Surviving the Good Times: A Moyers Report

SURVIVING THE GOOD TIMES A MOYERS REPORT March 28, 2000

[PROGRAM OPENS OUTSIDE OF NEUMANN FAMILY CHURCH. CUT TO INTERIOR, CHURCH MUSIC PLAYS, SEE NEUMANNS]

TERRY NEUMANN: Tony and I have known each other since we were probably about two years old. His mother and my mother went to school together at Pulaski High School and our grandparents, when our parents were younger, you know, they played cards, so they were pretty good friends.

[SEE TERRY IN KITCHEN SHOWING PICTURES OF YOUNGER TONY AND TERRY]

TERRY NEUMANN: I don't know, we just started seeing each other, you know, spending a lot of time at each other's houses and he just asked me out, so I said okay.

TERRY NEUMANN: We were crazy about each other. We had to spend a lot of time together...

TERRY NEUMANN: You know, and I could just picture myself spending the rest of my life with him,

TERRY NEUMANN: And our expectations were, I thought, you know, you find the man that you like and get married and have a family, and get a house, a little white picket fence, you know, all those little fairy tale type things. Um, some of it came true, but some of it as far as the bumpy roads, I didn't expect either, you know, I knew they weren't gonna be all peaches and cream but, you don't think of all the bad things when you're younger.

[MONTAGE OF MILWAUKEE SCENES,CUTTING TO THE NEUMANNS AND THE STANLEYS]

MOYERS NARRATION: In the summer of 1991, we came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to examine wrenching changes in the American economy.

VOICE ON RADIO ... have to adjust to the global economy that is now facing us all.

MOYERS NARRATION: The old line industrial jobs with their salaries, benefits, and pension plans were disappearing. We reported on two families who were living through these changes.

TERRY NEUMANN: Adam, you going to take a turn?

MOYERS NARRATION: The Neumanns were trying to make ends meet after Tony, the father, lost his good paying manufacturing job.

CLAUDE STANLEY: Oh heavenly father, Lord we ask we ask you to bless this food that we have prepared ...

MOYERS NARRATION: The Stanleys were also living on the edge after both parents lost their factory jobs.

CLAUDE STANLEY: I cannot spend what I don't have coming in. I have learned that. I'm spending more and its not coming in, and it hurts.

MOYERS NARRATION: We began in 1991 with portraits of each family.

BILL MOYERS: What do you want to be when you grow up?

KLAUDALE STANLEY: Uh, I probably wanna be a man of the law.

MOYERS NARRATION: And then, over the next 10 years, we returned to document the fortunes of the Stanleys and Neumanns.

[MONTAGE OF MILWAUKEE AND NATIONAL ECONOMY IMAGES]

Radio Announcer The nation's unemployment rate rose to 6.5% in February, the highest in four years.

MOYERS NARRATION: As the country went from recession to recovery ...

Radio Announcer The nation's unemployment rate fell

MOYERS NARRATION: ...to economic boom,

Radio Announcer The Dow stood at 10,006

MOYERS NARRATION: Both families would struggle to find their place in the new economy.

TERRY NEUMANN: Then you need a business card so they can call mommy up.

JACKIE STANLEY: Fax it to me.

MOYERS NARRATION: This is their story.

[SEE BRIGGS AND STRATTON FACTORY LINES AND WORKERS]

TV Announcer: Years ago, if you wanted a small engine, you got a Briggs and Stratton.

MOYERS NARRATION: Manufacturing firms like Briggs and Stratton made Milwaukee, Wisconsin one of the great industrial cities of the heartland. For years, its assembly lines provided an abundance of jobs.

JACKIE STANLEY: Depending on which line you're on, by the time the motor gets to you, it's gonna be heavy. You pull the gun and press down and give it all you got, twist it back, hook it and send it on. And if you're seconds, seconds late, you hear somebody down the line yelling, "Motors, motors, what's wrong with you down there."

MOYERS NARRATION: Blue collar jobs like these made a good life possible for workers and their families. But factory jobs were melting away. By 1991, Briggs and Stratton alone had eliminated some four thousand in Milwaukee. Among the newly unemployed were Tony Neumann and Jackie Stanley.

[SEE JACKIE DRIVING]

JACKIE STANLEY: When the doors at Briggs closed on us, and, uh, they hand us our pink slips, I knew that I'm out here. It's sink or swim.

MOYERS NARRATION: Jackie's husband Claude had worked for another large manufacturer, A.O. Smith: his job disappeared too. He found another one waterproofing basements for less than seven dollars an hour.

[SEE CLAUDE WALK UP TO HIS WORK VAN]

CLAUDE STANLEY: You got to look at it on the real side. I cannot live like I was making $20 an hour. Okay that money is not there. So you might as well get it in your mind, it's not there no more. So okay, bring yourself down.

[SEE STANLEY FAMILY BARBEQUE]

NICOLE STANLEY: I was young, about fourteen.

MOYERS NARRATION: The Stanley's have five kids: Nicole, about to enter college when we met her, the oldest son, Keith, the twins Klaudale and Claude Jr., and Omega.

BILL MOYERS: How'd your children take it when you came home and said you'd lost the job over at A.O. Smith? Or did you tell them?

CLAUDE STANLEY: Well ... I told them. I told them. And they was in private school then.

BILL MOYERS: They were?

CLAUDE STANLEY: Yeah. I had to pull them out of private school.

KEITH STANLEY:I think the hardest time is when, um, you have to worry about, ah, coming home, like-¨like I say, always coming home and then there a--there's a--a bill on the door saying the water's cut off. Or there's a ... the guy just called saying he's gonna cut off the phone. Or the electricity's off. And you have to wait for a couple of days until mom and dad can, um, get enough money to put it back on.

[SEE NEUMANN FAMILY COOKING TOGETHER IN KITCHEN]

TERRY NEUMANN: I was working factory, he was working factory when we were dating. When we got married, we had started a family right away, so he still worked factory and I stayed home. And he made pretty good money when we were first married, you know, for a young couple with one little one on the way.

TERRY NEUMANN: Grab a couple and crack 'em in the pan.

TERRY NEUMANN: I don't know, we had a good time with one child so we had another one and there was Adam, you know, and then I got pregnant with Karissa in '86 and he had lost his job. Then, he got hired at Briggs and then we thought okay, this is a very stable job, you know, we can start saving and we bought the house.

[SEE NEUMANNS AND BILL TALKING IN BACKYARD]

BILL MOYERS: How much is your mortgage a month?

TERRY NEUMANN: I believe it's eight-¨

TONY NEUMANN: Eight hundred and nineteen.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah, eight twenty or something like that.

BILL MOYERS: And have you been able to make all the payments?

TERRY NEUMANN: No, and we're behind. And today, the mortgage company called me again.

BILL MOYERS: Again?

TERRY NEUMANN: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: What did they say?

TERRY NEUMANN: I didn't answer them right how because I wanted to talk to Tony. And he wasn't home. So, I wanted to talk to him.

BILL MOYERS: You must dread it when the phone rings.

TERRY NEUMANN: I do. I cringe.

[SEE TONY AND TERRY AT KITCHEN TABLE PREPARING TO CALL MORTGAGE COMPANY]

TONY NEUMANN: Are you going to call him back?

