Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: Here is part of a conversation I recorded a year or so ago and never transcribed. Doc was talking about how, as people get more affluent, they tend to not be as happy and satisfied as they were when they were struggling.

Doc: "Ain't nothin' wrong with havin' stuff, Tondy. Nothin' at all. But the more a person has, the more he wants. That's a fact.

Not just the more he wants, but the more he thinks he needs. You take a man what's been broke all his life, and then he 'herits some money. Now he thinks he NEEDS things that used to he only dreamed about.

Now he NEEDS a couple of suits. He NEEDS vacations. Never had one in his life, now he NEEDS one or two a year. NEEDS a big house. NEEDS a shiny new car. NEEDS to have his kids in private school. NEEDS his old lady to quit workin' and to get her hair did every other week. And he ain't never had none of that even one day in his life before!

Now a poor man, when he thinks about having money, dreams that he would be more happier, more relaxed if all he had was more money. He thinks he would be happier and worry less, if he had, say a million dollars.

Poor folks worry, but so do rich folks. Matter of fact, most of the bosses what I've had has been more worried about money and payin' bills than poor folks. And they worried more about the future than poor folks.

Here they are, livin' their dream with their own shop or garage, an' people workin' for them and you find them worryin' more about the customer what went to a competitor, or worryin' about how can they get a bigger shop or a newer tow truck. I mean here is a guy who ain't never had nothin', and now he's got a little bit, he starts worryin' about what he ain't got!

Then, it gets worse, Tondy. Now he is worried about havin' life insurance, and how is he gonna send his kids to college, and his retirement, of which I ain't got one, and stuff he ain't never even heard of 'til he got a little money! You cain't even imagine the things a man will worry about, once his life gets easier an' he gets a few more dollars. Ain't no limit!

Here's somethin' else what happens. Instead of gettin' along better with people, he starts gettin' pickier and pickier! He gets mad at more people an' he gets mad for stuff what don't even matter! He's fightin' for things what don't matter one bit - an' he worries himself sick over it.

Like who is gonna be the Businessman of the Year. Who cares? Or, who else is gonna be allowed to join the same country club what he belongs to now? He wouldn't a even KNOWED about a country club a few years ago! And now he's a member, an' worried that they might let in someone who ain't up to his standard!

I say it's best to keep important things important, Tondy. Like puttin' enough food on the table. Bein' a better person. Gettin' along with folks. Helpin' people out what ain't got it as good as you, and walkin' with the Lord. That's about it. The rest'll take care of itself."

Tondeleo: To me, it's nothing short of amazing and a bit sad when I see how hard most of the rural Americans that I have met, have to work, just to sustain a not very lavish lifestyle.

America has many financial programmes that provide assistance, and many people take advantage of them. But, to most of the rural Americans I have met, accepting a handout is considered to be conceding defeat, and they feel that it also threatens their independence.

Over the Summer, I was able to spend part of a day at Doc and Marilyn's, and in the evening we visited some of their friends, all who are hard workers, but who have very little to show for their labours, at least in the material realm.

I asked Doc about how he felt, as he gets older, having to work so hard (mostly as a panel beater) fixing cars in his crowded home- made garage. Of course it is not air conditioned. He has an electric fan that was the ventilator in the 'loo of a government building that a friend of his remodeled (it was being tossed). Even with the stifling hot air being circulated, I know that I would not be able to last more than an hour. To be quite honest, his garage felt more like being in a giant human pizza oven. In the winter, he goes without heat, or uses a wood stove at the back of the shop, which does not heat it at all. It just takes the chill off. I cautioned Doc that as he got older, this would be a danger to his health.

Doc: Tondy, most days I can outwork a man what's twice my junior. But that aint as hard as it seems, cause them boys is gettin' older, too. It ain't like when they was twenty.

Alot of boys twice my junior is about thirty now, and they cain't work hard no more. So I can back off a little and still outwork 'em.

Tondeleo: OK, Doc, I understand... I think. You ARE admitting that you can't outwork a 20 year old, right?

Doc: Heck NO! Most of them 20 year olds, MARILYN can outwork 'em. Most of them what has been through high school aint had but one year of gym class! They get tired just THINKIN' about havin' to do real work. Most of 'em is bushed if they had to run a half mile! It ain't nothin' to outwork 'em!

Now Marilyn, she been doin' serious work since before I took her in when my brother died, She makes most of them boys look like the out of shape sissies they are! She can work out here in the shop when it's a hundred degrees!

These high school graduates want air conditionin' or they can't work. They want safety goggles. Sun glasses ain't good enough. Got to have dust masks and aspirators when we is sprayin' paint - or they run outside coughin' like they's dyin. But they can smoke cigarettes and weed all day long. And they can talk half a day.

Now, me, I ain't smoke nothin. I ain't drink. I ain't standin' around battin' the breeze all day. I stay pretty fit. So it ain't nothin' when a old man can outwork most men what's twice his junior - specially if they is city boys. Now country boys is another story.

Tondeleo: I was going through some of my recordings of talks with Doc and ran across this short little story. It typifies Doc's sense of humor and initial aggressive attitude, which mellows if you don't overreact immediately. A lot of what Doc says is purely for effect, or because he likes to hear it said, and nobody else is saying it. Here it is:

Doc: "So the boss man is tryin' to get me an' the other boys what worked there to come in on Saturdays and Sundays cause he cain't figure out how to make enough money Monday through Friday, and that's with over charging the customers, and payin' us as little as he can get by with, and even then not payin' us every week.

