Doc: So what? I ain’t TRYIN’ to tell anybody anything. YOU’RE the one askin’ me all these questions an’ I’m just talkin’.
I ain’t got no advice. Here’s what I done. When daddy died an’ I had to drop outta school, I took a job at the sawmill cause they was hirin’ an’ I needed money for mamma an’ my brothers an’ sister. I didn’t like sawmill work an’ didn’t like Mr. Burch my boss. So what? I wasn’t there to like a job or like a boss. I was there to help my family, so I did it til I could find something else. Ain’t got nothin’ to do with did I like it or not.
Then I got a job at a body shop. I liked it better. It was an inside job, so I was warmer in the winter an’ outta the sun in the summer. I like cars. It paid better too. My boss, Leon was hard on me, but he paid me every Friday, so it was ok. I learnt a lot from him, an’ got pretty good at basic bodywork an’ paintin.’
With bodywork, I could get a job anywhere in the country. People ‘s always dentin’ their cars or needin’ a paint job. If they cain’t afford a new car, sometimes they will paint their old one. It’s a good trade an’ you can travel a lot. I have worked shops all over the south an’ made pretty fair money. That’s worth somethin’ when you like it an’ also get paid an’ can live anywhere you want.
Learned sign painting, making signs. Back then it was all hand lettered. I was at a body shop an’ when trucks came in that was lettered an’ had to be redone, I would put masking tape over the old letters an’trace them. Then I’d put it on the new door or whatever an’ cut it out with a razor knife, a exacto. An’ I would spray paint through where I had cut and presto! It looked pretty good if you stood back.
A old sign painter thought I had a knack for it an’ got me a night job at his shop. I stayed there longer than anywhere else. Two years an’ learned how to use a brush an’ real sign paint and make a real layout and do lettering. That’s been good to me, too. I can go anywhere an’ there are signs, windows, race cars… umm, trucks, boats, you name it what needs letterin’ An here I am. I done that a lot in my life.
So I have gotten to travel, I have always had a roof over my head if I wanted one, I have sent money back to mama and my family every week, most the time, an’ I met a lot of people.
Now and then I meet some office boy who looks down at me because I can dress the way I want, work when I want an’ I like my life – an all he got to show for his life is a ulcer an’ some money an’ he hates it all. That’s all I need to say about it, Tondy.
"I got nieces an’ nephews an some grown men what I helped when they was young an’ was goin’ astray. That’s a retirement, too. It ain’t all money."
Tondeleo: What about retirement? You don’t have one, do you, Doc?
Doc: “No I aint got no retirement money set away. But I can work, I can help folks, I got Marilyn, my brother’s daughter an’ she will help me like I help her, if I ever need it. When she gets married her an’ her husband will help me when I get that far. That’s a retirement. I got nieces an’ nephews an some grown men what I helped when they was young an’ was goin’ astray. That’s a retirement, too. It ain’t all money. An’ I will end up in the same nursin’ home as that office boy when he gets too old to shuffle papers an’ they put him out to pasture. OK. We’re done here talkin' about them days what ain't even here yet.
