Behind the T-shirt: Tillie the All Time Teller

Florida National Banks' Tillie says, "I'll make your life easier."

Who is Tillie?

She's the ATM.

photo via Wells Fargo

(via Wells Fargo History Blog: Tillie the All Time Teller)

First National Bank of Atlanta  was concerned that the relatively new automated teller machine (ATM) it introduced in 1974 would appear cold and difficult to use.

In those days, customers were accustomed to walking inside a bank and chatting with a pleasant teller. So First National named their ATM “Tillie the All Time Teller,” and put the face of a smiling blonde girl on the front of the machine. “Tillie” looked inviting to customers and suggested that the machine was highly user-friendly.

 Did it work? In a word, yes. Tillie launched one of the most successful ATM systems in the banking industry.

This particular shirt says "GO GATORS" on the back. Yay unnecessary punctuation!

Available here from Etsy.  Here from Defunkd for a few dollars less!

Behind the T-shirt: Big Ed Potts

In the 80's at a Champion Paper Mill in Florida, there was a major labor dispute. The bosses wanted to take away premium pay for overtime work. The workers were pissed. 

Big Ed Potts, a pen-name for one of the workers, wrote a newsletter for the Mill "Between the Fenceposts" - in which he posted this poem:

Listen my friends to the message I gots,

This is another message from Big Ed Potts.

Listen I say and read, and listen real keen

About the way they want to screw us,

Mr. Champeen

To them it seems okay, but to me it's unfair,

If he's up to cut our premium pay, it'll be his woist nightmare.

He might think we're just blowing smoke,

But try to cut our pay and he'll surely choke.

We're in this together, ONE AND ALL,

When negotiations come, CHAMPEEN will fall

 We'll stand together, it's not just talk,

Give it your best shot...we won't balk.

Between the fence posts is what I usually write,

And premium pay is worth a fight.

We dont want much, not the silver spoon.

This is Big Ed Potts, you'll hear from me soon.

Seems the problem was resolved by forming teams consisting of both management and labor to work it all out as fairly as possible.

Find this piece of Labor Relations history here: Big Ed Potts t-shirt.
Save a couple bucks and buy it on Defunkd here.

Behind the T-shirt: Winter Park Sinkhole 1981

On May 1, 1981, a sinkhole 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep formed in the middle of Winter Park, Florida.

photo via USGS

It swallowed a Porsche dealership, a 2 story house, and a public pool.

A t-shirt commemorating this natural disaster exists for sale at Skippy Haha Vintage on Etsy. The same t-shirt on Defunkd. Perfect condition. Size Large.

Read more about it here: Wikipedia Winter Park Sinkhole

Watch 6 minutes of video from that day of a man circling the sinkhole in a plane.