Thanksgiving Interview with Jack Davis and Jay Hardwick

00:01 Hello, everyone. My name is Jack Davis and it is November 26th of 2023, and I'm here with my grandfather. I'm Jay Hardwick and we're in Birmingham, Alabama. So when Were you born?

00:22 November 1, 1946.

00:25 1946. Where did you grow up?

00:28 I grew up in Crestline, which is part of Mountain Brook. Lived there, gosh, I guess, until I got married.

00:40 So you didn't move one time, like houses?

00:44 We moved. But it was still in Mountain Brook.

00:46 Yeah.

00:47 Yeah, we moved from Crestland in 1962. And anyway, I just lived in Mount Brook area until I got married.

01:03 What made y'all move? Houses. Just wanted another house.

01:07 Just wanted another house. Yeah, I didn't want to move.

01:11 Yeah.

01:12 We had the biggest yard in the neighborhood and could play any sport back in the backyard.

01:20 So anyway, what was it like growing up in that time period?

01:27 It was pretty neat. You know, of course, it wasn't one any fast food places.

01:37 Yeah.

01:39 You know, we just, we. Most of the time we spent outdoors.

01:43 Yeah. Like playing football and basketball. Yeah, gotcha. Where did you. How did you choose your friends?

01:53 Well, they mostly in the neighborhood and they kind of. Kind of drifted down to our house because we had the big yard. Biggest yard in the.

02:05 Yeah.

02:05 In the neighborhood. So I guess I spent most of my time, my friends came to my house. So it was something I always remember.

02:25 Yeah. What did y'all do on a typical, like Friday night? Or did y'all go to football games? Cause I know everyone goes to football games in our high school. But did y'all have a football team or.

02:39 Well, I mean, I played YMCA football and basketball, baseball. So I didn't, you know, I guess When I was 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, I didn't go to any high school games.

02:57 Right. What about once you got in high school? Did you go to like the. Once you got in high school?

03:02 Oh, yeah, I'd go to the Friday night game.

03:06 Was it as packed as it is now?

03:10 We had a big. We had a real big class because it was. Chase Valley was the only up until Barry, which is now Hoover High School. I think Barry was opened maybe my junior year.

03:26 Yeah.

03:27 And but gosh, we had probably over 600 students class.

03:35 Yeah. So were y'all good at sports? Because Shades Valley had like everybody. So surely.

03:44 I think back then in football, the teams from like Robert E. Lee.

03:49 Yeah.

03:50 Down in Montgomery, they were in Murphy, down in Mobile.

03:54 Yeah.

03:55 They were the powerhouse.

03:56 Really.

03:59 But yeah.

04:01 Anyway, did your parents play a big role in your life, like growing up?

04:09 Yeah. You know, my mother, she was, you know, she stayed home to raise four boys.

04:18 Yeah.

04:21 So we kind of. My dad did, you know, the heavy punishments, but mom made us walk straight line.

04:34 Yeah. What did your dad do?

04:39 He had a welding and machine shop. In fact, his father, my grandfather, did some repair work on Vulcan.

04:51 Oh, wow.

04:52 That had. Had repairs thumb prepare.

04:57 Repair his thumb?

04:58 Yeah.

04:58 Huh.

04:59 Yeah.

04:59 Just get like chopped off or something.

05:01 I. I don't know if they replaced the entire thumb or what, but it. He. He was the lead guy on. On that.

05:10 Yeah. Who, who started the company? Did your grandfather.

05:12 Yeah.

05:13 Your grandfather did. Yeah.

05:14 Back in.

05:15 When was that?

05:16 Probably in their early 20s.

05:17 Early 20s. Wow.

05:20 And then when my dad got home from serving in the Navy during the World War II, he took over. He stayed until, I guess the mid-70s, and me and my brothers took over.

05:41 Yeah. What do you do for a living now? You still. Are you still in that business?

05:48 Yes.

05:48 Yeah.

05:49 Yes. Hopefully I'll retire pretty soon.

05:55 Yeah.

05:56 I've been at it for almost 50 years.

05:58 Yeah. Yeah. Is it still the same, like, are y'all still doing, like the same work?

06:04 No, we. We don't. We got out of the machine. We don't do any machining and we don't really do that much welding. Yeah, we, you know, we've got machines that will bend the steel or roll the steel.

06:22 Right.

06:24 Machines that my dad did not have in his shop. But it's changed.

06:35 Yeah. What do you all usually make now? Like anything really?

06:42 Well, we work mainly off of customer drawings and they'll tell us what to roll and we go by their drawings. That's primarily what we do. We're rolling and bending shop. We've got press brakes that will bend the steel. We've got plate rolls that are rolled plates.

07:11 Yeah.

07:14 We got a heat induction machine that rolls mainly tubing, square and rectangular tubing to a tight radius. So.

07:26 Yeah.

07:29 That'S primarily what we do.

07:30 Yeah. Have you all had to make any, like, huge pieces? Like, have you all had to make any, like, really big pieces?

07:39 I mean, we just got through doing a job on some real, real big rectangular tubing, like 20 by 12. And we had. It was a complicated job, but every job is different.

08:01 Yeah. So going into the steel business, what did you study in college and where did you go to college?

08:09 I majored in history, so it really doesn't make much sense to study history then go into the still. But it's a subject I enjoyed and it got, you know, I was able to graduate in four years from the.

08:29 University So, so you went to Alabama, right?

08:33 I did go to Alabama. I had some cousins and aunts that went to Alabama. So really it's. The university's been in our family for a long time.

