Doc interrupting: No, Tondy, I didn’t QUIT. I had to stop goin’ to school so’s I could support mama and my two brothers an’ my sister. I ain’t no quitter. I had to make a choice over whether it was more important to learn math and English or be a decent human bein’ after daddy died.
Tondeleo: So you’re happy with that . . .
Doc: I’m happy to be breathin’, I’m happy to be a decent person. Plenty of people with diploma’s ain’t happy an’ they ain’t decent. I wouldn’t give a dollar for their sorry selves. They cain’t raise a kid, they cain’t stay in a marriage, they work some job they hate an’ all for what? For a society they don’t even like. An’ where’d they learn that? At SCHOOL.
They taught us history. What other people did right an’ wrong. So what? They’s dead an’ gone. They ain’t never taught us nothin’ about bein’ a decent person an standin’ on your own two feet which is why all those folks are on assistance an’ welfare an’ still hate the government. I ain’t fond of it, but I ain’t gonna take their handout an’ be dependent on ‘em. I’d rather starve first, an’ I ain’t too big on starvin’. So I learn what I gotta learn, an’ I work a couple of trades what I learned an’ I stand on my own two feet.
"They teach you how to learn stuff that you ain’t never gonna use an’ they don’t teach you how to live right."
School don’t never teach that, Tondy. Never, unless they got some new school out there now. They teach you how to learn stuff that you ain’t never gonna use an’ they don’t teach you how to live right. I ain’t talkin’ religion, but they ain’t taught me how to stay sober. Had to learn that on my own. Didn’t teach me how to handle money when I get my hands on it. I’m still learnin’ but school ain’t taught me.”
You don’t think I done too well. I know that. But my daddy only learnt what he could so he could get outta Scott County, an’ help mama an’ us kids have a better life. He died when I was 16. He worked all the time for a little bit of nothin’ and he taught us how to work, but he ain’t taught nothin’ else, and then he died. I was lost an’ didn’t know what to do when he died, but I knew I needed to help mama and we all pulled together as a family and done the best we could. Learnt trades, and a good work ethic, and how to be decent human beings. That is a lifetime to learn that one. Still learnin'.