TERRY NEUMANN: Am I gonna call them back? Yeah, I'm gonna have to call him back.

TONY NEUMANN: Well you .talked to him before.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah, I know.

TONY NEUMANN: And I talked to them before and I didn't care for it and you know what happened.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah.

TONY NEUMANN: And I told them, I don't care, if they want to foreclose, they can foreclose on -if we don't have the money, we don't have the money. You can't give them money we don't have.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah.

TONY NEUMANN: I would prefer you to call them other than me.

TERRY NEUMANN: Here we go.

TONY NEUMANN: Mr. Carl is the same guy who I talked to before.

TERRY NEUMANN: Really?

Terry Neumann (on phone): I did send a thousand dollar check in probably a few weeks back but the check was sent back to me with a letter stating, ''We will not accept a partial payment." I don't really think of that as a partial payment. I think of that as a basic payment and a good gesture on trying to get, urn, caught up. Right now we're going through a hard time. My husband's out of work. He went to school and he's looking for a job. And I'm basically just trying to buy a little time so we can get on our feet again. You know, so we can get caught up. I would think that this is just going to be a temporary thing, not a permanent thing, and I really don't want to lose my house.

TERRY NEUMANN: (on phone) Are you just trying to tell me that you have to foreclose on the house, if I don't have that full amount?

You would recommend it.

TONY NEUMANN: Is he putting this on paper? I want to know. Is he putting this on paper? Dear? Dear?

TERRY NEUMANN: Would you like to talk to him?

[SEE TONY, TERRY AND DANIEL IN KITCHEN AFTER PHONE CALL]

MOYERS NARRATION: The Neumann's oldest son, Daniel, was just about to start third grade when we met him.

TERRY NEUMANN: Daniel was doing very well before Tony was laid off, but with the tensions around the "house, he kind of withdrew a little bit.

TONY NEUMANN: I'm not going to drop "it off in no box, and I want a receipt for it.

TERRY NEUMANN: Children do notice the tension. They do notice these things. They're not stupid. They can hear mom and dad getting upset. It upsets them.

[SEE TONY HOLDING BABY BIRD AS CHILDREN LOOK ON]

TONY NEUMANN: Oohhh.

TERRY NEUMANN: They've made comments to like, "Mom, let's sell the -the bookshelf."

ADAM NEUMANN: They don't have no house.

TONY NEUMANN: Are you sure he didn't come out of one of them houses and hop over that way?

[SEE TONY AND ADAM BUILDING BIRDHOUSE]

TONY NEUMANN: Here and here.

TERRY NEUMANN: They've got little baseball cards, "Mom, I'll sell these," and that hurts. Because they're-they're willing to sell their baseball cards to help their parents out.

TONY NEUMANN: Yup, see them raggedy edges? You want them towards the inside so that nobody can see them.

{SEE TONY LEAVE HOUSE ON BIKE]

BILL MOYERS: So, what're you gonna do?

TONY NEUMANN: Keep on trying.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah.

TONY NEUMANN: You can't stop .trying.

MOYERS NARRATION: The country was in recession in the summer of '91. A lot of people were on the street, looking for jobs. Unemployment was the highest it had been in years. The political leaders in Washington promised better days ahead.

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: We will get this recession behind us and return to growth soon.

[SUPER "STATE OF THE UNION 1991'1

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: We will get on our way to a new record of expansion and achieve the competitive strength that will carry us into the next American century.

[SEE TONY RIDING BIKE, APPLYING FOR JOBS AT VARIOUS STORES]

MOYERS NARRATION: The president was right about the economy turning around --but there was a hitch. Many of the new jobs were either part-time, or simply didn't pay a living wage.

TONY NEUMANN: I've applied over at grocery stores, hardware stores, there's-

TERRY NEUMANN: McDonald's.

TONY NEUMANN: Hardees, Kohls, Super America, Pizza Hut, Walmart, Sams. Most of them will not pay six dollars an hour. They're less than six dollars an hour. Little do they know that I need to live also.

[TONY DROPS OFF JOB APPLICATION AT GROCERY STORE]

TONY NEUMANN: Thank you, have a nice day.

[SEE JACKIE AT REAL ESTATE FAIR]

MOYERS NARRATION: After her layoff, Jackie Stanley began selling real estate ... on commission.

JACKIE STANLEY: While I was on the motor line at Briggs, I began to study my real estate. I went ten times for my real estate license. The tenth time, I passed. And I promised that, as soon as Briggs did close the door, I was going to go on and do real estate. And that's exactly what I did.

[SEE JACKIE WORKING AT HER OFFICE]

Jackie Stanley (on phone): Hi Joe. This is Jacqueline Stanley from Homestead.

JACKIE STANLEY: It's just like anything else. It's really unsure.

Jackie Stanley (on phone): Okay, I just got in and it says "ASAP."

JACKIE STANLEY: You only get excited when you're sitting at the closing and have the check in your hand. You never get over exuberant. And I'm learning that every day.

NICOLE STANLEY: Mom's real estate is tough on her. I've seen her try to wheel and deal deals. They seemed so good and at the last minute they fall apart.

Jackie Stanley (on phone): The listing is for September. It's already-

NICOLE STANLEY: And that falling apart is our mortgage, that falling apart is the car notes. And to someone else that may not seem important, that they decide not to buy the house. But to us, it's a matter of not life and death, but it's a matter of light and gas. And that's scary.

[SEE TONY LEAVING HOUSE, ADAM CARRIES WORK SHOES]

MOYERS NARRATION: Workers were told they needed to retrain in order to get good paying jobs. So Tony took courses in pneumatics and hydraulics and passed with perfect scores. But his new skills didn't yield a new job.

[SEE TONY SANDING FLOOR]

MOYERS NARRATION: He had to pick up work where he could.

TONY NEUMANN: It's real frustrating not being able to support my family. The way I used to. It's really frustrating. I have a lot of decent qualities that I could use as skills in the labor force but nobody's really willing to give me a chance. And if they are, they're not willing to pay a decent wage for it.

BILL MOYERS: Are you working?

TERRY NEUMANN: No, well, I'm doing NuSkin selling.

BILL MOYERS: What?

TERRY NEUMANN: NuSkin-¨

BILL MOYERS: Oh, the door to door-¨

TERRY NEUMANN: It's called NuSkin International for Personal Care Products.

[SEE TERRY PREPARE A PRODUCT BASKET WITH KARISSA]

TERRY NEUMANN: Make it a pretty fan now.

MOYERS NARRATION: With 1300 dollars borrowed from a relative, Terry purchased beauty products that she tried to resell door to door.

TERRY NEUMANN: Then you need a business card to call Mommy up.

MOYERS NARRATION: For someone with no sales experience, it was risky. But for Terry it made more sense than taking a fulltime job.

TERRY NEUMANN: You can't afford to work, you know, getting six dollars an hour and expect to pay for child care, you know, a dollar fifty an hour per child. I have three children. So, I says I'm gonna have to find something else that I can do. And then when someone introduced me to this business, I decided to say, 'Hey, you know, that's worth my while.' I can make it, you know. .

