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(Note: This tape was transcribed by Michael Bellefountaine. The editors gratefully acknowledge his invaluable assistance. Thanks also to Adrian Whicker for correcting several misidentifications.)
Woman: (Unintelligible in radio room)
(Tape edit)
Jones: God, don’t expect to come over here and find Hollywood.
Crowd: (Scattered response)
Jones: (Voice rises) Don’t expect it, don’t- don’t do that. We’ve had to fight the CIA who’d blocked our money. You ain’t got no goddamn money to take care of yourself. Who paid that 25,000 dollars that’s gonna go out for that child that was uh, uh, suffering enormous- If it hadn’t been for the power of- of whatever I have in the paranormal, the child would’ve died. Or like Rose, and everything comes in sets of threes. She was paralyzed too this week with a total massive hemorrhage in her brain from that horrible fall after falling down. And uh, who- who pays- who pays for all that airplane and pays all the way and gets a neurologist to meet to the airport, and one to come with us from out of the country if necessary and then on to Cuba for special surgery. That’s what I’m talking about. It can be 25,000 dollars. Now what the fuck is important to you? Is it important to you that you eat every goddamn thing you want, or you have your Pepsi Cola, or you have your little creature comforts, or is it really important that your children are taken care of in their hour of need? Now what the fuck is important to you?
Crowd: (Scattered applause)
Jones: (Under his breath) Bitch. (Pause) (Conversational tone) And all the shit that goes on, comes through here. All been in about you people, it comes through every train that comes through. There’s some people that carry on like horses’ asses. We hear about it. Georgetown lets us know. They- they let us all know. I don’t have to be a prophet to know the bullshit that comes rolling through here. But a lot of people come, black, worked all their life, poor whites who worked all their life and given in sacrifice, never make a complaint. They’re so grateful, they’ll get down, touch the soil and kiss it. The only reason you got problems is ’cause you give yourself time for problems. It conditions the mind or the whole center of the situation. If you get the right attitude, your health will straighten up, everything will straighten up, everything will harmonize.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: You don’t have a right attitude, nothing’ll go straight.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: Now we’ll be very deliberate. I don’t raise my voice that many times, but I’m pissed at some of the shit coming in here. I’m pissed at it. I’m- I’m horrified that some people never remember me long enough that they get no sooner out of the goddamn country – or I get out of the country rather – and we- we start some kind of new horseshit. I don’t understand it. I for- I forgive, and forget, and reconcile, and reach out to your loved ones I don’t even know, and you still carry on. I go down and pick you up after you’ve gone out from the movement. I want to ask you, [Robert] Paul, right off. What the hell are you go- you come over, you got a wife [Ruletta Paul] over here, I want to ask you. I’m talking to you. Why you got a woman pregnant that’s uh, pestering our damn church already, pestering our church and threatening over you. Why in the- Why couldn’t you wait long enough? Your wife wasn’t here just a few days before you?
Robert Paul: Well, Father, I- I wasn’t sure.
Crowd: (Scattered calls)
Robert Paul: (Unintelligible, interrupted)
Jones: (Voice rises) Goddamn men, I don’t know why the women don’t all declare Amazonas and lesbianism and forget it. It’s ridiculous. (Pause) You don’t know anything about this? You don’t know anything about the paper she served and all this shit and be- hounding and calling in San Francisco, and uh, you don’t know any woman you got pregnant?
Robert Paul: Father, ah- (unintelligible)
Jones: Come on. You fucked some woman since?
Robert Paul: Yeah, I- I know a woman (inaudible).
Jones: Don’t, don’t get, don’t- don’t pull this shit with me-
Robert Paul: No, that’s not-
Jones: -I’ve got an armed guard around here.
Crowd: (Scattered calls)
Woman in crowd: You will get fucked up.
Man in crowd: (Inaudible) -just like that.
Jones: Yes, pregnant-
Robert Paul: I know- I know this woman, Father, but she’s not pregnant from me, Father. She have- she have a comrade of her own.
Jones: She had a comrade of her own?
Robert Paul: Yes, sir.
Jones: You’re ah- (exhales)
Man 1: (Inaudible) The thing is you were fucking-
Jones: You, you- Are you prepared, my friend, to take a sperm test to prove it’s not your child.
Robert Paul: Father, I- I ah, I think I am.
Jones: You think you are?
Robert Paul: Yes, sir.
Jones: In other words, you fucked her?
Robert Paul: Yes, I had sex, Father.
Jones: Then she’s- why does she claim it’s your baby? Why don’t you get her a comrade of her own? Why is she pestering the hell out of us? Why is she after your ass?
Robert Paul: I don’t know, Father, I just-
Jones: (Pause) (Voice moderates) You (Unintelligible word). She claims you’re her fiancé, pestering the hell out of us.
Robert Paul: I’m not, Father. I came home, I- you know, I didn’t want to be there with them.
Jones: (Exhales) You came home, and- Good, I’m glad and I gave you every opportunity to reach down when the Ku Klux Klan was pressing on all of you and brought you, but why the hell did you have to take up that woman? You were living with that woman.
Robert Paul: No, Father, I didn’t live with that woman.
Jones: Well, what- well, what is she bothering our church for?
Robert Paul: I don’t know, Father. I live with my mom, my- my so-called mom when I was down home. I never did live with her.
Man 1: How she knew anything about you then?
Jones: Yes, how’d she get to us? Tell me that.
Robert Paul: I’ll- I’ll-
Jones: How’d she figure out where you were?
Robert Paul: Well, I- well, I talked to her, and I said I was going to meet my Father, you know, and I told her that I was leaving there and I wasn’t coming back there anymore. And that’s all it was, Father.
Woman from Crowd: You were telling (unintelligible word) fiancé.
Robert Paul: I- I don’t know how she got the phone number from San Francisco. I just told her I belonged to Peoples Temple.
Jones: (Mocking tone) That was nice of you, how real nice of you.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Man 1: It’s in the phone book, stupid.
Woman 1: You always come up with this bullshit.
Jones: Why’d you do that for? Do you- You think that uh, you’re think that you’re gonna la- ma- lay with these women, they ain’t gonna nail you?
Robert Paul: No, Father.
Jones: Now it’s nailing us.
Man from crowd: That’s right.
Robert Paul: Father, I- I didn’t even know this was going on, Father.
Jones: Well, if you men, you- you had any brains in your head instead of your dick, you’d know that when you’re gonna tell a woman I’m leaving, you been fucking her. You fucking her, weren’t you?
Robert Paul: Yeah, I had sex with her, Father, but-
Crowd: (Calls out)
Jones: Uh, that’s fucking, that’s called F-U-C-K fuck. (Pause) Jesus Christ. (Pause) We talk about no nonsense and foolishness. Now what do you think you gonna tell her? Bye bye darling, I’m leaving, and she’s not gonna do some shit to you? You people believe in love that much? You gonna have to get educated over here.
Robert Paul: Yes, Father.
Woman 2: Yes, Dad it is (Unintelligible)
Jones: Why’d you tell her where you were going? (More emphatic) Why did you tell her where you were going?
Robert Paul: Why did I tell her?
Jones: Yeah, it’s a good question, a very sensible question.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: Why did you tell her where you’re going, Paul?
Robert Paul: Father, (Unintelligible word) (Pause) Wow- I just-
Woman 2: Jesus, Dad.
Robert Paul: -wasn’t thinking, Father, I mean, uh-
Crowd: (Scattered calls)
Lee Ingram: But we’re in a new day here. Look, sucker, you’re gonna get your shit straight right now. Don’t- don’t come up here lollygagging about you don’t know, I don’t know. Take your finger out your butt and start talking some straight shit, ’cause we already know from the (Unintelligible). See, you thought the woman was dumb. When you tell her that she’s at Peoples Temple, then that- that cast the shit on us, so we gotta pay for your fucking around. So get straight right now from the jump. Well-
Jones: What did you want from her? Right.
Lee Ingram: -(Unintelligible under Jones).
Jones: Good ques- good point. Jive talk. What did you want from her that you told her how to get you? (Pause) Now don’t play with me, ’cause I know lie. What did you want from her that you told her how to get a hold of you? ‘Cause you didn’t want her to get something from you, I’m sure. No man that- there- There’s a l- old story, love them and leave them. So what did you want from her that you told her how to get, uh- for her to reach you? Driving us crazy.
Robert Paul: Uh, Father, I mean Dad.
Jones: I don’t care if you call me, Father, Dad, Jim, but uh, whatever. I- I am interested in the answers- straight answers. I want to get off to a straight record. What was your behavior in Georgetown?
Robert Paul: Uh, I did- I did whatever was necessary there. I worked and whatever (Unintelligible under tape break-up).
Jones: Um-um [No]. No, you- you didn’t give no trouble in Georgetown. Not a word, not a speck.
Robert Paul: No, Dad, not- I just want- I just wanted to come here today, Dad, that’s all. I didn’t give anybody else here no trouble that uh-
Jones: Uh, come on, chap-
Man in crowd: What are you (unintelligible)
Jones: (Slow, emphatic) -you’re on the- you’re on the airplane when the boats come in tomorrow, and nobody in Georgetown sends anybody on the airplane unless they’re sick, or seniors, or causing us trouble.
Crowd: (Scattered calls)
Robert Paul: Well, Dad-
Jones: Now, would you like to tell us what kind of trouble you caused us?
Robert Paul: Well, Dad all I asked- all I asked to do, Dad, is come over here today.
Jones: You asked to come- Now come on, now let’s get (Unintelligible word) clear. You- You- In other words, you demand- you wanted to come over here today.
Robert Paul: No, I didn’t demand, Dad, I asked, you know, I-
Jones: You asked (correcting pronunciation from “axed”).
Robert Paul: Yeah, I said- I said, I wanted to get away from Georgetown because it was (Unintelligible word)- it reminded me too much about the States.
Jones: (Voice climbs throughout) Well, now, thank you. (Unintelligible word) Seventy or 80 of our folk who want to be there, they co- they don’t- they didn’t want to go there to entertain. They don’t like uh, cities, it reminds them. Socialism is a process of evolution, it doesn’t take place overnight. This goddamn country, we’ve had to fight, uh, uh, when they pulled them out, the trickery of Washington pulled the leaders out of this country and left one bastard here who we hope will be gone to Washington before too long and got out of here formally dismissed, but I can’t talk about some things I’ve been told. But he was a prime minister acting, and we were– we were besieged. They took over, tried to take over this goddamn country over to get us, and for six fucking goddamn nights and seven days, we defended this place with our bodies. While some of you people were fucking around, we defended this place.
Crowd: (Applause)
Jones: While you people were moaning and groaning in your own stew and shit you create for yourself, we were shedding our blood. Ninety-one-year old folk out there with cutlass in hand, and guns in hand, cannons in hand, flame throwers in hand, and other things in hand, ready to die.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: And we won this land by driving them out of here. Since then they’ve toughened up the border, and Guyana realized it’s not a picnic that (Stumbles over words) the socialist, we- we- we showed them the conspiracy that reaches all the way up to the Senator Stennis [John Stennis (D-Mississippi)], head of the Armed Services Committee, when we took him on over that black mayor [Unita Blackwell Wright, mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi]. It all started back there, and us coming and us being socialist on top of it and having the Principle to stand up for somebody. That’s where the hall- the whole shit started. Right after that. That’s when the shit started. Hit the fan immediately. They had a meeting, and the conspiracy’s been working ever since, and they tried every goddamn thing. Now kidnappings their bait. The ambassador [John Burke] here’s got a little bit of principles- oh there, there’s light out there. (Stumbles over words) That flashlight- who’s, who’s, who’s roaming out there?
(Radio static)
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: Okay, okay. Yeah, the road. May- We forget how it bends and curves and goes around back of us. All right. (Pause) What was- what was I saying? Don’t worry. They won’t get in here. There ain’t no goddamn way they gonna get in here. We got too much to keep them from getting in here.
Crowd: (Responds)
Jones: I just want something to understand. You got to abide by our principles. Everybody got to stay here till we got everybody here. We’ve had- We let folk go, and they cause trouble, they turn traitor. Tim Stoen was going back to try to clear up all of our names, and crying, and tears, and they threaten him a few months in jail, and the son of a bitch is- now he conspired with two San Francisco policemen – we got the whole thing laid out – and murdered Chris Lewis. Him and Mertle [Elmer Mertle, aka Al Mills] and all the rest of our stinking families. I named just a few of them.
Lee Ingram: You talking about how- how they threaten to kidnap now, Dad.
Jones: Yeah, how they threatened to kidnap, and the foreign minister [either Fred Wills, former Foreign Minister, or Rashleigh E. Jackson] told us about it originally, and then the ambassador of the U.S. said they even had- got a hold of him trying to get him to sneak – the U.S., U.S. would help him sneak in with some kind of a plane (Pause) so the Guyanese Socialist, uh, Guyanese Defense Force wouldn’t see them. Well, he told us about it. He said, by God, there are some things he can’t even tolerate, and he told us about it. We’re- and we see them here, we- we see them here. They were here. They shot at us, what was it, two days ago.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: So goddamn them, let them come back, uh, they been before. We got a black panther out there that got one of them, we got tigers out there, we got snakes out there, they don’t come in here, but get one bite of the son of a bitch, if you go out in the jungle and you can last about twenty minutes, or you can slowly be paralyzed and die about three days later. And there’s tigers out there, all around, you can see them at night, our guards see them all the time, everybody else sees them. They come here, but there’s something miraculous, they don’t bother us. They don’t come inside. Nobody comes in. We never had a snakebite. Hell, you couldn’t have this many people living together in one community in California. You’d never find that many without somebody getting a snakebite.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And we are gonna stay put, we’re gonna behave our goddamn self, we’re not saving nobody back- We- we- we have a legitimate government here, town forum, we decide things. We right now criticizing points, some disagree with me on music and that’s uh, every right- everyone’s prerogative. But there are some basic things we don’t do. We don’t make demands, we’re gonna get on a fucking airplane when we got certain people that shoulda been on the airplane.
