ANDREW MILEWSKI

TRANSCRIPT %u2013 ANDREW MILEWSKI
[Compiled October 1st, 2010]

Interviewee: ANDREW MILEWSKI

Interviewer: Carter Sickels

Interview Date: August 5th, 2010

Location: Kings Mountain, North Carolina

Length: Approximately 38 minutes

CARTER SICKELS: Okay, so this is Carter Sickels interviewing Mr. Andrew Milewski. It%u2019s August the 5th, and we are at his house in Kings Mountain. So could you just say your name, and it (recorder) will pick you up?
ANDREW MILEWSKI: My name is Andrew Milewski, and I was--.
CS: Where you were born?
AM: Where I was born, in Poland.
CS: In Poland.
AM: And by various ways, I found myself in North Carolina if you want to know a little bit about this.
CS: What year were you born?
AM: 1924.
CS: 1924. Okay. [Testing recorder] Can you say that again, that you were born where?
AM: I was born in Poland in 1924.
CS: Yeah, that%u2019s good. [Microphone noise] AM: Can you hear it?
CS: Yes. Yes, sir. Would you like to start with when you came to North Carolina or would you like to start before that?
AM: What would you like?
CS: I would love to start before that, when you were%u2026
AM: %u2026Where I was born%u2026?
CS: %u2026born in Poland, and your journey from there.
AM: I was born in Poland. I was born in the western part of Poland, near the town called Poznan. After a while, my parents moved to the eastern part, and I attended high school there, in schooling, and in 1940--no, 1939--because the Germans attacked Poland, and seventeen days later, the Soviets attacked Poland, so we were under the Soviet occupation until 1940, when they deported me and my family to Siberia. I spent two years in the lumberjack labor camp with my family.
CS: Wow.
AM: In 1941, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, and we were released. The people that were in prisons or in labor camps were released and encouraged to join the (2:32) Polish Army that was being formed in the south of the Soviet Union. So my family and I would travel probably about six thousand miles.
CS: Wow.
AM: It took us two months to get to the south of Russia.
CS: Did you have brothers and sisters?
AM: It was my brother--there was me, there was my mother, my brother and my sister. My father was already a prisoner of war, Soviet prisoner of war--Soviet prisoner-of- war camp. (3:07) when we joined the army in the south of, I guess it would be now what is Kazakhstan.
CS: Okay.
AM: It was in Kazakhstan.
CS: Kazakhstan.
AM: And we met our father there, who was fortunately there for us, so that was--.
CS: How old were you then?
AM: When I joined the army, I was seventeen.
CS: No, when your family had to go to the--to Siberia.
AM: Fifteen.
CS: Fifteen, okay.
AM: Fifteen. My brother was nine and my sister was thirteen.
CS: Wow.
AM: So [Microphone noise] the way we were able to (3:49) there was an agreement in Polish--the government in exile, which was in London, with the Soviet. They agreed that we should form the army, Polish Army, from all the prisoners, and along with the Soviet Union, for--fight Germans. There were some complications, but they did not allocate us more than about forty-four thousand rations of food. People were drifting in, amounting to a hundred thousand, a hundred-and-twenty thousand. So there was another agreement with the British that we transfer some of the Polish forces to the Middle East, so I was one of the lucky one, and my family and my father. We went to Iran; from Iran, we went to Iraq; from Iraq, we went to Jordan; from Jordan, we went to Palestine%u2026
CS: %u2026Wow%u2026
AM: %u2026which we formed a second Polish Corp under British command. We went then back to training in Iraq--Mosul, Kirkuk--we hear of those places. In 1943, we were shipped to Italy.
CS: To Italy.
AM: Italy, and we took part in the Italian campaign until %u201945, because the end was April, 1945, in Italy. We stayed--I was in the occupation army until 1946, and then we were shipped to England.
CS: Okay, so all over.
AM: I was fortunate; my parents, my sister, and my brother and my--my mother, my brother, and my sister came with us from Russia, and they went to Tehran. At Tehran, there was a camp for the women and children. From there, they were shipped to Palestine, and they spent the rest of the war in Nazareth. You know the name, Nazareth?
