Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
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Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:22 pm
Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons
INTRODUCTION
In 1949, the Afro-American steel worker Joseph Jackson from Gary/Indiana married the love of his life Katherine Scruse. Less than one year later, they had their first daughter Rebbie, followed by eight more children until 1966. In the first years, their family life was characterized by severe poverty. Joseph Jackson worked day and night. Sometimes he would hold down three jobs only to make enough money for food and rent. When he recognized how musically gifted their children were, he invested in singing and dancing lessons for them. He was convinced that the American dream would come true for his family. History shows how right the ambitious father Joseph Jackson was...
After they had won their first talent contests, there was no stopping the Jackson 5 anymore! For more than a decade, it was almost impossible to dislodge the sons of Joseph Jackson from the number one spot of the music charts. And until today, the five Jackson brothers are still considered to be the most influential band in modern black music. Without the Jackson 5, Soul, R&B, Funk and Hip Hop - and therefore most contemporary pop music - would not exist in its current form today.
In the late 70s, Michael Jackson left the band and started his outstanding solo career. On his own, the "King of Pop" became even more successful. In order to describe him, a new word had to be invented: the "Megastar". With his songs, Michael Jackson broke all records: "Thriller" became the best selling album ever. Until today, round about 56 million copies have been sold!
Since the 90s, Michael Jackson has been faced with competition from within his own family: His younger sister Janet conquers the peak of the charts with every CD- and is just as loved by her fans.
But fame has its price. No famous personalities have ever been as exposed to the public eye as the members of the Jackson family - especially Michael Jackson. And the more famous he has become, the more people from all over the world have become fascinated by the icon of pop music and his idiosyncratic lifestyle.
Now Joseph Jackson presents his very personal view of his family. He describes his efforts to turn his nine children into the most successful musicians ever. He portrays the story of a man who always sacrificed himself as much as possible in order to further the development of his children. But at the same time he doesn’t conceal the fact from his readers that his three daughters and his six sons experienced a strict upbringing. According to Joseph Jackson, instilling a sense of discipline in his children was the only way to ensure they would survive for many years in the tough music business. His fascinating biography draws the picture of an extraordinary family which represents for pop culture what the Kennedys represent for politics.
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:22 pm
Our Ancestors
The name Jackson came to us from my great-grandfather, July Gale. Nobody called him July, everybody called him just Jack. Great-grandfather Jack was born in tribe Choctaw in the beginning of 19 century. He was an Indian shaman.
Jack was very much appreciated for his abilities in doctoring. Also in his youth he worked as a scout in the USA army.
Great-grandfather fell in love with a fine girl named Gina. In 1838 their first child was born, a boy whom they named Israel. Unfortunately, in the past if one of a child's parents was a slave, the child was also considered a slave.
Indian Jack was “the free person", but my great-grandmother was a slave, that's why Israel couldn't hope for anything else, at least not yet.
When Israel grew up people nicknamed him Nero. Nero son of Jack and eventually from this it has turned to Nero Jack-son.
My great-grandfather, Nero was tall and light-skinned, with high cheekbones and small sparkling eyes. He was very proud of himself. Nero was still a boy when Jack started to transfer to him his shaman knowledge. But despite his gift of doctoring and despite the tribe’s need for his skills, to the sadness of his parents, Nero was sold to a plantation in Louisiana. He and the other slaves were made by the owners to eat kneeling before a low trough from which they scooped with a spoon. Soon Nero had had enough of it and he ran away. The owner of a plantation immediately sent people who searched all night long and eventually caught the errant slave on the river many miles away from the plantation. They beat Nero up so bad that he lost litres of his blood.
When some months later Nero finally recovered, his owner wanted to sell him, but slaves who have previously escaped were impossible to sell for the same high price, so instead owner of Nero decided to force him to work as much as possible. My grandfather was made to work in the cotton fields of the South while being held down by shackles on his wrists and legs. Once when the shackles were removed Nero again dared to run away. This time the owner of the plantation himself headed the search group and promised a reward to the one who caught Nero. He was afraid that other slaves would follow Nero’s example if he did not catch him. When Nero was eventually found the owner took red hot tongs and squeezed Nero’s nose with them until he fell unconscious. He left my grandfather to lie on the ground because thought that Nero was dead. But he was so strong that he went through this awful punishment. The scars of the burn remained with him up to the end of his days.
During the time Nero lived on the plantation in Louisiana he had 6 children born from his girlfriend. Later he married an Indian Choctaw, she was only 3/4 Indian, - she was my grandmother Emmaline. His life with my grandmother was a kind of refuge from the awful working conditions and many people were envious of his harmonious marriage and happy home life. They did not need much money to be happy because they loved each other. Emmaline was from Louisiana, she had inherited her mother’s slightly yellowish skin color.
When President Lincoln released slaves on May, 31, 1865 Nero's situation got better. At last he could earn an adequate living by selling the Indian medicines. With time he became famous because he cured hundreds of people. His abilities with these medicines became widely known and people came from far away so he could help them.
Grandfather Nero lived a simple life and saved enough money so he and my grandmother could buy a farm in Sunnyvale, Mississippi. He paid cash for 120 hectares of fertile ground. There Nero and Emmaline had 15 children (in total Nero had 21 children). My grandfather, grandmother and all their huge clan were fed from this ground where they planted corn, tomatoes and other vegetables, reared chickens, pigs and cows.
Nero frequently wandered in the woods to collect grasses. From roots and other plants he made broth, filled bottles with the broth and gave it to patients to drink, he also made ointments from various woods and grasses. He treated Indians and former slaves and they paid him what they could afford.
Nero also liked to sing and frequently performed old military dances of the Choctaw. One Saturday evening the sheriff and his people blocked with ropes the street on which Nero danced, and tried to arrest him for infringement of a public order. But Nero felt danger so he jumped on his horse and jumping through obstacles he escaped. After that the sheriff left him alone.
When the children of Nero and Emmaline were grown they created their own families so Nero invited the children of his younger brother, William, to his farm. Among them was my oldest cousin, Rufus. Rufus has since told to me, he should be paid more attention to the grasses the grandfather used to treat illnesses. But then he was still a child, and as many children, did not think how valuable the knowledge of ancestors can be.
When Rufus was 4 years old Nero's wife has died. As time went by Nero became old and weak and he could no longer look after the farm as well so he got help from a white man by the name of Eroy. Nero paid Eroy only a very small amount, but Eroy very carefully kept accounts of what he was owed. Rufus was then still a child; the only thing that he noticed was that Nero become weaker. At this time Nero handed over to Eroy some important papers so Eroy could keep them for him. Eventually, Rufus and I guessed later, Eroy managed to appropriate these documents on owning of the farm ostensibly as debt payments for what Eroy considered Nero owed him.
That's how our family lost all rights to this fertile ground where hundreds of peach and pear trees, which my relatives carefully looked after, grew. Much later Rufus and I have found out that under the ground were huge oil fields, we have simply lost gift of speech since the rent for the right of drilling made 1.2 million Dollars. Eventually the deposit should cost at least good 100 million.
The last years of his life Nero lived on the farm alone because William and Rufus left home. He died in 1924, long before my birth. My father Samuel lived back than in Arkansas where he had found work, he found out about death of his father, Nero, too late so couldn't attend the funeral. My Uncle Sam from Oklahoma was able to participate in it, and other son of Nero, my uncle Esco also attended. My father was Nero's youngest son, he had a twin sister Janey D. Hall.
My maternal great-grandmother, Mattie Daniel, was born in 1864. Mattie’s mother was the handicapped daughter of the plantation owner and Mattie’s father was a slave on the plantation. Despite protests from Mattie’s mother, Mattie was sold to another plantation because her grandfather did not like that her father was black. When I was young, Mattie's history set me thinking. If I had children, I thought, I would keep an eye on them and wouldn't allow anybody to take them away from me.
Anyway, Mattie could never enjoy the life of society as her mother could. As well as Nero, my maternal great-grandfather was a slave collecting cotton. Mattie was married twice and had 17 children. One of her daughters was my grandmother, another my cousin’s grandmother Verna.
Nero was a respectable person due to his doctoring abilities and also because he owned land, during this time this was unusual for a former slave. As for business qualities, my father took after him; he too was respected, mainly for his good education. Samuel studied 9 years in Alcorn College in Mississippi and when he was 24 years old he already had a Bachelor and a Master Degree. In that century this was a rarity for a young man from a minority.
After his final examinations he found out that in Ashley Country, Arkansas there was a vacancy for a teacher. He walked 200 km from Mississippi to participate in the competition for this place, and he received it.
Originally in that province the higher school only had one teacher taught all pupils. Professor Jackson, as he was named, had two especially clever sisters who he taught and from the very beginning paid much attention to the sisters King. One them, Chrystal, had a bright personality, a dazzling smile and loud laughter. When she was 16 years, he married her. Chrystal was my mother.
In a small town where I lived, everybody loved my family. We spent our free time at home or in church and since Dad had been well educated, neighbours admired him. And we always had friends.
The name Jackson came to us from my great-grandfather, July Gale. Nobody called him July, everybody called him just Jack. Great-grandfather Jack was born in tribe Choctaw in the beginning of 19 century. He was an Indian shaman.
Jack was very much appreciated for his abilities in doctoring. Also in his youth he worked as a scout in the USA army.
Great-grandfather fell in love with a fine girl named Gina. In 1838 their first child was born, a boy whom they named Israel. Unfortunately, in the past if one of a child's parents was a slave, the child was also considered a slave.
Indian Jack was “the free person", but my great-grandmother was a slave, that's why Israel couldn't hope for anything else, at least not yet.
When Israel grew up people nicknamed him Nero. Nero son of Jack and eventually from this it has turned to Nero Jack-son.
My great-grandfather, Nero was tall and light-skinned, with high cheekbones and small sparkling eyes. He was very proud of himself. Nero was still a boy when Jack started to transfer to him his shaman knowledge. But despite his gift of doctoring and despite the tribe’s need for his skills, to the sadness of his parents, Nero was sold to a plantation in Louisiana. He and the other slaves were made by the owners to eat kneeling before a low trough from which they scooped with a spoon. Soon Nero had had enough of it and he ran away. The owner of a plantation immediately sent people who searched all night long and eventually caught the errant slave on the river many miles away from the plantation. They beat Nero up so bad that he lost litres of his blood.
When some months later Nero finally recovered, his owner wanted to sell him, but slaves who have previously escaped were impossible to sell for the same high price, so instead owner of Nero decided to force him to work as much as possible. My grandfather was made to work in the cotton fields of the South while being held down by shackles on his wrists and legs. Once when the shackles were removed Nero again dared to run away. This time the owner of the plantation himself headed the search group and promised a reward to the one who caught Nero. He was afraid that other slaves would follow Nero’s example if he did not catch him. When Nero was eventually found the owner took red hot tongs and squeezed Nero’s nose with them until he fell unconscious. He left my grandfather to lie on the ground because thought that Nero was dead. But he was so strong that he went through this awful punishment. The scars of the burn remained with him up to the end of his days.
During the time Nero lived on the plantation in Louisiana he had 6 children born from his girlfriend. Later he married an Indian Choctaw, she was only 3/4 Indian, - she was my grandmother Emmaline. His life with my grandmother was a kind of refuge from the awful working conditions and many people were envious of his harmonious marriage and happy home life. They did not need much money to be happy because they loved each other. Emmaline was from Louisiana, she had inherited her mother’s slightly yellowish skin color.
When President Lincoln released slaves on May, 31, 1865 Nero's situation got better. At last he could earn an adequate living by selling the Indian medicines. With time he became famous because he cured hundreds of people. His abilities with these medicines became widely known and people came from far away so he could help them.
