America Works

Patrick Palmer, Owner-operator Thornapple Farm and Draft Trash. New Haven, Vermont.

Patrick Palmer, the owner-operator of Thornapple Farm and Draft Trash in New Haven, Vermont, talks about his horse-based trash collecting business with documentarian Virgina Nickerson for the Occupational Folklife Project’s “Trash Talk: Workers in Vermont’s Waste Management Industry.”

Bill Favaro, Favaro’s Rod & Reel Repair Shop. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Bill Favaro, who, with his brother Sam is the owner and proprietor of Favaro’s Rod & Reel Repair Shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, talks with folklorist Douglas Manger about how his business developed during the 1940s when Mr. Favaros’ father–(Hypolite Favaro, Sr.) –sold fishing rods and other fishing related items at his Esso gas station. He was interviewed for the Occupational Folklife Project Baton Rouge Small Businesses and Trades.

Juan Salcido Sanchez, Racetrack Groom. Palm Meadows Training Facility, Boynton Beach, Florida.

Juan Salcido Sanchez, who like his father before him, works behind-the-scenes at leading racetracks throughout the United States as a groom and caretaker for elite racehorses, talks with folklorist Ellen McHale at the Palm Meadows Training Facility in Boynton Beach, Florida, as part of her Occupational Folklife Project “Stable Views–Voices and Stories from the Thoroughbred Racetrack.”

Alison Smith. Pet food and supply pantry. Bismarck, North Dakota.

Alison Smith, founder and director of Addi’s Eats Pet Food and Supply Pantry, a food bank that assists pets and their care givers in Bismark, North Dakota, speaks with documentarians Margaret Mary Miles and Catherine ten Broeke as part of their Occupational Folklife Project “Homeless Shelter Workers in the Upper Midwest.”

Joel Mashburn. Pharmacist and elephant enthusiast. Hugo, Oklahoma.

For several generations, the small town of Hugo in southeastern Oklahoma has been a “wintering over” town for family-owned circuses. Many of its residents are working or retired circus workers and circus references are found throughout town –from store signs to gravestones. Joel Mashburn, a Hugo pharmacist who is fascinated with circus elephants, explains how they intersect with  his life and work to researchers Tanya Finchum and Juliana Nykolaiszyn for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program “’Big Top’: The Show Goes On.”