[TERRY IN NEIGHBOR'S BACKYARD, SHOWING BEAUTY PRODUCTS TO WOMAN]

TERRY NEUMANN: Look in the mirror, and feel your face and say, well, you know, it's softer-

Woman: It's softer, yeah.

TERRY NEUMANN: The complexion, the color - yeah: And that's basically why I wanted to share this with you.

[SEE NEUMANNS DRIVE UP TO ZOO, DIXIELAND BAND PLAYS MUSIC]

MOYERS NARRATION: The Milwaukee Zoo was free on Wednesdays back in 1991. It was one of the few places Terry could take her kids for fun.

[SEE NEUMANNS WALKING AROUND ZOO]

Daniel Neumann: Hey mommy, look at me! I'm holding a goat!

TERRY NEUMANN: When Tony had a job it was a little different, because we could do the things that we enjoyed. You know, but now that the money's not there --and that's another reason why I explained to him why he may be feeling tense. Because we used to go for picnics, invite people over for dinner, you know, entertain a little bit, grill out on the grill or go to a movie, to a restaurant, just the two of us, and now we can't afford it. You know, so we sacrifice our own, you know, for the kids, because they do need it and they don't understand half the time what's going on.

Daniel Neumann: (to Adam) You can't buy anything, yet. You don't have enough money.

[SEE STANLEY BOYS DOING YARD WORK]

KEITH STANLEY:You talk to your friends, they always say, 'Well I'm going doing this this summer. Well how about you?" And you're like, "Well um, I'm doing, ah, working." That's all you can say right now is "I'm working."

They always ask me 'Why you working? Why don't you go out there and have fun like the rest of the kids do?" You say, you can't. You just can't do it. You have to go out there and help your Mom and Dad.

MOYERS NARRATION: Keith Stanley, and his twin brothers, Claude Jr. and Klaudale, started a business in '91: they called it the Three Sons Lawn Care Service.

KEITH STANLEY:On a good week, we can bring in $200. That's big money to us. It's hard work but you look in the refrigerator and you don't see nothing and you know you got five dollars in your pocket, you might want to go out and get some milk or some eggs or something.

OFF CAMERA QUESTION: How much money would you like to make when you grow up?

CLAUDE STANLEY JR.: Probably about a hundred million. Something like that. Three hundred million, something like that.

OFF CAMERA QUESTION: Do you think you will?

CLAUDE STANLEY JR.: Yeah.

KLAUDALE STANLEY: I seen my mom on the phone talking to the bill collectors asking them when they would take -the mortgage company -when they were about to take our house. She was pleading with the mortgage company. She asked the -the bill collectors to keep the light and sometimes the gas on and--that makes me want to do more, a lot more.

[SCENES OF STANLEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD]

MOYERS NARRATION: The Stanley's mostly African American neighborhood had been traditionally supported by factory jobs. But with those jobs gone, housing values fell and so did real estate commissions, Jackie wanted to sell in other neighborhoods, but ran into resistance.

[JACKIE BACK IN REAL ESTATE IN OFFICE]

JACKIE STANLEY: It was on the market for a year and didn't sell.

BILL BERLAND: It's because they didn't have somebody as good as you.

JACKIE STANLEY: [laughs] Okay.

BILL BERLAND: People of color -really have a much more difficult time in our business making a living than white people. It may be a situation where she may call for a showing and not get the courtesy of a call back. Maybe her client that she takes in to a mortgage lender has a much more difficult time even if they're credit is -is good -getting the mortgage.

Jackie Stanley (on phone): All right, fax it to me.

JACKIE STANLEY: I can't sell suburbs. I can't sell the most affluent areas here. And that hurts. But they'll 'call me for central city.

[TERRY NEUMANN ENTERS FOOD PANTRY]

WOMAN AT FOOD PANTRY: You get the peanut butter and the honey--And this is the flour and I'm giving you one pound of butter ...

TERRY NEUMANN: I don't like having to go and ask and say I have no food in the house, can you help me out. Makes me feel very uncomfortable. I'd rather be on the giving side than the receiving.

Woman at Food Pantry: I don't know if you're going to be using all of these or not, Terry. They have peanut butter, flour. You can take what you like or-

TERRY NEUMANN: We do a lot of baking and the kids eat a lot of peanut butter.

WOMAN AT FOOD PANTRY: Then we have some pork here. I understand that if you put it over noodles or rice and maybe add a little onion that it's quite palatable.

[NEUMANN FAMILY SAYS GRACE AT DINNER TABLE]

'Neumann Family: Bless us, oh Lord. And these, thy gifts. Which we are about to receive through thy bounty, from Christ, our Lord. Amen.

TONY NEUMANN: A little bit or a lot?

KARISSA NEUMANN: A little bit.

TERRY NEUMANN:

Normally I make good meals - the meat and the vegetables and salads and all the fixings. You know it's not a large amount but they're good well-balanced meals. And now that I can't make well-balanced meals, I mean that's it gets to the point where you sit there and think, "oh God what am I going to make for dinner tonight?" You know, and it's just emotionally exhausting.

TONY NEUMANN: You know what would be good on this? Cheese.

TERRY NEUMANN: Oh well. We don't have cheese. So would garlic bread too.

TONY NEUMANN: I've been getting very angry lately I've been losing my temper quite a bit.

[SEE TONY WORKING IN WOODSHOP]

TONY NEUMANN: I've tried doing things, I, ah, work in the garage on woodworking things when I get angry and that helps once in a while. I just -I'm having a hard time dealing with this.

ADAM NEUMANN: Dad.

TONY NEUMANN: What? Pardon? Ten inches, that sounds almost right, but I think it should be about eleven.

TERRY NEUMANN: A couple times Tony'd get upset and .., and just leave the house and Adam's crying. mean, he's, he sat there and cried, "How comes my Dad's upset and why did he leave the house?" And I said, "Adam," I said, "Daddy's just having a very hard time right now. He's not working. We'll be OK. We'll find something. We'll, we'll find something. We'll work this out." You know, we'll be OK.

[SEE TONY AND TERRY IN BACKYARD WITH MOYERS]

BILL MOYERS: You blame him for this?

TERRY NEUMANN: Some times. Which isn't right because it isn't his fault. But, yeah, I do blame him some times.

[SEE TONY NEUMANN LOOKING OUT LIVING ROOM WINDOW]

[INTERIOR NEUMANN'S LIVING ROOM, TV SET ON]

TERRY NEUMANN: What are you doing today?

TONY NEUMANN: Fixing the doors. And the screens.

TERRY NEUMANN: And the kitchen door?

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah, I'll think about it.

BILL MOYERS: How do you deal with this pressure -the -the anger and the ¨

[SEE TONY AND TERRY IN BACKYARD WITH MOYERS]

TERRY NEUMANN: I can't. It's very difficult.

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah our marriage is really on the rocks. This is really difficult time -this is a real difficult time. I've been thinking about divorce now for a while.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

TONY NEUMANN: I can't deal with the situation. I -I'm 'just having a real hard time dealing with it.

[SEE PICTURES OF YOUNG TONY & TERRY TOGETHER]

BILL MOYERS: So divorce is an easier way out?

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah I think so. I -I don't know what to do anymore. I'm really at a loss.

BILL MOYERS: You feel guilty?

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah I do. I feel I should be supporting my family.

