Oral History Interview with Lester Thompson Page: 1

                                
Lester Thompson Oral History Interview

LESTER THOMPSON:   Thompson and I was born to John Robert and
Rachel Belle Burt, and I was working for Texaco for six
years. Started (inaudible) 1936 and the war came along and
I had been courting my wife a couple years and we decided
to get married. I bought a little home. And we married.
And I decided that I would quit my job with Texaco and take
something a little more lucrative so that I could
(inaudible) my responsibilities (inaudible) so she wouldn't
be left holding the sack when I left. Which I did. I went
to work for a Houston shipyard, working on Liberty ships.
I worked there a couple months. And my older brother was
(inaudible) and he asked me if I'd like to go to
(inaudible) shipbuilding company and work on the
(inaudible) boats, which is more interesting in wartime of
course. And we did (inaudible) went over and he got
(inaudible) job and I got a third-class shipfitter's job.
Q:   What were they paying an hour back then?
LT: The pay was something, quite a bit of money (inaudible) $45
a week, see, which was much more than I'd been making. I

got married, I was making like $120 a month at Texaco.
Having said that (inaudible) you could -- I had a car and
like I said I bought a home. And had (inaudible) two years

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