Germany Twelve - Text
Male, born 1942, Hamburg, Germany. Lived in Heide in northern Germany. Educated in German Engineering school; learned English in school. Moved to Chicago in 1962; relocated to Los Angeles in 1964. Recorded and edited by Christopher Roque in El Segundo, CA, 2008.
RUNNING TIME: 07:07
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I am sixty-six years old, and if you reverse these two numbers it doesn’t get any better. It’s still sixty-six. And I am from Germany, Northern Germany, Hamburg, close to the North Sea. In Germany, like at that time, everything was a little, uh, simpler, I mean, uh, technology was not that advanced, they didn’t really have computers, and that was, uh, something that just started to, um, progress slowly and, uh, yeah. So we, uh did a lot of bicycle riding and uh went on foot many times and, uh, uh, we uh did not really drive a car until, uh, twenty years later and that was almost when I, uh, left Germany and came to America. But we all went in, in, in, Germany, uh, uh, let’s say, to school and, and then we had to go and, uh, uh, learn something, everybody had an apprenticeship, like I, uh, had to become a toolmaker, and, uh, then I went to engineering school and after that I, uh, came to America. I, uh, went there and, um, a day later I, I started to work, right away in this company, and he, this guy did packaging machines, he actually packed up cookies and, and, and, and, and, and, uh, eh, eh, little cookies and ice cream in between and then they were, and went into a freezer on a truck and he shipped them to the, um, uh, to the food stores. And, and there, where I worked for this company a couple of, uh, month and, uh, then this guy wanted a… actually he paid us a pretty low salary and, uh, the friend of mine, he said, um, “You know, we should ask for a li… for a little raise here because,” eh, “this guy is taking advantage of us.” So we asked for a raise and then our, uh, boss said, “That’s no problem. Uh, we pay you, uh, I’ll pay you a hundred and fifty dollars more a month,” eh. “Eight hundred dollars instead of six hundred fifty.” So, uh, we got, um, uh… he, but then he said, “Well, but, for this you have also to work on Saturdays.” My friend again says, “Uh, well, uh that’s not really a raise,” you know and, and, and, and, uh, so, uh, he said, uh, “But we like to work on Saturdays, but now we need a thousand dollars for this additional work.” And the other, uh, guy says, “No. Uh, I can’t do that.” And, and, and then my friend says, “Well then we have to quit.” And, eh, th… then I didn’t quite understand what quit meant and I said, “I, I kit too!” I meant quit. And, and, and then we were both out in the street and had no job, but we already had another job prepared in case we wouldn’t get a raise. So, the, the next, eh, eh, two days later we worked at the other place where we, uh, had asked for a job…. Yeah, but this is now a, a, a, a almost an embarrassing story, but, uh, uh, when, when I started to work at, at the mold-maker, I mean I, I was a good toolmaker and I really, uh, I made, uh, good work… did good work. But, uh, as a mold-maker there are certain, certain tricks which only people understand if they have… did make molds in, in the past. And, and some of these things… there’s a little uh, um, uh, the tricks… I mean you have to, uh, give it a little vent release when they inject the plastic that the, uh, the air can go out of a little release, uh, and, and, uh, I didn’t know those tricks so I did it just like the print showed, and then, uh, uh, one thing was I, uh, um, it said seven hundred, fifty-thousandth of an inch, uh, the dimension, and I made it exactly seven hundred and fifty thousand, and the boss comes in on, uh… actually, I started on Monday and the boss comes in on Wednesday morning and measures my, um, my tool, my, my, my, uh, my work there, my, my material and he says, “Wow, Seven hundred, fifty thousand! No grinding stock.” He, uh, I was supposed to make this a little, uh, larger, like seven hundred, fifty-four thousand… leave a little grinding stock because they need to harden this material first, this metal. And, and then it warps a little and then they grind it and then it’s, uh, back to the original good dimension. He says, “No gri… uh, uh… No grinding stock. I have to order new material. I have to write a check.” He disappeared and five minutes later he comes back out of the office, “Here’s your paycheck.” Uh, “Goodbye!” And I was out of a job again.