Conversations with Eric Hoffer; 6; From the Cradle to Skid Row

ah geez we present the last in a series of six half hour conversations between a recall for and james daily for more than a decade ago the christian science monitor set of our call for that is a student of extraordinary perception inside the range of his reading and research is vast amazing is written one of the most provocative books of our immediate day

this description was written of his first book the true believer since that time you've written two others packed a state of mind and the ordeal of change all three books reflect mr hopper's powers of generalization this consummate craftsmanship with a tightly structured sentence both a product of a self educated man who spent a lifetime in manual labor born of german immigrant parents in the bronx he moved west as a young man actually lost both parents to become a migrant worker in the fields of california after a tribal mining in a mother lode country he became a longshoreman on the salmon just the waterfront where he has worked for the past twenty years mr hawthorne one of our earlier conversations you said that you had been transferred almost overnight from the nursery to the gutter and curse to know more about because you know i i regained the my sight in a nineteen seventy you were what fifteen years old and three years later my father

died when the several of you were just of europe about inflation because companies that football league or for the poor of course it's one reason john doe eyed literature what they can and that's the way i thought that it would be so i came to los angeles it i had a couple hundred dollars with the i have a weaker basketful of books and a statute cruelty not that train ride across the continent you would think that would be warning i would be afraid i don't think so i was one of two or three you know these is a market that will brought me up it's got the remarks something you're much older people were short lived about the time of forty it i

was eighteen and twenty two years to live what's what's the thing that excited about their city so i just came to los angeles i remember that day i knew exactly what together ruling them to be within walking distance of the library and i just thought i'm just going to continue and my existence the way ahead at the new york you know or you can eat pretty well i have to imagine if i mean i i didn't quite imagine what would happen when the money was going to be but for that was that they and their earned a penny i didn't know nothing about anything absolutely nothing i had one of these advantage that i felt like it was going through physically like that that gave that you know personally defeating the editing was like i kept on until the money with them

then i said it has on the books i've read and desolate books of capital so like because i mean the last thing i saw was a leather jacket solve that attack ad can't be pockets and and i remember as et i have a feeling that my skin was thinking of this store what you get but again you know i have a room there was speech the settlements there we had even to shower as arsenal hungary what wasn't it really just a warrant in i never went to school and i consider that skinner was muscular and muppets give her a peach he taught me the meaning or fourth inning of hunger than the leader of an inning or hopelessness see that i know it was something mysterious and i figured well why would you

think that it was walking walking well i have some lessons to reconsider i wore all that you know i was walking and even the thinking and the machine is that i was walking as i said like a business group that is that you know i had a kind of drama about an analyst for getting to me that the guy was growing fast nobody was one thousand you're welcome the opening it was just an illusion of forgiveness of his skin showed up at sea and he was one thing today's three days all i can remember is that they've won a battle with drink to the one out of the public was just like a swarm of bees going on on my head today it feeling that was very worried i cooked is that was a film where once in a while the surprise that people put a white face and that i never stop to get from the restaurant or more it like i used to dream mr marcus fry kept me you know he's

the border achatz well it's a mallet sort they're realistic and so i was going to come and then something happened on the evening of the third day i was walking down on main street and i stopped in front of a picture there were pigeons behind the glass that with great pigeons as they were topical at pigeons and what to be just white with a chocolate color and it seemed to me that they were segregated there be the great that most of the topical and that too is likely to drop the core around the world events of one of the guys because it was big and what was small and just as it seemed to me that the little one push you to be into to be called the big one and political debating what we're looking at but then i knew it was wrong and was wrong because it was such an excitement such such a tension in da vinci and add one more i realize what it was it was and i could see the

living they used it would speak legs around there are multitudes we heard that were flatly and i saw the big b hit right behind the last year when it was over i realize it baffled me and you know and seventy one the most it's okay alice again and looking at the picture there for fifteen of the alphabet are hungry and all the way to my shoulders there i remember that was at a restaurant that next debate today at the joint and i would be in and with all that much of that was it was there and what you bought only you look at me ok going there so what hotz i had an eu and then there was another of the shorter in there and i told him it was i felt free i felt sociable seat and i said no earth i was as if you know the strings and said well

oh you would always eluded him today as people there work on it and there's a state free employment agency there anymore and then you might get a job so it's warning without that without a state frequently don't forget this was twenty twenty one and was a kind of a depression when many unemployed on skid row but not that i can't do the head of state for employees it was a big year all laugh about again and the a whole roll off benches stairs of the fifty pages and man city alderman jason about looking for mourdock who would go there when and if we're wrong you to come out and say it did and then the furniture rental owners also pork and all the hands went up and they had a surplus of