CS: Yeah.
AM: Palestine. My father and I, we served in the same division.
CS: Oh, you did?
AM: In the Middle East and Italy. Then, of course, in the meantime, the Soviets advanced and took Poland and Germany, and they met with the American and British forces. There were conferences between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill in Yalta and in Tehran, and they have the Allies (6:40) part of Poland to the Soviets. So the part that I came from no longer belonged to Poland, so no longer I had any home to go to.
CS: Okay.
AM: So I landed in England.
CS: What are some of your memories from that time, when you were going from place to place when you were in the Middle East? Do you have any strong memories from that time?
AM: Well, you know, I was a very young soldier.
CS: Yeah.
AM: Very happy to get out of the Soviet Union. We were training very hard. The memories, visiting Cairo and pyramids and all the holy places in Palestine, and of course some of the old places in Iraq, like Nineveh, Mosul, Kirkuk, very interesting places. (7:39) is the highest mountain between Turkey and Iraq, and it%u2019s a beautiful place. Well, the present soldiers will tell you, that were serving Iraq, how beautiful the spring is. Flowers come out from nowhere: when you drive there, it%u2019s one big field of flowers.
CS: Wow.
AM: Which, a month or two later, it dries up, the earth cracks, and it%u2019s a dust, dirt; it%u2019s terrible. In the winter, it%u2019s rain and cold, and the summer is very ((8:18). I sympathize with our soldiers there now, especially with the heavy equipment. In the British Army we had the shorts, short sleeves, and khaki. I%u2019ve never been dressed like this, like these boys are dressed now. Oh, the biggest shock was that we had nowhere to go.
CS: No home to go to.
AM: No, and there was a Polish Army, Polish First Division in England, which took part in the invasion of Europe. There was a Polish Second Corp in Italy. We had quite a lot. At the end of the war, we had about seven squadrons of bombers, seventeen squadrons. We had about ten or fifteen ships up in the Navy. And then, very disappointing. Of course, in the meantime, the Soviets establish a Polish government, Communist Party is governing the war zone, which did not recognize the Polish government (9:28) which was in exile.
CS: Okay.
AM: Therefore, did not recognize (9:33). I lost my citizenship since I was there. The saddest thing for us was that when there was a victory parade in London, they wouldn%u2019t let us in.
CS: Oh, yeah, that%u2019s terrible.
AM: After fighting from 1939 to 1946, losing a lot of lives, a lot of soldiers, contributing, what was it, thirty percent of the victory of battle of Britain was Polish pilots.
CS: Really?
AM: Over thirty percent. (10:14), so we felt that we were betrayed.
CS: Yes.
AM: They invited Polish airmen for the parade and they refused. So that was the sad thing about this, that after being the first ally, because when the Germans attacked Poland, we had a pact with France and with Britain, a non-aggressive pact. It took them three, four days before they decided what to do, and they never attacked Germans from the west, and yet, the Polish Army, the underground army, was the biggest army in Europe, probably close to 800,000 soldiers, whatever; it was big. All this, and we were not let to participate in a victory parade, so that was, to me, that was about the very sad experiences.
CS: That is sad.
AM: What else? I went to (11:22)--they both died in England. My brother is here in the United States, in Connecticut. My sister is in Los Angeles. Then I went to college, Leicester College of Art and Technology, Textile Department, in England. I worked in England. I worked in the (11:46), and from there, I was hired from (11:53). I used to work for Marks and Spencer, which is a very large chain of stores, well, probably like J.C. Penney. I worked at headquarters as a technical, specializing in knits. (12:16), the owner, Mr. (12:18) then, came to England and somehow we met, and he hired me.
CS: And you had not been to the United States?
AM: No, he told me to come over first, so I came over and looked around, looked around the plants and so on. He said, %u201CWhat do you think about my plants?%u201D I said, %u201CIt%u2019s a mess.%u201D He said, %u201CYou%u2019re hired.%u201D [Laughter] CS: [Laughter] AM: So, then a month or two later, I came over. No, February--that was February, %u201946.