BILL MOYERS: You think he really wants a divorce, or is this just an escape?

TERRY NEUMANN: I think it's an escape and I just think he figures it's an easy way out. But really the problems are still going to be there because he's still going to have to support us and I feel it's going to be worse. I just feel it's just -just a tough time and if we can just get through this, you know then -then we'll be back to the life that we had before.

[SEE NEUMANNS AT CHURCH]

PRIEST: Good morning everybody. We gather on this Sunday morning in faith to praise our trying God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[TONY BEGINS TO CRY, FADE TO BLACK]

[SEE EXTERIOR NEUMANN HOUSE]

MOYERS NARRATION: When we returned to Milwaukee in 1993, the economy was picking up. And "Hope" was in the air.

[SEE TONY AND TERRY WATCHING INAUGURATION]

[INTERIOR STANLEY HOUSE. SEE TV WITH CLINTON BEING SWORN IN "I, William Jefferson Clinton...']

Dale Stanley: From the way he ran his campaign, it was more like he would concentrate on America-¨the way he put it was that he wasn't going to send more jobs or factories out of the country, and bring more in. And I guess that in the next four years, maybe we might have openings and maybe you might not have to film as many people in your --more, more people have jobs, and --and things'll probably work out.

[CLINTON ANNOUNCED AS PRESIDENT ON TV "Ladies and Gentlemen"]

Dale Stanley: I think this, this president, I think I can trust. And relate to some, somehow.

KEITH STANLEY:Four more years, four more years, buddy. You need to grow up a little bit.

CLINTON SPEECH ON TV: Today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal.

KEITH STANLEY:I been there with Reagan, Bush and now Clinton. I'm not saying I don't trust presidents. It's that you say a lot of stuff to get on top. Even if I was running for something, I'd say, I'd be like, I'm, 'Everybody get free candy and everything,' you know. So you say a lot of stuff to get on top.

CLINTON SPEECH ON TV: Raised in unrivaled prosperity ...

KEITH STANLEY:But it all comes down to what you're going to do when you get on top.

CLINTON SPEECH ON TV: ... still the world's strongest, but is weakened by business failures.

[SEE INAUGURATION AT THE NEUMANN HOUSE]

TERRY NEUMANN: I think if they work on jobs first -I think a lot of people will probably be more energized. You know? I mean give u--give people a self of--something to wake up to everybody morning, you know? A purpose!

TONY NEUMANN: A purpose and a lot more self-respect.

TERRY NEUMANN: Right. I think that will change a lot of people's attitudes. "

TONY NEUMANN: Changed mine,

TERRY NEUMANN: Yea, both of ours, I mean we were a mess.

[SEE NEUMANN FAMILY IN CHURCH]

TERRY NEUMANN: Tony got a job, you know. It was such a happy day, you would not believe. I mean, we were like, gee, if we had the money right now, we'd probably go and celebrate, but we don't, so we just, you know, it was a real exciting day and it's like you wanted to get on the phone and say, "Oh my God, if only got a job. Tony got a job, y'know." It was like winning the lottery, y'know. I mean. Oh, he got a job! After that there was just a lot more tension just lifted off your shoulders.

PRIEST: I invited the Neumanns around the Lord's table because a year ago they may not have had as much to be thankful for, right? You didn't have a steady job then, did you?

TONY NEUMANN: That's a fact.

PRIEST: That's a fact. And what's the fact today?

TONY NEUMANN: I have more than enough work.

PRIEST: More than enough work!! God is with us!

TONY NEUMANN: It's just a real relief to be working. I have a sense of worth. It's a big relief to be able to know that I can support a family again. It's a big load off my shoulders.

[SEE EARLYMORNING, NEUMANN HOME]

KARISSA NEUMANN: More coffee for daddy!

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony's new job --making engine parts in a small, nonunion factory --paid ten dollars an hour. Still months behind on the mortgage, he was working an exhausting amount of overtime to try and catch up.

TERRY NEUMANN: Wake up, now.

TONY NEUMANN: Will do.

TONY NEUMANN: I'm still scared because of being laid off so many times. Some people do call me money hungry because I eat up the overtime. But I've seen how a couple of months without income can do to you. I won't feel safe enough until I have like twenty thousand in the bank.

MOYERS NARRATION: He worked the second shift --from three in the afternoon 'till eleven at night.

TONY NEUMANN: The kids are off to school at 8 o'clock in the morning so I can see them from 7 o'clock when they get up until 8 o'clock when they leave. And then I don't get home until 12 o'clock at night and they're already in bed sleeping.

[TONY GETS READY FOR WORK]

TONY NEUMANN: Because it's wet outside.

KARISSA NEUMANN: How come you don't wear the other boots?

TONY NEUMANN: Because these are more comfortable.

TONY NEUMANN: She wanted to go to work and I sort of talked her out of it because I feel I'm making enough money to support our family to get what we need right now. I feel the kids need some parental support and since I am like a major bread winner, I feel her place would be better off spending time with the kids.

[SEE TERRY DRIVING TONY TO WORK]

TONY NEUMANN: Can you make sure Daniel reads that book on the chemistry set real good?

MOYERS NARRATION: Terry and Tony's marriage survived, but there were still pressures. Tony's job offered limited potential, and his health plan paid only part of his medical expenses. Plus his evening hours put a strain on the family.

[SEE TERRY AND THE KIDS AT THE DINNER TABLE]

TERRY NEUMANN: Come on, let's pray! C'mon C'mon C'mon C'mon C'mon.

TERRY NEUMANN: He's not here in the evenings. Which is a little hard you're trying to balance three kids. It would help if he was here, you know, to help me, so it's not just all put on me.

And discipline, you know. Have to discipline them by myself. Sometimes they don't listen too well. You know, so it kind of gets on your nerves a little bit and it's kind of helpful if you got another person stepping in sometimes and saying wait a minute here, you know.

[SEE DANIEL AND ADAM GET READY FOR BOY SCOUTS]

TERRY NEUMANN: Tonight is boy scouts. They have a pack meeting once a month where all of the dens get all together, and they come they have their awards being passed out on that night, so this is kind of like a big night

SCOUT LEADER: Adam Neumann has passed uniform inspection.

TERRY NEUMANN: That's one thing Tony misses, because he used to be very involved in scouts. So he had to give that up.

TONY NEUMANN: 'It does bother me not to be able to see the kids as much as I used to. It does bother me a lot but at this point in time right now, having money coming in consistently is more important than spending time with my children all the time like I used to.

SCOUT LEADER: Daniel Neumann, please come up with your mom or dad or both. Daniel has earned the handyman activity pin.

[SEE CLAUDE STANLEY PREACHING]

CLAUDE STANLEY: Thank you, hallelujah. Yes lord, we thank you this morning. Lord, we thank you how you provide for us. How you make ways out of no way. Lord, we thank you this -morning

MOYERS NARRATION: On Sundays Claude Stanley served his church as a lay minister.

CLAUDE STANLEY: We thank you Lord for your goodness and we thank you for your kindness, Lord.

[SEE CLAUDE WORKING IN BASEMENT]

MOYERS NARRATION: The rest of the week he was still on his hands and knees waterproofing basements. By 1993, he had-been promoted to foreman, head of the work, crew.