protest what to think of it he thinks in an attempt to pull out the job and about a minute to pick out one in other five hundred now you don't make up his mind somebody else so you have a pretty comfortable and they were living in their previous a conversation i had about fifty percent of the longshoremen the ingenuity here and whether these the energy that goes into these social capital problems with actually going to get out of a job it is and sort of what i believed he saw here was a practical question i had to get a job and i figure out how to make out that is part of my work with us to find out the senate they'd waited the four percent i cried the

middle of the first that no second know the sixth that weapon that i don't know what is expected and he landed on the why i had that then i usually variable which was so that struck by different kinds of theater rail agreed and yellow or red what were then i want to find out what the expression on the things it would slide through that because if it did the jobs they mimic or should i look and if i didn't have a war in the world to fall out ufo's io and you have to feel as if you you know that if you care for an invited me and the johnsons that the lord let not to look like a child and he's seen that that meant about whether we believe in gaza city you want to do you won the rebel you'll win this with glasses and that's when you would assume i saw it so i get most of the job was i didn't overdo it wasn't hungry i get a steady supply of jobs and i want to

be on some would get jobs and i want to tell you is that they nobody paid attention to i didn't feel that anybody really salty but if they're really notice and one day i got a job i got in the bus through a section of friends and i think that threw them and i'm in a farce that won't make that it wasn't us were forty eight points you know i had a steady job next day he asked me whether it cannot force that anyone that i was on it i thought that i was thrilled about it that name the accolades as they leave at the job summit was oppressive to me to be what guinness and

as in a safe place and get them stopped and i and it was and so i was like a minute really easy and it was just like clockwork it begins with the best things about the piece so it's that it thinks that really solo for almost ten years i was always on skid row and making enough to live reading and thinking more or less of the depression there was one deal that would have had every year one another pedal or it's valuable as they investigate these are going on that would do in fact i'll never be a business but i was a disaster for the eighth and how frightened i was off

what would happen to me if i were to be a business and the you had buckets you and then just in the book you're not in the suburbs there and field of a bucket and that ended up in the states you know you you lined up that puppet aren't just there they're so that because of the whole season overflowing again it gets one or this one report at the government orders the reason is the league that first wouldn't open your eyes the wooden puppets connect with people so i would be an end to cover my lawyer or confusion there actually living with your i'm just saying there's also for all of you i didn't so mike huckabee even over the line i had a couple of my head re read this just mean you know you're on our list of course are a few hours the great mystery was

before the saint who you would want you're welcome to religious moment you know things that i knew what are sort of the and here i was already lined up in the interaction i was sitting around for ages and that the bet's and what do all dogs were running after me and whistling then and he thought that he'd got the magician known lonesome up with you get out as a knapsack with a few things and they left everything except few an underwear socks traveling light that's right always the i was working out of los angeles gloria decided oh ok i want to show you how much of illinois could see i didn't realize i think it was a daughter so we get

caught beautiful green car with old nickel a quarter mcdonald's is the stops i was given a ride and bit about that and there were many germans around it's about an hour and and this was a job he asked me where i was going and i told him that i dont know exactly where i was going and center to preach the city manager the purpose and injured hope and backwaters he quoted you he's a farmer or a muslim or within a destination for which means burp was always was it work better he didn't know what was or as they're the cynical and their head of events that they that that when he got the sea i knew that he is quote i know i said was a why if it was any great man a really great way he could have said that i know the point of what is not the thing that you made it out to be this i knew that you can be without hope and it's really that

that's all you're manly their fourth fifth of humanity that you can be a victim can leave without will and a couple from nothing actually the book is that they're really see just what it was in the bag and other notable busy and an assortment of online to stubble when i went to the library to find out what he really said and i love the little shows up there was a book on libya by year by some to be hearing erik who had to sleep at that and how that book something that they just a decade when he gets it was a lot i missed them on as their numbers and voter id laws all is lost if we're that at ueno was born but look at the bar and we all really consider was the expert consider myself that i think i mean what's why what we got it's they will and i can and i and then

i decided on my way to foose design vehicle and bit of course the money was spent little a little less than what happened to san diego was broken and some kid will was in that and there was nothing can now vote to have all these factories any other time and it was a bit so again i don't want what i went down to the wholesale market the hope both a visual market i knew that the form would be a lot it would be a lot you don't think he's you can pick fruit you can do all kinds of things and this was what the end of the year and there it is sort of took the study habits are helping as much as possible that i ate some of the confidence that and then after winning the right to as and sure enough so we wrote all my true that non stick your whole and by midnight he i was innocent

and i stressed out among the root beer with obesity went to sleep and i have involved when i heard the motorcycle noise of her off a cop just barely itself into my head and i said oh all of the video capital such people actually friendship and there was a fatal shot at western ski gates and so this is where the confrontation a confrontation with a unemployed they're aware that it's less that had only a country it is to offer an attorney for the climate because although it has narrative you referred to reading of books and you've read all know virtually all of your life what is the source you were not educated enough go to school for eight years your blind what impelled you read what he had me to read