CS: %u201946?
AM: %u201966.
CS: Yeah.
AM: February of %u201966, I came over to New York because our headquarters were in New York. I was supposed to stay for a couple of weeks, but he said he had a problem in the plants, and so would I go now? He packed me up and I landed in Charlotte%u2026
CS: %u2026In Charlotte%u2026?
AM: %u2026and then in a hotel in Gastonia. I was picked up and brought to the plant. Now, here, we had one plant here. After that, (13:38) Brothers Corporation purchased (13:42).
CS: What was it?
AM: (13:46) Brothers.
CS: Okay.
AM: Big corporation--about two, three-hundred-million dollars corporation. They then purchased another plant in Albemarle, another plant in Pageland, and one in Virgin Islands. I was technical director for all those plants. Then I became a vice-president of (14:15) International, and I retired. They sold again.
CS: Before you retired, or after you retired?
AM: Before I retired.
CS: Yeah.
AM: They sold [microphone noise], and they sold the (14:33) International from Kings Mountain to West Point-Pepperell. (14:46) Georgia-based company. It%u2019s a big company. You probably hear of towels and so on, sheets and so on. So I was supposed to be (14:59). They sold me, together with the (15:04). I didn%u2019t like the place where I went, so we came back here. The president of (15:14) International and I, we were friends. I was vice president; he was the president. We decided to start our own business, so we started a little place opposite the high school here, and we named it under his name because he%u2019s a great salesman. He lives in New York and Connecticut, so now we (15:34) Hank Fink, Incorporated.
CS: Hank Fink, Incorporated?
AM: Yeah. We had the place right opposite the high school here. The building now is acquired by the high school. So I came from--I left Pepperell a year later. That was in %u201979. I was eleven years with (16:05), from %u201967, okay? I went for a year with (16:16). I came back and we started the plant in %u201979.
CS: In %u201979.
AM: %u201979.
CS: The Hank Fink?
AM: Hank Fink, Inc. I retired from it in %u201994, and I think he kept it for either two or three years, but it was going downhill because of textiles--. So, again, they sold all of our textiles to China, to India, to Mexico, so that%u2019s the story. I would say Cleveland County has suffered a lot.
CS: Yeah, a lot of people lost jobs.
AM: But it still continues. Big plants are closing all over the place, textiles. So I had (17:15). Before that we had seven children.
CS: When did you get married?
AM: I married in England in 1950.
CS: Okay.
AM: A long time ago. We just celebrated our sixtieth.
CS: Oh, congratulations.
AM: (17:36)
CS: Yes, I will. [Laughter] AM: We had some children. Three were born in England, three in the Republic of Ireland, and one, here. And the youngest baby is now forty-two.
CS: Oh. [Laughter] Tell me how, when you--so you%u2026
AM: %u2026Is that what you wanted?
CS: Yes, that%u2019s great. And when you came to the U.S. and you were in New York first, before you came here?
AM: Yes.
CS: And your wife and children came with you?
AM: No, they came a couple of months later.
CS: A couple of years later?
AM: Months, months.
CS: A couple of months later.
AM: Yeah.
CS: Do you remember how it felt, moving from New York to the small town? It%u2019s very different, right?
AM: Very different, and there was a big coincidence too, because we lived in London, and next door to us was an American lady, girl, married to British. When we told her that we are going to the States, she said, %u201CWhere?%u201D I said, %u201CWell, never mind, it%u2019s such a piddly little thing. You wouldn%u2019t know about--.%u201D She said, %u201CTry me.%u201D I said, %u201CKings Mountain.%u201D She said, %u201COh, my god, I%u2019m from Gastonia.%u201D
CS: Really?
AM: Her father was the vice-president of a Citizen%u2019s Bank in Gastonia.
CS: Wow, that is a coincidence.
AM: (19:11), to live next door to him. So, it was very fortunate for us because she contacted her parents, so when I came here, they helped me look for a house. You know, the (19:29), the house, all sort of things that takes time for a stranger to find was there.
CS: That%u2019s great, yeah.