Man from crowd: That’s right.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: We don’t make, uh, we don’t tell some damn woman, a floozy outside the movement, how to get a hold of us and pester us to death. Paul, you oughta- you oughta come over here humble. You oughta now- your wife hadn’t- she wasn’t no more than a day- a few days ahead of you. You can stay out of trouble that long?
Robert Paul: Yes, Dad.
Crowd: (Calls out questions to Robert Paul)
Man 3: Why did you (Unintelligible word), why’d you tell- why’d you tell her where you- where she could reach you?
Robert Paul: I- I didn’t- I didn’t tell her that- where she could reach me. I told her that-
Man 3: You said that you (Unintelligible under interruption)
Robert Paul: I, I-
Man 3: -were a member of Peoples Temple, so, you know.
Robert Paul: Yes, but uh, you know, she musta got information from my mom or somebody like that about the phone number. I didn’t tell anybody nothing about the phone number or-
Man 4: Why’d you tell her where you were going, goddamn it?
Jones: You told her you were in Peoples Temple. You just said-
Robert Paul: Yes, I told her Peoples Temple, Father.
Man in crowd: Find it in the Yellow Pages.
Jones: Why did you tell her? What were you trying to impress her for?
Robert Paul: I told her I belonged to the Peoples Temple organization and, you know, that’s the only way I could find freedom and I want to be over here with my people, you know, and I- I just explained it to her.
Jones: Well, then you lead her right to our door. That’s how we’re getting the phone calls in Georgetown.
Robert Paul: Yes, Father.
Jones: Now you think a woman be after your ass? I know the CIA pays everything on the (unintelligible) They gonna charge you with some kind of charge. You’re gonna be charged. You won’t have to worry about going back, because you’re gonna be charged with some (Unintelligible word), I don’t know what it is. I’ll know more about it when we get through the radio. (Pause) Well, I understand that, son. But what I’m saying is, why is this woman after you? I don’t know how the conspiracy could reach down, figure out, pick up somebody in Louisiana. Your- Your, uh you- I rather you just got- laid it out plain and square with us, and get honest, because we’ll find it out sooner or later anyway.
Man in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Damn woman will do a sperm test, she’ll- she’ll- she’ll determine who is the father of the child. I mean she’ll do a blood test and out rule the one- rule out the one- and then it’ll be you left. Now is there a possibility that she- that it’s your child?
Robert Paul: Uh, Dad, it’s- could be a-
Man in crowd: Yes or no!
Robert Paul: -yes, a possibility. I had sex with her, Dad, and-
Jones: Okay, then why- why did you not- why did you not say that?
Robert Paul: I’m ah- Well, Dad, when Ruletta [Paul] and I was down in Louisiana together, you know, we had some problems, and, you know, she was associating with other guys and-
Crowd: (Calls out)
Lee Ingram: We talking about you right now, we talking about you.
Jones: Okay, okay now, okay. She was associating with other guys. But ain’t none of them pregnant, they ain’t bothering me.
Robert Paul: Yes, Dad, I- I- I know this, I know this.
Man in crowd: Well, don’t come bringing this shit up.
Robert Paul: -It is a big price to pay, Dad.
Jones: Now you nailed her, you got her fucking, and that’s the typical capitalist tradition. The nail, and the nail- and that’s love. You people are in love. (Deliberate) I tell you, leave me out of it. For Christ sake, leave me out of it. You got in it- you- you blamed her for all of your problems, she’s responsible for the world’s problems now. She- she fucked around with some men. Is that the reason you fucked around with the woman. Is that what you’re saying? That’s what you were getting-
Robert Paul: No.
Jones: -ready to say, you were getting ready to lay it right at her door.
Crowd: (Calls out)
Robert Paul: No, Dad.
Jones: It’s called Peoples Temple dodge ball. We don’t play dodge ball over here any more.
Robert Paul: (Unintelligible) Dad.
Lee Ingram: How- how about, how about this. You thought- you thought maybe, maybe if things didn’t go well in Guyana, that you’d have somebody to come back to in the States. You’d have a little nest back there. How ’bout that?
Robert Paul: No way I want to go back to uh, the United States.
Lee Ingram: But-
Jones: Well, I know, I know now. But uh, isn’t there an element of truth? Why would you give her so much information about your life? (Pause)
Man in crowd: Answer-
Robert Paul: I just-
Jones: You don’t fuck by international telephone.
Robert Paul: I understand that, Father.
Jones: You don’t fuck as a crow flies, and there never been a fuck that reach across an ocean.
Robert Paul: That’s right, Father.
Jones: So what were you doing?
Robert Paul: (Pause) I mean, I was actually messing around, Father.
Jones: Well, I- I- but I- I understand that, I understand that and I’m sure you didn’t want- you weren’t thinking, taking care of men don’t do that, I’ve been the only one that I’ve noted that fight so hard on that subject. You take care of a child whether I wo- hated the woman or not, when I was trying to save this entire movement. I don’t uh, notice men going out of their way fighting too much about their kids. So uh, you- you weren’t trying to keep a line open to save the child, so what were you trying to do? ‘Cause you denying the child. First breath you deny the child, now you say it’s possible it’s your child.
Robert Paul: Father I don’t- I mean- I mean she have a comrade, I don’t see how she could say it’s my kid, you know?
Man in crowd: Did you fuck her (Unintelligible word)?
Jones: Uh- All right, so she- now- all right, that proves the point that much more. (Deliberate) What in the hell did you give her so much information about yourself for? Is- Is he not- is he not bordering on the closeness of truth that you wanted- just in case thing didn’t work out, you want to place to li- uh, a- a- a pad to go back to?
Robert Paul: Well, Father, I don’t want to go back to that country.
Jones: All right, all right. You’re here. You’ve seen it. If you’re black and got any sense- if you’re white, you shoulda had some sense and see it. But uh, black person ought to be able to immediately figure out they don’t want to go back. All this land, all this opportunity, Jesus Christ. Go in the jungle, they couldn’t find us. Five thousand miles of jungle. If they come after us with battalions – and they ain’t got no battalions – and they sure as hell better not parachute in.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: The only way they can get in here is by helicopter, and I can tell you, the fucker will land hard.
Scattered in crowd: Right, that’s right.
Jones: ‘Cause they won’t- the min- the minute it starts down, it’ll come down heavy.
Scattered in crowd: Right, that’s right.
Jones: (Pause) Ain’t nothing coming in here we don’t want in here, I can assure you that. So don’t rest with worry about somebody getting you in your sleep.
Lee Ingram: Well, I wish you would talk, because, you know, a lot of us don’t want to be sitting here listening to your bullshit anyway.
Crowd: (Calls out)
Lee Ingram: (Unintelligible) goddamn (unintelligible).
Jones: This is not a regular meeting night. It’s called tr- a trouble meeting night. We call for trouble. We have two meetings a night- a week, and that’s what the hell we’d like to have, so we can have some peace. There’s a movie supposed to be, there’s refreshments – start serving the refreshments, serve them out. We do- We try to keep some humanity in the middle of a warfare, but as- obviously as you know, Cuba was surrounded for ten years, we got no reason to complain, if we’re surrounded with a few enemies, so shit. Cuba was surrounded and they had the CIA put seeds in their clouds, and drown their crops, and bomb them. (Pause as microphone fails) What? Ah, fuck it, well- (tape distortion) son of a bitch.
Lee Ingram: Somebody’s sitting on a plug or something.
Jones: Peace. Now, Marceline [Jones] and I was in Cuba when they bombing children every day and night, and the United States denied it was happening, so we have no complaints. Cuba went through that for ten years. Angolan people been going through it. They won their liberation. Ethiopian people just fighting every day for their freedom. So we got no complaints, if they- we have a little- few excursions now and then. (Pause) But I try to make it hospitable as possible, if that bring the- tonight I guess it’s cake, we try to have movies and things, and we want music. And we never did decide the thing of music. I- I- I’ve deal with one issue that I don’t like what I see in this place. I’m gonna be frank with you, I- I’ll live with you, I don’t like this fucking attitude that, by God, we got to take the world as it is, we can’t change it. That’s what I hear out of some of you people so much. Gotta take the world, can’t change it. Can’t find good music, ’cause everybody’s a fucker. Can’t find good literature, ’cause they ain’t nobody that writes that’s uh, principled. What Ireally think you want to say – you excuse my feeling, it may be wrong – I think you want to say is, I want to justify what the fuck I want to do, by saying that I cannot find enough people like Victor Jara, and I’m saying if you were really principled, and Victor Jara’s the only man that was tortured in the concentration camp, then night, noon, and day, that’s all the fuck you’d ever hear, was Victor Jara.
Scattered in crowd: Right. (Applause)
Jones: I that wouldn’t go over very well, but that’s my feeling.
Crowd: (Applause)
Jones: I ain’t gonna compromise with this liberal bourgeois shit. I don’t care where it comes from. You- You may get by with it in terms of voting legislation, I’ll give you the prerogative, ’cause I don’t like leadership anyway, I’ll lead to protect. Although the reason- the only reason I get indignant, I wonder how much you let this bourgeois shit parade itself, it doesn’t encourage others. (Pause) You got to be awful careful about dissent. Dissent better be over something mighty crucial, mighty crucial. Start some shit on music, we get in a tirade tonight about all that bullshit. (Pause) You understand what I’m saying?
Crowd: Yes.
Jones: Come up with some creative ideas, if you have ideas on music, think about it, and put ’em up so we can play them. Make your request. We’d play whoever- and yeah, Paul Robeson, by God, yeah.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: He died believing what he stood for.
Crowd: (Scattered applause)
Jones: Black, classical. Yeah, I’m sure in all the jazz-mataz, but he- beautiful music.
Scattered in crowd: (Applause) Right.
Jones: Now I (Stumbles over words)- I disagreed with Christine totally. I disagreed with Christine Lucienties totally. ‘Cause I think she’s on the side of or- anarchy sometimes, for anarchy’s sake, and that goes to some things I need to clear out of my- my soul with her,’cause she takes her anarchistic little patterns and does her little trips, and uh- the little trips that people report to me that I don’t like. But you go on a million links, but had to do with your- your right to take things that don’t belong to you and justify it and I- I don’t buy, I don’t buy that kinda s- shit. If everybody did that, the whole organization be up a fucking creek, a ship without a goddamn paddle, but (Stumbles over words) certain anarchy say that well, just because they’re in Cuba, they’re Communists- That don’t mean they’re Communists. Well, it’s better than living in the United States-
Man from Crowd: That’s right.
Scattered in crowd: (Calls out)
Jones: -’cause all they have to do is ask to get out of Cuba, and [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro will send them to Miami, and United States like to make the points, they like to show, because people are leaving the United States, a lot of people are leaving the United States. So they- they like to make points about taking in a bunch of fascists. I disagree with this, and I want to lay it out, just very clearly where I disagree. The other night- other night- And what I’m really pissed at Christine about is it got back through the gossip tree, she said I knew that that’s what Dad would do next, is take away the music.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: I’m talking to her. I’m laying it out. Well, find her.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Man in crowd: (Unintelligible word) Helen wanted to serve everybody-
(Tape edit)
Jones: Hmm? (Pause) I like to clear things off my chest. (Pause) Who ah, who- who wants to know what about serving what?
Woman 3: Eleanor [Beam] wants to serve everybody one slice of cake, and those on snacks and praises get a slice of cinnamon bread.
Jones: Everybody wants to know. Okay, the ones who got praises gets another slice of cinnamon bre- bread. That’s fine. So if you got praise, be sure to take their name down when- before they get it.
Burger Lee Dean: Ask him a question.
Jones: Yes, Mother uh, Dean.
Burger Lee Dean: I’d like- I’d like to know, young man, what connection did you have with United States out of Georgetown that you got in such a hurry to get to Jonestown?
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Burger Lee Dean: And you better answer it right.
Man in crowd: Speak up.
Robert Paul: The only connection Al had is to getting out of that country, ’cause I want to be here.
Man in crowd: No, she’s talking about going-
Jones: What’s that, what’s that?
Robert Paul: There’s no connection in Georgetown, I had to get out of Georgetown. I just wanted to be here. That’s all.
Burger Lee Dean: You don’t understand me. Did you go United States from Georgetown, what made you get in such a hurry to get out of Georgetown to get here?
Robert Paul: No, I did not phone the United States from Georgetown.
Woman in crowd: Why didn’t you wait on the boat?
Burger Lee Dean: That’s right. Why couldn’t you wait on the boat?
Jones: Ms. Moms Mabley- Ms. Moms Mabley [likely Bertha Cook], who in there was one of our best performers in her seventies, and you took her airplane seat that she coulda taken.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: Black-
Robert Paul: Dad-
Jones: -woman in her seventies.
Woman in crowd: Proud of yourself?
Robert Paul: No, I’m not proud of myself, I really feel like my head’s in my butt.
Scattered in crowd: It is.
