DUNBRACK: . . . and, uh, he said, "Well, what do you mean?" And I said,
"Well, we kept you going over here. We didn't have enough operating expense, and
you people, uh, you made money off of our work over here," which they did, and
bless goodness, we bought ____ in 1955. They, it was in the fall, I believe it
was '54.
ALEX.: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: Five and, uh, next April the first 19 and 56, they closed their
doors over there and went out of business. Liquidated.
ALEX.: Yeah.
DUNBRACK: So, uh, of course when I worked for Covington Groceries in '62,
they made a fortune in '65, ____, and I went to work for Richwood Wholesale on
May 1, 1965 and that was on my birthday.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: So, anyway, I'm still working for Richwood Wholesale. It's a real
nice business and I'm fine.
ALEX.: I'm glad.
DUNBRACK: I, I enjoy it. Like I tell my wife, course she tells me the reason
is 'cause I have so many lady customers. I say, well, if they're ladies when they
go in, they're still ladies when they go out.
(Laughter)
DUNBRACK: But, they're all real nice. Now, Mr. Greer*, the head of the
Richwood over there, he sent a man over here some time ago to work this Trade.
He, he got in January two orders in and then they didn't deliver 'em 'cause they
said no, we're buyin' from Marvin. I was in business up here and they said, no
sir we're buyin' from Marvin Dunbrack. We're, we're not buyin' a thing from you.
And they were very loyal to me, and, uh, they're still, Mr. Alexander, still
loyal to me and they just, course, I'm not handing myself any bouquets. I've
been workin' this trade 54 years and that is, this is my 54th year. But you have
to be on the level with your clients. Give 'em all you got and stay with 'em all
of this time.
ALEX.: Uh huh.
DUNBRACK: And that's one thing I've never done. I worked on a commission in
1942 through '49 and the more I sold, the more I got and there's more salary
there, and, uh, but I never, not one time did I knowingly misrepresent anything
to sell it in order to get a few dollars extra for commission.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: And, uh, course my trade agents couldn't understand that because
there were other salesmen worked the other roads and they worked on commission
and boy, they'd just load ‘em. A man would buy maybe two cases or something and
he's send him three or four, you see.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: And the next week, they'd have an argument about it and they'd
either have to pick 'em up or sell 'em to him.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: But back then, I went to work there and I don't have a customers
anywhere living today in business when I started working up there in 1922.
ALEX.: Is that right?
DUNBRACK: Every one of 'em is dead and gone. I don't have a one and I worked
a trade say from Frankfort to Valley Head and then to Durbin and Cass and I
worked that from May in '42 until September, last week in September in '49. I
worked the warehouse and managed the warehouse at the same time.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: And, Mr. Alexander, sometimes I just wonder how I ever done it and
during that time was all of these stamps was in here, stamps for coffee, stamps
for meals and lard and so forth, stamps for sugar and stamps for all canned
vegetables and canned fruits and I had to keep a record of all those, now. Now,
I messed it up, night after night when I'd make my trips, say to Durbin. I'd
finish up in Durbin about maybe 7:30 to 8:00 and drive home 42 miles and work up
my orders for the crew the next morning and I'd get to bed maybe before one
o'clock, the next morning up at 5:30 to 6:00 and at it again. Now, I did that
for seven years.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: A little over seven years. And I look back then and just wonder
how my, how else ____. I was healthy, didn’t use any tobacco, no cigarettes, no
liquor, beer, or anything of the kind, and I didn't have any bad habits and I
didn't, course I didn't fool around with any prostitutes, so . . .
ALEX.: Yeah.
DUNBRACK: But I lived a clean life.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: I'll say the Lord has given me good health. I had typhoid fever
when I was 12 years old, laid in the old hospital up here for 4 weeks and I got
over that and I was never back in a hospital or doctor's care until ____ in '72,
believe it or not, I had a low blood count.
ALEX.: Is that right?
DUNBRACK: I went over to Charlottesville, we'd been goin' over there ever
since July in '31, went over there about gettin' my glasses, my eyes kinda begin
failin'. I was talkin' to Dr. Kriger while I waited. At that time I weighed, uh,
215 pounds. And when I went in there about ____ which you know about* he shook
hands with me and he said, "Marvin, Marvin," he said, "What's happened to you?"
I said, "I don't know, you tell me. What do you mean?" He said, "Where's your
weight? What's wrong?" And I said, "Well, I don't know." He said, "You been
sick?" "No, sir," I said. "I'm just weak as a cat, but I don't know what the
trouble is." But he checked my eyes and then on in the same building on another
floor there's an eye specialist there, Dr. ____. So he said to me, now he said,
"When I get through with you, you’re goin' down in to see Doc Rosy, that eye
specialist and he's gonna check you and see what's goin' on here." So I did and,
uh, well, he wanted me to go into the hospital and I said, "No." It was on a
Wednesday and I said, "No. Not now. I'll go home and I'll come back next
Wednesday. I'll come back and work my trade and I'll come back next Wednesday
____." But he took my blood count and believe it or not it was down to 23
points. Now that's not the pressure, you know, that’s the blood count.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: It didn't show a sign of a hemorrhage, losin' a drop of blood any way
shape or form. My, uh, I'll say my blood manufacturin' outfit, manufacturin' my
blood, just ceased to function.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
DUNBRACK: And, uh, well, when my blood count was down to that, uh, Dr. ____,
he said, "Marvin, I wish you'd stay in the hospital." Well, ____, I just can't
do it. I said, "I've got to go back and make arrangements." Had to work the
trade and everything. I can't let my company down. So when I left there he told
me then I have to come back. I came back the next Wednesday then went in the
hospital and I had, he was a specialist physician and four others come into work
on me and they don't know yet today what happened to my blood.