CLAUDE'S BOSS: Claude is very good at working with the customer. We've had many reports that folks -have sent in, that they were impressed with our crew's work habits and especially the foreman, Claude Stanley. We're privileged to have an individual that has that good of work habits. He's probably the hardest working guy there at the job site.

CLAUDE STANLEY: I do my best. If I'm gonna come out here and do a job, I want to make sure it's done right. And I don't care who work with me, we're do it right if I be here half the night to get it done.

CLAUDE'S BOSS: Claude has been with us approximately four years now and we feel that he's entitled to ' more benefits. We're working with the company right now -you know, to-provide some additional benefits. He has a hospitalization plan. But as competitive as we are, we don't really pay a great big huge construction wage.

CLAUDE STANLEY: This job your money's cut in half. Factory job you're making 14 dollars an hour -this job you're cutting that in half -you're only making, you make about 7. Yeah, you might get some bonuses here and there -but -incentives, but -ain't that great.

CLAUDE STANLEY: Now I'm putting longer hours in. You're getting money but it's not that much --but you're getting longer hours. But you know, you -when you get home you're tired.

[SEE JACKIE AND CLAUDE ON COUCH]

CLAUDE STANLEY: Yeah, we tired. And you say, 'What the use?"

JACKIE STANLEY: Why keep struggling?

CLAUDE STANLEY: Why keep going? But you gotta say I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna -I'm gonna make it. That door gotta open up somewhere. It's gotta open up somewhere.

[SEE THE STANLEY SONS HAULING TRASH FROM HOUSE]

MOYERS NARRATION: With their older sister at community college, the three sons were pitching in even more. Keith, now sixteen, and the thirteen year old twins, Klaudale and Claude, Jr.

KEITH STANLEY: We do a lot of offhand jobs. Odd jobs, like doing this. And painting rooms, and pulling up carpet, taking out furniture and stuff like that. Most of the money goes to the bank, and if it doesn't, either we're helping our sister out at college, or we're helping out buying our own shoes, buying our equipment, so it doesn't just get spent on whatever you want.

MOYERS NARRATION: Keith had set a goal: to become the first male on either side of the family to graduate high school and go on to college.

CLAUDE STANLEY: I try to instill in, in them --you gonna need a good education. You got to go to college, and without a college education you won't make it. But I tell them, you get an education and get your degree, and whatever. Start somewhere and start your own business. Be an entrepreneur!

[SEE TONY PLANTING SEEDS IN BASEMENT]

TONY NEUMANN: Did Julie mention what kind of plants she wanted?

TERRY NEUMANN: She wanted tomatoes.

TONY NEUMANN: A lot of the stuff that you grow you can eat and it just helps save money a little bit. learned this from, my mom and dad and grandma. All of these people who grew up during the depression. They figured, 'hey seeds don't cost a whole lot. You can learn a lot by talking to some of these older adults as far as what they had to go through. It makes it seem like you don't have it that bad.

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony kept working lots of overtime. Until he got sick...

TERRY NEUMANN: 'He caught pneumonia. And he collapsed.

TONY NEUMANN: . Yeah, they put me on a IV for I don't know, about an hour and a half or so and I had to rest and that was that.

[SEE TONY AND TERRY ON COUCH]

TERRY NEUMANN: And you had to take off from work.

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah, they told me I had -they said I had to be off of work for about a week and a half. From dehydration. And they said that was caused by stress.

TERRY NEUMANN: And you get the bill and it's like 300 and something dollars, and I said, "Just for a taxi service to the' hospital?" I'm like, come on! And Tony was like, "Oh God, there's another bill."

MOYERS NARRATION: The illness was a blow. Tony's insurance wouldn't cover all the bills. Missing work cost him 10 days pay and the family was still in debt from the time he had been unemployed.

[TERRY WRITING CHECKS]

TERRY NEUMANN: Just with the mortgage we got, well, three months behind. And it will take us two years to get to pay that back because they tack on interest and penalty charges and whatever else. You know, so that three months takes two years, That's a long time,

So whatever extra money we have, we send it -because we want to make sure that in the next year we have it paid off so they don't take the house,

MOYERS NARRATION: Terry still found herself having to choose between making money and staying home with the kids. The choice for now was to bring in some extra income.

Selling beauty products hadn't worked out. It even cost the family money. So

Terry ,took part-time work caring for an elderly woman. A relative offered to watch the children for free.

[MORNING AT THE NEUMAN~ HOUSE]

TERRY NEUMANN: Daniel!

KARISSA NEUMANN: Dan-iel!

TERRY NEUMANN: Daniel! Look for Your homework,

KARISSA NEUMANN: Get in here!

TERRY NEUMANN: And your backpack! .

KARISSA NEUMANN: And shut the do-oor!

[STANLEY BOYS DUMP GARBAGE IN DUMPSTERS]

JACKIE STANLEY: All I could tell them is keep trying. Every day I have to encourage myself and I have to encourage them. Many times Keith has said to me, What's the use mom?' He did a 3.5. What does it matter? And I said you gotta keep going.

Someone called us the other day -the snow was heavy and we were out shoveling snow. And someone stood at the window and said look at your family, it's perfect. And they called us the Beaver family. I know they meant to say Cleaver. And they said -they said we see you together all the time. It looks good but it looks good, but no mailer how it looks on the outside, I'm concerned.

[SEE DALE STANLEY IN CLASSROOM]

MOYERS NARRATION: One of Jackie's concerns was her children's safety. One day a phone call confirmed her fears.

[SEE STANLEYS SITTING IN LIVING ROOM]

JACKIE STANLEY: They had called me that Klaudale was going on life support because a child choked my son until he stopped breathing.

KLAUDALE STANLEY: He came from behind me and started choking me. And having some wrestling hold. And so I couldn't breathe. And so I dropped to the ground. And last thing I remember was--teachers coming in and praying and ...

JACKIE STANLEY: By the time I had gotten there, they had his chest exposed. And they were telling me that Dale was now, had stopped breathing. That's all they could tell me. They said they can't revive Klaudale. And when I got there, I saw the teacher on her knees praying 'Hail Mary' full of grace over my son. All could say was, 'Dale, remember Jesus.'

CLAUDE STANLEY: You know, you hear about violence and you don't think it's gonna hit your kids, you know, you find out your kids gelling choked in school, near death, you're at your job and you get a phone call saying, "Come quick, your kid is on the way to the hospital." You know, it's right on your front doorstep now.

[SEE DALE WALKING IN HALL IN SCHOOL]

KLAUDALE STANLEY: I think it's really not the school in general. It's not the school board. It's not the Milwaukee public schools. It's each child, If each child made in their mind that, "I'm going to come to school and learn today, I'm going to get the grades, I'm going to be the next Bill Clinton, I'm going to be the next Thurgood Marshall." If they would do that, then I would think that we would not have the problems with inner city schools. Because it's not, it's not the location. It's, it's the, it's the child. It's the parent. It's the person.

JACKIE STANLEY:

It's the upbringing,

[SEE JACKIE OUTSIDE, SHOWING A HO\JSE]

01 :42:16 Jackie Stanley (to client): I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll tell you what. I'll give you this one, because that's the very same house.