Ruletta Paul: Dad? Dad, um, Dad? When we was in Louisiana, he was always talking about uh, how he had some woman that liked him a lot, and uh, she had carpet on his floor, and she- and she had a car, and um, I wasn’t asking around. The reason why I wasn’t asking around ’cause he was always asked from the very beginning, and I had to get out there and whore around to feed my baby because he couldn’t do a job. Now you explain that to Dad.
Robert Paul: Yes, Dad, I stopped my job, because I was supposed to leave on the twentieth.
Ruletta Paul: Don’t tell me no shit, you was- you had to stop your job. Youwas working.
Man in crowd: Where you get all the money?
Ruletta Paul: Too busy, he was too busy- he was too busy running after his brothers and them- they- they- none of them’s no good. They all do the same thing-
Robert Paul: That’s right.
Ruletta Paul: -he so busy trying to run after them. I try to tell him and explain- straighten him out, tell him that, you know, at the time we were calling you Father this and Father that, you know, examples. He don’t want to listen to nobody.
Robert Paul: That’s true, Father. That true.
Ruletta Paul: You gonna listen now. (Unintelligible word) You gonna listen now, ’cause you in Jonestown.
Robert Paul: That’s true.
Ruletta Paul: And you-
Crowd: (Sustained cheers)
(Tape edit)
(Low crowd noise for several minutes)
Jones: My quarrel with you, Christine, is this, that you made comments to others that you knew the next thing- you knew that I was going to take all these t- tape recorders away from people.
Christine Lucienties: I believe I wrote you a note that I told-
Jones: No, I didn’t get no note. There ain’t no shitting note. I got it secondhand which I didn’t like that. Unless somebody took your note and didn’t pass it on.
Christine: I wrote you a note that I had- right before Paula [Adams] had left- I said I knew it, our last diversion. Pardon?
(Voice too soft)
Christine: No, I didn’t think- I don’t think in any way I’m a prophet. I shouldn’t have said that, and I wrote you a note saying that it was out of line, and as far as that goes, I can-
Jones: I didn’t read that.
Christine: I can do without music. I can be in prison right now and not have music, not have books. I could be dead, and it’s all right, you know, it’s just- I happen to like it but it’s- I could do without it. And I can go to pris- just as well be in prison and-
Crowd: (Scattered calls)
Jones: (Unintelligible word) Nobody-
Christine: What- Huh? I don’t have a tape recorder. Uh, I was using one. It got turned in. I don’t- There’s no tape recorder accessible to me.
Jones: Well, there’s uh- there’s shit going- going around, better clear you, ’cause you’re an important coordinating role that you take people’s clothes. (Pause) Are you doing that?
Christine: No, I’m wearing Daisy’s [Daisy Lee] dress, but she let me borrow it.
Jones: Okay, that’s all right. I be- I believe in clearing it. That wasn’t to hurt you, that was to help you. The other was for me. I like to get shit off. I don’t like this shit that you guys do to me, backbiting me. You say, well, you haven’t had this, you haven’t had this. You don’t know how much I haven’t had.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And I was young like you one day, and long, long life. A long goddamn life since I was seventeen and felt constrained to have to be a communist. I didn’t always want to do what I had to do, but I felt that that was my moral obligation. And I know that you have resentments, a lot of young people, until you grow up in the church, you got these goddamn resentments, but you got to look at it too. There’s- there’s- there’s love out there, there’s sexual companionship, if people feel that illusion. It’s- it’s in this movement, you know. It can be had. You’ve been uh, more disciplined than most in that area. Haven’t been near you. Sure have not been run around by your ass, but uh, whatever you feel you’re missing, I don’t know what you think you miss. I heard that comments-
Christine: I don’t-
Jones: -I heard that comment.
Christine: I have not said that in quite a while. I-
Jones: Good, okay, well, we won’t- we won’t review cold shit. Uh- Nobody has anything to say about any clothing been taken by this woman? I, I, I want shit laid to rest on that stuff. ‘Cause we, we, we come down heavy on the- Somebody borrows clothes, that’s the business of people, and as long as you take care of each other’s, that’s your own mutual consent, but we should not- and well, we should not- hell, we coming down heavy on- don’t do no stealing. Don’t do no stealing. We had a lot of it going on here, and uh, little things, little shit because we’ve just been conditioned to do it. But we cannot have it. We’ve got to all share and share alike. We’re going through what Cuba call the, uh, what, the Austerity Stage, and you can develop a war psychosis, as Fidel said. And they lost nearly forty percent of their productive capacity because they were so busy defending themselves. And we will have to defend ourselves. Another thing was, that I heard from you, uh, Jerry Parks, that you didn’t like the food. They had to get special food for you. And I- I want to get this shit out of the way, because we are not running a delicatessen.
Lee Ingram: Come on up, buddy.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Gerald Parks: I didn’t tell anyone that I didn’t like it. It was deceit-
Jones: Well, I heard- I heard- and I- I was getting your child [Brenda Parks] and getting the- a handicapped young man with no income at all, because you people had interest in him. I don’t know him from jackshit, and I heard that you said you were not gonna have to- you were gonna come out here and try- test this place out before your child come in, they’re all ready on the way. Did you make that comment?
Gerald Parks: No, I didn’t say I was going to test it. I said I would rather they would wait until we come on, because I didn’t know whether he would be able to ah, take the-
Lee Ingram: But the (Unintelligible word)-
Jones: (Unintelligible word) The what?
Lee Ingram: But, but-
Jones: That’s not the way I heard it. I want to get this goddamn stuff straight. That’s not the way I heard it. I’m finished with you, and so that clears it. You haven’t taken nothing. Nobody stood up to say it. (Pause)
Lee Ingram: The thing is, Jerry, the impression given- the impression given was that you were gonna check this place out, test it, check it out, whatever, you were gonna see how it was before you-
Jones: By God, that’s what come across the radio to me, and I went, I, I- that pissed me off. Here I’m taking epileptic young man out of- you- for your daughter’s sake and uh, you’ve got a chance, your child growing up in the States, sure as hell, they’ll become a drug addict, uh, white or black. We hear these people all night, I’m on the radio, building friends, trying to get money, because a goddamn conspiracy’s cut off Social Security, cut off our mail, blocked our goddamn mail, dragged out. Uh, you got to make a- Sean, don’t forget, we got to see about that phone patch you gotta make. People don’t get their goddamn mail, and they- they intercept the mail. We’ve got the (Unintelligible word). They wouldn’t let m- any mail get into Guyana, they don’t let our mail get out, to try to cause disruption between people, and their relatives, or their businesses, and some fool told them where we- where- where we’re all at. Always tell them where we’re all at so I get all your bills. Have to fight with your goddamn bills. It’s not right. You shoulda left your bills behind and never had the- I should never had to struggle with worrying about paying people’s bills over here. I’ll be goddamn if people don’t give their forwarding address, and part of it was a mistake onsecretarial instruction. They made a fuckass stupid mistake. Nobody should ever told anybody where in the hell you’re going. We’da had a lot less trouble.
Lee Ingram: That’s right.
Jones: Particularly, you didn’t need to tell no goddamn businesses, so we get piles of bills every month.
Lee Ingram: That’s right.
Jones: But, uh, now then somebody said that. Now you know- and by the way (Stumbles over words) we have one firm law, that when- whether they know anything about it, the relative stands with their relatives, and we do that to break up the cover-our-assessyndrome, the cover-ass syndrome that goes on with families. And there’s a cover-asssyndrome that goes on with families. That’s the only thing I don’t like about it, that’s why I think Lenin [Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin] had a point when he said have arrangements to fuck and don’t get in sick alliances, because they- the only alliance you should have is to the revolution. And we have a lot- we are not doing that. We won’t break up your family structure, we don’t make nobody share their nookie with anybody. You can have your nookie till you want to, you know, die with it. I don’t- I don’t give a goddamn. If you’re new, and now you two are married, you don’t dare fool with nobody else. You don’t get no divorce unless it’s approved by town forum.
Robert Paul: Yes, Dad.
Jones: You can fuck each other upside down and through your eyeballs. I don’t give a shit, but you don’t break ranks, and uh, break, break the uh, union up, ’cause it cause too much fucking confusion. (Pause) Maybe one day there’ll be uh, some other methodology, maybe it’ll be everybody free love. I don’t know. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t be very free, because there’d always be somebody left out, ’cause people don’t look at soul, or they don’t look atcharacter, they’re always looking at body.
Man in crowd: That’s right.
Man: -That’s true-
Jones: So somebody be left out, sure as hell.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: Yeah, you may explain your position. I’d like very much for you explain your position, ’cause it pissed the hell out of me.
Gerald Parks: Ask no one for no special food, but the food that they had prepared was sohighly seasoned, so hot and I cannot– no way can I eat that kind of food. I did not ask for anything different. I just said that I could-
Jones: Oh, we have diets without seasoning, but you didn’t ask- then you didn’t ask for special foods. We were told over the radio that they had to go get you special foods. Everything- everything made a report. They don’t make it to hurt nobody, they make reportsevery day, just make the reports of what goes on. You have to have that, ’cause we are under, as I said, a state of emergency. (More deliberate) We are under a state of emergency. So this place is tightened up, (Stumbles over words) you could flow in here and walk around, stroll around, no, we didn’t used to have these problems. Didn’t have to go through people’s things and go through body searches. This is the first fucking week we ever went through body searches in our life, but now I mean, since, you know, the Temple we had to- we did it and- but now it’s getting close. You got somebody out there wants to play a littlemischief, so we want to be sure that nobody [is] in here with a little microphone. And if that fucker shows up again and wants to get a shoot-out, and he’ll go down, ’cause the last one we carried him out and delivered him to [James] Reb Edwa- Edwards and he took care of him.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Man in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: He- he and Doctor [Laurence] Schacht, they make a hell of a scalpel, and a remarkable beef stew.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Man: Hey-hey, that’s right.
Jones: And your stomach trouble will get cured, after you’re in a war or after a while. (Laughs) A little CIA shit here, and a little CIA shit there. No, I- I don’t mind, you got a highly season reactions, and probably all medicines and all sicknesses are hypochondria.We’re finding that with most of the things we’ve cured up over here, if you give us sometime with it. All- all stress, cancer even, begins in mind, but we have diet uh, areas that we’re- a person doesn’t have seasoning and special diets. That’s a different thing. I know you had uh, sto- some abdominal distress and surgery potential, but uh, that- what bothered me more than that, was that it- it was definitely stated that you said that uh, you were gonna come and check the place out in so many words before your daughter was coming in here. I’ve got them already on the goddamn way. (Pause) Plus a man that I don’t know and I gotta pay all that Dilantin [phonetic], and that’s a hell of a bill, ’cause Dilantin has to be transported from the Soviet Union.
Gerald Parks: We have already bought a year supply of Dilantin (unintelligible under Jones).
Jones: Well, that’s good, that’s thoughtful, that- that’s thoughtful. I appreciate that. But still he is a sick man without income, I don’t know him and I did that out of concern for you and your daughter.
Gerald Parks: That is why we made that statement after we got here, we wasn’t sure maybe that uh, we should not come on ahead.
Jones: (Laughs) If you’re worried about him staying, he will stay when he gets here. He won’t have any problem about that.
Crowd: (Scattered assent)
Jones: He’ll adjust- (Laughs) he’ll adjust to the situation, and the- the only, only- only other thing you can do is either adjust or walk through the jungle, and it’s meet snakes, pa-panthers, and all that shit, if one wants to do that, and guns. You can be arrested by the police and put into a federal penitentiary. He’ll- He’ll- He’ll have no problem adjusting. What- what’s your- What were you worried about? What were you worried about?
Gerald Parks: Ah, I forget what the last statement now was that I made to you, but anyhow John Brown is the one that made-
Man: (Yells for quiet)
Jones: Shh-
Gerald Parks: -made the overture to me when we were discussing it. He said, Jerry why don’t you when- Instead of having them come on ahead, we thought we should come on (Pause) here and see how things went.
Jones: No, well, did you-
Gerald Parks: And John Brown made the overture to me.
Jones: Did you tell that- Did you tell that to anybody else? Johnny, Johnny, uh, doing thatintelligently and sincerely probably before. What’d- What’d he say- what’d he say to you exactly?
Gerald Parks: He-
Jones: John Jones, here- is my- I’ve legally adopted him.
Gerald Parks: John Jones. I’m sorry.
Jones: That’s uh, no problem. Just- Just correcting-
Gerald Parks: He said- he said, why don’t you go on to Jonestown and see how you like it, and then contact them and have them to come over. And that’s exactly the words that were spoken to me, was it not?
Patty Parks: Well, I don’t know. I don’t remember exactly. (Pause) We did say something about uh, this boy adjusting. Not just the boy, my daughter too, and uh, (Pause) we- we was really sorry that we had ever brought hi- him in to this before we left the States. What I’m talking about is, we’re- we’re- he’s kinda hyper and he is-
Woman in crowd: Be the best thing for him.
Patty Parks: Yeah, he’ll probably work out better than maybe I would. He-
Gerald Parks: He’s a fine worker. He’s a good worker.
Jones: Everybody works out when they get-
Gerald Parks: He was fired from his job because of epilepsy-
Jones: What’s that?
Gerald Parks: He was fired from his job because of epilepsy, which they now have under control with this third drug they’ve added.
Jones: Yeah, yeah, well, that’s what touched me. Handicap. Everybody treated like a nigger that’s got handicaps.
(Someone in the crowd starts yelling)
Jones: What the hell’s going on out there? If you’ve got something to say- What?