Grandfather Nero lived a simple life and saved enough money so he and my grandmother could buy a farm in Sunnyvale, Mississippi. He paid cash for 120 hectares of fertile ground. There Nero and Emmaline had 15 children (in total Nero had 21 children). My grandfather, grandmother and all their huge clan were fed from this ground where they planted corn, tomatoes and other vegetables, reared chickens, pigs and cows.
Nero frequently wandered in the woods to collect grasses. From roots and other plants he made broth, filled bottles with the broth and gave it to patients to drink, he also made ointments from various woods and grasses. He treated Indians and former slaves and they paid him what they could afford.
Nero also liked to sing and frequently performed old military dances of the Choctaw. One Saturday evening the sheriff and his people blocked with ropes the street on which Nero danced, and tried to arrest him for infringement of a public order. But Nero felt danger so he jumped on his horse and jumping through obstacles he escaped. After that the sheriff left him alone.
When the children of Nero and Emmaline were grown they created their own families so Nero invited the children of his younger brother, William, to his farm. Among them was my oldest cousin, Rufus. Rufus has since told to me, he should be paid more attention to the grasses the grandfather used to treat illnesses. But then he was still a child, and as many children, did not think how valuable the knowledge of ancestors can be.
When Rufus was 4 years old Nero's wife has died. As time went by Nero became old and weak and he could no longer look after the farm as well so he got help from a white man by the name of Eroy. Nero paid Eroy only a very small amount, but Eroy very carefully kept accounts of what he was owed. Rufus was then still a child; the only thing that he noticed was that Nero become weaker. At this time Nero handed over to Eroy some important papers so Eroy could keep them for him. Eventually, Rufus and I guessed later, Eroy managed to appropriate these documents on owning of the farm ostensibly as debt payments for what Eroy considered Nero owed him.
That's how our family lost all rights to this fertile ground where hundreds of peach and pear trees, which my relatives carefully looked after, grew. Much later Rufus and I have found out that under the ground were huge oil fields, we have simply lost gift of speech since the rent for the right of drilling made 1.2 million Dollars. Eventually the deposit should cost at least good 100 million.
The last years of his life Nero lived on the farm alone because William and Rufus left home. He died in 1924, long before my birth. My father Samuel lived back than in Arkansas where he had found work, he found out about death of his father, Nero, too late so couldn't attend the funeral. My Uncle Sam from Oklahoma was able to participate in it, and other son of Nero, my uncle Esco also attended. My father was Nero's youngest son, he had a twin sister Janey D. Hall.
My maternal great-grandmother, Mattie Daniel, was born in 1864. Mattie’s mother was the handicapped daughter of the plantation owner and Mattie’s father was a slave on the plantation. Despite protests from Mattie’s mother, Mattie was sold to another plantation because her grandfather did not like that her father was black. When I was young, Mattie's history set me thinking. If I had children, I thought, I would keep an eye on them and wouldn't allow anybody to take them away from me.
Anyway, Mattie could never enjoy the life of society as her mother could. As well as Nero, my maternal great-grandfather was a slave collecting cotton. Mattie was married twice and had 17 children. One of her daughters was my grandmother, another my cousin’s grandmother Verna.
Nero was a respectable person due to his doctoring abilities and also because he owned land, during this time this was unusual for a former slave. As for business qualities, my father took after him; he too was respected, mainly for his good education. Samuel studied 9 years in Alcorn College in Mississippi and when he was 24 years old he already had a Bachelor and a Master Degree. In that century this was a rarity for a young man from a minority.
After his final examinations he found out that in Ashley Country, Arkansas there was a vacancy for a teacher. He walked 200 km from Mississippi to participate in the competition for this place, and he received it.
Originally in that province the higher school only had one teacher taught all pupils. Professor Jackson, as he was named, had two especially clever sisters who he taught and from the very beginning paid much attention to the sisters King. One them, Chrystal, had a bright personality, a dazzling smile and loud laughter. When she was 16 years, he married her. Chrystal was my mother.
In a small town where I lived, everybody loved my family. We spent our free time at home or in church and since Dad had been well educated, neighbours admired him. And we always had friends.
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:23 pm
Childood
I grew up during the great depression from 1929 to 1935. People could not find work - there just was no work. There was also too little food. If you have grown in 30's, you learn to save money. I in any case will not forget how hard was to earn it. And I tried later to teach my children to treat money accurately so they never be in such a distress as people earlier.
Everybody suffered from the great depression. Also that time was full of racial prejudices. One of my first memories is that as a 4 year old kid would stand in line for rice, canned food, Oatmeal flour and sugar rations. Since the economy had been destroyed whites too had to stand in a queue but they always stood ahead. Blacks received what remained. Blacks were not allowed to have dinner at the same restaurant as whites or to drink from the same draw-well.
Already during childhood it was obvious to me that whites have more rights. For example, if a white lady went along the street we had to leave the sidewalk and quietly stand waiting while she passed. Only after that we could go further. Fortunately for me we did not live in the rich quarter of our city so I needed to participate in this nonsense not too frequently.
I am grateful to my parents that despite all the inconveniences they have undergone they always warned me of racism. When many years later I was the manager at my children I intentionally booked performances in places where both white and black lived. So from the very beginning they had fans of all races and later it has added to their popularity. However in the days of my youth for the black artists it was absolutely impossible to perform to a mixed audience.
I owe a lot to my father he was for me a great example. Samuel was a very hard-working man and he became director of the high school. Mostly he went in a suit with a tie and drove a new "Ford". I have been amazed that he bought himself a new car when he needed to feed a big family but I was proud of him because we then were unique blacks in our city who had such a car. It was class.
Also I admired my father because he constructed our house by himself. The plan was thought out carefully so that it was possible to easily make an extension if when it became necessary for more space. When our family became bigger he simply attached one more room. For this purpose he brought down trees cut with an axe and put long beams on the ground in a square. Then he connected them with each other and on it constructed a floor. I then was still very small, it was difficult for me climb through them, I sat down on these beams from above and skipped on them, as on a horse. As well as many people at that time my parents planted vegetables in the garden.
The daddy could see on phases of the Moon when it is necessary to sow and he borrowed a horse to pull a plough. When I was about 8 I tried to help him but was not strong enough to force a horse to keep the furrows. We willingly worked in the garden and laughed and joked during the teamwork. We had so much peas, string beans, corn, potatoes, peanuts, melons and other vegetables that we never bought any from the shop.
When we were small our father frequently sang to us every possible song, I remember, for example, "Swing low, sweet chariot". He had such a beautiful high voice he sang in the church choir. Samuel constantly sang or whistled and we liked to listen to him: his songs told about life and when he sang something sad tears came on his cheeks. I have learned to sing because I listened to the father.
My father, who I called Pops, was very friendly and smiled a lot, also he could fix anything you like. His other good feature was he always finished any business. From my father I learned to never surrender and I constantly encouraged my children to finish their work. Dad took care that we had enough to eat no matter how hard the times were. My force comes from him. He used to say: "Joe, no matter what you have to do, do it as well as possible". He believed that only that way is it possible to find peace of mind and all my I life took this advice seriously.
We then lived 1.5 miles away from a small town, Durmott, about 100 miles to the south from Little Rock. Houses there were painted and over time had decayed. There were few shops: grocery, shop of clothes and the hairdresser. Also a mail depot and a big prison. In total Durmott could count no more than 1000 inhabitants and everyone knew all about the neighbours.
The most exciting days were Friday and Saturday when in the evenings people went out to the city. Our neighbours partied, drank wine and whisky, ate fried fish and music was so loud that it was audible in the next quarter. At restaurants they played music from Juke Boxes and people danced. As soon as the men got drunk fights over any woman began. However black should remain in their part of city, blacks and whites could not party together. My father didn't drink ever. If he went out to the city to have a good time he always took mum with him. She liked very much to go to dance somewhere but more often she remained at home and cooked so my father was fed when he came from work.
My parents had to work hard but still we didn't have enough money. We loved each other and that was the most important. Just as Nero loved his family, Samuel loved us. He told to me that in the days of his youth they were treated so bad on the plantation that their only pleasure was time which they could spend together as family in the morning and in the evening before and after the work. The deprivations that he went through in his childhood have led to him very much valuing the family life and this was transferred to me.
My cousins’ grandmother Verna lived in Durmott only 50 meters away from us. When we arranged washing I went with buckets to her pump and filled them and poured them out in a huge iron tank. When it was filled I made a fire under it and she added soap. She boiled our linen in alkaline until it was clean then she pulled it out with a stick and rinsed in a bath. We had 3 linen cords on which all of us hung it out. One of pleasures of my childhood was the fresh smell of the clean linen dried by the sun.
Another pleasure was breakfast. Every morning mum milked our cow and baked rolls, Verna held pigs and always hung the ham and bacon in our small smoking shed in the garden. We slaughtered animals and that meat was much more tasty than everything that it is possible to buy today. We used to go to visit the city to keep abreast of the latest news as we did not need to buy anything since we made everything ourselves.
My great grandma was known in all the town as "Ms. Verna Brown". When I was born she was already elderly, she was hard-working and loved the life on the farm. Also she loved her trees: nuts, plums and peaches. Verna had geese, ducks and hens. When she wanted to fatten a chicken she caught it and locked it in a small narrow shelter and fed it only with corn. It took 3 weeks then she slaughtered the bird.
Back then there were no refrigerators, the seller of ice went along the street and shouted: "Ice! Ice!". The climate was hot and damp and many people had on their veranda a special chest for ice. Verna had it especially big and she filled it with approximately 50 pounds of ice to keep her products. For breakfast she usually prepared fried eggs with ham and bacon, sometimes porridge. Her pasties were the best, Verna was an excellent cook and her meals made me strong. She also taught me to be polite and to stay away of problems. I never saw her drink anything stronger than lemonade so because of my father and Verna giving me a good example and because of our religion I never drank alcohol and I have transferred this to my children. I am proud that none of them does drink.
Verna had three sons: Sylvester, Timothy, (we called him T.W), and Tommy the youngest. T.W was similar to me and my Dad, he laughed like dad and was as friendly as him. Sometimes he even talked like dad and he cared for his family like my father did.
Verna deeply believed in God and has imparted to us her moral values. At her presence it was forbidden for us to swear and always we should pray before a meal. The playing of cards was considered the same sin as alcohol. I always had to accompany her when she went to Sunday school to study the Bible or to church. At the door I heard the choir sing the traditional black church hymn, "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home ... ". If Verna did not hold my hand very strongly I ran away from there at the first opportunity because I was frightened by how some people prayed. Women jumped, dropped on benches and asked others to brush them away as though they had an attack. They told me that they had the sacred spirit on them the sacred spirit had came down on them but I thought they simply pretended. It is possible to study the Bible and to listen to the preacher and to not behave so. It was not clear for me why these women shouted and rushed on a floor, I did not think that it was necessary to do so to be religious. I wouldn't do that in any case and Verna did not do it either.
Sunday service was always the same. The preacher spoke something and the crowd answered, "Amen, Amen". The more they repeated "Amen", the more excited they became. The preacher paced here and there before an altar while briskly gesticulating. I glanced at Verna and saw that she was crying; fortunately, she reacted to the sermon more internally than externally and not so frantically as people around her. I could not wait until we left the church. Not that that I was there reluctantly but the shouts of these people frightened me. When the choir sang the last hymn I sighed with relief. It was not pleasant for me that people had to keep each other from writhing in spasms and from wounding themselves and others. After the end of the service women were crying as they went to the door. It looked like the ending of Jackson 5 concert. I stand offstage and I see how girls in the forefront cry and faint and they are being taken away. These women in church looked the same. Of course after the service the young priest shook hands with everyone and said good-bye. Every Sunday numerous women invited him to a dinner and he would choose with whom he would have dinner. Almost all our priests were nice young men and always it seemed to me that they stood at the church door only to wait until somebody had invited them.
