Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: This series of postings are from interviews with Doc Stevens when he was first starting to open up to me. Like a lot of rural Americans, he was suspicious of outsiders (meaning anyone he hasn't known for most of his life) and he was very edgy in his answers, especially, because I was taking pictures, making notes and recording his responses. The next few postings will be from these interviews more than two years ago.

Doc: You want to know how a man who aint a drunk or a druggie ends up bein' poor? They's LOTS of ways to end up poor, Tondy! Lots of ways! I ain't drink or do drugs no more, an' I work hard. I aint gamble, well ... not more than buyin' a couple lottery tickets once or twice a week. You gotta play to win. I aint never won big, but got $300 one time, an it paid my rent.

A poor man has got to play the lottery. He aint gonna make no money on the job, and aint got no prospects. If a poor man is gonna get any real money it'll have to be through that lottery. YOU ain't never been in that position.

I been workin' hard for most of my life, and I have been poor most of my life. It aint laziness, it's just what happens to a lot of folks. Some ends up rich, some ends up poor, and some of the poor ones work harder and longer than some of the rich ones. Me, I'm a hard worker. When I go to work, I work hard and keep my mouth shut.

Tondeleo: So, Doc, give me some examples of how a working man such as yourself can put in a full week's work, and not drink it away or gamble it away and still be poor. A lot of people would not understand that. They say that poverty is a result of laziness, or substance abuse or both. They think a sober working man shouldn't be poor, so you're clearly a drunk or lazy or a thief, or something. That's what they think.

Doc: You're right. And that's cause they have their heads up they's backsides, Tondy. Like when I went to Orangeburg, South Carolina a few years ago. I been living in Mt. Olive North Carolina and the plant where I worked closed down. I worked at a processin' plant an' did body and fender work on the side. The garage what I was usin' got sold to make room for a Gas N Go.

I had rent to pay and no pay check. Weren't my fault. I sold some things, kept my guitars and my tools for fixin' cars and doing bodywork, and got a bus ticket to Orangeburg, South Carolina which cost about 50 bucks.

Tondeleo: What about your own transport? No car? No pickup truck?

Doc: No truck. The trans had gone on it, and all I could get from it was $400 off a guy down the road. I couldn't afford to fix it, an' had no where to keep it, so I had to let it go. If I had money to stay where I was stayin, I coulda fixed my truck, and bought a trans for $175, an put it in myself. But I was outta rent money.

That's how it goes, when you don't have nothin. If I'd left the truck there after not payin' the rent, the land lady woulda had it towed off, an' I wouldn't have gotten nothin' for it. So 400 bucks was better n' nothin.' That's life.

Tondeleo: Why Orangeburg? How did you pick that city and state?

Doc: I knew a guy what I played in a band with over in Goldsboro, NC, an he moved down to Orangeburg. Said I could find work there and he'd introduce me to people. That's all.

So I got to Orangeburg and stayed that night with him and his old lady and their three kids in their trailer. Slept on the floor. Next day, he took me to a motel out on Rte 301, where you can rent rooms by the week. $139 a week, paid up front. Now I have spent $50 to get there and $139 for my first week's rent and I still aint bought no groceries and aint got no job.

That dirty little room at $139 a week is $556 a month, but aint got to pay no light bill. But I am always a week away from bein' homeless and them keepin' my stuff what's in the room. That's how it is when you stay in a motel. One week away from bein' homless an' losin' your stuff.

And there is the crack heads, crack whores and drunks and thieves what hangs out around them places. Your stuff'll get tooken if you aint got it locked down. An' if you're new in town, they is always someone out there lookin' for a fight. I can fight, but I ain't lookin' to go to jail, an' if you is new in town an' get into a fight, you're the one goin' to jail, cause you ain't local. So I keep to myself and don't talk much.I ain't let nobody in my room to see what I got, neither.

Anyway, I had to eat, and ate at Burger King, and then went to the Gas N Go for some deodorant, shampoo, toilet paper and some food. Guess what, Tondy? None of them things is cheap at a Gas N Go, because they sell you little packages, but it is cheaper than buying it at Bi-Lo where you gotta buy more.

Them Gas N Go places keep you poor. You get a two pack of toilet paper for $2.50. 8 ounces of shampoo for $2.25. That aint no good, but it's all you can do when you're broke. It takes a lot of money to live when you're poor.

Then I had to look for a job. Kenny took me around to the body shops in near the motel, and one of them said I could start Monday, if I'd work for $9 an hour.That aint no good, but a broke man will take what he can get, and the bosses know it. Nine bucks an hour until he sees what I can do. That means he'll pay me nine bucks an hour as long as he can get by with it. I know it and he knows it. They still charge like $45 a hour for my work, but I only get that $9 a hour, under the table.

Tondeleo: Under the table? What's that mean, Doc?

Doc: Under the table means he's payin' you straight cash, no benefits, no insurance, no taxes takin out, no record of you workin' there, no social security. Bosses tell you that's the same as makin' $14 a hour if they was taken out all that. So I guess it is.

Now what am I gonna do for WAM while waitin for the first week's pay?

Tondeleo: WAM?

Doc: WAM - Walkin Around Money. W-A-M. I need money for most everything that first week or two I am in town. Got to eat, got to buy minutes for the cell phone so if I can get hired at a better job they can call. How am I gonna get work if I aint got no phone? Minutes cost money, Tondy. I'm on that 10 cents a minute deal, but you gotta buy 300 minutes at a time. That's 30 bucks gone. I need cash for laundry, too. I aint wearin the same drawers [under pants - Tondeleo] for three or four days in a row. Aint wearin the same socks for four days. Three is my limit.

That is where that guitar comes in. I gotta go play at a open mike or find a place to do some street playing. I got to keep batteries in my amp, too, or it aint no use going out there. So I spend $8 for a four pack of 9 volt batteries. When I went to Orangeburg, all I had with me was my Telecaster and that Peavey battery amp, and that little acoustic guitar.

I hitched a ride to Broughton Street and set up there playin' for a few hours until the Public Safety cops moved me on. I made about $7 and some change. I played down in front of the Bi Lo for enough food for that Chinese Buffet. Marilyn weren't with me when I was in Orangeburg, so all I had to feed was one mouth.

Tondy, think about it. I got skills. I got tools. I got guitars an' can play an' sing, an' I ain't got no family, an I am barely makin' it at that point. And I am WHITE. A white man's got it a little easier than a black man, especially down south. I ain't gonna lie to you. If you is poor an' black, people automatically figure you're a drunk or a druggie, which you may not be.

Now think of this. What if I was a man with two or three small kids and an old lady? All of us in that motel room, an' her stayin' there with the kids whinin' all day, an' me out there tryin' to survive til my first paycheck? Am I gonna have to steal SOMETHING just to get through the week? What do you think? I'd have kids wakin' up cryin' with empty bellies and no food! Of course I'd steal something an' sell it. An' you ain't gettin' no help outta social services that first month at all. An' the churches ain't got the money people thinks they got, so they ain't no choice for a poor man with kids and an old lady but for to steal - at first, anyways.

That's the beginning of how a working man can get into poverty, Tondy. Bus fare, motel room rent, laundry mat, eatin' out cause he aint got no kitchen, and that room aint had no microwave, and waitin' a week to get paid just $350. That's all the boss is gonna come up with. I know it. And I will tell you after the first week, the boss is always tryin' to find a way to pay you less, like sayin' he had to pay his shop rent, or that a customer's check done bounced and he aint got enough for himself so how can he pay you? And, what are you gonna do about it? Nothin'. There ain't nothin you CAN do about it.

Like I say, that guitar is a lifesaver for a poor man.