(Unintelligible response)
Jones: I don’t know how you eat your cake and talk too. (Pause) Co- It costs a hell of a lot of money, so can’t you be quiet? It costs a lot of money to give people these refreshmentsevery weekend. Candy, (Stumbles over words) you don’t know that shit. Chicken dinner, last uh, Sunday chicken dinner. Four thousand two hundred dollars to feed this family. Now, it- it takes an education, it takes an education path, it takes an education to adjust. You gotta come to what we teach as (Emphasizes word) zero. As zero. You gotta realize that two out of three babies are going to bed hungry. You gotta think about the bloody things – (Calls out) Will you shut up please? – (voice reverts to conversational) the bloody things that all our tax dollars have done to murder people, like this great singer that was on here, tortured them. Then you will adjust because you realize you have no reason to complain, when two out of three babies are going to bed hungry. I would bet Christine’s right, a man like that will get the message. It isn’t that tough. You guys are into a war here tonight. We don’t normally have this kind of greeting. This is not the way we greet people. We have a party, a dance, and so forth, or uh- orchestration. We’re in a war. They tell us to be very careful of everybody comes in here now, because we have an absolute – absolute – informer who stepped forward, told us the plans of- of Stoen, told us the implication uh, involvement in a murder, and there was several of them involved in it, Mrs. Mertle [Deanna Mertle, aka Jeannie Mills], Grace Stoen. And lots of things been told, I’m not going to go into at this point, but we have proof. Person didn’t like us, because I had used religion and they didn’t believe in God and I was a Marxist, and they left us, and they got wrapped up in this conspiracy, but they saw what the hell was going on. And if you wanted to kidnapJohn [Victor Stoen] who came out of the fact that I- you all know that story, you’ve all been educated with that, haven’t you? You surely have in San Francisco. They’ve all told you about that, ’cause I told everybody be told that before they come here. So you can understand what it means to have to be- to become all things to all men, any means you can save the more, or all women, whatever. Anyhow. (C alls out) Now please be quiet, I don’t enjoy orientation, but you had to have your time.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: (Pause) Now, what was I talking about? Uh- Listen, secu- Sap, would you march through with your guns and stop this shit? I’m tired of this talk. It’s distracting me, and I haven’t had any sleep for some days now, being that I was up all day and all night on that goddamn radio, because the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] is trying to crush us. When you think how bitter- and you’ll see how mean they are. You watch ’em, you’ll see how mean they are. You saw how mean, they come around here and trying to kill old people, they didn’t care who they tried to shoot. They didn’t care what they did. Take old people’s checks, Social Security stopped all of our checks. May do it again. President [Jimmy] Carter’s in trouble since you left. The FBI’s put him under investigation, because he spoke out for African- not because he wanted to, but because he felt that the Russians and Cubans were gonna take over Africa, because they’re helping all of the liberation struggles. They’re the true heroes of the people. And now he went home and he- as soon as he gets home, he’s up for an FBI investigation, because he uh, supposed to be covering for one of his uh, own congressmen who- under investigation by the Republican district attorney, Federal District Attorney of Philadelphia, and he fired him like every president does. They always fire every appointee of the previous administration and put new ones in. It’s just- that’s just the law of life. And the BBC made the bitter biting comment that they think that it’s because he is not going along with the right wing in the country, the strong right wing in the country that wants to have a nuclear showdown. They’re putting the- themilitary, against his instruction, says he, have placed neutron bombs all over Europe. They ain’t got no choice, ’cause the Americans gonna- uh, his ass gonna be wiped out. So one adjusts to life, and you think about your child, how your child going around if she lived, with radiation blind, from radiation poisoning. Today I b- brought out on the news, they put several thousands of American U.S. soldiers right in a radiation center to test what it’d do to their bodies, and so how some of them had already developed cancer. Fifty of them, I think, 50 of them had developed cancer definitely from that radiation, and they didn’t know how many more thou- thousands were going to. Lousy bunch of p- pricks, experiment with germ warfare right in the cities or the subways of New York. Wasn’t it, the subways of New York? And then the- the freeways of- of Pennsylvania. They don’t give a goddamn, they don’t give a goddamn about people. United States doesn’t care about people. Nobody but a capitalist come over to build a neutron bomb that destroys people and all living things and only leaves not- won’t even touch a piece of paper, paper won’t be moved off the table. Nobody but the capitalist would think of that kind of a wicked weapon. Well, something’s going on strange in United States, because he’s been given subpoena for a hearing. And hell, we may have- may have to give our bodies, like I did. I don’t know, but we’ll live. Out there is plenty of land and there’s wild hog and wild bush cow and big fish. I hope some people fish when that boat get in. Who was that sister brought in 40 pounds, brought in 40 pounds of that tasty fish. Of course, we’ll have 4,000 some pounds of fish coming in on aboat. But you’ll adjust, it- when you stop to think that two out of three babies went to bed hungry from the tax dollars you were earning. A por- a portion of 18, 20 percent of your taxes was going to pay the CIA to murder people all over the world. CIA today implicatedin, in Cambodia, and it im- implicated today Cuba, the Radio Cuba talked about torturing, what was it, school children in Rhodesia. Zimbabwe taking them and torturing them to try to break the patriotic front. They went into a- a sector where the patriotic front, the re- revolutionary government of Zimbabwe that’s resisting that horrible white dictator inRhodesia [Prime Minister Ian Smith], and they took over the- all the school where these army people were putting their children and tortured every blessed- every one of them in it. The USIA, through USIA coop- cooperation. You don’t get no- any news till you get a hold of Cuba, and you can’t hardly hear it ’cause they jam the son of a bitch. I tried to put it over the radio so I have to be the newscaster, ’cause there’s- they jam the news. They won’t let you get the news. And then, you read it in the San Francisco Chronicle before you left, a colonel and a major in the U.S. Army over there under the pay of U.S. in Rhodesia beat a little black baby senseless, six years of age, and made her take a wire and put around the chief of the tribe, put the wire around his penis and balls and pulled ’em off. That’s inhumanity that’s so diabolical it makes you- your stomach revolt. And then they- the man died for uh, three days laying in that agony. What’s it gonna happen, that little baby left alive, and they left her alive to face the tortrous problems of her conscience after that. But what could a six-year-old do? And you- you stop to think about what your money did and what your comforts did. Every time you bought a McDonald hamburger, a portion of ahamburger, a portion of it went to war and CIA murder. Every time you went to a movie,every time you lifted up your fucking telephone. What is it, how much is the telephone bill, I’ve forgotten, how much of a telephone bill goes to warfare? What? (Pause) Ten percent, thank you, ten percent. Every time you pay a bill, dial a telephone, all your pay telephones, there’s really high on the pay telephones. Much of that goes to war. So uh, you’ll get adjusted. It will be time and we’re patient. But uh- Everybody can understand this shit. You don’t check us out. Christ, we let people do that, and they went back and lied. Mrs. Williams [Yulanda Williams], she- I want to go back and make money, I’ve got my time and I’ll go back and make money and just cried how much I love you, Father, and you saved me from cancer and you healed my husband, raised him from the dead. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She went back, and I don’t know who twisted her thumb but hell, she’s been a mean enemy. You got the Olivers [Beverly and Howard Oliver] sitting there trying tokidnap their child [Bruce and William Oliver]. Tried to kidnap them, pay- taking blood white money to murder, the sons a bitches. And Tim Stoen finally from crying and wanting to clear up all of our records, he’s now back there, asked for the death of- he asked for the death of Chris Lewis. We got the proof of it. He and Mertle and Grace, and I don’t know who else, but I know that much about it. Won’t know the rest till they get into that case and see some of it that you carried in here. I guess you carried it in, I guess they’re looking for that case, and it’s a hell of a business, and when you stop to think of the murderous shit that’s being done by United States, you’ll adjust. And I don’t believe your- the boyfriend will have any problem and your girl will adjust. Everybody else has. White and black. And I don’t mean adjust because there’s a damn gun around here or there’s machine guns and that kind of stuff, I don’t mean that. I’m talking about adjusted because they see, finally they see.
Scattered in crowd: Right, right.
Jones: Doesn’t mean that life, (Stumbles over words) everything gonna be happy and wonderful and purposeful uh, 24 hours a day, but when you stop to think about this place as opposed to that place- Your child could have an accident, your child could have an accident, that pretty little girl there could have an accident. Where in the hell would they have the love of a Father that would get an airplane like you guys come in on, pay that son of a bitch, run it in and have a neurologist there, take the doctor in on it, and take him back on it with a patient, take him out of a meeting he was supposed to go to, and have aneurologist ready to fly in and pay 25, 000 dollars. Now where in the hell you gonna get that? And I don’t know where the next penny’s coming in, and I had to give my body to get money. It wasn’t communal money. Hell’s fire, it wasn’t your tithes. I wouldn’t been able to a- I wouldn’t have been able to pay- There’s six million dollars’ worth of property here. I wouldn’t have been able to pay with the six million dollars’ worth of buildings and developments and uh, hydraulic, I mean, the heavy duty. I wouldn’t have been able to pay for this shit.
Man in crowd: Right. Right.
Jones: Not talking about the central supply. Go look at that, and look in the medical department, you’ll look at hundreds thousand dollars worth of supplies.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: Not talking about medicines. Talk a quarter of a million U.S., talking- you’re talking uh, nearly a million dollars Guyanese, right down there. Shit. And we got some money here for several months. They can cut us off, all of our checks, they’ll give us time to decide who’s gonna fuck who out there, I’m old, but by God, I can find some old floozy down the river. I’ve fucked before, I can fuck again. Now you got some old rich bitches down there, don’t want to go socialist and got money around their waist. Patty [Cartmell] gets it, by God, and Patty isn’t what you called the Miss America contest winner, but she sure as hell knows how to get that money, don’t she?
Crowd: Right.
Jones: Every week she comes in here. We have to live on- That’s why Tommy [Bogue] and Patty and- and Rheaviana are charmers. Every week they come back with a thousand dollars, and we have to have that. And every week those little kids, you saw ’em going out in the streets, we got a lot of friends in Guyana. You saw Joan [Pursley], the little black young lady, and you saw Bobby [probably Stroud], the little white young man. They make a- they make a thousand dollars a week. That’s what the hell it takes and if you can- if you can trust some more of these sons a bitches, we’d eat. We’ll eat-
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: -the fuck we’ll eat, you bet your ass we’ll eat, nuclear war comes, we’ll eat. Any kind of chaos or world depression they’re talking about, like the OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ] says that if Japan doesn’t do something to release their, release their uh, surpluses very damn quick into West Germany, the wholeeconomic system’s gonna collapse, and- and Japan won’t do it, ’cause it’s racist. They won’tdo it. And so United States’ dollars going down, down, down, down, down, down, inflationis going up, up, up, up, up, and on the verge of a 1929 crush. I hope it comes. Shit, we’ll have it made then.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: I don’t want the nuclear war to come until we see everybody out of there that wants a chance at life. But this– this is life for your children. Don’t worry about you and I- you- you’re getting up to my age. Don’t worry about us. Hell, look at your child. She couldna lived in America, she’s got to face nuclear war? She got to face nuclear war or faminesbecause they’ve run out of food. The ecosystem’s all fucked up, you saw how the water washed away Los Angles practically a few weeks ago, because they seed the clouds for the rich, and two years of drought because people have messed up the whole weather. United States is a dying nation, its cities are dying, its farmlands are dying. Nebraska, the main food belt, was washed out from these floods. We got land, land, land, land, land. Wild life out there, frogs bigger than a domestic chicken.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: I just don’t like to go eating them, but- but they get them out, the kids get them out of the well every day. The little Hicks kid [either Anthony Allan Hicks or Romaldo Benjamin Hicks], they get them out of the- he- he and his comrade, I don’t know who helps him, they get those fro- big, great big frog, big as a chicken.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: I just don’t like to go eating them. And oh, they’re tasty, I love to eat ’em. I just kind of have a fondness for the mother, the way they protect their young, ’cause they’ll put their mother right on- the mother will ride frogs on their back as big as bullfrogs in the States. Their babies, when they come are as big as bullfrogs, and she fights for them, she’ll stand up on her hi- just fight for those frogs. And we saw one in our well dr- drown floating her babies. Her babies didn’t drown, but she drowned, floating her babies. ‘Cause they’re land frogs, and they get in our wells. We got beautiful mineral springs, clean air, shit, stuff clears up here. You think U.S. is so great, when you go through your medical exam, we’ll see. Nineteen people have been through medical exams in the States, we found cancer in them.
Man: Right.
Jones: They’da died if we hadn’t got to it, and got surgery quick, radiation quick. So there’ll be some things that’ll be hard for your adjustment. Get the matter out clear, I just want to clear the slate that we say everything directly to our face here. No criticisms. Can’t say anything behind anybody’s back. If you do, you’re in trouble. If you want to say anything in town forum, you can say it. Say anything to me, you want to write up criticism about to improve the place, fine, we welcome it. All socialist growth through self-criticism and group criticism. We welcome it. Now you got to- you ought- you understand the uh,essence of what I’m talking about. All of you understand it. You’re gonna live with her and gonna be peaceful. Uh- Where’d she go? She leave you already?
Crowd: (Laughs)
Robert Paul: Yes, Dad.