Except for the hours spent in church life was not so rich with events. A river "Big Bayou" proceeded around our house. From one riverside to another a bridge had been built. One evening I stood there and found a gipsy camp on the other riverside.
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:23 pm
School Years
The first school that I attended was Durmott High, a mix from initial to the high school. If there was rain the road there was rather tiring because the viscous dirt reached up to ankles. Cars too could not ride on this street, they immediately got stuck. But at a dry weather this road was rather pleasant.
In grades 1 and 2 I had not good reports, probably the thing was that I unwillingly went to school. My teacher was so strict that I started to shiver if she called my name, if I had to go to the blackboard I froze with fear. "Joe, tell me what are these numbers" she told to me and although I knew the answer I could not make words. She had something like a small oar with little holes and if she beat someone with it the skin got in the holes and it was more painful from it. Other pupils too were afraid of this teacher but I think nobody was afraid so strongly as me. I never loved her and cried secretly if she carped at me that I can't write anything on the blackboard. Once the teacher wanted to find out how much talent her pupils had. Some of my schoolmates brought their paintings, others read verses and fragments from plays. When everybody finished she looked at me and has asked what am I able to do. All have instantly turned heads to look at me. The only thing that I could was sing, we sang with our dad did all time, so I stepped forward and started singing. I was so scared that I sang all faster and faster so I could stop and sit down again. When I was in the middle of the song all the class started to laugh loudly. Shamed, I have stopped and returned to my place. "Joe, you actually sang this song very well, the other children laughed only because you were so nervous", my teacher told me. It was clear to her that my schoolmates sneered at me because I shivered so much. I felt awful but after that humiliating incident I swore to get myself in show business, "I will show all of them", I decided. At this moment my dream also was born, I wanted to write songs and to sing or may be become an actor.
A couple of years after me my parents had second child, my sister Verna Mae, my 3 brothers Lawrence, Luther and Timothy and sister Lula were born later. Verna Mae was very lovely girl, she was very kind to everybody. In my days children obeyed the parents and if they didn't they were punished with a belt. Children had to do the duties assigned to them by parents and that's how it was accepted in our house. Verna Mae was a real little housewife, she cooked porridge and fried eggs for our breakfast and kept the house in faultless cleanliness. When in the evening after the heavy working day Mum came back home the beds had been made and Verna Mae had cleaned all the rooms and had wiped the dust from everywhere. She was a good assistant to Mum and they were very close.
It was the same with my daughter LaToya, she constantly was near to Katherine, and Rebbie my older daughter is also a very good housewife. Jermaine irons his things by himself, even T-shirts and at Jackie's house there's an ideal order. All of us are accustomed to keeping our cars in such cleanliness as if they just were washed.
Verna Mae willingly helped the neighbours, she looked after many children of our neighbours and everyone knew how clever she was. In the past people still paid attention to neighbour's children not like today when life, especially in big cities, becomes more and more featureless. Verna Mae cared as a mother for my younger brother, Lawrence. At 7 years she looked after her two younger brothers, she read to them in the light of an oil lamp. I liked to look at how her big brown eyes and pretty round face gleamed from the lamp with gold and red.
Than Verna Mae got sick, when they gave her a spoon she was too weak to hold it. For two months doctors constantly examined her but eventually she could not move, only look at us. She could speak very little and one evening I heard her telling mum, "Everything will be ok. Everything is all right with me". After that she died. Mum and I sobbed our eyes out to ourselves. Later we found out that she had something like a paralysis but nobody could tell my parents the true diagnosis. With sadness and solemnest we went behind a vehicle on which there was a coffin. It was very silent, you only could hear the knock of the mules hoofs and the scratch of rusty wheels and quiet crying. Father had helped the priest to commit the coffin to the ground then three elderly men came out and threw earth on it. I looked at the grave and hated it. Me and my sister were close and I missed her very much. All this had happened so suddenly. Now there were only four of us children. Mum worked and Pops was at school. Since I was the grown-up mum taught me to cook, wash and iron. Every morning we washed ourselves and brushed our teeth. Mum waited for us in the kitchen so that before school she could give us our medicine, the spoon had the sickening taste of cod-liver oil. It was an old custom she always asserted would prevent us from cold.
Pops taught in a small town so far away that he would come home only at the weekend. I was awfully glad to see him every time and he always pulled out something for us from his pocket, a delicacy or a toy.
Sometimes in the evening mum collected fruit and I helped her to wash the jars for making conserves. Another day she would fry meat while I and my brothers fished in the small river before our house. We abandoned our fishing tackle if the fish did not bite and stirred up the water with sticks until it became so muddy from ooze that the fish could no longer breathe. Then we should simply collect them when, choking, they rose to the surface. Usually it meant that water snakes rose too therefore we had to be cautious. Anyway we always caught enough fish. Also a railway passed, the train went from Louisiana through Lake Village to Little Rock. If our clocks stopped we could tell the time because the passenger train always whistled when it passed near our house. I never found out whether the driver of the locomotive whistled because he passed by our house or because he wanted to inform about the arrival to the city. Once when I walked on the rails over the bridge through Bayu I suddenly heard loud whistling, I turned back and saw that the fast train was coming at me. There was no time to run across to the other side and I could not jump in the river as it was full of poisonous snakes, besides the jump from such a height was dangerous. Then I slid downwards between the cross ties and seized them with both hands, all my body was shaking, while the train rushed over me. I could hardly hold on. It was not a movie where below there would be a safety net and I had not been trained for stunts like Clint Eastwood, but I managed to hang on because my life depended on it. I was extremely happy that I lived through it. I of course never told my parents about this adventure, I did not want to worry them. This was characteristic of me, for many years I did not share my experiences with anybody. Jermaine in this way is the same as me, probably it sharpened our wits.
On weekends Mum took me, Lawrence, Verna Mae and little Luther by train to our grandmother and although she lived only in 50 miles from us the trip took the whole day.
When I was 8, Pops was offered a more highly paid place as a teacher on a plantation in Gum Ridge. In his contract was that we also should raise vegetables and a cotton. The new house was only 8 miles away but it seemed to me that we are moving to the end of the world. At first I did not want to go to this house at all because the rooms were located one by one and seemed to me too small. If you faced the entrance door it was possible to examine all of the house at once.
This place was made even more terrible by the dense wood that was right behind the house, through which I had go to school. Since I was very afraid to go 5 miles on the deserted road father bought a horse whom he has named Prince. I used the best efforts to accustom Prince to the wood road but he did not want to so I put him back to pasture and walked. The further I went into the woods the more frightening it became to me. Around of me something rustled in the thickets, I heard strange sounds. First I stopped and then I ran and did not stop until I got out of the woods. I didn't even notice that my hands bled because prickly bushes had scratched them. Hardly breathing I approached the school, I couldn't breath properly for a long time so I was extremely late. On tiptoes I approached the back door, silently opened it and crept inside. I had almost reached the place when I heard the voice of the teacher,
“Joe Jackson, Are you late?” she has asked.
“Yes, Mam” I answered hasty and then, to my shame, I had to explain the reason for the delay before all the class. It was so unpleasant that I decided to not be late any more. When the school day had ended I had to walk this awful road again and it was already 4 o'clock and it had started to get dark. I counted to ten and ran. I ran all through this awful wood that as far as I knew was full of wild animals. When I got to our house I fell in. This dreadful day made me determined to learn to ride the horse and soon I went on Prince to school. I tied his bridle to a tree by the school building but despite this he managed to release himself on the first day and escaped home. Furious, I went home on foot through this damn wood. Prince was a horse of habit.
Once Pops harnessed him to our old cart and we went to the wood and Pops cut down a big fir tree which we then sawed up for fire wood. We loaded the logs on the cart and sat down on top. “Gee-up!” Pops ordered and shook the bridle, Prince only slightly turned his head, Pops hit him with the end of bridle from behind but Prince would not move on a centimetre. Pops jumped off the cart and collected some dry leaves then put them on the back of the horse and set them on fire. Prince turned his head and looked at the smoke and then he unexpectedly jumped so my father hardly had time to move aside and as fast as a rocket he ran away. Pops seized the bridle but Prince did not allow Pops to constrain him any more and when we arrived home most of the firewood has fallen off the cart. Prince's burns stayed on his back for long time.
When I was ten I joined a school soccer team. We did not have body stockings and helmet or play in the usual clothes. I was fast but when they threw the ball to me it always slipped through my hands and hit my chest which was painful so consequently I started to play basketball instead of football.
When I was in fifth grade we moved back to our house in Durmott and I at once noticed that my childhood friends in the neighborhood had changed, they too had grown. In my class there was a guy who was jealous of me because all the prettiest girls made eyes at me. He was called Samuel Washington, and before my arrival he was the most popular. It was completely unacceptable to him that I drew general attention to myself. Samuel was faster and stronger than me and once after school he beat me up. I tried to protect myself but I didn't stand a chance. When I got home my mouth was bleeding and my eye was cut and my nose was broken. Mum was furious when she saw me and I thought that she would punish me and that would be the last straw but she only told me, "Joe, never allow to nobody to scuff you. You're a Jackson and nobody dare to beat Jacksons!". Her reaction calmed me, all night long I laid and thought of her words. Like a trainer she gave me courage to go to school and to act against Samuel. She was right. If I don't protect myself he will beat me again and again. I rose early in the morning and put a long stick with my pocket knife. At school Samuel all time looked at me as though he wanted to jump at me again. The bell rung out and I went to exit but we had hardly left when he attacked me again. I protected myself by the pointed stick and it cut through Samuel's right cheek and come out from another side. He immediately he stopped fighting, his face was cut through. He tried to pull out the stick and when at he failed he started to scream as I never heard in my life and he ran home.
When I got back home I immediately told my mum what had happened. "You should not attack him with such a sharp stick" she said. She immediately thought that I will would be in trouble and was certain that Samuel's parents would come to school.
Next day the teacher has called me up and I thought she wants to beat me again with her stupid oar but she was quiet and instead sent me with a note to her friend who taught in the other class. With a feeling of relief I took to him the note and then he took out of a case a much bigger oar and beat me up in front of all his class so bad that my white shirt was stained red and blood formed a puddle on the floor. The children sat still as statues in their places.
When mum saw my shirt which was wet with blood and covered the wounds on my back she went to school and threatened to cause such a scandal that the teacher who beat me shyly apologized in front of her. He thought that I was the bad guy and wanted to teach me a lesson but my parents knew that I was only protecting myself. A director’s meeting had been called and they wanted to expel me from school but my parents explained the situation.
After that Samuel and I became friends and I did not need to be afraid of him, we are friends still today. Girls praised me to the skies because I was had protection from the strongest guy in class, and nobody attacked me anymore.
The first school that I attended was Durmott High, a mix from initial to the high school. If there was rain the road there was rather tiring because the viscous dirt reached up to ankles. Cars too could not ride on this street, they immediately got stuck. But at a dry weather this road was rather pleasant.