AM: So they were a tremendous help to me, and to my wife when she came in. They%u2019re both dead now, but I don%u2019t know (19:45). They have a place at Lake Wylie. So that was pleasant. There were a few surprises, like I stayed in the hotel, and the waitress came in and says, %u201CWhat would you like to drink?%u201D I said, %u201CGive me a pint of cold beer.%u201D
She said, %u201CWhat? You can%u2019t drink alcohol here. This is a dry county.%u201D So I said, %u201COkay, give me some tea.%u201D So she brings me a glass of some yellow liquid with ice, and I said, %u201CI wanted tea.%u201D %u201CWell, it is tea.%u201D
CS: Sweet tea?
AM: Oh, she said, %u201CYou should ask for hot tea. So that%u2019s my first--.
CS: That was your first experience.
AM: So I couldn%u2019t get a beer; I couldn%u2019t get tea. So, fortunately, somebody from (20:52) Brothers arrives to take me for dinner--he brings me a bottle of nice Scotch. We know it is a dry county. I found these people here really very nice and very smart people. You know, in spite of this accent and slowness of talking, they are very bright. They pick up things quickly. They are very loyal and very, very kind. When we moved to our new house, there were neighbors sitting outside, waiting for our furniture to come in. They watched, but with cakes and--. It%u2019s changed a little bit now, because of influx from other states and so on come in, there%u2019s very few Southerners left here.
CS: That%u2019s great.
AM: Are you a Southerner?
CS: No.
AM: Where are you from?
CS: I%u2019m from Ohio, but I lived in New York for about ten years.
AM: So it was a very pleasant%u2026
CS: %u2026That%u2019s good. So you felt that you and your family were accepted?
AM: Oh, yes. And in those days, forty-odd years ago, there was not such a business like now with this paperwork. I came on a handshake, with my wife and seven kids--on a handshake.
CS: Yeah.
AM: The guy said, (22:21). I pay for the travel; I pay for the furniture to be brought in. That%u2019s it; he shook my hand and I said, %u201CFine.%u201D Can you imagine, today?
CS: No. It would never happen.
AM: I went to the bank; I want to buy a house. So, I didn%u2019t have that cash, so I got a deposit from my company. They gave me the deposit. They sent someone to search for a title, and the next day%u2026
CS: %u2026That%u2019s amazing%u2026
AM: %u2026and the contract. I had a large house because we had a lot of children, so this was about thirty-five-hundred square feet. It was a nice house. And in those days I paid thirty thousand dollars for it.
CS: Wow, that%u2019s amazing.
AM: The interest was four-and-a-half per cent. It%u2019s a dream.
CS: That is a dream.
AM: So what else?
CS: Where is your wife from?
AM: She is also from Poland. She spent the war differently because her father was in diplomatic service in Germany, an attach?, (23:39), and somehow they managed to get her and her mother and two of her sisters to Switzerland, so she spent the war in Switzerland, going to schools then, and so on. Then they came to London, and that%u2019s how we met.
CS: You met in England?
AM: My parents and her parents knew each other.
CS: Okay.
AM: So I was accepted. A friend. [Laughter] CS: A friend of friend. Was she able to adjust here when she moved?
AM: Yes, just thanks to the neighbors.
CS: The neighbors, yeah.
AM: Yeah, it was like we were long-life friends of theirs. It was very nice. She adapted very quickly.
CS: That%u2019s great.
AM: But she adapts--we moved so many times, so to her, it%u2019s a piece of cake.
CS: That%u2019s true. Right. [Laughter] AM: Because, and she%u2019s a wonderful woman. I tried to move if I saw (24:52) make enough progress, I was looking for another job, which, every time I changed a job I climbed up a little bit. She moved; she didn%u2019t object ever, so we had a good partnership too.
CS: That%u2019s good. That%u2019s good. Why did you go into textiles? What interested you about it?
AM: Nothing.
CS: Nothing?
AM: No, because I%u2026
CS: %u2026It was a good business?...