Jones: We have a little crowded housing. We’re sorry about that, but you will have your own space for coupling, we do have our- we try to keep our children in places where we can give them proper medical health and observe them for a while. We don’t have time to build family houses yet, but couples are together. We keep our children under controlledsituation so we can get rid of the diseases. Diseases that we got here? No. Tuberculosis that you brought in from- with your children from United States. You wouldn’t believe the shit we found that was carried in here. People say worms in the jungle, uh-huh [no]. We got a child here that had tapeworm from the United States that blocked the bowel. If I hadna found it in the middle of the night, little uh, Jimmy Joe, no, Jim Michael, Jim Arthur [James Arthur Bishop, aka James Arthur Jones], if I hadna found him, he’da died.
Man: That’s right.
Woman: Right.
Jones: Blocked with the tapeworms. I just felt a sensation to walk out at 4 o’clock in the morning to where he was, way over there in the field. He’da been dead. We’ve had miraclesafter miracles, people paralyzed from ac- accidents, not following safety instructions. We got all be careful about walking now, because we’re in the cycle of threes about hai- brain injuries (Pause) which is a hell of business. Got a lot on my mind tonight. I got to sit here with a lot on my mind. I don’t want to tell you how bad that child, what condition that child’s in. I got to sit with that on my mind, deal with it. This is a- now this is- this is about how many children we’ve had blind. I can’t be expected to heal everybody. I can’t be. I’m a human that feels pain, needs sleep, just like the rest of you.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: I happen to have a scientific socialist facility that’s beyond the normal. And that- that- that shouldn’t be expected of me. Particularly people shouldn’t be careless and getting me in these messes.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Somebody, sometime not gonna get healed. That child’s alive, and I got more to do, I got more to do, ’cause the child’s blind. Understand, I got more to do. That’s one hell of a business, ’cause this goddamn s- shit. But David Goodwin was healed, he was blind.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: And who else was blind? Rose was blind, and uh, right here our sister was blind, uh, um-
Scattered in crowd: Tommy Beikman-
Jones: Tommy Beikman was blind. Hell, he was blown to shrapnel practically, blew him up.
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: Bones twisted and torn and de- dead, so somehow, somehow the consciousness will be there, but I- I got to sit here worried, because I don’t believe in nothing of love in thisunivore- universe. These kids got their ball equipment in, first goddamn day, their lovelyequipment, and the first goddamn day they play, somebody gets dam- they get killed, they get killed. I mean his (Stumbles over words), brain is split open. I’m tired, and my words are not coming out too clearly, but that- that’s a hell of a note. But we gonna have to watch and not get caught up in ourselves. We gotta watch our children, we gotta watch about who we work around so nobody gets injured. ‘Cause you know, it’s a miracle that a 1000 people, that nobody dead.
Man in crowd: Right. Right.
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: You know it’s a goddamn miracle. No child injured or paralyzed or blind yet.
Man in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: I mean yet- permanently.
Stephan: Um, I just wanted to say that- that people, you know, I know the guys that were playing out there could stat- could attest to the fact, like I was close to when it happened, and I couldn’t follow that bat with my eye. I didn’t see it. I didn’t even know he lost it until I saw his hands empty, and when I heard it, it just sounded like something just thrown up against a brick wall. It should have killed that kid instantly, it shoulda just- it coulda- it shoulda crushed his head. It was a miracle.
Man: That child should never got to the airport.
Stephan: That’s right, and he- he wasn’t unconscious one minute and he talked to me the whole time. He was never incoherent, he never- you know, he- he- he constantly had, you know, use of his faculties, and he talked to me. And ah- another thing I’m grateful for is that the kid, the kid is beautiful, and if it wasn’t for this place, you know, that it would- it wouldn’t be possible. And he was just beautiful. He was strong. I mean, he- he cried from the pain, but goddamn, I mean he was beautiful and that, you know I’m grateful for that, and I’m also grateful for the fact that he’s alive.
Crowd: (Applause)
Jones: Don’t worry about your children. They’ll make it. If we who were older have a child- but then when you see your children and think about your children being safe, and five thousand miles of territory, and all you have to do is walk in that jungle with me. Don’t walk out there without me, though-
Man in crowd: Right.
Jones: -’cause people get lost, uh, a woman was lost, an officer, seven days in there, he was only one mile from the outer edges, but uh, he damn near starved to death, ’cause you got to know what you’re doing. I have a sixth sense. (Reads) Please have people raise their hands if they never got their first piece of cake. Snacks and praises will be passed out after meeting in the dining room. Okay, raise your hands. (Pause) Wait. (Tape edit) (Pause) (Tape edit) Uh- Sometime somebody will die. That’s life. But there’s much less likelihood of it here. Eleven people in automobile accidents. Eleven people in automobile accidents, dead, who didn’t want to come over here and that could happen in Ukiah, California. That goddamn earthquake coulda swallowed you people up in your car. One day one’s gonna hit it, the big one’s gonna come. And drugs c- could reach every child, white, black. Andnuclear war-
End of Side 1
Side 2
Man 6: -like Amondo [Griffith] was standing right here, you know, back, and it’s likethrowing back and toward Amondo, and had it been like, anyplace else, or anybody else, it woulda killed him, because just the force of it just slipping out of my hands when it- from the way it went, it shoulda killed him and it should have knocked him under practically down at the time. And while we was going to the airport, I mean taking him to Kaituma, he kept conscious, you know, we kept keeping him conscious. He even told- he even spelled his name to us and kept, you know, telling us uh, leave him, you know, why were we pinching him and everything. You know, and for Dad that, you know, he would be dead right now.
Jones: Yeah, you don’t need to tell me about it. I know. What I need to hear is you people, when you play ball is to get- you clear those children, you don’t let them be there. You have to turn ’em in, we can’t take this kind of chances. We gonna have to be more cautious than anybody on earth. And don’t drop our bats under no circumstances. Yes. Yeah.
Man 7: Yeah, Dad, I just wanted to- to say – you already made more appropriately than I could about the childern adjusting better than adults to this environment – but I wanted to say that I don’t appreciate the statement made that you wanted to check the place out and using uh, your daughter Brenda as an excuse. And as I see it, there are a thousand of us now here, and I think everyone would agree this has been the best thing that’s everhappened to us.
Crowd: Right. (Applause)
Man 7: And as days go by, you’ll see it, because it’s very vivid. You may not look to your right or left or front or back but what you don’t see the beauty and the absolute miracle of what has been able to be accomplished in the middle of thick jungle. And I really think, if you look deep enough, that we who’ve allowed ourselves as adults to live in our own selfishness and self-centeredness like to use children rather than facing the fact that we may not want to be the one to grow up–
Jones: (Unintelligible word) True- true.
Man 7: -when- when children grow up much more easily, when given the leadership that has been given here by Dad, and when given support and especially in the support from their blood tie, children grow up much better.
Jones: Well, your health’s in better state, your chances of life are much better. The water is pure, we’ve got all kinds of kidney problems from the water back there. We had to clear up the blood pressure. We had one hundred people with high blood pressure that- over one hundred, 108, 109, to- total normal now. Nineteen cancers that’ve been taken care of because we caught them. So you’ll be put on the s- medical as soon as um, you know, as soon as we possibly can. The doctors in town had a miracle- I guess you all heard about how the doctor got licensed just based on the experience of working over amateur radio. And we got to talk all night on radio, I’ve gotta talk all night, and I don’t want to talk all night now, because I’ve got to talk all night to keep the government from closing down the amateur radio. They came in and sealed it, tried to close it, but they’re afraid to do it, because we’ve got a lot of people, and I- I never did have a secretary talk to me about what I want to put in that letter to these goddamn congressmen. I want a secretary in that radio room, (Pause) before I forget it. Yes, ah, Pat.
Patty Parks: Uh- I just want to say something short. Uh, I’m not trying to ah, side in with Jerry, but we didn’t even know when they were going to leave back there. We just thought they were going to leave any day that- that they got the word that his papers were in the country. And I- I’m just almost certain that neither one of us said that we were just co- you know, like coming to check out the place. Uh, if someone took that impression, we- we didn’t-
Jones: Well, it’s easy for people take that impression.
Patty Parks: -we didn’t even-
Jones: It’s easy because of 70 people in the house, and a lotta, lotta commotion and pressure.
Patty Parks: We did other- we did other complaining and gr- groaning and things like that, you know.
Jones: I didn’t hear nothing about just that- that fact, the food and that-
Patty Parks: I- I’m almost certain- (Unintelligible word)
(Technical problems)
Jones: Well, excuse me. I want to give an instruction for radio.
Dale Parks: Um- Um, I’m, I’m an uncle, so I think I ought to speak. Uh- Make up your mind that uh, this is the place for you. This is the first time that our black brothers and sisters have peace in their lives. Just make up their mind.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
(Technical problems, tape on and off for several moments)
Jones: Okay, we’ll- we’ll take that uh, word, that misunderstanding, um, I don’t know what we’re gonna do with you- this woman who claimed that says you have her child but uh, she can make her proceedings, and you’re not going back anyway. We have an understanding. Believe me, there a lotta safety here. Anybody can be set up and framed. They tried to frame Debbie Touchette. And they tried to frame uh, Tim Swinney, and Cart- uh, what was his name, Carter, Mike Carter, and we said no. Uh, the government has a healthy respect for us. No, you’re not going to take them. We won’t honor any court order. We will die first.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And they dropped all the proceedings, and they don’t come after us with no more of that shit. It’s a small country, it’s easy to bow and they- you be set (tape distortion) everybody now is under investigation by Health, Education and Welfare. That’s the way the dirty government goes. And if you go back, they put the heavy on you, like Tim Stoen and we haven’t done anything wrong, they manipulate you till you do. (Calls out) Shut up. (Normal tone) Elaine Brown thought she could think and get by. She told on the [Black] Panthers, lies and so forth. Now they’ve used her and got the Panthers destroyed. You’ve been there. I don’t have to tell you. Synanon, the White Cooperative, destroyed. They fled to Mexico. Panther paper, the only decent paper in the United States, destroyed. Just us repeated, same old TV show, backs turned to the camera. Synanon was just us repeated, same old bullshit. But when Mrs. uh, Brown helped destroy the Panthers, she didn’t count on when they get through with using a person. When they get through, then they drop them on the (Unintelligible phrase, sounds like “rubber sheet”), and now they’ve charged her with murder, ’cause nobody likes to think. So we have no choice. You’re here, you’re in a communist movement, they know it. Ain’t no choice but to make a go, ’cause if you went back, they’d nail you with a charge.
Man 5: Right.
Jones: They’ve got all kinds of people, Vernetta Christian, Jesus Christ, she never done anything wrong in her life, and they’ve got her charged with some damn thing in Texas, over Te- Does she look like a criminal? No. The criminals are the ruling class.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: They set up stuff, and every one of you’ll have something hanging over you, just in case you come back, so they can make you talk, then they get you- if they got you to talk like Tim Stoen, then they make a fool of you, then finally turn you over, or kill you. So you can’t win, but standing here in solidarity. So we demand that. Solidarity, cohesiveness, unity, and no talking behind anyone’s back. You got any improvements, constructive suggestions, we welcome it. Any ideas on how to make this a better place, we welcome it, but we don’t want any back talk.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: And it isn’t easy, because we’re in a warfare state. They’ve torn up crates. They’ve got crates blocked. We’re a hundred crates behind. A lot of supplies we haven’t gotten.
Scattered in crowd: Right. Right.
Jones: They keep our checks, they’ve cut up our mail, and that’s why I say, we’ll have to make a way- and we will.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: We- we won’t worry, don’t worry. You’re gonna eat. We’ll eat for some months to come, ’cause I’ve- I gave my body, and did a number of other things, and we’ve got some money, and gold, and things hid away. So we’re not gonna starve in a matter, so that gives more people, who- who else knows they’re gonna have so many months? Who in the hell knows that?
Scattered in crowd: Nobody.
Jones: You didn’t know when you were living in San Francisco or New Lo- New Orleans or in Ukiah, you didn’t know you gonna have one more goddamn week.
Scattered in crowd: That’s right.
Jones: You didn’t know. You lose your job, you go in the hospital, you- the damn nurses are hos- are hostile. You see all this medical team work, and Rose, how I miraculously saved her when she was blind this week, and paralyzed, and all that team working. And then of course I had to do it, ’cause nothing medical science could do, but see, such a miracle as that, and you’ll see the care. If you ever go in our clinic and have to be in there for any specialization, the 24-hour watching. Jesus horse, you go into a hospital, you may have read when you come out, in Detroit, nurses have killed 54 patients in one de- in one division. Killed ’em. So they’ve been brought to- brought to light in the press. How’d they kill them? Not even nice. Not even mercifully. With pillows. Suffocating them, ’cause they didn’t want to be bothered. Say, hell, that’s a hell you live in American medicine. You been in a hospital, you know how cold they are, how indifferent they are, don’t give a shit. One out of three patients get the wrong medicine, half the surgeries have been unnecessary. (Pause) That’s true, that’s- even the Readers Digest admits that. So I think we’ve got much to be grateful for, and work on it. We talk about three gratitudes, any other thing that should be told. Don’t waste water, please. We’re one of the few places in the world that have clean water.
Man 5: That’s right.
Jones: Can’t even drink the water in California now in the lower part, they have to boil every bit of it, ’cause the graveyards have washed into the main water tributaries.
Lee Ingram: Orientation tomorrow (unintelligible).
Jones: Orientation, you have a day off, then you decide what phase of work you’ll be in after tomorrow.
Woman in crowd: Don’t play with Muggs.