In grades 1 and 2 I had not good reports, probably the thing was that I unwillingly went to school. My teacher was so strict that I started to shiver if she called my name, if I had to go to the blackboard I froze with fear. "Joe, tell me what are these numbers" she told to me and although I knew the answer I could not make words. She had something like a small oar with little holes and if she beat someone with it the skin got in the holes and it was more painful from it. Other pupils too were afraid of this teacher but I think nobody was afraid so strongly as me. I never loved her and cried secretly if she carped at me that I can't write anything on the blackboard. Once the teacher wanted to find out how much talent her pupils had. Some of my schoolmates brought their paintings, others read verses and fragments from plays. When everybody finished she looked at me and has asked what am I able to do. All have instantly turned heads to look at me. The only thing that I could was sing, we sang with our dad did all time, so I stepped forward and started singing. I was so scared that I sang all faster and faster so I could stop and sit down again. When I was in the middle of the song all the class started to laugh loudly. Shamed, I have stopped and returned to my place. "Joe, you actually sang this song very well, the other children laughed only because you were so nervous", my teacher told me. It was clear to her that my schoolmates sneered at me because I shivered so much. I felt awful but after that humiliating incident I swore to get myself in show business, "I will show all of them", I decided. At this moment my dream also was born, I wanted to write songs and to sing or may be become an actor.
A couple of years after me my parents had second child, my sister Verna Mae, my 3 brothers Lawrence, Luther and Timothy and sister Lula were born later. Verna Mae was very lovely girl, she was very kind to everybody. In my days children obeyed the parents and if they didn't they were punished with a belt. Children had to do the duties assigned to them by parents and that's how it was accepted in our house. Verna Mae was a real little housewife, she cooked porridge and fried eggs for our breakfast and kept the house in faultless cleanliness. When in the evening after the heavy working day Mum came back home the beds had been made and Verna Mae had cleaned all the rooms and had wiped the dust from everywhere. She was a good assistant to Mum and they were very close.
It was the same with my daughter LaToya, she constantly was near to Katherine, and Rebbie my older daughter is also a very good housewife. Jermaine irons his things by himself, even T-shirts and at Jackie's house there's an ideal order. All of us are accustomed to keeping our cars in such cleanliness as if they just were washed.
Verna Mae willingly helped the neighbours, she looked after many children of our neighbours and everyone knew how clever she was. In the past people still paid attention to neighbour's children not like today when life, especially in big cities, becomes more and more featureless. Verna Mae cared as a mother for my younger brother, Lawrence. At 7 years she looked after her two younger brothers, she read to them in the light of an oil lamp. I liked to look at how her big brown eyes and pretty round face gleamed from the lamp with gold and red.
Than Verna Mae got sick, when they gave her a spoon she was too weak to hold it. For two months doctors constantly examined her but eventually she could not move, only look at us. She could speak very little and one evening I heard her telling mum, "Everything will be ok. Everything is all right with me". After that she died. Mum and I sobbed our eyes out to ourselves. Later we found out that she had something like a paralysis but nobody could tell my parents the true diagnosis. With sadness and solemnest we went behind a vehicle on which there was a coffin. It was very silent, you only could hear the knock of the mules hoofs and the scratch of rusty wheels and quiet crying. Father had helped the priest to commit the coffin to the ground then three elderly men came out and threw earth on it. I looked at the grave and hated it. Me and my sister were close and I missed her very much. All this had happened so suddenly. Now there were only four of us children. Mum worked and Pops was at school. Since I was the grown-up mum taught me to cook, wash and iron. Every morning we washed ourselves and brushed our teeth. Mum waited for us in the kitchen so that before school she could give us our medicine, the spoon had the sickening taste of cod-liver oil. It was an old custom she always asserted would prevent us from cold.
Pops taught in a small town so far away that he would come home only at the weekend. I was awfully glad to see him every time and he always pulled out something for us from his pocket, a delicacy or a toy.
Sometimes in the evening mum collected fruit and I helped her to wash the jars for making conserves. Another day she would fry meat while I and my brothers fished in the small river before our house. We abandoned our fishing tackle if the fish did not bite and stirred up the water with sticks until it became so muddy from ooze that the fish could no longer breathe. Then we should simply collect them when, choking, they rose to the surface. Usually it meant that water snakes rose too therefore we had to be cautious. Anyway we always caught enough fish. Also a railway passed, the train went from Louisiana through Lake Village to Little Rock. If our clocks stopped we could tell the time because the passenger train always whistled when it passed near our house. I never found out whether the driver of the locomotive whistled because he passed by our house or because he wanted to inform about the arrival to the city. Once when I walked on the rails over the bridge through Bayu I suddenly heard loud whistling, I turned back and saw that the fast train was coming at me. There was no time to run across to the other side and I could not jump in the river as it was full of poisonous snakes, besides the jump from such a height was dangerous. Then I slid downwards between the cross ties and seized them with both hands, all my body was shaking, while the train rushed over me. I could hardly hold on. It was not a movie where below there would be a safety net and I had not been trained for stunts like Clint Eastwood, but I managed to hang on because my life depended on it. I was extremely happy that I lived through it. I of course never told my parents about this adventure, I did not want to worry them. This was characteristic of me, for many years I did not share my experiences with anybody. Jermaine in this way is the same as me, probably it sharpened our wits.
On weekends Mum took me, Lawrence, Verna Mae and little Luther by train to our grandmother and although she lived only in 50 miles from us the trip took the whole day.
When I was 8, Pops was offered a more highly paid place as a teacher on a plantation in Gum Ridge. In his contract was that we also should raise vegetables and a cotton. The new house was only 8 miles away but it seemed to me that we are moving to the end of the world. At first I did not want to go to this house at all because the rooms were located one by one and seemed to me too small. If you faced the entrance door it was possible to examine all of the house at once.
This place was made even more terrible by the dense wood that was right behind the house, through which I had go to school. Since I was very afraid to go 5 miles on the deserted road father bought a horse whom he has named Prince. I used the best efforts to accustom Prince to the wood road but he did not want to so I put him back to pasture and walked. The further I went into the woods the more frightening it became to me. Around of me something rustled in the thickets, I heard strange sounds. First I stopped and then I ran and did not stop until I got out of the woods. I didn't even notice that my hands bled because prickly bushes had scratched them. Hardly breathing I approached the school, I couldn't breath properly for a long time so I was extremely late. On tiptoes I approached the back door, silently opened it and crept inside. I had almost reached the place when I heard the voice of the teacher,
“Joe Jackson, Are you late?” she has asked.
“Yes, Mam” I answered hasty and then, to my shame, I had to explain the reason for the delay before all the class. It was so unpleasant that I decided to not be late any more. When the school day had ended I had to walk this awful road again and it was already 4 o'clock and it had started to get dark. I counted to ten and ran. I ran all through this awful wood that as far as I knew was full of wild animals. When I got to our house I fell in. This dreadful day made me determined to learn to ride the horse and soon I went on Prince to school. I tied his bridle to a tree by the school building but despite this he managed to release himself on the first day and escaped home. Furious, I went home on foot through this damn wood. Prince was a horse of habit.
Once Pops harnessed him to our old cart and we went to the wood and Pops cut down a big fir tree which we then sawed up for fire wood. We loaded the logs on the cart and sat down on top. “Gee-up!” Pops ordered and shook the bridle, Prince only slightly turned his head, Pops hit him with the end of bridle from behind but Prince would not move on a centimetre. Pops jumped off the cart and collected some dry leaves then put them on the back of the horse and set them on fire. Prince turned his head and looked at the smoke and then he unexpectedly jumped so my father hardly had time to move aside and as fast as a rocket he ran away. Pops seized the bridle but Prince did not allow Pops to constrain him any more and when we arrived home most of the firewood has fallen off the cart. Prince's burns stayed on his back for long time.
When I was ten I joined a school soccer team. We did not have body stockings and helmet or play in the usual clothes. I was fast but when they threw the ball to me it always slipped through my hands and hit my chest which was painful so consequently I started to play basketball instead of football.
When I was in fifth grade we moved back to our house in Durmott and I at once noticed that my childhood friends in the neighborhood had changed, they too had grown. In my class there was a guy who was jealous of me because all the prettiest girls made eyes at me. He was called Samuel Washington, and before my arrival he was the most popular. It was completely unacceptable to him that I drew general attention to myself. Samuel was faster and stronger than me and once after school he beat me up. I tried to protect myself but I didn't stand a chance. When I got home my mouth was bleeding and my eye was cut and my nose was broken. Mum was furious when she saw me and I thought that she would punish me and that would be the last straw but she only told me, "Joe, never allow to nobody to scuff you. You're a Jackson and nobody dare to beat Jacksons!". Her reaction calmed me, all night long I laid and thought of her words. Like a trainer she gave me courage to go to school and to act against Samuel. She was right. If I don't protect myself he will beat me again and again. I rose early in the morning and put a long stick with my pocket knife. At school Samuel all time looked at me as though he wanted to jump at me again. The bell rung out and I went to exit but we had hardly left when he attacked me again. I protected myself by the pointed stick and it cut through Samuel's right cheek and come out from another side. He immediately he stopped fighting, his face was cut through. He tried to pull out the stick and when at he failed he started to scream as I never heard in my life and he ran home.
When I got back home I immediately told my mum what had happened. "You should not attack him with such a sharp stick" she said. She immediately thought that I will would be in trouble and was certain that Samuel's parents would come to school.
Next day the teacher has called me up and I thought she wants to beat me again with her stupid oar but she was quiet and instead sent me with a note to her friend who taught in the other class. With a feeling of relief I took to him the note and then he took out of a case a much bigger oar and beat me up in front of all his class so bad that my white shirt was stained red and blood formed a puddle on the floor. The children sat still as statues in their places.
When mum saw my shirt which was wet with blood and covered the wounds on my back she went to school and threatened to cause such a scandal that the teacher who beat me shyly apologized in front of her. He thought that I was the bad guy and wanted to teach me a lesson but my parents knew that I was only protecting myself. A director’s meeting had been called and they wanted to expel me from school but my parents explained the situation.
After that Samuel and I became friends and I did not need to be afraid of him, we are friends still today. Girls praised me to the skies because I was had protection from the strongest guy in class, and nobody attacked me anymore.
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:24 pm
Changes
I was in 6th grade when we had to move into a bigger city. My parents did not understand each other as well as before. Father wasn't home for weeks because he had to teach in some other place and during this time my mother had an affair with a military man. After 11 years of marriage my parents divorced. Unexpected news, that my mother had married again and moved to Pine Bluff, took my father unawares. He quit his job and sold Prince so he could give us money for the trip. He then left for Oakland by the first train because he found out that there was work in the shipyard. When my tears had dried up, I wrote to him as often as I could and from time to time he answered me.
Back then Pain Bluff seemed wonderful to me (probably because I'd never left Arkansas). Streets were asphalted, and there were more cars. Also here, there were good schools and colleges, that's why there were a lot of youths in the city.
My mum loved her new husband very strongly, and his army grade made a big impression on me. Our stepfather treated us very well but for me to live with him was not the same as to live with my father. I probably was the only one who felt like that.
One evening about 11 o'clock when I had just gone to bed, someone knocked at the door. "Joe" someone whispered. I got up and looked outside and there was my father. I have cried: "Pops has arrived from California!!".
Next day he met mum and spoke with her for very long time. Apparently she missed him more than she had thought, in fact she as agreed to collect her things and return to him. Before father left he gave us enough money for all of us to go to Oakland together with mum.
Soon after that my 3 brothers, sister and I got on the train with mum. Through the window I noticed cable columns carried away near us. "We really leave here!" I have told myself silently.
The meal during the trip was strange. I was used to eating what we grew ourselves. What they gave on the train I didn't really like but I was so happy that I didn't care. My brothers and Lula were happy too that they were going to see father but not as much as me, they were younger and hadn’t spent time with him as much as I had.