AM: No, my parents--my father was a farmer before the war. He was in politics too because he was a Polish congressman to the Polish Congress in Poland. I didn%u2019t finish my high school in Poland, so while I was still in the military, they formed--they had a lot of (25:54) professors and so on that were serving, so they opened a school. I went to the Polish high school and I finished--I held a high school diploma. I was recognized by Britain.
CS: Okay.
AM: So I was able to go to a university. I applied to engineering, medicine, about fifty different--always booked. The only reply I had was from this college of art and technology.
CS: Okay. That%u2019s how you ended up? Okay.
AM: So that%u2019s why. So, I graduated from there, and then I started working.
CS: Did you enjoy your work? Which job did you like the best?
AM: No, no, it was very hard because the work in England after the war, you were really--. They had a hard time during the war, British.
CS: Yeah.
AM: A lot of foreigners, other Americans, (27:05), so we were, in a way, discriminated. If there was a layoff, we were the first. If you wanted to find a better job, you couldn%u2019t do it. So it was a struggle, and for a while it was very hard. We had children; we lived in Leicester in a one-bedroom apartment with two kids with the bathroom on the first floor, a kitchenette on the landing, with one sink. You know what? It%u2019s hard.
CS: Yes.
AM: But, gradually, we settled. You know what? I liked my job, but I always worked for--I did not live to work. I worked to live. Do you know the difference?
CS: Yes.
AM: I enjoyed the work, but my main thing was my family.
CS: Right. And the job allowed you to--.
AM: Yeah, and I worked very hard, because when we started here, sixteen, seventeen hours a day--.
CS: Really?
AM: To put everything right and straight, and I enjoyed it.
CS: What kind of things did you have to change? You said when you came that it was a mess.
AM: The attitude and quality.
CS: Okay.
AM: That%u2019s the main thing: quality, quality, quality. And the attitudes, because the previous owners, the business was so good, and the people were buying almost anything, but I saw it was going to end if you don%u2019t put everything straight. So this is the way, so I worked very hard, but I enjoyed going with the family--I owned a boat, a sailing boat on the lake, and when I was coming home from work, they were all waiting to go on the lake. And I like also hunting. My son was hunting with me. So, to me, the work was very important, but the most important was my family and my home life.
CS: Yeah. What kind of changes have you seen from when you first came here, to what this area is like now, good and bad?
AM: No, no, it is good.
CS: Good?
AM: Yes. Oh, no question about it.
CS: Even with all of the closings?
AM: Yeah, because gradually, the heavier industries started moving in.
CS: Okay.
AM: You see, we paid the very poor wages in textiles. In comparison, when we paid two dollars an hour forty years ago, they have an industry that paid five, six.
CS: Right.
AM: So it was a mixed blessing for this area that textiles, which is the lower end of pay scale on this, and they started moving heavier (30:28). So, I think the economy is bad, but I would say before this economic problem happened, I think they were doing pretty well in this area. They were opening quite a lot of big plants, and the wages were much better. So I see%u2026
CS: %u2026Do you feel like there is a good future for this area?
AM: Yes, and then of course the tremendous growth in--I mean, you look in Gastonia. When I moved, there was not a single mall. I mean, it%u2019s just--. And those little places like Shelby and here and Cherryville, they didn%u2019t grow. They stay the same, but they are charming.
CS: Yes.
AM: Are they?
CS: Yeah.
AM: Really?
CS: Shelby is cute.
AM: It%u2019s cute, but it didn%u2019t grow much. On the outskirts, yes.
CS: Okay.
AM: Well, Charlotte grew tremendously. I would say probably they are reaching--I don%u2019t know how many inhabitants are there. I would say I wouldn%u2019t be surprised if there were 900,000 or a million.
CS: Yeah, probably.
AM: They%u2019re probably there.
CS: So do you consider North Carolina your home now?
AM: Oh, absolutely. You can even see what is happening everywhere else. We have very little natural disasters, really, but from some--Hugo, which devastated the coastal areas--and there was a few floods with that. Otherwise, we don%u2019t have that many tornadoes. We don%u2019t have that many floods, and the place is still wide open, and it%u2019s very picturesque. When you live here, you have got a few hours to the sea, a couple of hours to the mountains. I like it.
