Q676 Transcript

Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

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Part 1

(Voices in background on public address system)

Woman 1: Keep singing. You can finish your song.

Child: (Sings) Ahh- Ma- (Speaks) That was the wrong way. That was the wrong way.

Woman 1: It’s on.

Child: It’s wrong way.

Woman 1: It’s on.

Child: It’s the wrong way.

Woman 1: It’s the right way. It’s on. Sing.

Child: (Breathes)

Woman 1: Are you going to sing a song for Jim?

Child: No. (unintelligible word) It ain’t on. It ain’t on.

Woman 1: It’s on. (Tape edit) See this going around? Look. See this going around? It’s on. You’re supposed to be singing.

(Child vocalizes for several moments, followed by unintelligible sentence, could be “I’m done singing.”)

Woman 1: It’s on?

Child: Yes.

Woman 1: Okay. (Tape edit) Okay. It’s going. See?

Child: (Sings two syllables) Is that on?

Woman 1: It’s on. Look. Come on. It’s on. Leave it alone.

Child: Wait. Let me hear it. (unintelligible under woman)

Woman 1: You gotta sing first before you hear it. Now sing, and then we’ll hear it.

Child: (Sings three syllables)

Woman 1: Now, that’s not a song. Sing a song.

Child: (Sings few syllables) Thank you, Jim- I thank you, Jim, to be here.

Woman 1: To be here, yeah. How about a melody? Sing.

Child: It ain’t on.

Woman 1: It’s on. It’s on. (Laughs) Sing. Johnny, it’s going around. It’s on. Sing.

Child: (unintelligible)

Woman 1: John doesn’t know how to sing.

Child: Yeah-

Woman 1: Sing-

Child: (unintelligible singing)

Woman 1: Glad you are with us.

Child: (Sings) Glad you are with us.

Woman 1: Welcome. Welcome. Welcome all of you.

Child: (Shouts)

Woman 1: You forgot the-

Woman 2: Welcome. Say, welcome.

Child: Welcome.

Woman 1: Okay, let’s hear it. (Tape edit)

Child: What?

Woman 1: It’s on. See?

Child: (Sings one syllable, unintelligible word)

Woman 1: It’s on. No, leave it.

Woman 2: John, it’s on.

Woman 1: Leave this- you-  you can hold this.

Child: Let me- Let me hear it. (unintelligible word)

(Tape edit)

Rest of side one is blank.

Side Two

Part 2

Man: Ten, eleven-

(Tape edit)

Recorded voice: The time is-

Part 3:

Male: Uh- We have uh, this thing all fig- uh, fixed up so that the- your voice will transmit to the whole PC.

Marceline:  Oh, fine.

Male: Uh- And I didn’t- I just said that things are positive, I didn’t go into any details so that you could go into them.

Marceline:  Okay.

Male: Uh- But I just wanted to ask you one thing. When I talked to Archie [Ijames], you had- the first thing that you had told me was to tell him that uh, Jim had written a letter to the high officials, uh, uh, praising uh, AJ and telling of his fine son. Now-

Marceline:  Yeah-

Male: -None of that stuff came up. And I didn’t know if I was just supposed to bring it in out of the air or not, ’cause he was so positive-

Marceline:  Well-

Male: I couldn’t believe it, and I thought, or I’ll wait to hear from you-

Marceline:  Yeah-

Male: -and then-

Marceline:  I- I understood that you were, but I don’t think it is uh, you know, that big a thing. If he’s positive-

Male: Well, he is-

Marceline:  -next time you talk-

Male: -all he could do- you know, he told- he told me about he using Jim’s picture, and a dog was healed, uh, and then in San Juan on the airport, a man had a heart attack, and he took Jim’s picture out and the man w- uh, got up and- and we- he had a conversation with them. I mean, he was so positive, I just thought, well, maybe, I just better not even bring (unintelligible word) anything.

Marceline:  Yeah. I think so. You did uh, bring up something uh, about Jim understanding why he’d gotten upset.

Male: Yeah, I- I mentioned that to PC tonight.

Marceline:  Good.

Male: Uh, you know, what to say if- if they got in conversation with him, and told him that nobody should really be talking to him alone, but just in case-

Marceline:  No-

Male: Now I didn’t know whether I should say that this idea came from you or was just me, and I- so I said I- I put it very ambiguous, I said, it would seem to me, so that, if you wanted me to say it was you or Jim, I could later on, but I didn’t want to put, you know, Jim on the spot in case you didn’t want me to do it that way.