JACKIE STANLEY: Our family would be what you'd say, is what the average Americans are going through -¨we. get-hard times. And with my kind of work that I do, which is real estate; I get paid on commission, it goes up and down. And it's rough.

Jackie Stanley (to client): Don't go in the back hallway, the dog's there.

MOYERS NARRATION: Jackie was just one of the agents working on this sale, and had to split the commission with the others. She also had to pay a percentage of her share to her employer, Homestead Realty, reducing her own take.

JACKIE STANLEY: Out of this one? By the time they're done it'll be about a thousand dollars. If we're going to do the taxes too, then you also have to remember--they take the 28 percent out of the thousand that you make. So it's--you're down again.

MOYERS NARRATION: Jackie dreamed of one day opening her own office, so that she could keep a larger share of the commissions.

JACKIE STANLEY: I've set goals at what I want to do. And I plan on going all the way with it. Because I've got to come out of the hole somewhere. That's it.

[SEE JACKIE WALKING THROUGH HER NEIGHBORHOOD]

JACKIE STANLEY: And there's something that I always say, and I know you may not understand this, but it says, "So a man thinketh; so is he." If I think poverty all the time I'll act that way. I can't afford to talk negative. And then allow my children to see me that way, down or depressed.

MOYERS NARRATION: Even as Jackie persevered, it seems her neighborhood was coming apart at the seams. If prosperity was on the way back, it had not reached the central city.

JACKIE STANLEY: . Even on this street, one block west of my house, just about every door here has the steel doors. There was "KILL YOU" written on the back of my fence, if you don't join the gangs, to my oldest son, Keith.

MOYERS NARRATION: Just blocks away from her house, Jackie's uncle was murdered by an intruder.

[SEE JACKIE AND CLAUDE ON COUCH]

JACKIE STANLEY: I think he made about thirty-five, forty at Smith.

CLAUDE STANLEY: At Smith, yeah.

JACKIE STANLEY: And I made thirty-five and forty.

CLAUDE STANLEY: At Briggs. Mmm-hmm.

JACKIE STANLEY: And that's, so we're about out half of that. If we did made what we made at Briggs and Smith right now? We would be really well--well off. House would be paid for, car paid for, kids at least would have some kind of college funds built up.

CLAUDE STANLEY: But you know, like I said we look on each other for our strength. You know, somedays she has bad days, some days I have bad days, but like when, if I'm not producing she's producing. You know, when I can't, you know, I do, she do, I do. We try to find a way to make ends meet. You got some families probably say how do we make it, you know, how do we make it? You know.

JACKIE STANLEY: We don't even know.

CLAUDE STANLEY: How do you make it, you know.

JACKIE STANLEY: We just keep holding on. You know, we shop, we shop. I found out that there are grocery stores here that have food half-price on Mondays. We rummage. I don't mind rummaging. I love to rummage.

[SEE JACKIE AND OMEGA IN SECOND HAND STORE]

JACKIE STANLEY: I come here because I work with a lot of people every day. I mean, they come in the offices from the cologne to the shoes, I--they--look-gorgeous. And I can't afford what they wear. My accessories that I wear, they're like five, ten to twenty dollar earrings,.1 pay 99 cents.

Jackie Stanley (to Omega): Something I would wear? No I think Elvis Presley would wear it. No, I wouldn't wear that.

Jackie Stanley (to clerk): Okay, I'll get hers and put mine on layaway.

JACKIE STANLEY: Nobody wants to be around somebody that doesn't have their selves together. Even if you have to, as one broker wrote to me and said, "fake it til you make it." And that's what we do in the Stanley household. We wear exactly what the people--on Lake Drive wear.

TERRY NEUMANN: With me working and Tony working, we had different shifts and we weren't together all the time at the same time.

TONY NEUMANN: Karissa, where is it?

TERRY NEUMANN: How can he lose a backpack?

KARISSA NEUMANN: In the room.

TERRY NEUMANN: Daniel started getting very quiet and he kept to himself a lot. His attitude just changed a little bit. You know he got really distant.

TONY NEUMANN: Hey, look at this.

TERRY NEUMANN: Homework not finished. Why?

TONY NEUMANN: Look at this!

TERRY NEUMANN: And then Daniel started having problems with his grades in school.

TERRY NEUMANN: There's three pages here!

TONY NEUMANN: I'm not signin' none of this.

TERRY NEUMANN: Let me see that.

[AT SCHOOL, IN GUIDANCE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE]

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: Some kids almost blame themselves for what's going on in a family you know and, that they have to realize this is a situation that's a tough situation for the whole family. Everybody's doing the best they can. You love him, you're there for him and you'll always be there for him.

[SEE DANIEL IN CLASS]

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: A lot of our children here at school are getting themselves up in the morning, coming home to an empty house at -at night. Ideally, we would, have a parent there to get a kid off and someone there to receive them when they come home at night. But, that's -you know in the fairyland world I guess and you know we do want we have to do to survive.

MOYERS NARRATION: Deciding the children needed her full time at home, Terry gave up the job.

[SEE STANLEYS IN LIVING ROOM]

KEITH STANLEY:What happened to a lot of people, you get whooped by society. Society'll tear you down. Because you come in there with all these dreams and you're going to do it, you're young. By the time you hit 30 and 40 years old, you lost several jobs. Your family's getting divorced and stuff, and you give up and you get tired. And I think we need more hope. And by getting more hope, we need more jobs and more good examples of people making it in life.

[SEE NEUMANN LIVING ROOM]

TERRY NEUMANN: Daniel! Daniel! Let me see, let me see. Please. Oh c'mon, c'mon, I've been waiting for this.

MOYERS NARRATION: Having given up her job, Terry was home with the 'kids, encouraging them, and helping with their homework.

[DANIEL SHOW TERRY HIS REPORT CARD]

TERRY NEUMANN: A's, C's, C's. Well, you went up in math. You had a D, you went to a C.

TERRY NEUMANN: I wasn't sure if it was the right decision. But I thought it's either that or my kids are just going to be really having a worse problem.

Terry Neumann (reading report card): 'Wow! I'm proud of your efforts Dan. I know you could do it. Keep up the good work." Good job, Dan. Maybe they'll go up another grade the next report card period.

[SEE TERRY AND THE KIDS AT THE ACCOUNTANT]

ACCOUNTANT: OK, let's take these numbers down. See what we've got here. Looks like you've got a medical deduction there.

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony's long hours were paying off by the spring of '93. For the first time in years, the Neumanns could report a decent income.

ACCOUNTANT: Uh-oh. You don't have enough taxes paid up. You owe $900.

TERRY NEUMANN: $900? Where am I going to get $900?

TERRY NEUMANN: We think about our retirement, we think about the kids' education. We think about a lot of things. But right now it's just like opening up one of those mail catalogs and wishing you know. The wish book. But it will come true some day, hopefully.

MOYERS NARRATION: Two years later, in 1995, getting a job wasn't the problem anymore. There was even a shortage of skilled labor.

RADIO VOICE: ... say they can't find enough qualified workers and Governor Thompson announced what he calls "Operation Hire" to address those shortages.

RADIO VOICE: The market took off at the opening bell.

MOYERS NARRATION: The stock market was pushing to unheard of heights.

