[Excerpts of Ms. Pinney discussing her job and the daily duties of the Packaging Division:]
Q:
What work were you doing at the beginning in those first three months?
Pinney:
Well, it was the packaging/order, so it was a packaging job. Of course, we had different ways of packaging different products, but at that time everything was done by hand—everything. The bottles were blown on a little machine at the end of the line and set up on the table, and the operator would put in so many tablets and put it on the belt, and then they would put a piece of cotton on top of it, and then go down the line. Then Debbie would glue and put a cap on it. Then it would go down the line. Then put a celloseal on it, and that would tighten it to make it, ah, proof, you know, safe. Then it would go to the labeler girl, who would pick it up and stick it in this little thing, and it would come down and put a label on it. It would go down to be inspected—put in the cart reshipper; put it in the reshipper. When she filled the reshipper with what she thought was a good batch, she would put it on the conveyer, and it would go to someone at the end of the line who would seal it and stack it on a skid to go out to the warehouse.

[Ms. Pinney continues description of her job and daily duties:]
Q:
You just described what the Packaging Division did?
Pinney:
Yes. Um, we had—now we had liquids and we had dries. Of course, you know, they—but it was handled exactly the same way. They came down an assembly line, and then over the years we got in all of this automatic machinery that we just didn't have to touch much of anything. We had to sit at certain positions along the line to watch the product as it was being packaged to make sure that machine was working exactly the way it was supposed to be working and everything was being done exactly the way the company wanted it to be done.
Q:
Describe a typical workday for you.
Pinney:
A typical workday was getting to the line on time so we could get started at eight o'clock. Our day started at eight, so we were expected to be there and ready to push the buttons to start that assembly line at eight o'clock, and every two hours we rotated jobs, so it would not become … some were a little more … needed a little more close attention, which could become monotonous, and we might get a little sleepy. So we just divided it up. We just started moving—every two hours we moved.
Now, if some girl didn't like one position as much as she did another and she wanted to trade with somebody else, and that person was willing, that was okay as long as they got the job done. We didn't argue about what they were doing, um, as long as they did what they were supposed to do.
Q:
Did you work on any special projects?
Pinney:
Oh, we had many special projects. I remember one. I think it was medication for horses. They had to move us to another floor. We couldn't even take chances on the air, you know, moving the dust from that product to one of our products, and we had to wear gloves and masks and take those off and put ‘em in a trashcan to make sure we didn't bring 'em off of that floor when we came back downstairs.
And special products—special jobs for me were when there was such a demand for a product, like there was an outbreak of some type and they needed to get a lot of that product out. We would work, like, from seven in the morning till seven that night, so we could get that product packaged and get it to the place where it needed to be. I call that special, because that just demanded more of our time.

[Ms. Pinney speaks of Robins employee trips:]
Q:
Did you participate in any of the employee trips away?
Pinney:
I went on the Florida trip.
Q:
Would you like to describe that trip?
Pinney:
It was wonderful. Mr. Robins had planned it so well, that it was just a joy. We didn't have to think about what we were going to do. He had it all written out. You'd just go to the train station, board the train and go to Florida. Once we were there, he had planned lots of things for us, but he left some free time that if we wanted to do something on our own—and he gave us each one hundred dollars to spend as we wished. The weather was beautiful. It was a lovely trip, and Mr. and Mrs. Robins were right on the train with us. They joined us in everything we did.

[Ms. Pinney describes Robins Employee Perks:]
Q:
What other perks did you receive as an employee? What other perks did you receive as an employee of A. H. Robins?
Pinney:
Oh, well, we had our birthday off with a check that we could go out to eat or have cake and ice cream at home with our family. He said—Mr. Robins said one day he tried to call several of his employees in the top offices, and he got no answer. This was a Friday during the summer, and he thought, "Well, if they can be off a half a day, I believe everybody can be off a half a day." So he gave the entire company the half a day off during the summer. We liked that so much, we asked him if we could work four days a week and have the whole day off on Friday. He said yes, so we enjoyed that very much.

[Ms. Pinney remarks about employee healthcare:]
Q:
Did you receive employee benefits like health care, medical … ?
Pinney:
I cannot tell you how happy I am to have that. I really was always a very healthy person—lost very little time for sickness; only when we had the influenza and everybody was sick, but we had our own doctor there. You know, we had our own physicals. We had our physicals right there on the spot. Mr. Robins—talking about perks. That was a big one. I didn't even have a doctor on the outside, because if they saw something that I needed another doctor for, they would recommend me a doctor on the outside.
But today as I sit here in this chair, I cannot tell you enough how happy I am to have what I have, with hospitalization from the A. H. Robins Company. I have just had a slight heart attack. Five days in the hospital was seventy-four-thousand dollars. That was just the stay in the CCU for five days. I am still getting bills from the young doctor who put the stint in my heart. The cardiologist, um, everyone who touched me; all X-rays; all tests; I really have not yet reached the final cost of that visit to the hospital, and almost all of that was paid for by A. H. Robins.

[Ms. Pinney comments about E. C. Robins, Sr.:]
Q:
You did get to know Mr. Robins, Senior?
Pinney:
Yes.
Q:
From your personal interactions, what was he like?
Pinney: He was such a gentleman. He—when the company was younger, he would come through our division at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, and he made it a point to stop to speak to each group of people. Sometimes he'd just playfully pick up some of the work and try to do it, you know, and put it back on the belt, and we would get in conversation with him, and he liked that. So there was a magazine out in the earlier days. I can't recall the name of it right now, but on the back—very back cover—was always a picture with distinguished men sitting around the table advertising a certain kind of whiskey. So one of the ladies said to him, "Mr. Robins, why don't you have your picture on the back of that magazine? You belong there." He said, "You know, I've already been asked, but I had to refuse it." He said, "I don't think I would be setting a very good example."
Speaking of Mr. Robins, I recall one very hot afternoon at work. Our plant manager came around and told us all to close our machines down. We had to go up to the lunchroom. That was our meeting place. So all of us just stopped work—cut everything down—and we were walking up the hall to the lunchroom wondering why we're going to the lunchroom. Wonder what's happened. Wonder what this is all about. When we got to the lunchroom, he had ice cream for everybody. He said, "It's a terribly hot day, and I wanted ice cream, so we'll all take a break, and we'll have ice cream," and High's Ice Cream Company was right across the road from us—right across the street. So he had ice cream brought in for everybody, because he wanted ice cream (chuckles). He was such a nice guy.