He says to us on Friday afternoon, as we was pickin' up our pay, "Hey, y'all's comin' in to work tomorrow and Sunday. Everybody is."

The other guys just moaned under their breath, but I weren't comin' in. I had a lady's car to fix on Saturday, and needed to go to the laundromat on Saturday nite. Sunday morning I was helpin' my buddy pack his things up, over to the trailer park so he could move, Sunday afternoon, I was invited to a Gospel concert and picnic with free food. I ain't had no time, Tondy. So I said "I ain't comin' in. I ain't got time to work here seven days a week."

Suddenly I heard myself sayin' "Well, in the word 'time' there's a I and a ME, so I guess I am gonna have to quit to go work for ME..."

Boss Man points to a poster on his office wall. One of them ones with a picture of a eagle or a mountain and then at the bottom has a fancy sayin' so bosses can take a vantage of they's workers.

He says, "Look at that, Doc. It says, 'There is no "I" in team.' What do you think of that? It isn't about YOU it is about US. We're a team and there is no I in team.

Suddenly I heard myself sayin' "Well, in the word 'time' there's a I and a ME, so I guess I am gonna have to quit to go work for ME, if you start this workin' all the TIME stuff."

An' you know what? He let us all not HAVE to work on Saturday an' Sunday, if we already had plans. An' he asked us not to plan much for the next two weekends. He were a pretty good ol' boy after all, if you pushed him. No doubt.

I WERE kinda scared for a minute he was gonna fire me for sayin' that!

Doc: “That neighbor’s boy – ain’t a boy, he’s a man – he’s 25. But he ain’t no man cause he won’t work or support himself. No, he sleeps in the bed his mama put there for him when he was 5 years old, and he don’t know nothin’ about bein’ a man.

He ain’t stupid, as far as him not havin’ a mind. He just fills his mind with trash that don’t do him no good at all. He gets on that interweb an’ types to people he don’t even know, but he ain’t got a job. He does that for hours.

He plays them ‘puter games all night, an’ then sleeps til 2 in the afternoon. Tells me he got on a new level last night. I said a new level of stupidity? He said he killed seven ninja warriors last night an’ now he is a champion. He is a champion of his head being a garbage can with a hairy lid, that’s what he’s the champion of.

Ain’t nobody payin’ him to play those games or be on his 'puter. Told me he is takin’ over the universe. I said why don’t you work on takin’ over a car an’ takin’ over a job so yer mama don’t have to feed you an’ wipe your rear end. An’ he went inside the house an’ pouted about it.

That boy or man or whatever you call him, a male type creature but he ain’t no man, won’t go to bed so he can catch a ride with someone who goes to work every day. Two or three people goes to La Plata every day an’ go right past his house, but he’s in bed. I ain’t got no use for him. I wish his mama would put him out an’ when his stomach gets close enough to his spine, he’ll get a job. Guarantee it.

What’s he gonna do when his mama dies? Prob’ly move in with some girl he’s knocked up by then an’ mooch offa her like a big overgrown baby. An' any girl who would sleep with him is as stupid as he is – cause now you got TWO stupid grown ups an’ they will be two times as stupid as parents. If I was their kid I would commit suicide.

That’s why so many kids commit suicide, Tondy – they’s parents are not grown up themselves an’ are still actin’ like teenagers an’ wantin’ their kids to act like grownups. Not all of em, but a lot of em. I see it everyday, bunch of drunken weed heads an' crack heads an’ meth heads. An' I ain’t talkin Methodists.

I’m askin’ him why he ain’t left the nest yet. He says things cost too much. I say they ain’t cost too much, you just ain’t makin’ enough. Get out there an’ make some money, Sport, an get outta your mama’s house.

He says ain’t nobody hirin.’ He ain’t had a job more than two weeks since he got outta school, an he DOES have a diploma, just got no ambition. I ain’t got no diploma, but I got a fire in my belly to stand on my own two feet and be a man.

I tell him they’s hirin’ up at the Walmart in La Plata. But he don’t want to work at Walmart. He says he would have to leave too early an’ besides he ain’t got no car. That’s cause he won’t work a real job. An’ because he smokes reefer an’ ain’t got no drive. But they ain’t givin’ him that weed for free. He don’t say IT cost too much!

So I tell him he already SMOKED his car! Ten, twenty dollars a day worth an’ now he is sittin’ on his mama’s porch makin’ excuses. If he HAD a car he couldn’t keep it cause insurance would be too much, tags would be too much, gas would be too much an’ wherever he got a job, they would be too mean an’ he would quit. He got excuse- itis.

I ain’t no Eisenstein, Tondy, but I ain’t no ‘scusemaker. Seems to me it’s just common sense when you ain’t got nothing, an’ are broke, that you get out there an’ take any job what’s legal an’ learn a little bit, get a car, get a place to stay an stand on your own two feet like a grown up. He’s a 25 year old crybaby. A man don’t make excuses, he makes a life and helps other folk.

My daddy use to say a woman looks for a strong shoulder to cry on. A man wants to have that strong shoulder for her to cry on. He also use to say if you wait for all the lights to turn green before you head into town you ain’t never gonna get outta the house. You do what you can and you BE something so you can stand tall an’ look any man in the eye.”