At last we arrived in Los Angeles and for some reason mum did not want to go further so we got on the next train that was going back and I cried all 3 days while we travelled. When we again were in Pine Bluff I explained everything to my father in a letter and Pops answered that he would take me away. I remember well that in each of his letters he stated: "I will be there soon".
About 3 months later I heard a knock on my window and nothing could make me happier. I told mother that I had to go with the father to Oakland and tried to persuade her to let the brothers and the sister leave with me but she did not want to hear anything about it. Nevertheless she could not keep me, I was already 13 then so I left with my father.
I really liked Oakland, early every morning Pops got up and prepared breakfast for us before he left for work. After a while I wrote to mother and persuaded her to visit with my brothers and sister. As they got off of the train tears of pleasure formed in my eyes. Father too was so delighted he started to sing.
My sister Lula was mollycoddled, after the death of Verna Mae she was the only girl and my mother spoilt her. Each morning when we were ready to go to school Lula still slept. We woke her but we’d hardly left the room before she fell asleep again. This called for desperate measures so we filled a zinc bucket with ice cold water and poured it over her head. She jumped out of the bed screaming. However, the funniest thing was that although Lula could not get out of bed in the morning, at school was the cleverest.
After mum had lived with us for about a year she again left, this time to Gary, Indiana. The other children accompanied her but I remained with my father in the house near to a gulf. From the bay window you could see the sea, on one side was the port, on the other was a shipyard. The ships sailed with soldiers going to fight in the second world war. I always read the names written on their grey boards and admired the soldiers dressed in beautiful uniforms. In some months they came back covered with wounds and exhausted and I observed with pity how they got down from the ship leaning against each other.
After two years passed I found friends at Prescott School. My mum wrote me letters and frequently called. She missed me very much. There was not much free time, I almost spent each weekend finding work. I carried newspapers and was the messenger in grocery shop, as a result I earned so much that I could buy bicycle spare parts and make myself a bicycle (I couldn't afford a new bicycle).
Working after school helped me not get into trouble. Boys of my age considered it glamorous to be in a gang. By the way you wore your jacket they could see which gang you belong to. The strongest gang in Oakland was "Harbor Home" gang. They did not like me because I wouldn’t join them. One night they threw a brick at my window and broke the glass, I woke up just in time to evade the shattered glass.
"The gang!" - I whispered.
But I remembered my mum's advice - not to let anyone terrorize me. Next day after school I went to the place where this gang usually hung out and called their leader and I beat him up. Another dude tried to mess with me and he didn’t have any luck either, I knocked him down. They attacked me one after another but I managed to beat them all. Now they would think before they threw stones at my window as they knew what reputation I had in Indiana. Well, they had to feel it on their own skin. After that they said: "If you argue with Joe Jackson, he'll beat you up”. After the fight with the gang I decided to improve my fight technique because I had to support my reputation. Our house seemed to me a suitable place for training. Unfortunately doors were made from strong oak so no matter how much I kicked them there were no signs apart from that I got calluses on knuckles; I learned to hold my index finger and wrist so I could kick as quick and strong as possible. Once I really punched a hole in the door but I almost broke my hand. When father come home from the shipyard he told me that I must not dare to break his doors. Then I changed tactics and called any potential contender in district, no matter how senior and bigger he was. The method was very simple: if the contender still could stand up after I hit him with the right hand, I hit him again, using the whole weight of my shoulder. If after that he did not fall, than he still had to try to catch me …
When summer break began I again searched for work for myself. I found out that 100 miles to the south there was a need for youth to collect cotton and vegetables. Without thinking twice I went with my school friends to Bakerfield, I had left home for the first time. Mexicans, blacks and Japanese worked together in the fields. We lived in huts and teamwork in heavy conditions united us. Especially it was pleasant to me because some young Mexican girls were very beautiful and after some time I have received some invitations to visit them on weekends.
When we collected the cotton, it is heavy, exhausting work, they paid us for weight. All workers started simultaneously but when after a few minutes I looked back the others were far behind except one Mexican who all the time outstripped me. He cleaned off two lines of cotton while I managed only one line and he collected up to 600 pounds a day. I worked as quickly as I could, but my best result was 300 pounds. Others collected no more than 200 pounds which is a lot too.(Later Tina Turner told journalists that she collected 60 pounds a dayo, and that she considered spiders and the worms living on the plants disgusting). My father secretly looked after me, he called my chief all the time to ask about me so he knew for sure that I was a good collector of a cotton.
When we came back from the fields in the evening tired and sweaty we first went to the shower, this building was away from the huts. Man's showers were on one side, women's on another. Once in the evening me and 4 more guys made our way there and sat above the female showers on the ceiling beams. From there we watched how young girls got undressed and took a shower. They giggled, teased each other and behaved so funny that I burst out laughing and lost balance. I fell down from my beam directly on the girls and they beat me with the wet towels all the time while I was there and laughed at me. I was ashamed of what I did but I was young and it was so much fun! Nevertheless I decided not to do such things anymore.
Once we went to the river to swim for a while. My friends balanced on a tree trunk which was put through a small crevice. I went the last. All the others were already over and at the other side waiting for me. Involuntarily I glanced down and at this moment the tree turned over and I fell into a black hole, all around I heard rattlesnakes, there were so many of them that they sounded like singing! All I could do was pray!
Fortunately I got out from there alive and healthy but when I have got out I was scratched and peeled and my friends had to pull out all these thorns and splinters from my skin. Though I was still a teenager I had feeling that I have nine lives like a cat and five of them I had already used. After that small incident we went to the huts by another road.
I loved this part of California with its hilly landscape where the yellow and orange poppy blossomed and smelled of wild sage. Today California is far from being so beautiful as fifty years ago because of environmental pollution. This is another reason why I am so proud of Michael: he does so much to protect nature and the environment. He protests against all kinds of pollution, endows big sums of money for protection of the environment and does all he can to prevent destruction of the world.
Time on the farm very quickly and I had to go back to Oakland because school has began again. While away I also earned my pocket money so I could buy school books and from time to time jeans or a shirt. Also I saved so much money that I could visit mother.
I was in 6th grade when we had to move into a bigger city. My parents did not understand each other as well as before. Father wasn't home for weeks because he had to teach in some other place and during this time my mother had an affair with a military man. After 11 years of marriage my parents divorced. Unexpected news, that my mother had married again and moved to Pine Bluff, took my father unawares. He quit his job and sold Prince so he could give us money for the trip. He then left for Oakland by the first train because he found out that there was work in the shipyard. When my tears had dried up, I wrote to him as often as I could and from time to time he answered me.
Back then Pain Bluff seemed wonderful to me (probably because I'd never left Arkansas). Streets were asphalted, and there were more cars. Also here, there were good schools and colleges, that's why there were a lot of youths in the city.
My mum loved her new husband very strongly, and his army grade made a big impression on me. Our stepfather treated us very well but for me to live with him was not the same as to live with my father. I probably was the only one who felt like that.
One evening about 11 o'clock when I had just gone to bed, someone knocked at the door. "Joe" someone whispered. I got up and looked outside and there was my father. I have cried: "Pops has arrived from California!!".
Next day he met mum and spoke with her for very long time. Apparently she missed him more than she had thought, in fact she as agreed to collect her things and return to him. Before father left he gave us enough money for all of us to go to Oakland together with mum.
Soon after that my 3 brothers, sister and I got on the train with mum. Through the window I noticed cable columns carried away near us. "We really leave here!" I have told myself silently.
The meal during the trip was strange. I was used to eating what we grew ourselves. What they gave on the train I didn't really like but I was so happy that I didn't care. My brothers and Lula were happy too that they were going to see father but not as much as me, they were younger and hadn’t spent time with him as much as I had.
At last we arrived in Los Angeles and for some reason mum did not want to go further so we got on the next train that was going back and I cried all 3 days while we travelled. When we again were in Pine Bluff I explained everything to my father in a letter and Pops answered that he would take me away. I remember well that in each of his letters he stated: "I will be there soon".
About 3 months later I heard a knock on my window and nothing could make me happier. I told mother that I had to go with the father to Oakland and tried to persuade her to let the brothers and the sister leave with me but she did not want to hear anything about it. Nevertheless she could not keep me, I was already 13 then so I left with my father.
I really liked Oakland, early every morning Pops got up and prepared breakfast for us before he left for work. After a while I wrote to mother and persuaded her to visit with my brothers and sister. As they got off of the train tears of pleasure formed in my eyes. Father too was so delighted he started to sing.
My sister Lula was mollycoddled, after the death of Verna Mae she was the only girl and my mother spoilt her. Each morning when we were ready to go to school Lula still slept. We woke her but we’d hardly left the room before she fell asleep again. This called for desperate measures so we filled a zinc bucket with ice cold water and poured it over her head. She jumped out of the bed screaming. However, the funniest thing was that although Lula could not get out of bed in the morning, at school was the cleverest.
After mum had lived with us for about a year she again left, this time to Gary, Indiana. The other children accompanied her but I remained with my father in the house near to a gulf. From the bay window you could see the sea, on one side was the port, on the other was a shipyard. The ships sailed with soldiers going to fight in the second world war. I always read the names written on their grey boards and admired the soldiers dressed in beautiful uniforms. In some months they came back covered with wounds and exhausted and I observed with pity how they got down from the ship leaning against each other.
After two years passed I found friends at Prescott School. My mum wrote me letters and frequently called. She missed me very much. There was not much free time, I almost spent each weekend finding work. I carried newspapers and was the messenger in grocery shop, as a result I earned so much that I could buy bicycle spare parts and make myself a bicycle (I couldn't afford a new bicycle).
Working after school helped me not get into trouble. Boys of my age considered it glamorous to be in a gang. By the way you wore your jacket they could see which gang you belong to. The strongest gang in Oakland was "Harbor Home" gang. They did not like me because I wouldn’t join them. One night they threw a brick at my window and broke the glass, I woke up just in time to evade the shattered glass.
"The gang!" - I whispered.
But I remembered my mum's advice - not to let anyone terrorize me. Next day after school I went to the place where this gang usually hung out and called their leader and I beat him up. Another dude tried to mess with me and he didn’t have any luck either, I knocked him down. They attacked me one after another but I managed to beat them all. Now they would think before they threw stones at my window as they knew what reputation I had in Indiana. Well, they had to feel it on their own skin. After that they said: "If you argue with Joe Jackson, he'll beat you up”. After the fight with the gang I decided to improve my fight technique because I had to support my reputation. Our house seemed to me a suitable place for training. Unfortunately doors were made from strong oak so no matter how much I kicked them there were no signs apart from that I got calluses on knuckles; I learned to hold my index finger and wrist so I could kick as quick and strong as possible. Once I really punched a hole in the door but I almost broke my hand. When father come home from the shipyard he told me that I must not dare to break his doors. Then I changed tactics and called any potential contender in district, no matter how senior and bigger he was. The method was very simple: if the contender still could stand up after I hit him with the right hand, I hit him again, using the whole weight of my shoulder. If after that he did not fall, than he still had to try to catch me …
When summer break began I again searched for work for myself. I found out that 100 miles to the south there was a need for youth to collect cotton and vegetables. Without thinking twice I went with my school friends to Bakerfield, I had left home for the first time. Mexicans, blacks and Japanese worked together in the fields. We lived in huts and teamwork in heavy conditions united us. Especially it was pleasant to me because some young Mexican girls were very beautiful and after some time I have received some invitations to visit them on weekends.