08:49 Yeah, yeah. Was the football team good during the time.

08:53 Well, when I was in school they were good.

08:56 Yeah. And they, they were.

08:58 Gosh, I don't. They won a national championship when I was a freshman.

09:03 Yeah.

09:05 They should have won another one when I was a junior.

09:08 Right.

09:10 But you know, we have had good teams.

09:14 Yeah, yeah. So choosing history, what, like if you didn't have the family business, what do you think you would have gone into?

09:29 Probably teaching or law.

09:38 Yeah. So going back to the steel business, was that a high profitable job back in the day? Because I think, I mean that was a pretty big booming period. Right?

09:49 Yeah.

09:50 Everyone needed a steel or something. You know what I mean?

09:54 Yeah. We've got, even back then, we've got machines that nobody else has.

10:02 Oh, really?

10:03 So that helps.

10:03 Yeah. Get it done quicker.

10:06 Yeah, yeah.

10:07 More efficient.

10:08 Yeah.

10:10 So obviously during that time period the civil rights movement was going on. What. Can you just walk me through that and like what it was like during that time period?

10:21 All of unrest happened when I was. Mainly when I was in high school.

10:27 Yeah.

10:30 1963, mainly when they had all the disturbances downtown and they had the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church where those four girls were killed.

10:55 Yeah. I've been in that museum.

10:57 I have not. I need to go.

10:59 Yeah, it's pretty cool. I went there last year.

11:06 And then the Civil Rights Voting act was signed when I was, I guess maybe when I was a freshman down at the university.

11:22 Yeah. Did that play a big role in high school? Like, were there a lot of African Americans in your.

11:30 No, I don't think there was any really.

11:34 Wow.

11:34 It's just back then the schools were strictly segregated.

11:42 Right. Wow.

11:44 It's just the way it was.

11:45 Yeah. What about the university? Were there like.

11:49 There was probably a few.

11:51 Yeah.

11:52 But I think the first African American admitted to the university was, gosh, like 1962.

12:01 Yeah. So that was. Right.

12:03 I was there two years later.

12:05 Yeah. Right near you.

12:06 Yeah.

12:06 So. So how did that play into like the everyday life when you go to like the grocery store or like was there a segregation like, I mean, basically everywhere?

12:20 You know, growing up, I mean, I think African Americans could go to any grocery store.

12:31 Yeah. What about the restaurants? Did you see any like sit ins or probably.

12:36 No, no, no, it didn't happen.

12:40 Yeah, it was segregated.

12:43 That's a shame. But that's the way it was.

12:45 Yep. Yeah. So transitioning to the Vietnam War, what was the economy like during that time? Because obviously a lot of the men were overseas fighting and. Did you have any service over there?

13:02 Well, I tore my knee real bad ACL injury my senior year at the university and that, that kept me out of the, out of the service. Otherwise I probably would have been drafted and gone over there. But I don't know how the economy was back then. I don't know what the rate of inflation was.

13:36 But prices were lower, right? Yeah, pretty low.

13:40 But, you know, wages were low too.

13:42 Right, right. Everything was low compared to now. Did you have any friends that went over there?

13:49 Yeah, I think, I think I did, and I don't know of anybody that was killed over there.

13:56 Yeah. Wow, that's pretty amazing.

14:00 But that was an unpopular war.

14:05 Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What do you think would be your biggest advice to someone who's choosing a major for college? Like, I mean, I'm about to have to do that and I'm leaning one way, but it's a big decision because what you're going to do for the rest of your life, more than likely. I mean, you can change it in.

14:26 College, but yeah, I mean, you could, you prominent major in something that you really like and hopefully you will use it that degree later on. It may be in a different field, but at least you're doing something that you like. But I mean, I really enjoyed history, all kinds of history. So, you know, I had a degree and I think that did help me get. Actually I went in the banking business when I got out of college. I stayed in that for about seven years.

15:23 So wasn't Nana a banker too?

15:27 She worked for a different bank. Yeah.

15:30 Gotcha. Yeah. So what would be your biggest advice for like, financial advice for someone my age? Because obviously, you know, college is some money.

15:46 Yeah. You probably need to get someone that could teach you the ropes of how to save. And I'm not saying that you need to play the stock market every day, but just need to learn to budget your money.

16:08 Yeah. Did you. Do you save money when you were younger? Like, what jobs did you have when you.

16:14 I just, I just cut a lot, you know, cut yards in the neighborhood. I did some babysitting, but it, I tried to save as much as I could because I know I, you know, I knew I would need it later on.

16:34 Right, right. Did you have any debt coming out of college?

16:39 No, I, you know, my parents. Yeah, they were able to get me through.

16:48 Yeah. Fair way. What was the cost back then? Because I know it's crazy now.

16:53 Oh, I know. It seemed like. Seemed like. Because we were on the semester system, right? I mean, it seemed like it was like four or five hundred dollars.

17:04 Really?

17:05 Something like that.

17:06 It's the lowest, I think.

17:07 I mean, that's the tuition. That's the tuition. That's not counting all the books.

17:11 Right.

17:12 Fees and all that. But.

17:16 Yeah, the lowest. I've heard. Auburn is 12 right now. 12,000 for. In state. I mean, out of states, I think it's over 30 40s. Thousand.

17:24 Really?

17:24 Yeah. So. All right. Well, thank you for your time.

17:30 All right. Jack. Enjoyed talking to you.

17:37 Yeah.

17:38 Hope everything works out okay.

17:39 Thank you. Thank you.