used to be you didn't have to worry about getting run over, but now you've got a little competition for the road space. Yeah, fortunately we have a couple of friends in the church that pick us up on Sunday morning. That Sunday is even more crowded now that you're at the junction here. 

It's been a very, very rich life and we've all benefited from your work, keeping our waterways clean and pollution free and all the expertise you gained at Tech and over the years with your small-town work. 

We're very grateful to you for taking time today to tell us your story, and I want to thank you for that. It's been a real pleasure to hear it. I enjoyed it. Thank you.