Marceline:  Uh-

Male: I said, it would seem to me a good thing for us to say, if Archie cames in and w- and- and he’s talking about he was bitter that, you know, we could say, well, the reason for this, we- you know, we- we know (unintelligible word) why Jim would understand that you would be bitter, if you thought that somebody was going to sell you to New York, which we understand somebody told you.

Marceline:  Yeah, yeah-

Male: But see, I said it in such a way that- I didn’t say it came from you, because I didn’t want to-

Marceline:  Yeah- well, did- did you say that to Archie on the phone?

Male: No, I didn’t say that to Archie on- (Laughs) I didn’t say- I didn’t talk about ne- anything negative to Archie-

Marceline:  Yeah, well, Jim wanted you to say that to Archie on the phone, that you had talked- that he’d talked to you and that he-

Male: Oh, then- I didn’t know if I should even say that. I didn’t pick that up that I was even supposed to mention- I mentioned I talked to you, but not to Jim, see.

Marceline:  Yeah. Yeah.

Male: So let me get this straight. I am to tell- I- Should I call- I better call Archie back then, uh-

Marceline:  Well, I don’t know whether- I don’t know whether you should make a special effort just to call about that.

Male: Okay. But I am to say these three things: One, that Jim had written a letter to high officials uh, in that country praising him and telling them of his fine son-

Marceline:  Yes-

Male: Two, if he comes, bring it to me about uh, Nora’s letter, that uh, he didn’t know about it, and three-

Marceline:  Yeah-

Male: -uh, (Stumbles over words)

Marceline:  Just say, you know, gee, Jim mentioned to me that uh, uh, why you were upset, you know, and that he really could understand why, if someone told you that he was going to send you to New York.

Male: Okay. (Making notes) “Why you were upset.”

Marceline:  Um-hmm.

Male: Now, you don’t think I should call him back tonight.

Marceline:  I don’t think so. I think he’d kind of paranoid about it, don’t you?

Male: Okay, ’cause he may be calling me again, and-

Marceline:  I’m sure he will. And if he was-

Male: -and I’ll just tell him that next time.

Marceline:  -if he was positive-

Male: -Should I- I mean, he was just like a new man-

Marceline:  Yeah, that’s great.

Male: I mean, he was- he was fantastic.

Marceline:  That’s great.

Male: In fact, he was even giving instructions as if nothing had ever happened, so-

Marceline:  That’s wonderful.

Male: I let everybody else know tonight. So now you’re on the- We’re going to put you on the air right now.

Marceline:  Okay, wait, I want to remind you about this Jackson’s belongings.

Male: Okay, “Jackson’s belongings.”

Marceline:  That’s very important, ’cause see, Jack’s down there now-

Male: -Okay, Jack, Jack-

Marceline:  -is down there now, taking care of it, and what he told me, when he got ready to leave, he said I’m gonna sort that stuff out and what I had- and what is just junk, I’m gonna tell him it got stolen. Well, Jim says to guard that stuff. You know, she crated it up, and leave it in the crate-

Male: Okay.

Marceline:  -and uh, there’s some things she especially wanted, like the uh- (Pause) Wait, I gotta get the piece of paper where I have that written on. Like her uh, knitting machine and there was a davenport, they even made her take clothes that she had packed and wouldn’t let them bring it, you know.

Male: Umm.

Marceline:  So, tell him to be sure to get that stuff safe someplace, until we get ready to ship it over.

Male: And then Archie will be coming there.

Marceline:  Yeah, Archie’ll be- help besides. Also, Harold [Cordell] and Kay [Nelson] would- and Kay is the one that took their box of deeds and insurance papers.

Male: Kay-

Marceline:  That’s the offering taker. What’s her last name?

Male: Uh- Nelson?

Marceline:  Yeah.

Male: Uh, she took what?

Marceline:  The box that had their deeds and insurance papers?

Male: “Took their box with deeds-”

Marceline:  And they also had a house they were collecting eighty dollars a month rent on, and I understand she’s doing that for (unintelligible word)-

Male: Okay. “Collecting (Pause) eighty dollars a month rent.” So what do you- you want me to ge- have her send that deeds and stuff?

Marceline:  Uh, when they get ready to- yeah, send the stuff, they’ll want that too.

Male: “When get ready, send stuff.” Okay.

Marceline:  And uh, I think we should find out how the collection of rent is going, but I think someone that’s very tactful should find out. Maybe I can ask her when I go down this weekend about that.

Male: Okay. Okay, let me ask- one point- uh, one other thing, I got a message here that anyone talking to Jim, you should ask for the breakdown of the projected 800 cash. Uh- (Pause) 800 cost. Uh, if you talk with him, could you make a point that we haven’t got enough of a breakdown up here. (Pause) In other words, I got a note from Tish [LeRoy] just now, saying that- to ask you that next time you talk to- to Jim, you would ask if there’s a breakdown coming of the projected 800 dollars cost.

