Post # 6: interview from Terkel

I choose two interview from Terkel: Pat Zimmerman, alternative school teacher and Dolores Dante, waitress.
Pat Zimmerman is a teacher in an alternative school for kids, who is normal in general sense, except that fact, that they are from poor families in a poor neighborhood. As he said:"This community has experience its war on poverty and hasn't changed. The kids now don't believe in politics. They don't believe things get better for them. There's feeling of hopeless and despair"(490). This interview looks to me as in illustration for the Paul Krugman's "Confronting Inequality", where he talks about the circle and rising inequality: born rich - be rich, born poor - be poor. And if people don't want to break the first circle (everyone wants to stay rich), because of increasing inequality poor people UNABLE to break the second circle. So, these kids from the poor neighborhood don't believe in, which we were talking during this semester, "class mobility". They don't believe that they can do better then their parents, majority of whom "are on welfare...They screw up...". But pat is trying to do something for these kids. He is trying to show them that they can do better. They can finish school. They can get stable full-time job. May be they will not become "doctors or lawyers. It's not because they don't know. It's that they have no expectations". So, Pat is trying to restore those expectation in these kids.
Pat also talk about the satisfaction from his work. He doesn't make a lot of money, but he thinks that the money is not that important. The satisfaction from work itself and the results of his work which is changing kid's lives for better is more important. As he said: "I run into people who say how much they admire what I do. It's embarrassing. I don't make any judgments about my work, whether it's great or worthless. It's just what I do best.It's the only job I want to do"(493).
Personally, I admire his work. Not everyone want to do or able to do the same kind of work!

My second choice of the interview is Dolores Dante, "just" waitress. I choose this one, probably, because currently I am a waitress myself and I understand, feel and experience everything what she is talking about! Long hours on your feet with heavy trays. Complicated relationship with other staff because of competition and a "war" for better customer, and a jealousy when you got one. Your boss, who wants you be the best, but not better than he is. And of course customers! They are nice, mean, generous, greedy,friendly, arrogant, moody and so on, and so on. And it's part of your job to know how to handle each and everyone of them! And its, actually, seams more important how you smile and treat your customer than how you place a plate in front of him. As we see in a shot fragment from the movie "Office space" manager said to the waitress:" customer can get his hamburger anywhere. So we need to create the atmosphere".
Even that the interview with Dolores was taking about 30 years ago, I must say: nothing changed! Waitressing is still a hard physical labor combine with a hard emotional labor. Or maybe it's an emotional labor in a first place and a physical labor after that? Another question just came to me: why you are so tied in the end of the shift: because you were on your feet for 8 hours, caring a heavy tray or because you were smiling and pretending to be happy for 8 hours? What is more exhausted: physical or emotional labor?