CS: Good, good.
AM: I%u2019m fortunate though. Most of my kids--some of them--one is in Winston-Salem; one is in Greensboro--two are in Greensboro, but the other one is in California, Kansas; Washington, D.C.; and Manchester, in England.
CS: Okay. They left.
AM: My brother is in Connecticut and my sister is in Los Angeles.
CS: Have you made any trips back to Poland?
AM: Yes. A few years ago, my wife went, and I, we went. Now, I went, first of all, from England. We went by car; we went over the channel. We drove the car with a friend of mine, and visited the place that I was born. Of course, I couldn%u2019t go to the place where I lived.
CS: Right.
AM: And then my wife and I went a couple of times. We were always invited to go (33:48), but I would say we are now fully matured. [Laughter] We are going to see my brother for a couple of weeks, this week, on Saturday.
CS: That will be nice.
AM: We went to see our daughter in--she lives in a very beautiful place--southeast of San Francisco, in this gold-digging area before they cut out various counties and things like that. It was beautiful, so we visited with her, my son in Kansas.
CS: Yeah.
AM: We drove to Kansas.
CS: Oh, you did?
AM: It%u2019s a thousand miles. That%u2019s two days%u2019 journey.
CS: That%u2019s far.
AM: Same with Connecticut.
CS: You don%u2019t fly?
AM: No, we%u2019re going to fly this time. I mean, we are fully mature now. My wife would disagree with that.
CS: That%u2019s a long drive.
AM: That%u2019s a long drive. And you know what? We found that if you find a good deal on the airlines, it%u2019s cheaper.
CS: It%u2019s true, in what you pay in gas.
AM: Well, see if we go to Kansas now, we%u2019ll have to spend two nights because I think we are not strong enough to cover five hundred miles a day. So, two hotels, that%u2019s two hundred dollars, (35:19), that%u2019s four hundred dollars, four meals, gas. It comes to six, seven hundred dollars, driving.
CS: It%u2019s true, yeah.
AM: And time.
CS: Yes.
AM: If you%u2019ve got money, I think you can fly.
CS: And then you%u2019ll be there in a couple of hours.
AM: She likes it very much. She likes it and I like it because we stop every two hours, and for lunch we stop at the welcome centers. So I%u2019m rambling away.
CS: No, I think we%u2019re almost finished. I just wanted to go back to the last place, the Hank Fink, Inc. I just didn%u2019t know what industry that was, or what you were%u2026
AM: %u2026Same as (36:03). We produced fabrics for ladies%u2019 apparel.
CS: Okay.
AM: So, knits mostly, all knits, and we produced double-knits, which are now out of fashion, but they%u2019re coming back. We produced wool, polyester wool, poly cotton and cottons, and polyester fabrics. We sold it either to a converter or directly to a manufacturer, like (36:40) of New York Wool, and things like that.
CS: Oh, okay.
AM: They bought from us. So, that was it.
CS: Okay, I just wanted to check on that.
AM: (36:48).
CS: Now what?
AM: We went overboard now.
CS: Oh, overboard. Yeah, do you remember during that time when all of the mills were closing?
AM: I was retired.
CS: You were already retired, yeah, so you didn%u2019t--.
AM: And my partner, the president of Hank Fink, he hanged on for a couple of years, and then he started losing his personal money, so it was not good. When you%u2019re close to retirement, you need to have a few dollars left.
CS: Definitely. Well, this has been really interesting for me. Do you have anything else to add that I didn%u2019t ask you, or anything, you know?
AM: No.
CS: No?
AM: No.
CS: Okay.
AM: Well, do you have anything?
CS: Not right now, I don%u2019t think at this time.
AM: Well, whenever you have any questions, you have my telephone.
CS: Yes.
AM: And you%u2019re welcome. You%u2019re a very pleasant young lady.
CS: Thank you.
AM: And I enjoyed being with you.
CS: I did too. Thanks.

END OF INTERVIEW
Mike Hamrick, October 1st, 2010