Marceline:  Okay, I don’t understand what that’s about, but-

Male: Anyway, apparently we have not got it refined enough. We were supposed to- you know, Jean Brown was supposed to get something, and she got a partial statement, but not a full statement. Uh- it’s on the assumption of- that uh, he’s still there, you see. (Laughs) I see it now. (Pause)

Marceline:  What is this projected 800 dollars cost? I don’t understand. What is- Does- Will he understand it?

Male: Uh- (Pause)

Marceline:  800 dollars cost?

Male: I guess you- yeah, if you talk to him, just say, we- we don’t feel that we’ve gone an adequate- we have gotten a sufficient breakdown of the 800 dollar cost.

Marceline:  Okay.

Male: He’ll know- he’ll understand what that means.

Marceline:  Okay. Uh- If that- you know, if that’s really important, you know where you’ll be until seven o’clock in the morning.

Male: Yeah, and it’s not that important.

Marceline:  Okay.

Male: It’s only if he calls you for other reasons. (Pause) Okay?

Marceline:  Yeah.

Male: Now we per- we just found out that this uh, loudspeaker doesn’t work fully, so we’re just going to put you on tape, and then just talk to the tape.

Marceline:  All right.

Male: And uh- and I haven’t gotten any of the details, but I think they’ll be excited to hear what was said.

Marceline:  Okay. All right.

Male: So uh, are you ready? (off phone) Are you ready to- to tape Marceline? (Pause) Okay. Here we go. You’re on- You’re on the air.

Marceline:  Okay. (Pause) Jim called uh, tonight, and he wanted me to be sure to get the message to all you beautiful people that have been such a tremendous support and help to this cause. Uh, first of all, he’ll be in one week from Saturday. He’ll be coming in to San Francisco – this is just for the PC to know – I don’t think we need to let the congrena- congregation know just when he’s coming in. And Don Beck will be in sometime this week, probably before the weekend. Jim wanted you to know that you would be amazedat the wonderful transformation of all the people’s lives that come- have gone down to Guyana. He said that every troublesome person has found themselves, that Greg Frost is a top-notch gardener, the corn that uh, they’ve grown there is four feet taller than Jim. And he said that Les Matheson is a born furniture maker. He’s making beautiful furnishings for the commune there. People like Jack Barron have really found themselves. He said that Michelle [Touchette] uh, is so happy in the interior, she’s uh- I think he said she’s taking- a charge of the laundry, I’m not sure, but there’s some task that she’s supervisor of, she’s so happy there that she’s not going into Georgetown to go to school, but she’s going to finish her high school by correspondence. (Pause) They have built a remarkable commune. They already have two large buildings that are built, uh, they are beautifully decorated, they are appropriate models along the walls, and they told of singing a song in route on the ship to Father, and it kept the boat from sinking. He said that Archie is back in the fold. He said it took long hours of talking, spending time with him, but it has been accomplished. Uh, Brother [David Betts “Pop”] Jackson uh, and Sister [Luvenia] Jackson are just doing beautifully. Brother Jackson is working uh, hard, and the children gather around him to hear stories. He had what they had uh, Brother Jackson called a locked bowel, I assume that’s a bowel obstruction, for three weeks, and they wanted to do surgery, and he said “No way. Father will take care of it.” And, as you well know, Father did. Mother Jackson’s pies are so good and so well known, that the Prime Minister has ordered one of her pies. Uh, I can always tell when Jim is trying to be positive to help me feel better, and this is not a case- that case-

Male: That’s beautiful-

Marceline:  -uh, he’s just very, very optimistic about how things are happening there. And uh, I did tell you about getting the radio information-

Male: Right.

Marceline:  -from Ben [Bowers]. And one of the things he said was that the government is so impressed with what we’re doing there, that they certainly are going to help us, you know, see that we have radio um, communication.

Male: Oh, that’s great. That’s beautiful.

Marceline:  So, keep looking up, you know? (Laughs)

Male: Well, thanks so much for calling us.

Marceline:  Yes. And I’ll be seeing you.

Male: Okay. I’ll-

Marceline:  Okay.

Male: Uh, I’ll take of the other matters, and the next time that there’s a call to me and uh, uh, if you need me, I’ll be down to L.A. at a- at a c- at a con- you know, continuing in- educational bar course, but Eva will have my number.

Marceline:  All right. Fine.

Male: Take care.

Marceline:  Okay.

Male: Bye-bye.

Marceline:  Bye bye. Oh- (attempt to reconnect cut off)

Tape originally posted June 2005