Jones: Don’t play with Muggs, don’t get near the chimpanzee. Yes, she said, no (Unintelligible word, sounds like “mayo”), nobody get near the champin- chimpanzee. He’s nice, if we need to turn him loose on our enemies, but he ain’t- no, you don’t go inside there.Nobody. If you do, you’ll be dealt with, ’cause he can tear your arm off.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: Yeah, and Stephan says, and then feed it to you. (Laughs) He can tear it off and then feed it to you. Shift please. Any question, any- any important thing they need to know right now? Yes, teacher Turner.
Turner: Sit down when you use the restroom.
Jones: Yeah, please do that, gentlemen. Sit down when you use the restroom. We don’t have diseases and gastroenteritis, and a lot of you people have Russian flu that closed the schools. We had it uh, under control in no time. Peace. But we want to be careful. Wash our hands after the toilets- And we’re having a trouble. They’ve held- blocked up our soap, number of things, but we’ll get through, we’ll get through. But wash still. We still say wash after every bathroom. Be careful, don’t put your mouth on the electric refrigerator water, the cold water fountain. Uh- Do certain sanitary measures. Protect the property like it’s your property. Thirty miles around it is people’s property, and that’s something to think about. And the only place- remember anthropologist [Margaret] Mead said, the only place that would survive was this part of the world. I told you that, just after I decided that. They’d done a study and found this is the only place that had the- uh- this mineral stra- water, the food and the sufficiency for survival. The anthropologist, the most famous in the world, came up with that.
Man 5: That’s right.
Jones: Okay? Okay. Hmm?
Lee Ingram: Thank you, Dad-
Jones: (Stumbles over words) They had their cake? Have you had their cake, you people? Okay, okay, be seated. Now we have Learning Crew, if you get into difficulty. We don’t believe in boxing, hitting, smacking. It’s rarely that that takes place. We believe inreasoning. If you don’t- reasoning doesn’t work, there’s what we call Learning. Jeff Carey has been in his isolation. You go into psychological isolation which wha- one getsdeprogrammed from the brainwashing of the system that has really got a hold of some people. But if you keep rules, there’s no problem. The rules are not that hard. We are working harder than we want to, we are more crowded than we want to be, but they’ve tied up monies and things, and it’s- we ought to be thankful, we got all you want to eat. You can- Whatever we do have, you can eat what you want, unless you’re overweight to the danger to your health. (Reads) Jeff Carey, second time, 15 days in Learning, in isolation for a week. Thursday good fast worker, when asked if he had a problem with his ears, he said, went into discussion how uh, he did and why. When told to shut up, he replied, well, you wanted to know. He still is a smart ass. Friday, good fast worker on peanuts, did an accurate job, went to sleep in socialism class and cried- tried to deny it. Very defensive person, big manipulator. Saturday, slow but does things accurately. Too accurate, supervisor thinks, caused problem at wood pile this P.M. Told Garnett [Johnson] to shut up– (Unintelligible word) when was this?
Woman 4: (speaks in the background, unintelligible)
Jones: That wasn’t the supervisor, this is- this is already past present. What about the day?
Woman 4: (Too soft)
Jones: This is Sunday, one day past?
Woman 4: Just wasn’t (unintelligible).
Jones: We had a meeting yesterday?
Woman 4: Yes.
Jones: Oh, God.
Woman 4: We didn’t deal with that. But the- his particular topic was brought up.
Jones: Yeah, he told on himself.
Woman 4: Yes.
Jones: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I- I see.
Woman in crowd: (Unintelligible) we’re gonna have the (unintelligible) for the next uh, rally.
Jones: Well, I know, I know, we’re gonna have Learning Crew next to peoples rally, but I’m- we’re in this rally, so why in the hell did don’t we some of them off or on, or whatever.
Man in crowd: It’s not right.
Jones: What is the situation? What is the situation today?
Woman 4: (Unintelligible) Dad.
Jones: Hmm?
Woman 4: (Unintelligible)
Jones: I didn’t hear you.
Woman 5: Um, he’s had a very good attitude today, Dad, and he’s been ah-
Jones: Nat Swaney. Doing what?
Woman 5: Working on the-
Man 6: They was, they was working on uh, these ah, ramps here, and uh, working-
Jones: Yes, and we want to pick the person (unintelligible) no balls.
Man 6: He worked real- He worked real good and so did uh, Laura and uh, who? Marvin[Marvin Sellers, aka Marvin Janaro], Marvin. They all three worked real good.
Jones: Very well. Are you still working on it?
Man in crowd: Yes, Dad.
Jones: (Unintelligible word) How long you’ll be working at it? Are you finished? Hmm?
Man 6: Uh- Almost. We got the back, uh, part of the back there to do, but all four of these ramps are through.
Jones: Oh, Marvin. Well, let me see. (Long pause) I don’t see a report on Mar- Marvin. Where is it, Christine? It’s probably here and I’m just missing it. (Pause, reads) Third time, five days, Monday, good worker, good attitude, keeps the mouth shut, fast worker. Good attitude, slow worker while shoveling dirt at the piggery. (Normal tone) Well, we all should try to increase our work out of a deep desire to do so. Janelle, will go with you tomorrow. (Pause) Where’s Janelle go back? She goes back to the bakery. (Pause) Where does Carey go? (Pause)
Carey: I was on the night crew in the kitchen, but I don’t know, I don’t know if there’s (unintelligible)
Jones: What about the night crew in the kitchen? Kitchen, please?
Man in crowd: I don’t know.
Woman 4: He’s already gone to the kitchen.
Scattered in crowd: (Hubbub, low conversation.)
Jones: She said yes? You- You want him back? You-
Lee Ingram: Do you want him back, Bea?
Jones: Fine.
Man 6: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Okay.
Man 6: (Pause) Okay, okay.
Jones: The um, now- (Pause) Laura Johnston? Where does she go?
Woman 6: That’s Jan’s [Jan Wilsey] crew.
Jones: Jan’s crew.
Man 6: She working under Ruthie Quinn.
Jones: (Stumbles over words) Under Ruthie Quinn. Good. She’s uh, showing a good spirit? You’re not going to have anymore trouble, are we, uh, by the way, uh, Jeff?
Jeff: No, Dad. No, Dad.
Jones: We appreciate it. We’d like your mind working with us.
Jeff: Yes, I’m- I’m going to improve and ah, I was talking to Tom and we- we talked about it today, you know, and I said I still have some attitude problems, and he- he said well, it-
Lee Ingram: Well, didn’t you- you just worked them out though? Please.
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, that’s the thing. I’ve been working them out.
Lee Ingram: Okay, good, okay.
Jones: Walter Williams. Don’t like to be told enough what to do, Walter. Now you were paralyzed, and if I hadn’t told you what to do and healed you when your spinal fluid was coming out of your mouth, you wouldn’t have lived. Now you going to have to know that we all give and take orders. Remember what I told you last night? I take orders 24 hours a day.
Scattered in crowd: Right.
Jones: The orders of the people. When I was uh, ready, hoping I can drop down in bed after being up all night with that goddamn radio and all day, then came that accident, and I didn’t get a chance. So I’m under orders in a worse, worse restricted sense than you’ll ever be.
Man 5: That’s right.
Jones: I’m under constant orders. I don’t like being here tonight. I want to pee. I need to pee, but I don’t want to take away from the people, because I’d like for them to get la- late movie or la- the chance to do whatever they’re gonna do, but I have to get it over with. So I endure the pain, the pain and the headache that’s always with me, for my blood condition, blood sugar. So I’m under orders. I’m in difficulty. This is not what I want to do tonight. Are you gonna change that, son? Where are you, where did you go? Woodchopper, fine, wood crew. (Pause) Uh- (Pause) What’s this? (Unintelligible)
Woman 7: I thought that- I wanted to say that when Laura got off the crew that she was supposed to stay on and help with the Learning Crew.
Woman 8: She said she was going to work with Ruthie Quinn.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: (Drinks) Well, there’s no objection. You may be wrong, you mu- may be right. I don’t remember, to be candid. I think she’s got a lot of potential myself, personally. And her child needs to realize that uh, I give it- I give a lot of criticism to people who can take it. She’s done a lot of good things too. So, uh, (stumbles over words), go back with Ruthie? Hmm? Yes, fine. Step up the pace. Anybody else here that should be taken off [Learning] that I do not see? Kenny Reed. No, no, not enough days. Fourth time. Fourth time. (Pause) (Reads) Worked hard, good attitude, but your mouth not quite controlled, so try to get it by Tuesday controlled will you, son?
Kenny Reed: Yes, Dad.
Jones: We’ll see what happens on Tuesday. Oh, lordy, lordy, lordy. Some of these other cases. I think you’re gonna have to be- I think there’s some dangers of people being in isolation. Tracy Stone is bordering on it for harassing other people and teasing. We don’t buy that. (Pause) I don’t really hear Kay Rosas, do I? I really don’t hear Kay Ro- Kay Rosas.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Hey, some people don’t know nothing but the barrel of a gun. That’s all they know. How are the rest of you, sweethearts? I haven’t had a chance to greet you. I’m glad to have you home in the Promised Land.
Man 7: You want the anaconda?
Jones: Get him.
(Tape edit)
Man 7: He ain’t as rough as that green one. He’s big, but he ain’t (unintelligible word).
Jones: It- It seems that she has to have a certain type of treatment every so often, because Kay, I think, thinks that she’s a descendant of the Queen of England. I don’t know what her problem is. (Pause) Fell on the ground, ranted and raved. (Pause) Refused to work, said she wouldn’t go, got very mad, threw herself on the ground, ranted and raged. Supervisor had to go anyway and call Bonnie Simon. She’s now had to- then she had to be confined to the dorm, and going to have to- (Pause) her and Penny [Kerns] are going to sleep tonight in the cellars with the bats, and the bugs, and the snakes. That (Stumbles over words), what’s that?
Woman 9: T\She had to- She- that she would- had to go to the kitchen uh, instead, Dad. She had a change of attitude, but then she got smart a little bit again today, ah-
Jones: I don’t know about today. This is too much. I ain’t dealing with it.
Woman 9: Terrible, Dad.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Lee Ingram: Come on, hush up, hush up. It’s not over yet. (Pause) Hush up! (Pause) Now this is dumb, this is dumb shit, Kay. You come up here dumb as owl shit every other week, taking up our goddamn time, and we have to- we have to look at your silly ass.
Crowd: (Laughter)
Lee Ingram: And it’s not funny one bi- it’s not funny, it’s not funny. (Pause) Because there’s some people who have more to do than just sit here.
Crowd: That’s right. (Applause)
Lee Ingram: And I mean namely our leader, namely our leader. He could be doing- he could be doing more to- to have- do creative strategies and other business rather than sitting here dilly dallying with you.
Jones: I, I, I really do-
Rosas: This-
Jones: (Angry tone) I- I thank you. He- he gave my sentiments. I appreciate his leadership. He gave my sentiments. It’s a goddamn shame. I can’t eat cake, ’cause I got to think of uh- of the welfare of you people, ’cause I put on weight. I put it on so badly, so easily these days. I can’t uh, fuck and do it in good conscience. Now I’m a son of a bitch. You- some of you people play around and you- see your goddamn face every Sunday night. Now, some people might like to watch the uh, the Technicolor movie, or did some reading, or little chatting, or little dance. They got to look at you. We ought to dance on your fucking head.
Crowd: Right. (Applause)
Jones: What comes with you, woman? You start this bullshit again. You know you’re not gonna get by with this bullshit.
Rosas: Dad-
Jones: You haven’t been no bock- you haven’t been in no isolation chamber yet.
Rosas: Dad-
Jones: Mark her down, and don’t even bother to talk to her. (Pause) ‘Cause we’re sick of it. Dad what?
Rosas: Dad, ah, last night when I got-
Jones: You got that big, that great goddamn big snake that could kill her in one, one, one ah, uh, one damn wring. Let- you get that son of a bitch. That’s the only thing she understands, that damn snake.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Lee Ingram: Come on, hush up!
Jones: What you want to say, before the snake sees you?
Rosas: Ah, Dad ah, last night when I got up and said that I wasn’t cooperat- cooperative, that’s when I was telling on myself, and I said that’s why I-
Jones: Oh bullshit. You were caught, you were caught.
Rosas: That’s what- last night.
Woman 10: You were not. You were not. What you said, what you said when you sit up, you said, was ah, Dad I did a little something wrong today. I do think that the uh, the supervisors of the dorm, one can make up a list of my duties for me, and I’d already told you that just to take an hour a day to make up your bed and help clean around the dorm and everything. That’s what I’d asked you to do. It’s very simple, and you don’t do that much, and you’d refused to do it, Kay. And when I told you to go home and do your work, you said, I’m not going, and- and you said- also said that I couldn’t make you go. And you got very smart.
Jones: Now (unintelligible name, could be “Wanda” or “Miranda”) Robinson, you’re in trouble if you don’t stop this harassing. A number of people I’m calling will be in the bock- will be in the isolation chamber. Mark Rhodes [Marquess Rhodes], Ray McCall- He’s, he’s, he’s, he’s adamant, won’t do what he’s told to do, huh? Better wake him up and tell him what’s comin’. He can have all this bullshit.
Lee Ingram: (Unintelligible word) -think that ah- Irvin Perkins throwing a rock-
Jones: Irvin Perkins, after we had had that terrible accident of death of this child in revival.