what to begin with of course it was the idea that happened that says oh my such was the state of mind i didn't think that the thing i said is one less so i had to read as much as possible and once you get the cases that you hear you discover that you know you do the reading with us just the stuff of stuff a flathead to teachers offering before it could begin those are yesterday there was a section i had all my life that was a and that was a very brilliant chat to fight and they have been declining fifth and i'm not trying to be facetious so i'm really thinking that it i taught myself to read german and english major fight as you know you can really don't travel memories are you can sort out what you heard and what you really remember that what this i remember that when i cry because they were sure that they were just a couple of the glass doors open ended lease the board

was form of uncivil behavior us mexicans and all kinds of both english and german voters and you could imagine the survey the passion that i had in arranging be able to i think actually the faculty for demoralization came out it is actually during our efforts but it is very difficult political science at you wouldn't an oak was and what was out there and i think i actually thought myself reach out of these four pages you know at any moment when it in my psyche at fifteen other influence about everything everything yet brilliantly edited the notebook on what you read this is you see i've lost my eyesight of each offered seven i also was coming for why i actually think when the names and i i still remember still remember hearing my father they referred to me that even in

a year what you thought that i was a retired accountant and losing memory a song and the iguana weapons you know but i have actually i have and as with anybody else but i know if i want to remember something i have to write that you never find any without paper and pencil is all the time and then of course you do have to force yourself to too if they connote said it is in the universe begins when you were reading they'll be looked at how it was doolittle well i it was a i have a cheery mai mai ruling as military move on rather remarkably long time of like epic he isolates want just another batch here it's quite an uncomfortable being an eu us to enjoy getting out of an opinion notes sea salt n like to see it out there that third entity that strikes

me it without notes and when that is i still see it if you would and anything that i value transfer cards any thoughts that seem to have something you know either them up in advance for the way that they get you know the state of mind this incredible titles every year when there is an aphorism what you prefer when i do i actually get the students and just you know the way people can see it i don't think it this is believed to be a national hit i told someone i get covered but i said they invaded i can't think of anything more pleasant than going to bed with an unfinished sees it but it's to see i love to shake the sense that we're trying to fashion they see a tv you have a place for

but i have found online i can spend a year on and on on just wonderful about her as the iron and it is a longshoreman could you do an eleven as a longshoreman in that you have the time to write i think you could be a professional writer that you collected is a relative to be apportioned write that you see has to be something about a government duty to and one of the week i think that i i really if i had to write it all through the survey and yet somebody looking a lot of police asking me today he said he was working on the world's newsroom over the years and he wants to get a waste dump them into a label as a as a lark officials would ask me what you would think well you know like that their

insights when you're working but look how this exactly privilege and i told him that i spotted the idea that we believe that during the nineteen forty six like we had three words are i finished people believe in nineteen forty eight strike that what we saw then we get on friendly them with employers there and no surprise your bible and all i can really get like something that only when i make and when i make a tunnel and i get five weeks so i have less to me was that it's a unique that the leisure to ride and especially when you get all the middle of farm worker ronald now if one of your aphorisms says that the best part of your living as deneuve or grow old gracefully yeah i was one world grace you when you see a simple line that's the funny part of the i never i never did the heavens it whether you were you were convinced that the moment you get them before building their

visa far as the creature it actually believe it i believe it will and i think what most familiar things that we see and and the i actually of course and one that will have is yes i see but a seasonal some transition i don't feel good like lenin or trotsky than they win the seven year old that were desperately sentiment you should should not be allowed to leave before they're fifty i i i just after poll a good upbeat and they've been announcing that you'll continue to work so long as i can of the waterfront of the stability and it's it's the meeting mr stewart i just come to the same studio today i met then sweep would want on the waterfront has been retiring when opponents to ortiz is looking at the work is not what marks made up to be you know

a unique to see normally work for these a week later hundred dollars to compete we have the united kingdom and about a week or so years the fish fishing boat we're going now that the fire could go in the book is that really aren't reading the hosts fashion these sentences and offers been delightful opportunity to talk with you to share these thoughts with you i think that what you even what you live as well documented in the books pack a state of mind a true believer in the party the chamber which we've talked to seems to me that one of your aphorisms described you rather accurately whether it was intended to or not when you said that no one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart that you understood what you've explained because you found it within yourself and i think that perhaps your philosophy is best summed up by taking a

sentence out of the ordeal of change we've said that man's only legitimate and in life is to finish god's work to bring the full growth the capacities and talents and planted in all of us thank you so very much that was the last in a series of six half hour conversations between a helicopter and jerry he's the general manager of kqed sentences this is an eighty national educational television