When we collected the cotton, it is heavy, exhausting work, they paid us for weight. All workers started simultaneously but when after a few minutes I looked back the others were far behind except one Mexican who all the time outstripped me. He cleaned off two lines of cotton while I managed only one line and he collected up to 600 pounds a day. I worked as quickly as I could, but my best result was 300 pounds. Others collected no more than 200 pounds which is a lot too.(Later Tina Turner told journalists that she collected 60 pounds a dayo, and that she considered spiders and the worms living on the plants disgusting). My father secretly looked after me, he called my chief all the time to ask about me so he knew for sure that I was a good collector of a cotton.
When we came back from the fields in the evening tired and sweaty we first went to the shower, this building was away from the huts. Man's showers were on one side, women's on another. Once in the evening me and 4 more guys made our way there and sat above the female showers on the ceiling beams. From there we watched how young girls got undressed and took a shower. They giggled, teased each other and behaved so funny that I burst out laughing and lost balance. I fell down from my beam directly on the girls and they beat me with the wet towels all the time while I was there and laughed at me. I was ashamed of what I did but I was young and it was so much fun! Nevertheless I decided not to do such things anymore.
Once we went to the river to swim for a while. My friends balanced on a tree trunk which was put through a small crevice. I went the last. All the others were already over and at the other side waiting for me. Involuntarily I glanced down and at this moment the tree turned over and I fell into a black hole, all around I heard rattlesnakes, there were so many of them that they sounded like singing! All I could do was pray!
Fortunately I got out from there alive and healthy but when I have got out I was scratched and peeled and my friends had to pull out all these thorns and splinters from my skin. Though I was still a teenager I had feeling that I have nine lives like a cat and five of them I had already used. After that small incident we went to the huts by another road.
I loved this part of California with its hilly landscape where the yellow and orange poppy blossomed and smelled of wild sage. Today California is far from being so beautiful as fifty years ago because of environmental pollution. This is another reason why I am so proud of Michael: he does so much to protect nature and the environment. He protests against all kinds of pollution, endows big sums of money for protection of the environment and does all he can to prevent destruction of the world.
Time on the farm very quickly and I had to go back to Oakland because school has began again. While away I also earned my pocket money so I could buy school books and from time to time jeans or a shirt. Also I saved so much money that I could visit mother.
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:24 pm
Trip To Indiana
My mother constantly asked when would I visit her in Gary and I eventually collected money for the trip. I travelled on the bus on bumpy, narrow highways filled with hollows but I saw so much of interest on road. I will never forget how I saw Indians for the first time when the bus stopped on small refuelling station in the middle of desert near to the Grand Canyon.
Gary was not the way I expected. The city was dirty and small and I thought that it would be something grander because William Marshall, actor James Edwards and a pair of well-known boxers came from there. I'd thought I’d better get back on the bus and drive back home, then I was delighted when I saw that my aunt and mum came to meet me to the station.
”I am so glad to see you, Joe!”, mum cried and hugged me. She and aunt almost smothered me with the kisses but I tried not to show my embarrassment. Though I understood that she was happy and couldn’t contain her feelings, when went to catch a taxi I sighed with relief.
While we drove to the city I again thought how ugly it was and though I was glad to see mum I wanted to be back in Oakland again. At last we arrived at the settlement where my mum lived in the big house with her brother and family. When we arrived they all ran up to me, girls that obviously immediately liked me surrounded me giggling while guys kept more restraint and cautiously examined me.
Mum had prepared a small celebratory supper in my honour. Now it is named Soul food but then it was simply a barbecue with peas, vegetables, hot corn bread, my favourite pie and sweet potatoes. I ate so much I could hardly move. They all smiled at me when I rose from the table. Then we put music on and danced in honour of the holiday.
It was some time before the guys started to trust me but once everybody understood there wouldn’t be problems with me and I simply wanted to have a good time there. When I told them about schools where I studied or about my work on a farm in Bakerfild they listened to me with curiosity because many from them only knew work in a foundry so my life in California fascinated them.
With time I got used to Indiana and began to wonder how school would the be in autumn. As mum had not yet found her own house we lived with my uncle, aunt and their children. Then mum, I and my stepfather moved 10 miles away, closer to factories of East Chicago.
On a school break I always went to visit Pops by bus, I travelled all the time here and there between mother and father and tried to make them both happy. I seemed to myself a ping-pong ball.
I really wanted to achieve something in a life. Now work in the entertainment industry doesn't seem something special for a young black man but then was the time of silent movies and there were not many black actors. I constantly went to the cinema and watched all the new movies and dreamed Ihad a part in them. Someday I too will be on top I promised myself.
A little later I returned to Oakland where every Wednesday evening Pops drove me to boxing training. I liked to do this, it all seemed so real.
I decided to learn to box and started to attend a popular Boxing hall in our city. For hours I beat the punch bag and trained with a skipping rope to become faster, or my trainer ordered me to lie on my back and threw a stuffed ball on my stomach so it become stronger. Also he taught me to evade punches so it was impossible to knock me out. My trainer watched me closely as I trained with a punch bag until one day he approached me and said: “Joe, you are good enough now. Now you will go in the ring and we will watch what you gonna do there".
I considered that everything was all right, at least before the fight, but when I saw my contender for the first time I has complained “This guy too healthy”.
”You will be in a ring for only 2 rounds, besides there will be a helmet on you." He calmed me.
”Well all right,” I thought, “I'll try”. I was much smaller than him, but faster so I climbed through the ropes and went to the corner. My knees were shaking. This dude was similar to a wolf ready to attack me at any moment.
When the gong sounded I danced a pair of circles in the ring. The opponent tried to kick me but I evaded him. He again tried to hook at the left. I dived and thought to myself: “Well, it is not too bad”. I jumped up high and struck him with my left hand directly in the area of his heart. He tried to reach me with him right hand but I deviated and put four impacts successively directly above the line of his belt. He moaned.
While I punched his face he managed to cut me on my ear. I reeled deafened but the gong rescued me. Yes, he was a mean opponent. If you hit with great force the head almost flies away. To me my health was too important to allow myself serious damage.
”I will not go on the next round”, I told the trainer he stood below and looked from there at me.
”Joe, you cannot leave now. Common, finish him!", he ordered me.
The signal of the beginning of the following round sounded. I boxed as if I struggled with the whole gang and so strongly struck my contender on his chin that he shivered all over his body. And when I added a punch on the right he fell knocked down. The referee held a bottle under his nose and only after some seconds the guy could move his head and then a hand. When he bent a foot and a knee we understood, that he was all alright. I left the ring and when I went to the locker room all the public shouted: “Joe, you will become a great boxer!”
Since that moment it was indifferent to me how strong my opponent was. I trained daily to become better and watched so they wouldn’t break my jaw or nose. I willingly distributed punches but did not like when they beat me (Known boxers like George Forman, Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson are the same). I participated in many boxing competitions and won all of them, the majority with a knockout and few times with a kick in the eyes. I was determined to become a professional.
But then there was a fight which I will never forget. After four rounds both my eyes swelled and under one there was a laceration, my nose has been broken, from my mouth there was blood. My contender was much more skilled than me. Certainly I can stand for mysel, but I was not going to be reconciled with such wounds. I went to the trainer and shyly informed him that boxing is not exactly what I needed.
Probably, I could have become a champion but some of my friends died in the ring, others had serious problems with health and mentality. I never accepted invitations to fight anymore.
After about two years I returned to East Chicago. I was warmly met but not with the same joy as the first time. Sometimes I wrote to my father and after a while he visited. He stayed with us for a while then left for Arizona. I hated that my parents lived separately but could not do anything about it.
When I left school I first of all found work - it was necessary to earn for a life. I still dreamed of show business but at first I had to think how I am gonna achieve it. Despite my youth and that I was very thin I got a job on the railway. When the shift railway crosses ties it needs twenty strong men with heavy iron ticks. We worked all the day under the scorching sun pulling out the old cross ties and putting in new accompanied by the rhythmical knock of the hammers of two men hammering nails into cross ties.
We shifted about a mile of cross ties each day. I weighed 140 pounds but could not gain weight in any way because I sweated too much. I was all skin and bones. Sometimes my hammer broke from the handle and hit somebody on a head, I was lucky I didn't hurt myself. Now this work is done by machines.
Eventually my stepfather helped me to get a job in a factory and I learned to operate the crane. I worked a little on the crane and then I was offered a job in the foundry shop. There I all over again had the worst work: I worked as a pneumatic hammer in a blast furnace. Our chief told me that I should take a wooden stool and go to a furnace. They pulled out steel and cooled the furnace the whole day before few teams, of four men had to go inside.
We had to put on boots with a thick sole and move on massive wooden floors. It was impossible to stand on the floor in the furnace as it was heated until white hot. Our task was to clean the dirt and slag which had stuck on stone walls from the steel with a pneumatic hammer and scratch off the rest from the floor so it was possible to replace the broken stones.
It was hot as hell. Nobody could last in there longer than 10 minutes even if they were very tough. Weaker men had to leave at once. I went inside and put the stool which at once was ignited on a floor and stood on it. Then I lifted the hammer on a level of a belt and started to clean walls. When I left there, I was all black with soot. My eyes hurt as they were burnt when I removed the protective glasses and the mask. They gave us a drink but some fainted.
Then they promoted me and I had to work in a flue but it was not much easier. I had to get into a hole which lead through an underground tunnel until it reached the floor of a blast furnace. The tunnel was only three feet in diameter, exactly so it would be possible to get in there. Immediately I was covered with a thick layer of a dust. Besides I had to move very slowly and cautiously in this awful heat and not lean against the walls or I would receive severe burns.
I had a bucket and a cord and since the dust which I collected in the bucket was poisonous all this time I held my breath. Only when others pulled me out by the cord I could breathe again. In our team there were 10 people. The chief watched that everyone left with a full bucket. From this work people fainted too, I have never fainted but from the heat I received awful headaches.
My experience in the foundry clearly let me know that I had to do something else. When at the end of the working day I stood under the shower I even more often thought of a career in show business but this was not simple because I did not have another way to earn money to live. Besides I wanted to marry, there was one young lady with whom I had been in love, at least so I thought. Josephine and I married and we were together 3 years but unfortunately she was not loyal to me and we constantly had arguments because of that. After 3 years we broke up and each one of us went their way. Several years ago I found out that she has died
My mother constantly asked when would I visit her in Gary and I eventually collected money for the trip. I travelled on the bus on bumpy, narrow highways filled with hollows but I saw so much of interest on road. I will never forget how I saw Indians for the first time when the bus stopped on small refuelling station in the middle of desert near to the Grand Canyon.
Gary was not the way I expected. The city was dirty and small and I thought that it would be something grander because William Marshall, actor James Edwards and a pair of well-known boxers came from there. I'd thought I’d better get back on the bus and drive back home, then I was delighted when I saw that my aunt and mum came to meet me to the station.
”I am so glad to see you, Joe!”, mum cried and hugged me. She and aunt almost smothered me with the kisses but I tried not to show my embarrassment. Though I understood that she was happy and couldn’t contain her feelings, when went to catch a taxi I sighed with relief.
While we drove to the city I again thought how ugly it was and though I was glad to see mum I wanted to be back in Oakland again. At last we arrived at the settlement where my mum lived in the big house with her brother and family. When we arrived they all ran up to me, girls that obviously immediately liked me surrounded me giggling while guys kept more restraint and cautiously examined me.
Mum had prepared a small celebratory supper in my honour. Now it is named Soul food but then it was simply a barbecue with peas, vegetables, hot corn bread, my favourite pie and sweet potatoes. I ate so much I could hardly move. They all smiled at me when I rose from the table. Then we put music on and danced in honour of the holiday.
It was some time before the guys started to trust me but once everybody understood there wouldn’t be problems with me and I simply wanted to have a good time there. When I told them about schools where I studied or about my work on a farm in Bakerfild they listened to me with curiosity because many from them only knew work in a foundry so my life in California fascinated them.
