Raffik Telounts-From a Shoe Factory to America
At 75 years old and still strong, Raffik Telounts now a U.S. citizen currently lives in Glendale, California. He was born in Yerevan, Armenia, and lived most of life there, working in shoe factories for 45 to 50 years. As he takes his mid afternoon naps on the living room couch, he awaits for his wife do be done with the cleaning in her daughters house, to go back to his apartment.
My name is Raffik Telounts, 75 years old. I was born in Yerevan, Armenia in a small apple village. I came to America 60, 65, when I was 65 years old. No, I did not work in farms, I worked in factories. I worked there from about 45 to 50 years. I took a bus to my workplace, sometimes I walked, sometimes I took a metro.
I sowed shoes at first, and then I went and learned about making shoes. I went and learned about the study of shoes, and how to make then/repair them. I became a showman, I worked as a um, at first I sowed, then I became a shoemaker sower, and then I went and learned, and learned about more in that subject. yes, then I became an assistant manager, after I already had a diploma, and did that for many years.
With us, there was no one less then 18 years old. You had to be 18 years old to have permission to work. No, no one could work under 18, they couldn’t
We, --had insurance, like our insurance was life insurance, they took sum amount of money from our paychecks, and kept that, and in the future, if anything were to happen they would give us that money, and there were incidences where they took government money…what do u call it, the union of the workplace? And in the summer, they took you to like kind of vacations, or place to get a medical checkup, touring, site seeing.
Bosses and supervisors, well they did their job, they kept things in order. You had to always do your job, your job started at lets say, you had 30 minutes in the afternoon to have lunch and rest, then 4:30, work finished, people got up and went home. If you were late, the supervisor, or manager, would warn you to not be late, and if you did not show up for the whole day, then the next day when you came, he would ask you, where were you. If were sick, you had to have proof, like a doctors note, or a paper saying you were sick, and did not show up to work, and the workplace they gave him some kind of money, and notified that, that man did not work that day, and kept track. the assistant manager, went here, went there, did this did that, told you to do this, and do that, and always had something for you to do. Mainly our work was with the shoe sowers, we made sure they sowed well, did it correct, not go outside be slacking off, we were always occupied.
In our work area, there were a lot of risks, and danger, we…use in the shoes, certain chemicals and things that were bad for your health…the work area gave a lot of stuff to help prevent things from happening, and reduce the risks and dangers. There were fires a couple of times, which we stopped, nothing that big, we helped prevent most things from happening. There were a lot benefits: gatherings once a month twice a month, we got together with friends went to plays, movies, or we went to just have fun outside.
Left: Raffik Telounts and his wife Rima eating dinner on New Years Eve.
Well… the government it was. If you followed the law, and obeyed it nothing could have happened and no one could do anything. It it said you cant do this, then you cant do it, and whoever did something wrong, they were punished. Stealing was not allowed but people stole, without knowing then were punished, they did criminal acts, fights started on streets, drank go drunk, security and stuff came and took them. Hayastan, Armenia was under the Soviet Union, everyone was under the union, 16th republic, everyone worked for themselves. Yea elections it depends, like what kind there were city adjustment elections, there were governmental elections, different kinds, city elections that happened once every 4 years. People gathered, and were part of the voting and elections. Yes, the women had a right to vote. There were elections, meetings were made and the ballets, at 11 at night were passed and people voted. eh, they did everything, they did bad things, put down wrong ballets, counted wrong, said extra numbers then there really were.
Now they have changed, now all cultures have their religion, republics, Armenia is now independent, it has its own government, they control themselves, the peoples government, not Moscow or Russian, they deal with themselves and work.
Yes I was in the army, for 3 years, at our time there was no war or fight. We didn’t go fight because by the time I was born the fight was over; it was 1951 when I went, 1954 I came out. …Well, it was time, I went, and I was in…we were trained. Stayed in shape, practiced with guns, weapons, tactics, did certain services here and there.
Newspapers sometimes lied, but who knew? They kept things away from us, things hidden. TV shows, well not everyone had a TV, whoever did, they watched whatever there was. I was never into music from outside of Armenian that much, Armenian songs were played everywhere, but some songs were kept banned. I didn’t pay much attention what they specifically kept out but yes, they did ban and not want people to listen to certain music. I think like, um, American rock was one.
Interviewed by Gaik Pobokhian