Lee Ingram: (Unintelligible)
Jones: And we know, you don’t- no heart, no plus, nothing. Poor child was. Couldn’t even get a damn pulse beat. The first- I mean we’re talking about the first, then the blood pressureway up there, should’ve blown, blown the brain till it couldn’t have every functioned to use a common term that you’d understand. A child couldn’t stand that kind of blood pressure.
Man in crowd: Right.
Woman 10: So then, Dad, she said that I couldn’t make her go-
Jones: Who, who threw this rock? Who threw- who threw this rock? Irvin Perkins and who else?
Lee Ingram: Ricardo [Arterberry]. Ricardo.
Jones: Ricardo? Get them on Learning. I don’t need to talk to them. And we don’t- We don’t throw rocks, we don’t hit people, uh- Right on Learning.
Lee Ingram: Ricardo!
Jones: I love ’em, but (Stumbles over words), we can’t take all night with this bullshit. What other- What other problem was there-?
Lee Ingram: That- that was it, Dad. Those two. Those two-
Jones: No, there was something, something that uh, Christine had. ‘Course, she may have given it to me already. I don’t know. Yes, she did. (Reads) Warnings, Ruthie Smith complained a lot about the toast not browning well on both sides- hey, you goddamn people, people starving to death.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: (Reads) She was told that she uh- the toasters are not working well, she kept complainingJuanita Green said yesterday, “if you all kept feeding me like this”- and uh, where’s she going, where’s she going?
Man in crowd: Finished? She’s not finished.
Jones: Who in the hell? I ain’t finished with her face. (Pause) She got me pissed. (Pause) (Reads) “If you all keep- if you keep feeding me like this, I’m going to work like I am fed. Give me a little food and I’ll do a little work.” She’s a diabetic and trying to get sugar constantly. Why do you do this? Why in the hell don’t you understand we’re trying to put you on a diet? Why do you do this? She had warning? (Pause) (Reads) Erma Winfrey, she’s diabetic, also got sugar for her tea, taking advantage of the new special diet server, Claudia Bouquet. Many people try to take advantage of Claudia. (Addresses crowd) Claudia, you’re gonna have to- Don’t let them take that sugar. That kills them. Puts them in a bad state of health. I’ve gotten some 30, 40 people off of insulin. (Pause) What the hell you want to die of diabetes? You go blind. That’s smart ass remark to make, Juanita.
Juanita: I don’t even remember.
Jones: You never do.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: (Reads) “You all kept feeding me like this, I am going to work like I am fed. Give me a little food and I’ll do a little work.” Put a trip hammer on your mouth. Dessie Jordan.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Okay, give it to her, give it to her, give it to her. I’m sick of this shit. Let her deal with it. Motherfucker. If he wants to choke her to death, that’s his business, and I’m tired of it.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Rosas: (Crying) Please, Dad, please, Dad. Please, please forgive me. I won’t do that (unintelligible)-
Man in crowd: You said the same thing the last time!
Crowd: (yells)
Rosas: (Unintelligible)
Crowd: (yells)
Jones: Turn around and look at the people, turn around and look at the people. Talk to them. See if they won’t get the snake off your back.
Rosas: Promise (unintelligible) promise I won’t do it again.
Crowd: (Catcalls, laughter)
Rosas: I never did promise I won’t do it again. Please, please forgive me, please forgive me. I won’t do it again. (Unintelligible)
Jones: Sh- Nothing else works for this woman. And this only lasts six, seven days. You fed it to her, maybe it- that might work- I don’t know.
Rosas: I won’t do it again.
Jones: Okay. Okay.
Crowd: (Hubbub. Laughs)
Jones: Turn around. (Pause) Turn around. (Pause) What’s this?
Rosas: Thank you, Dad. (Cries)
Jones: Now I mean it, Kay, I don’t know why you think (Stumbles over words) you can put us through this every night. He about got you that time, didn’t he?
Rosas: Yes, Dad. (Cries) I’m sorry, thank you (unintelligible).
Jones: You haven’t seen nothing yet. You know how- how long he gonna be? (Pause) About 37 and a half feet long. He just a baby. And that’s what’s out there.
Man in crowd: You keep (unintelligible) you’ll be snake food before dinner.
Jones: (Talks to snake) Hi, you old’ sweet fella. I like him. The more I see of these fuckers, the more I like ’em, yeah. Look at that, look at that grip. That’s a grip. You’re a good guy. Boy, they love that snake dance. She went through the snake dance in Georgetown fantastic. She was fantastic. The snake danced with her, the head was out dancing with her. (Pause) Oh, what’d he do, shit on her?
Man 7: Yeah (unintelligible) shit on your leg.
Jones: Wouldn’t you know it? He would shit on me. Everybody else does.
Crowd: (Laughs)
Jones: (Laughs) Why didn’t you shit on her, goddamn it. You, you, you- huh?
Man 7: (Unintelligible) Yeah, he’s shedding his skin (unintelligible).
Jones: I know, but why didn’t he shit on her?
Man 7: He shit on me too.
Jones: You little fart. (Pause) (Angry) What’s the matter with you, woman? You keep keeping up our time?
Woman in crowd: Speak up.
Rosas: I wouldn’t do it anymore, Dad. I (unintelligible)-
Crowd: (Yells)
Jones: You’re scared to death, I- I don’t know how, I don’t know how anybody, I don’t know how anybody that is so scared of life, and death, and snakes, and bugs, and every other shitting thing, why don’t you behave? Hell, you’re so scared of everything.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Tiger? That’s what we need to do. Fucking tiger hadn’t been fed tonight. Take her out to tiger.
Crowd: (Cheers, hubbub)
(Tape edit)
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: He’s a very gentle snake, and he has never offered to squeeze anybody but her. And I don’t blame him. He won’t do it. You can’t make him squeeze. He’s gentle, but he’ll be 37 feet long. He’ll be impressive if Stoen comes.
Crowd: (Scattered applause)
Jones: Stoen says- Stoen ain’t coming. Stoen ain’t coming. He ain’t got the ba- He ain’t got the gall. Well, now these two onto Learning, and what about you?
Woman in crowd: (Unintelligible)
Jones: If you get one twice in a month, that’s it. (Pause)
Woman in crowd: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Why do you- why don’t you quit that? I don’t like to see seniors go on Learning, even for the night. I don’t like to see you do this, but you’re gonna have to go- we’re gonna have to go for a day. We’ve gonna have to go for a day. You can’t put Learnings-
Crowd: (Yells)
Jones: You got big mouth, Juanita.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: What’s that?
Juanita: I- they said salute. I said, thank you, Dad.
Jones: They said salute, you know how to salute.
Man in crowd: (Unintelligible)
Juanita: No, I had did it before they asked.
Jones: Okay, step- Step to Learning, dear. (Pause) And keep a good attitude, you’ll be there the next day, ’cause I- I never thought I’d have to see seniors in Learning department. Better than thumping on people. I don’t like to see violence. What’s this?
Annie: (Unintelligible) you would love (unintelligible)
Jones: I can’t- (Unintelligible word) What’d you say, Annie? What’d you say, Annie?
Man 10: Microphone. Microphone.
Woman 10: Microphone-
Annie: She real nice (unintelligible) take advantage of (unintelligible).
Jones: I’m sure on one, 24 hours, all the days of my life. All the days. God, I’d love, Learning would be easy for me. (Reads) Dessie Jordan (unintelligible word) while sitting in the pavilion watching the movie, she saw Dessie spit on the ground- ground. We’ve kept down diseases. You know better than that. She to- called her to her and told her that it was the third time she had seen her spit on the ground, the community. She must stop it- should stop it, rather. Dessie got mad, said, ” Why do you have to be around every time I spit on the ground?” (Pause) I- I suspect there’s only one Dessie Jordan. (Pause) Okay, why?
Dessie: I- It happened each time it was emergency. First time it happened, I had a sick stomach-
Jones: It’s an emergency?
Dessie: It (unintelligible)- I had emergency, and when I eat something fat, it comes right back up, and I couldn’t run out wherever I was, and she caught my hand- (Unintelligible under Jones)
Jones: Why didn’t you try some kind of paper?
Dessie: I should.
Jones: Yeah, you should.
Dessie: Yeah, and I said, thank you. And uh, the next time I was at home-
Jones: Hell, you know you’re spitting up, what- what do we know? That’s what I mean. All the people come to the United States with tuberculosis. What the hell do you know, you’re spitting up?
Dessie: What-
Jones: You should have been grateful for a- a professional nurse telling you. (Unintelligible word) You only had one warning. I’ve had no trouble with you, Dessie.
Dessie: I thought I was grateful. I told her I’d talk to her later.
Jones: You know I said- but you ought to taken that and said thank you. You shouldn’t spit on that ground. You don’t know what’s causing you to spit up, till we get full thorough uh, study back on you. (Pause) Don’t defend that, don’t defend that.
Dessie: Okay.
Jones: Okay.
Dessie: Thank you.
Jones: She only had one warning. That’s only one warning? (Reads) Billy Jones [aka William Dillon Dean] in bed at 10 o’clock. He gave a return- a ret- return- turn slip to uh, supervisor, but Betty Fitch had no idea where he was. Warning, (unintelligible) says anything else, I don’t know. Burrell Wilson, Detra Green, Clarence Klingman, w- walk around quite a bit. Clarence was also a half hour late to work. Yolanda Brown, Jair Baker were working very slow. Attitudes and negativity were so bad in the crew that Lee Ingram and Jan Wilsey had to come out in the field to warn this crew about it.
Woman 11: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Whose had one?
Woman 11: (Unintelligible)
Jones: How long ago?
Woman 11: That was on the fourteenth.
Jones: Fourteenth this month?
Woman 11: Uh, late twice this week.
Jones: Ah, Billy goes to Learning. Where’s Billy? Where’s he at? Been one of our models and now you going to start your declension? (Pause) Ah, somebody said he’s the (Stumbles over words) fastest worker on the crew. Was there praise for that? Who, who, who’s the crew person?
Woman 11: Supervisor ah, he was good. He uh, was good most of the time, he just- he doesn’t work steady. Like I have to watch him sometimes, ’cause he’ll goof off, but he does work, and that morning he was sort of goofing off. He could’ve been at work and sat down in that home, and he hadn’t told me where he was. I had (Unintelligible under Jones) idea where he was.
Jones: I said, I’m not- I’m not (Unintelligible word) with you praise or no praise. You got a praise cancel out the good, the- the- the bad. You’ll get, you’ll get another chance, but I’m not kidding with you. I don’t care whether you get praise, the next time, it’s Learning.
Billy: Sorry, Dad, it won’t happen no more.
Jones: I hope not, ’cause you were one of our models. (Pause) (Reads) Citrus crew, Joyce Polk working slow. Tobi (last name unintelligible, sounds like “Mendenzine,” probably Tobi Stone ), look-
Billy: Thank you, Dad.
Jones: Mendenzine uh- doing a lot. I like the name. I’ll have to get it down here. Thank you, Mendenzine, doing a lot of standing around. Wood crew, Ben Robinson and David George were working steady, the rest of the crew were watching them. (Addresses crowd) Well, now, who’s that, who’s the rest of the crew? Ben Robinson-
Man: (Unintelligible)
Jones: -well, Ben Robinson came- where he came from. it’s a miracle what he’s, that’s uh, amazing. Some of these people were uh, surely on their way to jail and come over herefrom jail, and he’s doing this fine example, Ben Robinson, fine example. That’s what this community does. Structure builds character and s- changes people. What about the rest of you chaps? Ah, man, you oughta be up, you oughta be up here to model all the time. What (Unintelligible word) the rest of you?
Man 8: Dad, we was working. Wa-
Jones: Now I got observers on Sap – security patrol – and others, and you were not working as you should’ve been. Not like these, not like men was working, and not like David George, our Amerindian lad that we adopted.
Woman 11: Dad-
Jones: And he- he never complained, we never gonna complain by him. He never wasspoiled by Yankee imperialism.
Woman 11: Dad, when we walked down there, we was observing them. We wou- we hid behind the bushes and we was watching them, and um, David George was cutting with the um, the saw and Ben, whatever he would cut, Ben would get his axe and chop it. And they was standing there. They could’ve took the wood and started carrying it out, but when they noticed us, then they started carrying the wood out, passing it to each other. They stood almost 15 minutes not doing nothing.
Jones: Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
David: Uh, Dad, we- excuse me, Dad, we were, we were carrying, we had to wait for Ben to cut the wood in order to carry the wood out, and um, I was in, in the uh, in the back areawith Ben, and Chris was in the back area with- with us and after uh, Ben cut the wood, we would carry it out.
Jones: Who- who was on Learning, who was all on this crew? (Pause) What about this, Ben? You were, you were said-?
Ben: At that particular time, Dad ah, they were working, they did have to wait on me, but I do have problems uh, with Chris, Willy, and uh, Tommy. I have to stay on ’em, because if Idon’t, they won’t work.
Jones: I was wondering about this chap, because he always was good.
Ben: Uh, Larry, since he been here, he been busting his ass. I have no problem at all.
Jones: Yeah- (Unintelligible word). Well, now listen, I don’t know what about you three. You two uh, particular, have been uh, on the Learning, off the Learning, on the Learning, off the Learning. And you practically brought us all to hell. (Unintelligible word) I don’t know what to do with you. (Pause) Anybody got an idea? Now let’s get- Let’s try to get- we have ah, tomorrow night for the- the movies won’t be in the, the new movies won’t be in tomorrow night. Let’s try whatever, some (unintelligible) people will have a rest, a Steering on Tuesday, and a meeting on Wednesday. Let us hope that, hmm?