RADIO VOICE: final number was 5,023. It was another milestone in what has been an extraordinary year on Wall Street.

MOYERS NARRATION: The economy was on a roll.

[SEE CLAUDE STANLEY TROWELLING CONCRETE]

MOYERS NARRATION: But many working people weren't rolling with it. Claude Stanley earned just about a dollar fifty more an hour more than he had four years before.

[SEE CLAUDE AND BILL IN BASEMENT]

BILL MOYERS: Do you think you'll ever retire?

CLAUDE STANLEY: Ooh.

[LAUGH] The way it looks now I don't think so. What can you say? Just keep on working until another door open up. Then you go for it.

[STANLEY FAMILY AT HOME GETTING READY FOR GRADUATION]

MOYERS NARRATION: Claude's oldest son, Keith, was one step closer to his goal of attending college.

JACKIE STANLEY: When you're raising 'em you don't have time to watch 'em grow up. You have time to feed 'em, clothe 'em and wipe their nose and see that nobody's beating the heck out of 'em out here on the street. And you don't watch until suddenly this day hits me dead in the face and I wasn't -I knew he was graduating, I knew he was in the 12th grade, but I didn't know, you know?

Klaudale Stanley (Keith dresses in background): Today is like the end of an era. Like when Michael Jordan retired. End of an era. It's like a time where it's the three of us, and he's moving on to college and going on to bigger and better things. And I guess we're here just to pick up the slack and try to do what we can. Try to follow behind him and look at him as a role model and, you know, if they say we don't have too many role models we can use him as a role model. Our older brother.

JACKIE STANLEY: It makes me very happy.

[JACKIE SEES KEITH IN GRADUATION GOWN IN LIVING ROOM]

KEITH STANLEY:Ahh Mommy!

JACKIE STANLEY: , I've been talking for years and I can't talk now. You're the first one. Momma's not crying 'cause she's hurting. I'm crying because I did it. God, me and God did it. There's gonna be so many memories when he walks across that stage today.

[KEITH AT GRADUATION CEREMONY]

GRADUATION ANNOUNCER: Keith -Kenyata -Stanley

JACKIE STANLEY: Yeah! That's my boy! That's my son! Jackie Stanley's son.

Graduation Speaker: May each of you enjoy the richness of a full life, and achieve success in your chosen fields of endeavor. Congratulations. Thank you.

[KEITH EMBRACING FRIENDS]

KEITH STANLEY:I'm kinda nervous and kinda excited but I'm ready to go on and move on now. Cause it's like been a long four years of high school. I'm hoping that after I graduate I really you know stay in college. Cause I know a lot of times people, they go out there expecting high hopes and like the world let them down.

I want to really go out there and make some noise in the world. That's what I want to do.

[NEUMANN FAMILY PLAYING CARDS]

MOYERS NARRATION: That spring, Tony Neumann finally moved onto the day shift. Now he could spend more time at home when the kids were awake.

TERRY NEUMANN: They're doing great. They're healthy. They're doing well in school. And they're getting big. They're growing. They're just huge. They're growing out of shoes and pants and clothes.

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony was now making around thirteen dollars an hour. Adjusted for inflation, it was still less than he had made at Briggs and Stratton.

The Neumanns had managed to catch up on their mortgage, but they had no savings, and still lived paycheck to paycheck. '

[TERRY BEGINS DAY OF WORK AT CAFETERIA]

TERRY NEUMANN: Morning! Morning, Barb!

MOYERS NARRATION: Terry had taken another part time job --this one at a school cafeteria, where she made six dollars, ninety one cents an hour.

TERRY NEUMANN: I only work three hours, so I don't get any benefits right now. I might get extra time if somebody's sick. Any extra time that ,I can get, I grab, Cause it helps.

MOYERS NARRATION: In a typical day, she made less than twenty dollars after taxes. But the job allowed her to get home before the kids.

[SEE MOYERS AND JACKIE STANLEY OUTSIDE STANLEY HOUSE]

BILL MOYERS: Hey Jackie! Good to see you. This is new?

JACKIE STANLEY: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: What's going on?

JACKIE STANLEY: The neighborhood's changing, and we right now feel that we should sell the house. Every year it's getting worse, gangs are moving in. I have twenty eight hundred dollars worth of steel up to my house.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, I saw the steel doors the -protected by the --alarm system. Beware of the dogs.

JACKIE STANLEY: We have it all. And I was gonna make up a sign, ignore the 'dog, ignore the alarm and you're gonna make the six o'clock news, I'm -I've had it. I have had it!

BILL MOYERS: Where will you go, though?

Jacqueline Stanley: Claude and I have no idea where we're gonna go. If we get the price for our house we'll take it and we'll run, but where I don't know.

[SEE TERRY AND KARISSA AT BREAKFAST TABLE]

TERRY NEUMANN: This is where I'm going today, Karissa. "Pick-up and deliveries. Must have CDL. Competitive wages and excellent benefits. " And that's what we need, benefits. 'Apply in person.'

[SEE TERRY FILLING OUT APPLICATION AT TRUCKING COMPANY]

TERRY NEUMANN: I studied and took a test at the Motor Vehicle Department and got a CDL license. And CDL license stands for Commercial Driver's License. I am a class B-C which means I can drive dump trucks, straight truck with airbrakes. My brother says it's in the blood because my Dad drives a semi tractor trailer, my uncle drives a tractor trailer and my other uncle drives tractor trailer. And being a woman they kinda laugh and chuckle. Sort of like, a woman! You know. I'm hoping to get into a pretty good company that's gonna offer me like, 8 hours a day, and give me some decent benefits, 'like medical, dental and eye exam.

[SEE MOYERS AND NEUMANNS IN LIVING ROOM]

BILL MOYERS: I remember your telling us a couple of years ago --you thought it was so important that as a mother you were home with the kids. Daniel was having a few difficulties then -¨approaching teenage years --you just felt it would be best if you could be here.

TERRY NEUMANN: Right--I stil.1 feel that way. But under the circumstances--we're put into a situation --we don't have a choice:

TONY NEUMANN: Gotta do it. or-

TERRY NEUMANN: Either we can't make the ends meet, you know. Or we stay home with the kids.

[SEE TONY GETTING HOME FROM WORK. GETTING OUT OF HIS TRUCK AND COMING IN THE HOUSE]

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony was still seeking to improve his skills...with more retraining.

TONY NEUMANN: I'm always learning. You always :have to learn. When you stop learning. then you've got a problem. You gotta do that in order to stay in the job market. too. The more you know. the better off you are .

[SEE TONY AT KITCHEN TABLE READING THE MAIL]

TONY NEUMANN: The Honors Program. "Congratulations on your outstanding performance on the asset.

MOYERS NARRATION: Once again, he passed with flying colors, this time in thermo-plastic molding. Now he had applied for a new job, which would begin with an apprenticeship.

TONY NEUMANN: I went and got an interview. and I'm waiting to hear sometime by the end of the month if I have the job or not.

BILL MOYERS: And that doesn't make you happy?

TERRY NEUMANN: It makes me happy cause it's really what he wanted. I told him he had to make the decision. and if that's--if he felt that that's what he wanted--to go ahead and do it.

BILL MOYERS: But--?

TONY NEUMANN: It's a cut in pay. Right off.