With time I got used to Indiana and began to wonder how school would the be in autumn. As mum had not yet found her own house we lived with my uncle, aunt and their children. Then mum, I and my stepfather moved 10 miles away, closer to factories of East Chicago.
On a school break I always went to visit Pops by bus, I travelled all the time here and there between mother and father and tried to make them both happy. I seemed to myself a ping-pong ball.
I really wanted to achieve something in a life. Now work in the entertainment industry doesn't seem something special for a young black man but then was the time of silent movies and there were not many black actors. I constantly went to the cinema and watched all the new movies and dreamed Ihad a part in them. Someday I too will be on top I promised myself.
A little later I returned to Oakland where every Wednesday evening Pops drove me to boxing training. I liked to do this, it all seemed so real.
I decided to learn to box and started to attend a popular Boxing hall in our city. For hours I beat the punch bag and trained with a skipping rope to become faster, or my trainer ordered me to lie on my back and threw a stuffed ball on my stomach so it become stronger. Also he taught me to evade punches so it was impossible to knock me out. My trainer watched me closely as I trained with a punch bag until one day he approached me and said: “Joe, you are good enough now. Now you will go in the ring and we will watch what you gonna do there".
I considered that everything was all right, at least before the fight, but when I saw my contender for the first time I has complained “This guy too healthy”.
”You will be in a ring for only 2 rounds, besides there will be a helmet on you." He calmed me.
”Well all right,” I thought, “I'll try”. I was much smaller than him, but faster so I climbed through the ropes and went to the corner. My knees were shaking. This dude was similar to a wolf ready to attack me at any moment.
When the gong sounded I danced a pair of circles in the ring. The opponent tried to kick me but I evaded him. He again tried to hook at the left. I dived and thought to myself: “Well, it is not too bad”. I jumped up high and struck him with my left hand directly in the area of his heart. He tried to reach me with him right hand but I deviated and put four impacts successively directly above the line of his belt. He moaned.
While I punched his face he managed to cut me on my ear. I reeled deafened but the gong rescued me. Yes, he was a mean opponent. If you hit with great force the head almost flies away. To me my health was too important to allow myself serious damage.
”I will not go on the next round”, I told the trainer he stood below and looked from there at me.
”Joe, you cannot leave now. Common, finish him!", he ordered me.
The signal of the beginning of the following round sounded. I boxed as if I struggled with the whole gang and so strongly struck my contender on his chin that he shivered all over his body. And when I added a punch on the right he fell knocked down. The referee held a bottle under his nose and only after some seconds the guy could move his head and then a hand. When he bent a foot and a knee we understood, that he was all alright. I left the ring and when I went to the locker room all the public shouted: “Joe, you will become a great boxer!”
Since that moment it was indifferent to me how strong my opponent was. I trained daily to become better and watched so they wouldn’t break my jaw or nose. I willingly distributed punches but did not like when they beat me (Known boxers like George Forman, Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson are the same). I participated in many boxing competitions and won all of them, the majority with a knockout and few times with a kick in the eyes. I was determined to become a professional.
But then there was a fight which I will never forget. After four rounds both my eyes swelled and under one there was a laceration, my nose has been broken, from my mouth there was blood. My contender was much more skilled than me. Certainly I can stand for mysel, but I was not going to be reconciled with such wounds. I went to the trainer and shyly informed him that boxing is not exactly what I needed.
Probably, I could have become a champion but some of my friends died in the ring, others had serious problems with health and mentality. I never accepted invitations to fight anymore.
After about two years I returned to East Chicago. I was warmly met but not with the same joy as the first time. Sometimes I wrote to my father and after a while he visited. He stayed with us for a while then left for Arizona. I hated that my parents lived separately but could not do anything about it.
When I left school I first of all found work - it was necessary to earn for a life. I still dreamed of show business but at first I had to think how I am gonna achieve it. Despite my youth and that I was very thin I got a job on the railway. When the shift railway crosses ties it needs twenty strong men with heavy iron ticks. We worked all the day under the scorching sun pulling out the old cross ties and putting in new accompanied by the rhythmical knock of the hammers of two men hammering nails into cross ties.
We shifted about a mile of cross ties each day. I weighed 140 pounds but could not gain weight in any way because I sweated too much. I was all skin and bones. Sometimes my hammer broke from the handle and hit somebody on a head, I was lucky I didn't hurt myself. Now this work is done by machines.
Eventually my stepfather helped me to get a job in a factory and I learned to operate the crane. I worked a little on the crane and then I was offered a job in the foundry shop. There I all over again had the worst work: I worked as a pneumatic hammer in a blast furnace. Our chief told me that I should take a wooden stool and go to a furnace. They pulled out steel and cooled the furnace the whole day before few teams, of four men had to go inside.
We had to put on boots with a thick sole and move on massive wooden floors. It was impossible to stand on the floor in the furnace as it was heated until white hot. Our task was to clean the dirt and slag which had stuck on stone walls from the steel with a pneumatic hammer and scratch off the rest from the floor so it was possible to replace the broken stones.
It was hot as hell. Nobody could last in there longer than 10 minutes even if they were very tough. Weaker men had to leave at once. I went inside and put the stool which at once was ignited on a floor and stood on it. Then I lifted the hammer on a level of a belt and started to clean walls. When I left there, I was all black with soot. My eyes hurt as they were burnt when I removed the protective glasses and the mask. They gave us a drink but some fainted.
Then they promoted me and I had to work in a flue but it was not much easier. I had to get into a hole which lead through an underground tunnel until it reached the floor of a blast furnace. The tunnel was only three feet in diameter, exactly so it would be possible to get in there. Immediately I was covered with a thick layer of a dust. Besides I had to move very slowly and cautiously in this awful heat and not lean against the walls or I would receive severe burns.
I had a bucket and a cord and since the dust which I collected in the bucket was poisonous all this time I held my breath. Only when others pulled me out by the cord I could breathe again. In our team there were 10 people. The chief watched that everyone left with a full bucket. From this work people fainted too, I have never fainted but from the heat I received awful headaches.
My experience in the foundry clearly let me know that I had to do something else. When at the end of the working day I stood under the shower I even more often thought of a career in show business but this was not simple because I did not have another way to earn money to live. Besides I wanted to marry, there was one young lady with whom I had been in love, at least so I thought. Josephine and I married and we were together 3 years but unfortunately she was not loyal to me and we constantly had arguments because of that. After 3 years we broke up and each one of us went their way. Several years ago I found out that she has died
szwaby82- Messaggi : 4159
Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
Re: Joseph Jackson: The Jacksons(enghlish version)
Da szwaby82 Ven Ott 21, 2011 2:25 pm
My Girl
A year passed and I saved enough to buy my first car, dark brown 55th Buick. I saw myself as a king, I could sweep by with a girl in my own car!
My best friend was my stepbrother. We helped each other and did everything together. He called me Jack or Joe Jack. He too had grown up in Arkansas but not in the same part as I and he was a good hunter therefore we decided to hunt together in the woods of Arkansas. Here and there the wood was so dense that even in midday it was dark there. There were panthers about which I heard so much and I very much wanted to hit one, that's why we bought a 22d rifle and ammunition. One day I sat near the window and dreamed of our trip hunting and suddenly I saw a gorgeous girl with wonderfully beautiful features on the other side of the street, she went on a bicycle along the sidewalk. Her skin was yellowish-brown like the most sweet honey, she was the most beautiful shade I ever saw a girl.
She reached to the end of street then stopped and looked back and went back again, when she passed by my house she lifted her eyes and looked at me. After that she stopped at the end again and she probably wondered if she should pass there again to let me speak to her. At last she decided to and stopped precisely opposite my house on other side of the street.
"Hi!” I shouted.
And she actually responded and crossed the street to talk to me. I asked her name and where she lives. Her name was Katherine Scruse and she was visiting her mother who lived in the next quarter and the reason why I had never before seen her was because she mostly lived in the house of her stepmother in Indiana Harbor, 10 miles away from here. She seemed to me so mild and lovely that I by any means wanted to get to know her better so I invited Katherine to come upstairs so my mum brothers and sister Lula got acquainted with her. She willingly agreed and to my surprise Lula already knew her by sight and she at once really liked Katherine. Well if my sister liked her than I was on the right track.
I took her to the movies in my car and we made friends. I found out that she had a younger sister, who was fuller and her face was more round. She was a good pupil played, basketball and even tried to play football, she was a strong girl. After a while I introduced her to my stepbrother and we went everywhere together and my stepbrother fell in love with Katherine's younger sister whom all called just Kate.
Kate's mother was married a second time. Just as my parents and generally all parents then, hers too were very strict. For Kate's stepfather it meant that he without ceremony could start to shoot if I fought with him because of her. Despite that I wanted to be with my new girlfriend more often and I decided to get acquainted with her family including her stepfather.
Kate was so shy that she never looked me in the face. When I talked to her she always looked aside and glanced at me secretly when she thought that I would not notice. Once when and Kate and I walked I told to her: “I will come to visit you because I want to get acquainted with your parents”.
"No don't. You do not understand” she murmured sacredly.
By then with my stepbrother and her younger sister everything was rather serious. I saw how they hugged along the street or walking in the park. But Kate did not want to walk with me. She could not bear to be exposed on general view. When she once agreed to take a walk with me she all the time looked at me with fear to find out whether I noticed that she limps. Certainly I noticed but to me it was irrelevant. I asked her what had happened to her and she explained that in childhood she was ill with a poliomyelitis and she was operated on many times so she could walk better. Katherine could express her ideas so well and she was a good friend who always supported me. I was afraid of nothing and was rather reckless. Kate was the complete opposite of me, she needed somebody who would protect her. One evening she invited me to a party. I put on my best suit and a tie. When I got there the party was in full swing and everybody danced. Kate sat behind a table and waited for me. Other girls left their partners on the dance floor and gathered around me. Probably they thought that I was a movie star or something because I was so well dressed. I saw that Kate lowered her head with sadness because all of them courted around me but when she noticed that these girls do not interest me and I go directly to her she smiled again. And guys who thought that I want to take their girlfriends away again calmed down. I helped her to get up and we danced a slow dance. Suddenly I felt Kate shiver all over her body.
“Why are you shivering?” I asked.
“Forgive me, I am so nervous” she answered so quietly that I hardly heard her.
“Why?”
“Because everybody looks at us”.
I turned back and to my amazement saw that nobody except for us were dancing and all were watching us, but it did not bother me. I drew Kate closer to me and we continued to dance. She told me that because of a children's paralysis she had to wear a splint and consequently the leg had not grown any more. It didn't matter to me what others thought of her because of it, I knew that she was strong and I loved her.
Around midnight I took Kate home and led her to the front door. She stood there and looked at me like she thought that I will come in with her.
“Forgive me but I have to go”, she said.
“Ok call me in the morning”, I answered.
On the way home I could not get her out of my thoughts; the way she looked, the way she spoke, even the way she shivered and the way she patiently sat there and waited for me. All night long I didn’t sleep and thought about Katherine. The pleasurable anticipation of our long time planned hunting which recently so occupied me had been superseded by thoughts about Kate.
Finally the morning came. Mum and my stepfather were already up when at 8 o'clock in the morning the phone rang near to my bed. It was Kate, she asked if I slept.
“I could not fall asleep”, I answered.
“Joe, I too could not fall asleep”.
“Why?”
“All the time I thought of the party and how we danced. I simply laid in bed and thought of it. And also I’ve written a letter to you”. she added.
“But you live in the next street, we can meet and talk” I answered.