ALEX.: Huh.
DUNBRACK: And then another thing, down to 23 points, he said, "If your blood
count gets under 26 or 7, you usually don't come through. You pass on."
ALEX.: Uh huh.
DUNBRACK: And I asked him why is that. Well, it overworks your heart. You'll
have such a small amount of blood that your just, just works hard ____. And he
said, "You have a good heart." I know he came into my room there and had
portable equipment to check me over, but the nurse had come in, the head nurse,
and she checked me over and took my heart ____ and everything. You can just add
over there, be all right, honey. And he said, "Marvin,” he said, "I just want to
check you over again." And I said, "Now just a minute here, Doctor." I said,
"This good-looking nurse came in and checked me a while ago." I said, "Can't you
take her word and the equipment's word for it?" "No, sir," he says. "I'm not
going to." He says, "Do you want to go down into the emergency room? ____. I'll
do surgery." And I said, "Why not in my room one bit." I had a private room
anyway, private bath and everything. So I said, "I'll lay here on the flat of my
back and you can check it." Well, I, he gave a drill in my chest bone area,
wanted to check my marrow of the bone, see whether I had any signs of cancer and
he said, "Well, if you want to lay on a bench(bed)* there, all right," he said.
And the nurse comes over on the left side and held this hand and I laid this one
out and he put his knee on it, put that drill in my chest bone and drilled
through and missed my marrow. And he come out and said, "Marvin, I'm sorry," he
said. " I missed the marrow, I'm gonna have to drill again." And I said, "Okay.
That's all right." He said, "How're you makin' out? Do you want anything, want
to take anything that'll put you to sleep?" I said, "No, sir. I want to see
what's goin' on." And anyway, he said, "I'm sorry.” I said, "I'm enjoyin' this,"
and he said, "You're enjoyin' it?" He said, "Marvin, I've had big stout husky
men that I've done this and they've fainted." But I said, "I never did faint and
I wouldn't like faintin' on you." But he said, "How come you're enjoyin' it?"
Well, I said, "This lady over here, I enjoy holding her hand." And he said,
"Well, I didn't know if that was it or whether this hurts. But, uh, Mr.
Alexander, they were just real nice to me. But he kept goin' in and buildin' up
my blood count and they checked up here not too long ago and it was up to 44.
ALEX.: You, you've certainly had a pretty good time of it, and I want to
listen to this ____.
DUNBRACK: I have a good memory. I know things back . . .
ALEX.: Yes, sir. I knew that immediately when I met you over there the other
day and, uh, ____.
DUNBRACK: I, now take, uh, you see, I took in, I started in as manager up
here at Mr. McGlothlin* when he had a heart attack on the night of May 7th. That
was on a Thursday night, and I was workin' the town trade on Friday morning,
been over here at People's Store, the big building over there.
ALEX.: Yes, sir, I know.
DUNBRACK: And Mr. McGlothlin's brother, Fred, he come in and he called his
brother Old Limber. Come in and he said, "Marvin," he said, "I've got bad news
for you." I said, "What now, Fred?" He said, "Old Limber had a heart attack last
night." "Oh," I said. "You're kiddin', Fred," I said. "What's the matter? Did he
lose his stock?" "No," he said, "He just had a heart attack." I said, "Is he in
the hospital?" "No, he wouldn't go to the hospital. Doc Hammer's sittin' with
him right now. Stayed with him all night. He's in his home up here." Course his
wife had died before that, you know, and he lived by himself except he had his
brother with him. So, uh, I started workin' the whole trade then in May. They,
let's see, that was on Thursday the 7th, and on Monday morning, I worked town
trade, Tuesday, I begin workin' out of town. I worked all of that, then, until
1949.
ALEX.: Yes, sir. Well, you see, I want to talk to you again because I want
to get some idea of the trade that you were working at Cass, 'cause Mower Lumber
Company was in there and I've got some descriptions of what Cass was like in
say, uh, 1910 or something like that, too. So, Uh, I would want to get some of
that and there'd be some other areas that I'd want to explore with you but I'll
probably just save this tape. This is an hour tape and it looks like we've used
about 30 minutes of it.
DUNBRACK: Well, why didn't you say so. We could cut short. Maybe I . . .
ALEX.: No, no. I wanted this much. No, I don't want shortness, I want
length. Let me just . . .
(END)