Jim Kendrick was late for work. Truth be told, the whole family had overslept. Now, the household hurried to make it to their places on time. J.P. Butler, Jim's stepfather, ran a blacksmith shop in the mill town connected to High Shoals Manufacturing Company in Walton County, North Carolina. The rest of the Butler clan, including Jim, a son from Mrs. Butler's previous marriage, worked in the mills and knew they would be in trouble if they showed up late. Jim's brothers and sisters headed for work without eating breakfast, but he stayed behind. “Mama had got breakfast and the whistle blowed and I was hungry and I waited and she fixed me a lunch,” Jim, age thirteen, later recalled. Biscuit in hand, Jim hightailed it for the mill, passing his father's shop on the way.

Perhaps Joe Pettit liked trains. At age eleven, Joe tried several odd jobs in and around South Rocky Mount, North Carolina, but he kept coming back to the rail yards of the Atlantic Coast Line, dodging locomotives to ferry messages between the men working in the depot. The work was arduous: twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week. But Joe liked to work.