March 2002       PAH #138

Excerpts from When I Grow Up: An Oral History of Unsung Childhood Dreams by Studs Terkel

“When I saw my older cousin Duke sawing into the drywall to install that inlet valve, I just knew I wanted to be a central vacuum cleaning system installation professional . . . and I didn’t want to wait. But my parents didn’t want me to quit school e arly, so in the 7th grade, I took all the money I earned tutoring kids in science and history and put towards a legal fund so that I could be legally emancipated. Well, the money ran ou t, but I wasn’t worried. I just took over my own defense, won the ema ncipation, and started working with Duke. Now I’m a c-vac man all the way. You know how much animal dander one of them power units can pick up? If I showed you, you’d heave.”

“I was nine when we got this cat, Leo, who’d pee all over the place. Finally, it was a big coincidence, but one day my dad got so furious and that same day the cat ran away and never came back. So we go out to get new carpeting and in the carpet stor e’s is this guy with a nice new green jacket who comes over to us all easygoing and quiet and without even looking at us, he says one word: Berber. Then he points his thumb to a sign that says 50% off, today only, and the joy he brings to my old man’s face . . . I’d say that’s the thing that made me always know, even if it was deep down – even after all those years when I worked at the auto plant till it shut down – that I’d eventu ally pursue this dream. It was that look on my old man‘s fa ce.”

“Standing in the checkout line with my mother, I always took note of the fast finger movements of cashiers. I was mesmer ized how their fingers would dance while their eyes were loo king at Hormel cans and Frito bags and what have you. I took piano lessons all throughout my childhood, every day, and it got so I was in competitions and being invited for recitals. I won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, which eventually launche d my career here with the New York Philharmonic. To get here, I didn’t have the time – wasn’t given the time – to give my best shot at cashiering. Oh, what I had to give up. If I don’t think about it, I don’t feel that sense of loss. But to be hone st, I think about each time I pass an A&P and I paraphrase Frost as I think, ‘That would have made all the difference.’” She sniffs, reaches for a handkerchief, then notices she is late for her command performance at the White House. “Al l t he difference.”

“Ever since I saw Fred Astaire dancing with a mop in that whattcha-callit-movie, I knew where I belonge d . . .”

“In janitorial service s. I clean up the food plant, HorseKaddish, they make the kosher condiments, anyway, I clean up that place and if you should ever get to that side of town during the overnight shift, you shoul d press your face up against the glass…well, actually, you’d be pressing your face up against the bars on the window . .. but if you look through the window, you might just see me dancing . . . but more than likely, I’ll just mopping. And like Fred Astaire, I’ve been told I make it look easy.”

“I was in 11^th grade, no more lost than any kid at that age, when I did like everyone else and sought out advice from the high school guidance counselor. I sat there and told him how I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go on t o college or just kind of stick close to home and work on my music . . . and the way he sat there and listened made me realize, wow, what a cool job Mr. Danzavino has . . . and at that momen t I realized I wanted to be where he was. Its not like he had the coolest office. In fact, it was more like a foyer to the janitor’s broom closet . . . but still . . . can you see the meaning. The cleaning solution cleans the floors, takes the crud off of the floors. The GC takes the crud off the young human mind.

“It wasn’t easy to start because all of the older teachers who needed two or three years to retire were in line for the job but each time it opened up I tossed my hat into the ring. They kept passing me over, but I put in 32 years as an Industrial Art s teacher before I was finally selected, and it came that one year when they were having buyouts, so I actually kind of retired about two weeks after I accepted the job and they gave it someone else.”

“But I think of myself as an unofficial gui dance counselor. I attend all the ball games and once in awhile I’ll bump into a former student – maybe the kid grew up to be a doctor or accountant or bank teller – and I’ll think to myself . . . is that the profession I would have steered that child tow ard? Well, inevitably the answer is almost always yes. So I guess I have always been in the affirmation business.”