TERRY NEUMANN: It's a cut in pay. They do have good benefits.

BILL MOYERS: How much do you lose if you take it?

TONY NEUMANN: Oh, probably about two and a half, three dollars an hour. But the thing is --four years down the road, I'll be making more money than I would ever dream of making here.

TERRY NEUMANN: But is it going to be there when he gets out? You know what I mean? They promise you that it's going to be there. Its-¨

TONY NEUMANN: Four years--they're going to-¨

TERRY NEUMANN: I know. I know.

TONY NEUMANN: --they're going to stick you through school, they're going to train you on the job for four years. Now that is going to cost them a lot of money to put you through school and train you. And why would they do all of that and want to kick you out? If they do kick me out after the four years, I would have a journeyman's card, and you can go pretty much anywhere once you get a journeyman's card-¨

TERRY NEUMANN: Right--I know--I don't want to burst your bubble.

TONY NEUMANN: Okay.

TERRY NEUMANN: But what happens if they can't compete with a neighbor?

BILL MOYERS: As you say, it's happened twice to Tony.

TERRY NEUMANN: Right. So I'm really reluctant. I mean, I'm happy for him because he's excited about this job, but I'm still--you know, a company can just--I've seen it, it can just pick-up and move.

[SEE STANLEY FAMILY IN KITCHEN LISTENING TO KEITH'S AUDIO CASSETTE LETTER FROM COLLEGE. HEAR KEITH'S VOICE]

KEITH STANLEY: Hey what's up everybody! This is Keith. I'm inside my dorm room. Just trying to let you know how everything's doing.

[SEE PHOTO OF KEITH STANLEY IN DORM ROOM]

MOYERS NARRATION: In September of 1995, Keith Stanley began his freshman year at Alabama State University.

BILL MOYERS: How do you afford to keep Keith in college?

JACKIE STANLEY: I negotiated two transactions and closed 'em the day before he left. And you're talking about a prayer!

MOYERS NARRATION: Jackie's commissions paid for only part of the tuition.

[SEE JACKIE AND MOYERS TALKING IN FRONT OF HOUSE]

BILL MOYERS: What does it take you a year down there for him?

JACKIE STANLEY: It's seven thousand dollars a year.

BILL MOYERS: Is he gonna be able to make it this year?

JACKIE STANLEY: I just received a letter that I have to pay thirteen hundred dollars now, or Keith will have to be put out in forty-eight hours. But again God came through, again! Keith had applied for a lot of -charge cards before he left.

[SEE JACKIE ON PHONE WITH KEITH]

Jackie Stanley (on telephone): Keith? Hi. How you doing? All right. Listen. We came up with something. Oh, that's so sweet. I can tell you've been down south a long time. You're saying 'Yes, ma'am. Your Discover card came in, and we were concerned about this letter that came from your school. So here's what we're going to do. I called the Discover card people, and I told them we wanted a cash advance.

BILL MOYERS: Most people, when they pray, expect God to give them a miracle. You --what you got was a thousand dollar credit with 18 percent interest rate.

JACKIE STANLEY: But it'll tie me over until I can get the miracle.

Jackie Stanley (on telephone): So then this semester is taken care of. You hear me? All right, I love you.

[SEE MOYERS AND JACKIE TALKING]

JACKIE STANLEY: It's called rob Peter to pay Paul. And I'm robbing Peter so much that Peter is just standing there. But Bill, when you're going from trying to figure out what to eat today, should I fill my tank all the way up--? It's just gotta happen. I can't afford to worry about anything but what I'm taking care of. I, I have a sign as you come in. It's a little bitty, it looks like a biblical, a bible. And it says 'As for me and my house.' That's all I'm worried about. And I know that's the 90's mood, and I don't want to have that. But I, it, but as for me and my house. I can't worry what the President's doing. I can't worry about what my neighbors are doing. ,

BILL MOYERS: Or the new global economy?

JACKIE STANLEY: Or the economy. Only just us. .

MOYERS NARRATION: As 1995 drew to a close, the Stanley twins were still pitching into help the family. They took fast food jobs, and sent some of their earnings to help Keith stay in college ... and they also had goals of their own.

[SEE CLAUDE AND KLAUDALE WORKING AT RESTAURANT]

Claude Stanley, Jr.: I plan to go to medical school and succeed in life. And I still haven't left that dream of making $300 million, something like that, still haven't lost that.

KLAUDALE STANLEY: I plan to be an architectural engineer, and be the next Frank Lloyd Wright, grow up and have a nice family. That's my long-term goal -retire, playa little golf, and that's about it.

MOYERS NARRATION: Tony Neumann didn't get the apprenticeship he had .hoped for....so he continued on the day shift at his old job.

[SEE TERRY WALKING IN NEW UNIFORM]

MOYERS NARRATION: But there was one new job in the family...

TERRY NEUMANN: I have a new job. I'm a driver and a guard. And a messenger. My hourly pay right now is $7.50. To start. It has very good insurance benefits, which my husband doesn't have. He gets more money and less benefits. And I've got less money and better benefits. So¨-hopefully between the two of us, it kind of works out.

[SEE MOYERS AND NEUMANNS ,IN LIVING ROOM]

TERRY NEUMANN: I get a lot of looks from a lot of truck drivers. A lot of double takes that--Wow, look a! that.' Yeah. 1 love it. I think it's great. You know?

BILL MOYERS: Working?

TERRY NEUMANN: Working--yeah. And having the power behind the big truck, you know. I like it.

BILL MOYERS: The power behind the big truck?

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah. I get a lot more looks than sitting in the kitchen cooking muffins. [laughter]

[SEE NEUMANN CHILDREN WALKING HOME]

MOYERS NARRATION: The Neumanns combined income was now more than Tony had earned at Briggs and Stratton. But there was a trade-off. The kids came home to an empty house.

KARISSA NEUMANN: She probably thinks about us and stuff--how we're doing at home. Gets a little worried if we're okay. And if we made it home.

[SEE MOYERS AND NEUMANNS TALKING IN LIVING ROOM]

BILL MOYERS: What about the neighborhood? You're not the only family around, I guess, where both husband and wife are working?

TERRY NEUMANN: No.

BILL MOYERS: Or kids are coming home by themselves?

TONY NEUMANN: . There's a lot of kids around here that are like that. There's quite a bit of commotion as far as the kids that are around here doing pretty much what they want.

TERRY NEUMANN: Cause they're not supervised.

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah, they're never supervised.

TERRY NEUMANN: The parents aren't here to supervise them and that's the reason why you have so much teenage shenanigans. I don't know what you want to call it -whether it's spray painting or-

TONY NEUMANN: Yeah, violence.

TERRY NEUMANN: That's what I'm worried about. I want my kids to-

TONY NEUMANN: Grow up to be good kids.

TERRY NEUMANN: Yeah, I want good children.

BILL MOYERS: So you're betting on the fact that the kids will come through without you being here?

TERRY NEUMANN: I've tried to bring them up right and to teach them right from wrong. And I'm just hoping that they will carry these values through all of this. I hope they've learned something from this--how hard it is and how difficult it is and how everybody needs to make sacrifices--including them. This is how it is and this is what we have to do in order to get through this and make it.