Annotations for Topic: Diversity

Uh, what brings me satisfaction as a carpenter in this town? Uh, I, I think it's just the pride in what I do. You know, people, uh, they come through and they look at the houses and they, would you work on this house over here? I said, yeah, man. We went through there and looked at, and the trim work was just a immaculate, and I mean, boy, it puffs you up. Yeah. You know, it's, yeah, I did that, you know, and me and my son did that. And, you know, that it's, it is just one of those things that, you know, and it is pride in community is what it really boils down to. You know, you, you do the, and my dad's word ethnic that he tried to in, that he did instill in me and all my siblings, was the fact that if, like dad would tell me when I was working with him, he said, if you build something, he said, you build it good enough and the best you can and be proud enough of it that you'd put your name up in two foot block letters.

and they, and my mother would go and she told the neighbor lady, she said, well, you know, me and my kids, we like farm fresh milk, and if y'all have any extra, I'll trade you for it. So my mother bartered with them, and we were on a barter system because these are proud people. They would know, you ain't giving me nothing. I will trade you. You know, you're going to give me this, I'm going to give you something. And that's what they would do. They would give us farm fresh milk from their cows, hadn't been pasteurized, hadn't been processed and boils that stuff. Good. But that's the kind of thing that went on. You took care, you know, like say they were dirt poor and, you know, mom and daddy instilled this kind of thing. Uh, I come through, when I went to school, we were segregated. Uh, black kids went to one school, white kids went to another school. Um, my first friends

and they were my friends. And I can remember my school bus passing them. They're out beside the road waiting for the black bus. And I didn't get it, you know, and the white school bus would drive by. And I just, and one day I just, it just dawned on me, mama, why won't they, why, why my school bus stopped and picked them kids up? Because our school bus drives right by their school. And so when I was about eight, maybe nine years old, my mother had to explain segregation to me. And even at that age, I, that just ain't effing fair, you know? And, you know, and then of course, you know, we, when I was probably in about the fifth grade, we desegregated and blended into one school system. And it was one of the greatest things because, you know, there, there we had, we had some racists,

they had some racists. You know, all you black people just out screw me and all you black people outcr me. And it's the things that I grew up with. And that, like I say, that's part of the values that my mom and dad instilled in us, is you don't be prejudiced. You know, you judge people by their merit about what they can do and what they have done. And, you know, not just cause of, uh, their religion, race, religion or color. You don't do that. You know? And it's like I say, it was, that's one of the greatest things, uh, I think in my childhood was the parents. I had instilled these values in me, and I still got 'em now. Yeah. Uh, I, you know, and it's, it is true with every culture. There are bad apples in every bunch, but as a whole, man, people are people, you know? And it don't matter, you know, to me there are a lot of people. It does.