Larry Hilburn moved to Hollis in 1947 from Altus where he had been in the refrigeration and air conditioning business with $15 in his pocket, a wife and a baby. A couple rented them a bedroom with kitchen privileges. In 1947 there was no welfare, no food stamps and, "I had a wife and baby to care for. All a person could do was get a job, so I walked around the block and I was in business."
"I would find every one who had a window air conditioner that was all gypped up. I would go in and tell the people that I would put you 3 pads in your window conditioner, check the motor, oil, tighten the belt, touch up any little rust spots and would charge them $1.50. Mr. Coley had the hardware store. I went to him and told him that I didn�t have any money but, "I�ll tell you what I am going to do, and I promise to pay you." So for that I got a half bale of aspen wood for the pads, a can of oil and a little paint brush. I went out on the farm and picked up 2 or 3 dozen pieces of baling wire, and I was in business. As I would do the window conditioners I would give them a little card and tell them that in the fall I would come back and shut it down for the winter. I would also say that I�m really a refrigeration man and here to do that type of work. So this is how I got started. Then I would ask them if they had a fan or an iron or any kind of small appliance that I could work on. I had no place to work, so I worked on the kitchen table at night, took it back the next day and charge them a dollar unless I had to get a part. I worked this way for several months. Then I got in touch with Olen Weldon who had a shop on West Broadway about where Colson�s Agency is today. He loaned me a spot back in his work room to work. He used me help him with his electrical work, motor work and thing like that. Olen and I did the electrical work when Coley�s built their funeral home. We strung wire in the court house to replace the original wiring which was getting too hot because the wires were too small to take on the extra load at that time We worked around town in the establishments, grocery stores, etc. installing large air conditioners. We installed one for Dr. Husband. At that time there were 6-to 8 beer joints in Hollis. One near the hotel, several scattered on the south side of the street, down toward the gin, and one at the bottom of the hill."
"Then I got in with Hugh Parker. He had gotten the franchise for the Amana Refrigerator. Before he put them out he wanted them all checked out to see if they were running well. Refrigeration was my first job, but I also laid carpet, lineoum, and did all his electrical and motor work. About that time he said to me, "Larry, you are living in that little one room place down there. Why don�t you buy you a house? I�ve got a house I brought in from the farm and I�ll let you have it for twenty five hundred dollars." I said, "Mr. Parker, I don�t have no money." He told me that I could work it off. I said, "Maybe I could do that, but I don�t have any furniture." He hollers, "Pearl, go get Larry a house of furniture." So with used furniture and that little house and no money down I had a place to live and a place to work in the back of Parker�s. Most of the work I did right in the homes with the people watching me. I only remember 3 jobs that I took into the shop."
"One day Mr. Gee called me to come to his dairy out on the Texas line. He had bought a refrigerator for $15 that was not running. He didn�t want to lose his money and wanted me to see if I could fix it. It looked like it was stuck. They had sulphur dioxide in them at that time that caused them to corrode. Mr.Gee bought the refrigerator into my Parker workshop. I must have worked 20 hours on that thing. I unscrewed it, took it apart and sand papered it to get rid of all the corrosion. After taking it apart and sanding it and putting it back together 2 or 3 times I got it to running. I let it run overnight. It ran good, froze a little ice. When Mr. Gee came in for it I told him I couldn�t charge for all the time I had worked on it and charged him $10. As he left he turned and said, "How long do you guarantee this for?"
"One of the first places I worked was in the house I live in now, the Groves house. Mrs. Groves called me and wanted me to look at her refrigerator. It was running a little long. I cleaned all the lint and charged her my usual service charge of $2. She was happy. The next day I get a call from the lady next door, Mrs. Darnell I think. She wanted her refrigerator cleaned just like Mrs. Groves. When I pulled it out, it was spic and span. I worked and worked to get some "dust" off it, shoved it back in and got my service charge. She was happy, so I was happy!"
"Every time I went into the LaVista on the weekend with my wife and kids, Pat Patterson would tell me of someone who needed some work. One night Winfred Warren had a sulphur dioxide leak in his meat refrigerator with $2000 worth of meat in it. I worked with a mask on but Winfred stood right behind me. At 3:00 in the morning we got it fixed and both of us sat down on the curb, sick as dogs."
"At Mark�s Greenhouse I was in the basement with a little bitty light. Couldn�t see anything, so turned my flashlight on and found a bull snake that had crawled up in the fan pulley. When the unit started it killed the snake and blew the fuse. I also installed the refrigerated flower box for Mr. Marks for $134 which they are still using today."
"I did all the electrical work for the house where the Van Gordon�s lived, and now Gene Pierce lives. The meter base was $1. I strung the wire from the pole, into the house installed 2 plugs in each room, and wired all the lights for $34 which included all the parts ordered from Sears in Ft. Worth."
"I also worked in Wellington, Shamrock, Eldorado on Friday�s and weekends."
