P.S. (25 page)

 

GEORGIA TURNER: Sometime I look up . . . I don’t have to do nothin’ . . . just stand and look up there . . . and look up towards the Father. When I look up towards the Father, the tears come rollin’ down and tie a bouquet under my neck. I say, “Lord, here I am.” When the storm and the wind get to tossin’ the tent from side to side, I call up the Boss and tell Him. I say, “Lord, here I am. I ain’t even got a shelter; I ain’t even got a frame around me. I say, “You know me. Remember me, here. Take care.” Because I’m striving to make Heaven my home. I’m working to make Heaven my home. I’m bearin’ my burden. I’m bearin’ down in the morning, yes, I’m cryin’ in the evening sometimes, you know, tryin’ to make Heaven my home. That’s what it takes. I got to love everybody. I can’t hate nobody . . .

 

[Strains of “I’m on My Way” playing]

 

TURNER: If you do me wrong, I still don’t hate you for it. No. Because I’m on my way. And I don’t see nothin’ to turn me back. I’m on my way!

 

[Mahalia Jackson singing “I’m on My Way, to Canaan Land”]

In the darkness with a great bundle of grief the people march.

In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people march:

[There is a slight pause; then we hear Eric Naess, the baby, just learning to talk, say “Hoppy! Hoppy! Hoppy!”]

 

[Pete Seeger strums the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on his banjo as Studs Terkel reads the closing credits.]

 

For thirty-one years, we played
Born to Live
on our radio station at 11 a.m. every New Year’s morning. At 11:05, as reliably as Big Ben, the phone rang. It was the baby, Eric, who mumbled in broken English, “Happy, happy, happy.” Every year, the broadcast, followed by that call. Through the years, I discovered he sang in a children’s choral group. As he aged, his voice deepened to a bass baritone. I learned Eric became a ranger because he loved the woodlands. When last I heard from him he had become a labor organizer.

My salute to Sydney Lewis, my right hand; JR Millares, my caregiver and companion; and my son Dan, everlastingly on the watch. I bow deeply to Connie Hall for her remarkable detective work in tracking down the date and circumstances of the Chicago monthly journal vignettes, and offer my thanks to Lois Baum for coming through with several pertinent suggestions. A doff of my cap to the New Press staff, especially Jyothi Natarajan and Maury Botton, and gratitude always to my longtime publisher, André Schiffrin.

“Scaring the Daylights Out of Ma Perkins, 1974” first appeared in the
Chicago Guide
23:2 (February 1974), 110–113, 192.

“Dreamland, 1977” first appeared in
Chicago
26:4 (April 1977), 127–129.

“City of Hands Was Born in Mud and Fire” first appeared in
Financial Times,
September 10, 2005. Reprinted with permission of
Financial Times.

“Vince Garrity, 1974” first appeared in the
Chicago Guide
23:8 (August 1974), 88–89, 99.

“Frank Tuller, in Memoriam, 1975” first appeared in
Chicago
24:7
(
July 1975), 86–87.

“Who’s Got the Ballot?—Red Kelly, 1975” first appeared in
Chicago
24:1 (January 1975), 64–67.

“Ya Gotta Fight City Hall, 1973” first appeared in the
Chicago Guide
22:9 (September 1973), 145–147.

“Nighthawks,
1971” first appeared in a
Life
magazine book review by Studs Terkel.

“A Christmas Memory, 1973” first appeared in the
Chicago Guide
22:12 (December 1973), 128–131.

“Suffer the Little Children, 1980” first appeared in
Chicago,
February 1980.

“A Family Bar, 1979” first appeared in
Chicago,
January 1979.

“Aaron Barkham” first appeared in
Hard Times
(New York: The New Press, 2000), 202–206. Reprinted with permission of The New Press.

“A Voice from a ‘Hey, You’ Neighborhood, 1973” first appeared in the
Chicago Guide
22:11 (November 1973), 150–151.

© 2008 by Studs Terkel

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,
without written permission from the publisher.

 

Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this
book should be mailed to: Permissions Department,
The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.

 

Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2008 Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

 

Terkel, Studs, 1912–

P.S. : further thoughts from a lifetime of listening / Studs Terkel. p. cm.

Includes pieces that appeared in the WFMT magazine, Chicago.

eISBN : 978-1-595-58740-4

1. Terkel, Studs, 1912—Miscellanea. 2. Broadcasters—United States—Biography—Miscellanea. 3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography—Miscellanea. 4. Interviews—United States.

5. United States—Social life and customs—20th century—Miscellanea.

6. United States—Social conditions—20th century—Miscellanea.

7. United States—Intellectual life—20th century—Miscellanea.

8. United States—Politics and government—20th century—Miscellanea. 9. Chicago (Ill.)—History—20th century—

Miscellanea. I. Chicago (1975). II. Title.

AC8.T38 2008

791.440973’0904—dc22

2008026539

 

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