Crowd: (Murmurs)
Jones: Get a little break here because of this, we not (unintelligible) Sunday’s our day off, for Christ’s sake. Look at this. (Pause) You know- How much more do you want to cause us? Can’t you work?
Tommy: Yes, Dad, I can, but- but-
Jones: Don’t you feel any responsibility for people back there like Robin [Tschetter], and Leona [Collier], and Alice [Tschetter], and Jean Brown? Don’t you feel any responsibility for those people?
Tommy: Yes.
Jones: Ro- Robin gets run over by a goddamn car, maybe on purpose. Miraculously that nothing harmed her, I protected her. What the hell with you, you been here all these- you were on your way to jail? Half this goddamn place I bailed out of jail, risked going to jail getting you out. You were on your way. Drugs, everything else, and caused what the shit you caused us here?
Tommy: Yes, Dad.
Jones: You straighten your ass up. Get your shit together.
Tommy: Yes, Dad. Um, what he’s supposed to talk about is, is, what I- what’s happening is like I, like he’ll see me do something and instead of just going straight there and back, I’ll go off and do something else, and waste my time getting back.
Jones: Well, why do you do it? He did, what- what’s this black man working for this place and you’re not? He came here in a hell of a way, and he’s taken on a responsibility. I couldn’t stand it. Life’s so miserable for me, I couldn’t stand it, if it wasn’t for a few people who’ll take on responsibilities and care. I really care. Some of you goof-offs are impossible. Some of the people been transformed like- like angels changed. (Pause) The hell your problem is, who’s – who’s blowing wind up your ass. (Pause) Are you in a relationship?
Tommy: No, I’m not, Dad.
Woman in crowd: Found a girl (unintelligible) likes.
Tommy: Like, what’s- what’s most happening is like, I- I don’t really feel like I can really keep up with- with the crew itself so- and- that’s why I just mostly goof off and try to stay away from it.
Ben: I disagree with that, Tommy, ’cause you can cut a tree down and bust up uh, the wood just as fast as anybody out there. I mean ah- to me I think that uh, you think you’re better. And plus when I seen if you do things, just like I saw you talking to Teena [Bogue] the other day instead of going straight up- straight up there and coming back. Fuck off.
Tommy: That’s true.
Woman 12: You’re using as a cop-out and manipulation by saying you don’t feel that you can keep up with the rest of the workers, ’cause nobody’s asked to do anything that they can’t do. And so why don’t you just say that you’re a ass like everybody else, and why don’t you get your stuff together?
Tommy: That’s- that’s true- I am an ass, and I should just go straight to Learning instead of to- dragging this on.
Woman 13: Learning obviously ain’t helping you any. It’s- it’s obvious, Tommy, you’ve been on Learning so many times that Learning’s not helping you. I ask you every goddamn day if you’ve been doing your work, if you’re getting back to work on time. Yes, I’m getting back to work on time, I’m doing my work. And it’s obvious you just been lying to me. I think you should stay away from me for at least a month. I think you should not talk to me or do anything for a month. I think you should stay on Learning for a month. Maybe you should even go into isolation for a week.
Tommy: I agree with that, ’cause isolation is the one thing that I haven’t been on yet as a disciplinary thing, so maybe I should just try it.
Woman 14: Why do you have to go to isolation? Why can’t you just straighten up? Why do you got to go to Learning? Why do you got to do all this other kinds of stuff? Why can’t you just straighten up and do your goddamn work? Dad’s done enough for your ass. He’s got you out of jail three times, Tommy. He saved your life three times, he’s kept you from getting shot by the cops three times, Tommy. Don’t you have any gratitude at all? I am really tired of you. You could be dead now from drugs. You could be dead from being shot by the cops three times. You could be back in a bourgeois society with, with your dad’s parents, and you would be dead if you were back there with them, ’cause they don’t like you, they don’t like us, and you know you’d be dead.
Stephan: Ah, what I was gonna say is that I think the main problems he has with getting it is the example that’s set for him in the crew- the crew, you know. Now Ben, I see, I’ve been out in the bush where they’ve been working pretty much daily. They don’t see- usually see me out there. But uh, Ben, I have no complaints with Ben’s work. I mean I was, that maybe, you know, that was good. But ah, as for busting ass, I don’t think anybody’s busting ass. And I think it’s a big problem with (Stumbles over words) ego, I think he may have a point, ’cause there’s a big ego conflict out there I’ve noticed with you guys. You know, you guys compete with each other instead of working together, you know. And I know you guys know what I mean about cutting down trees, who can do it the fastest and everything, you know. And no, I’ve heard a few remarks about me out there, uh, you know, about axes and things like this, you know, and I don’t personally appreciate it, and I think that’s an ego conflict with me, but nobody’s busting ass and I went out there, and I think you saw me that day. And you guys were sitting. And uh, there’s just not a good example, and I think it’s just a big competitive thing. You guys don’t want nobody to tell you nothing. There could be a lot you could be told about how to cut down trees. How to not, you know- There’s a lot of things you guys could be told if you’re willing to do it and quit swagging around here.
Man 9: A lot of axe handles wouldn’t be broken too if they used them right.
Stephan: That’s right, ah, I wanted to mention that. It’s just a point for everybody. When you guys put your axe in, inst- instead of knocking it forward and getting it out, you pry the thing out. You, I saw, when you’re splitting wood, use the head to pry the thing open, and you, you guys, you (tape distortion) you’re gonna keep breaking axe handles if you do that. And uh, you guys won’t let nobody tell you nothing. I just get that imp- I’ve never tried, but I know how it’ll be handled if I- I think if I went up there and tried. This by the way- He doesn’t swagger and Ben’s friendly. Ben’s been friendly to me, but there’s other guys, they just swagger around, they’re like, you know, really tough, tough shit and I- I don’t think that’s anyway to handle yourselves.
Man 10: I think one solution – and I was just talking about to Ben about it a second ago – would be to divide your crew up and have Chris or Darrell [Devers] when he comes back take one part of the crew and Ben take another part of the crew and (unintelligible word). I mean, there’s wood all over here that could (tape distortion) wood and somebody else could be using a crosscut saw uh, sawing wood someplace else, and then somebody could start busting it up after it’s cut with a crosscut saw. Yeah, I’ve worked with chain saw, which sometimes fails, when the mo- the uh, clutch might burn out or whatever happens mechanically. You don’t always have to depend on the uh, chain saw (unintelligible) you use a crosscut saw, and the person older than you here, ah, Tim Swinney and ah, (Unintelligible word) uh, uh, Jim Morrel [Jim Bogue] down at the piggery can use a cross saw to cut wood (unintelligible). So you guys can do that to cut wood.
Stephan: And you guys have got plenty of guys. I mean you’ve got plenty of guys to put your job out, ’cause I’ve seen you guys. You don’t have a job half the time, you know. Ben is usually the one in there that he’s in on usually every job, but a lot of you guys uh, don’t have a job, and if you had a crosscut saw, maybe you’d all have a job, and plus it would free the chain saws. You know chain saws are needed for getting our lumber out. That’s all- we have to use the chain saws to get the lumber. I mean we can’t use the crosscut- crosscut saw, so I- I think that ought to be done.
Jones: Well, what about it?
Man 11: (Unintelligible sentence) They can get started in the morning, Dad. Okay.
Jones: Okay. We need to save wherever we can. What about the warnings here?
Woman 15: We only had one on the third-
Jones: Who had warning?
Woman 15: Tim had one, and Chris had one. They’re both standing around during the work hours, and Tommy had one also on- on the third. He uh, leaves work without supervisor and (Unintelligible word).
Man in crowd: (Unintelligible) or what?
Jones: Um-
Woman 15: (Unintelligible) Match tenth.
Jones: (Unintelligible) Sap, uh, can we get one of the crew, can we get one- another person relieved? I wonder if Laurie, um, I know that she could, she could be, uh, Laurie uh, might not be wise uh, if Laurie did go into, uh- Laura went into uh, Learning and somebody be a relief to watch these yet- these chaps to back them up, and they will be there on Learning and then we would move from there to- back to ah- well, all three on Learning, ’cause you violated uh, two rules. But it’s very difficult to move people who are- who can be put in their place is not, is not with all the people in town, it makes it difficult to switch jobs.
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: What is it?
Man 11: I’d have to be one of them if uh, they’re willing to give me a job change. I’m in the field right now.
Jones: Where are you at?
Man 11: Uh, in the field right now. Ah, Ruthie Quinn’s crew.
Jones: By the way all the people, uh- since Jan- since there’s a complaint with observers, since the people been in town at the entire general observation, the field crews have not been doing their job since Jan Wilsey and others left for Georgetown. This better change tomorrow. That’s bad. We have people in there doing their task, and you let down on our food production. That’s bad. That better all change, all field crews. Did you hear? What about his supervisor? Can he be shifted? (Pause) Ruthie Quinn?
Woman in crowd: She said, “Yes, Dad.”
Jones: She said yes?
Stephan: I don’t know. Every time I’ve see it (unintelligible) see it. He’s always got a good healthy sweat going. He always looks like he’s doing something, so that may be what they need.
Jones: Yeah, he’s a good kid.
Quinn: Yes, Dad.
Jones: Uh- Can we uh, lose one of your members on the crew?
Quinn: Laura uh, Hubbard?
Jones: Well, I don’t know about that. We were thinking, that if Laura went into supervision, we could release somebody, put them on- but that may change, Laura may just go on back with you as the time- I was trying to get more supervision. She can go back with you- she goes back with you, can you lose this chap here?
Quinn: Yes, Dad, ’cause he wants to go in livestock, and he’s a very good worker, and if he get in there with uh, Sly [Donald Sly]- what’s his name?
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Okay-
Quinn: Yes, I can lose one.
Jones: Now what the rest of these go- can you get along without the other, if you got one good man, get these three go into the ah- Hmm?
Ben: Yes, Dad uh, I’d like to say, uh, we can cut down on the crew if we had uh, the people that, that would be there all day. The main problem is, is like a half hour of work goes down because they go to school in the afternoon, and that leaves two or three people out there, that-
Jones: You got him and those three are in Learning, and who else? Who else?
Rosas: I’m sorry, I’m sorry Dad, I’m sorry, I’m sorry Dad. I-
Jones: You’re sorry, that the cat almost got you, I know.
Rosas: -I’m sorry, Dad, I, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Dad. (Unintelligible) got me, Dad.
Jones: What’s that?
Rosas: I’m sorry, I’m (unintelligible) get on me, Dad.
Stephan: Talk right, Kay.
Rosas: I’m so-
Stephan: (Unintelligible)
Rosas: Thank you for calling the cat off me, and I’m sorry, Dad.
Jones: (Laughs)
Rosas: Thank you, Dad.
Jones: I’m surprised the cat would get close to you.
Stephan: I am too- (Unintelligible)
Rosas: Thank you, Dad-
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: (Laughs) Christine, she comes up with some good ones. That’s a live one, Christine. She said she could use your act in Georgetown. They wouldn’t believe this (laughs), they said that it’s an act. You’re outrageous. You- I don’t know what to do with you.
Stephan: Smile, Kay. Smile.
Jones: (Laughs) Turn around, turn around and smile.
Crowd: (Laughs)
Jones: (Laughs) You hear what I’m saying to you? You hear what I’m saying to you? I want you to do that smile all the time. Go over there- Go over there and smile at Jerry, he don’t smile, now, go and give him a smile. (Laughs) That make anybody smile. (Laughs)
Crowd: (Laughs)
Man in crowd: Oh, God.
Jones: (Laughs) Jerry, you do well, you do well. You’re swinging with the spirit of things. Gi- Give him one praise for any- any criticism, to kiss that. Give him a praise. (Laughs)
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Okay, rest of you go. If she- if she’d be nice looking, if she wasn’t so damn ornery. (Pause) I guess now, do you have any- do you have any other? Who is this? All three of these in school? Is that what you’re saying, Ben?
Ben: Yes, Dad. Yes, Dad.
Jones: It’s a damn shame, your minds and you’re wasted now on Learning and no time for school. It’s a damn shame, but Learning it is. Who- was there any other person relieved? Who’s all over there on Learning? (Pause) Kenny Reed’s not a hard worker. I’ll give you a ja- a chance to get off, even though it’s a- you gotta get in that work and work hard, Kenny. You go to school?
Kenny: Yes, Dad.
Jones: Ah, shit. (Pause) Well, anyway- anyway you’re off, I’ll give you off and that’ll- it’ll help on the half. Who else is on Learning there? The rest of you go, go, go, go while you guys are ahead, go.
Man 12: Yes, Dad.
Man 13: Yes, Dad.
Man 14: Yes, Dad.
Jones: We getting tired, this damn late hour. (Reads) Jackie Rochelle was signed, assigned, was assigned to the rice tent due to medical excuse. Medical department informed Sap patrol that she cleared, was cleared to return to work on the field. She ta- reluctantly returned to the fields, but after one hour she returned to the medical department for pain medication. This me- this pain medication’s expensive, children. Report she hadn’t been working in the rice tent as assigned by the medical department. Now what the hell’s going on?
Crowd: (Hubbub)
Jones: Now we’re gonna get this through. Joe Johnson found in bed at 10:30 without a medical excuse. Sap escorted him to nurses station, where he was told to go back to the field. His work was (Unintelligible word) after returning. Where, where is he- yeah, Joe Johnson?
Woman 17: Yes, Dad, he did that. They was- They excused him for an hour and a half, and he-
End of tape
Tape originally posted June 2005