Class Dismissed by Mike Conklin

Author:Mike Conklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Write Stuff Publishing

41

Turkey Time

Dorothy, with Maria in lockstep, attacked her grant-supported project full bore.

First, she reduced everything to a simple, informal title and acronym: Patterns in Population, or PIP.

This was a noticeable simplification from the University of Michigan’s title for the project---“Migrants, Borders, and National Security Issues: Case Studies, Settlement Experiences, to Guide U.S. Immigration Policy.”

“We use mine, PIP, for now gathering our material and doing our local research,” she said. “It might seem a little simple, but I want to be generic, avoid buzz-words and academic foo-foo no one understands. We’ll make it warm and fuzzy for people we interview. Non-threatening.”

Maria thought: If nothing else, I am getting some good lessons in the English language. This is great.

Dorothy added, “We don’t want to seem at all confrontational, or make it sound like we’re singling out anyone when we do interviews. We’re not lying or using false pretenses, just being careful. We need people to be forthcoming about their roots.”

The starting point, or launching pad, for the influx of Latinos to Liberty and the county did not seem to be in doubt. This was the purchase in 1950 of a local, moderately successful tomato canning company by a regional turkey processing firm.

The re-purposed facility became Thomas Turkeys, or simply Tom’s Turkeys, naturally, by everyone but those in the corporate board room. Business was good and grew. A shift foreman, tasked with building a bigger workforce to meet the seasonal growth, traveled one winter to Brownsville in Texas---where he had relatives---to recruit workers.

Though salaries mostly were minimum wage with minimal benefits, the situation was appealing enough to lure a steady stream of Mexican-American employees from Texas.

The jobs were subject to periodic layoffs without much notice, but there was one unpredictable, sure-fire attraction that came with employment: air conditioning. Well, not AC as we know it today.

Those lucky enough to have jobs inside the plant, which was 70 per cent of the employees, were kept cool by the steady opening and shutting of freezer doors. The temperatures indoors rarely left the 70s, summer or winter.

This was thanks to one clever assembly line worker. He figured a way to channel escaping freezer room air throughout the building with strategic opening and closing of doors, windows, and shafts.

“That person was a hero. You ever been to Brownsville, you’d know why,” one transplant explained to Dorothy, who promptly made a note to explore weather as a contributing migratory factor.

The Liberty turkey plant went through several, early owners. The location in southern Indiana was compatible for the business, decidedly rural but close to large markets. U.S. highway 231 connecting the town to the outside world saw a steady stream of Thomas Turkey trucks headed in each direction to Indianapolis and Louisville.

Then fifty years ago---late 1960s-early 70s---new money was pumped into the business. A giant, more modern plant was built, a huge garage to house the growing truck fleet followed, and buildings were added on the company’s three farms in the county.

The construction work took nearly a year and engaged almost as many workers---luring more migrants---as the turkey processing business itself.

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