“I’d better write what I don’t dare to say”
“And where is the letter?”
“I will bring it to you and I will put it on the porch”
OK"
I stood on the stairs before the entrance door when Katherine drove as a whirlwind on the bicycle and gave me the letter. When I went back in my sister smiled.
“That girl is fine right? Do you like her?” she asked.
“Yes very much” I admitted.
When I stayed in the room I opened the envelope. Katherine wrote me how strong she loved me. And she has admitted that there is another guy who she liked. Since she named him I asked people who knew Kate about her admirer. I was told that he knows her from school - they were holding hands kissing and hugging. He was with her five years already and loved her very much. After that I was more than ever full of determination to win Katherine.
She come to me after a while and said: “I told to you about my friend. We broke up”
“What?” I exclaimed trying to hide the joy.
“I told him how much you mean to me. And that I love you”.
Then she constantly wrote to me, I asked her about it. “Write to me one more love letter”.
I loved her letters her feelings were clearly reflected in them. She really loved me very much. And I knew if you’re loved by such a girl it is impossible to treat it thoughtlessly. By then we were constantly together. Other girls certainly tried to get close to me but they did not interest me any more. I felt that Katherine was the woman I wanted to marry.
One day I collected all my courage and went to meet her parents. A bald man opened the door to me, his voice was similar to the trumpet of Jericho and he greeted me with such a tone as if he wanted to banish me from his veranda.
Behind him there was a lady slightly over 40, Katherine's mother. “You are probably Joe!” she has exclaimed. “Well come in!”.
So that means the man with such a loud voice who barred the way to me was Katherine's stepfather, he had not moved from the place. Instinctively I stepped forward and I was very surprised when he stood aside without objections and let me come in. But he did not lower his eyes from me and since I’d heard that he could shoot at those who he didn’t like I was alert.
“I would like to talk to you about your daughter.” I declared.
“About what my daughter?” he yelled as he did not know with which one of his sisters I'm friends with. But at least he started to communicate with me and when he told me he liked going to hunt for rabbits we connected. I sighed with relief, we at least had one common interest.
“My stepbrother and I are planning to hunt for a wild boar. And I would like to hit the panther” I told.
“Really and with what will you hunt such a large animal?” he asked.
“Well, a 22d rifle with an optical sight”
“You are both crazy" he answered.
“What do you mean?”
“With such an easy weapon you will not hunt such game. You need at least a heavy Winchester”
“I am a good shot. If I hit it in the head I will kill him.”
”And if you will miss?” he asked.
“I've never missed yet" I said proudly.
“But the wild boar will not run away if you miss. It will jump directly on you. You still need another weapon”.
“I have it."
“And what is it?”
"A Pistol"
“You plan to go hunting with a pistol?!”
“Yes sir. We bought pistols and patrons”.
I probably seemed abnormal to him but anyway he offered me coffee and smiled when I assured him that next time I would go hunting with him with pleasure.
Kate's mum was friendlier. She made food for us and had even made a baked sweet potato pudding. It was her who mostly kept up the conversation while the stepfather closely examined me as though estimating what else he should ask me. I all the time thought with horror that he for sure had a lot of guns and at any moment might get one of them.
I sill didn’t not see Kate but she observed us from the next room and when she noticed that her parents started to accept me she dared to come out.
“Come here! Your friend wants to see you" the voice of her stepfather thundered. Katherine obediently sat down near the table and put her hands on her knees. She looked down but from time to time she threw glances full of love on me. Since her stepfather observed me it was not hidden from him.
“Humm Matt, the girl is in love” he remarked to his wife. (He called his wife Matt)." She does not behave as usual. I’ve observed her for some time and she is not as she was before. Is it clear to you Matt that the girl is in love?”
”Matt" had certainly noticed it too but she somehow hushed up this topic so that her husband would not get mad. I thought that this was the right moment to admit to the parents everything, well almost everything, and I told them that Katherine and I had a lot in common and that I like their daughter vey much. I did not hold back that my parents are divorced and how I grew up.
Later Kate's sister joined our conversation then the stepfather had an idea to play checkers. I never played checkers and he was very happy that he beat me so easily. Nevertheless I had to interrupt as I needed to prepare for work. When I began to say goodbye and named this reason Kate's stepfather has asked:
“What?! You work?”
“Yes sir. I work in the foundry.” I answered.
“That's how? I work across it and if my memory does not lie I've seen you there a few times. I knew your face was familiar to me. Visit us someday, I'll be glad if you visit us” he declared and patted my shoulder in a friendly manner.
I came back home with a relieved heart. Finally I did not need to be afraid that Kate's family wouldn’t like me. At home everybody waited for me but I immediately went to my room. I couldn't get rid of Lula so easily, she followed me and said:
“Well, now you will get married for sure."
“Not right away. I have to consider and weigh everything seriously once again all pros and cons”.
With such important things I never hurried.
My stepbrother who has been seriously in love with Katherine's sister did not then have any problems with her stepfather because I had blazed a path for him. And with me the stepfather was so wary because Kate was his favourite and it is not surprising. Kate was the complete opposite of her sister, she never contradicted and did everything her parents demanded. She was so lovely and gentle that there was nothing else I could do besides fall in love with her.
A year passed and I saved enough to buy my first car, dark brown 55th Buick. I saw myself as a king, I could sweep by with a girl in my own car!
My best friend was my stepbrother. We helped each other and did everything together. He called me Jack or Joe Jack. He too had grown up in Arkansas but not in the same part as I and he was a good hunter therefore we decided to hunt together in the woods of Arkansas. Here and there the wood was so dense that even in midday it was dark there. There were panthers about which I heard so much and I very much wanted to hit one, that's why we bought a 22d rifle and ammunition. One day I sat near the window and dreamed of our trip hunting and suddenly I saw a gorgeous girl with wonderfully beautiful features on the other side of the street, she went on a bicycle along the sidewalk. Her skin was yellowish-brown like the most sweet honey, she was the most beautiful shade I ever saw a girl.
She reached to the end of street then stopped and looked back and went back again, when she passed by my house she lifted her eyes and looked at me. After that she stopped at the end again and she probably wondered if she should pass there again to let me speak to her. At last she decided to and stopped precisely opposite my house on other side of the street.
"Hi!” I shouted.
And she actually responded and crossed the street to talk to me. I asked her name and where she lives. Her name was Katherine Scruse and she was visiting her mother who lived in the next quarter and the reason why I had never before seen her was because she mostly lived in the house of her stepmother in Indiana Harbor, 10 miles away from here. She seemed to me so mild and lovely that I by any means wanted to get to know her better so I invited Katherine to come upstairs so my mum brothers and sister Lula got acquainted with her. She willingly agreed and to my surprise Lula already knew her by sight and she at once really liked Katherine. Well if my sister liked her than I was on the right track.
I took her to the movies in my car and we made friends. I found out that she had a younger sister, who was fuller and her face was more round. She was a good pupil played, basketball and even tried to play football, she was a strong girl. After a while I introduced her to my stepbrother and we went everywhere together and my stepbrother fell in love with Katherine's younger sister whom all called just Kate.
Kate's mother was married a second time. Just as my parents and generally all parents then, hers too were very strict. For Kate's stepfather it meant that he without ceremony could start to shoot if I fought with him because of her. Despite that I wanted to be with my new girlfriend more often and I decided to get acquainted with her family including her stepfather.
Kate was so shy that she never looked me in the face. When I talked to her she always looked aside and glanced at me secretly when she thought that I would not notice. Once when and Kate and I walked I told to her: “I will come to visit you because I want to get acquainted with your parents”.
"No don't. You do not understand” she murmured sacredly.
By then with my stepbrother and her younger sister everything was rather serious. I saw how they hugged along the street or walking in the park. But Kate did not want to walk with me. She could not bear to be exposed on general view. When she once agreed to take a walk with me she all the time looked at me with fear to find out whether I noticed that she limps. Certainly I noticed but to me it was irrelevant. I asked her what had happened to her and she explained that in childhood she was ill with a poliomyelitis and she was operated on many times so she could walk better. Katherine could express her ideas so well and she was a good friend who always supported me. I was afraid of nothing and was rather reckless. Kate was the complete opposite of me, she needed somebody who would protect her. One evening she invited me to a party. I put on my best suit and a tie. When I got there the party was in full swing and everybody danced. Kate sat behind a table and waited for me. Other girls left their partners on the dance floor and gathered around me. Probably they thought that I was a movie star or something because I was so well dressed. I saw that Kate lowered her head with sadness because all of them courted around me but when she noticed that these girls do not interest me and I go directly to her she smiled again. And guys who thought that I want to take their girlfriends away again calmed down. I helped her to get up and we danced a slow dance. Suddenly I felt Kate shiver all over her body.
“Why are you shivering?” I asked.
“Forgive me, I am so nervous” she answered so quietly that I hardly heard her.
“Why?”
“Because everybody looks at us”.
I turned back and to my amazement saw that nobody except for us were dancing and all were watching us, but it did not bother me. I drew Kate closer to me and we continued to dance. She told me that because of a children's paralysis she had to wear a splint and consequently the leg had not grown any more. It didn't matter to me what others thought of her because of it, I knew that she was strong and I loved her.
Around midnight I took Kate home and led her to the front door. She stood there and looked at me like she thought that I will come in with her.
“Forgive me but I have to go”, she said.
“Ok call me in the morning”, I answered.
On the way home I could not get her out of my thoughts; the way she looked, the way she spoke, even the way she shivered and the way she patiently sat there and waited for me. All night long I didn’t sleep and thought about Katherine. The pleasurable anticipation of our long time planned hunting which recently so occupied me had been superseded by thoughts about Kate.
Finally the morning came. Mum and my stepfather were already up when at 8 o'clock in the morning the phone rang near to my bed. It was Kate, she asked if I slept.
“I could not fall asleep”, I answered.
“Joe, I too could not fall asleep”.
“Why?”
“All the time I thought of the party and how we danced. I simply laid in bed and thought of it. And also I’ve written a letter to you”. she added.
“But you live in the next street, we can meet and talk” I answered.
“I’d better write what I don’t dare to say”
“And where is the letter?”
“I will bring it to you and I will put it on the porch”
OK"
I stood on the stairs before the entrance door when Katherine drove as a whirlwind on the bicycle and gave me the letter. When I went back in my sister smiled.
“That girl is fine right? Do you like her?” she asked.
“Yes very much” I admitted.
When I stayed in the room I opened the envelope. Katherine wrote me how strong she loved me. And she has admitted that there is another guy who she liked. Since she named him I asked people who knew Kate about her admirer. I was told that he knows her from school - they were holding hands kissing and hugging. He was with her five years already and loved her very much. After that I was more than ever full of determination to win Katherine.
She come to me after a while and said: “I told to you about my friend. We broke up”
“What?” I exclaimed trying to hide the joy.
“I told him how much you mean to me. And that I love you”.
Then she constantly wrote to me, I asked her about it. “Write to me one more love letter”.
I loved her letters her feelings were clearly reflected in them. She really loved me very much. And I knew if you’re loved by such a girl it is impossible to treat it thoughtlessly. By then we were constantly together. Other girls certainly tried to get close to me but they did not interest me any more. I felt that Katherine was the woman I wanted to marry.
One day I collected all my courage and went to meet her parents. A bald man opened the door to me, his voice was similar to the trumpet of Jericho and he greeted me with such a tone as if he wanted to banish me from his veranda.
Behind him there was a lady slightly over 40, Katherine's mother. “You are probably Joe!” she has exclaimed. “Well come in!”.
So that means the man with such a loud voice who barred the way to me was Katherine's stepfather, he had not moved from the place. Instinctively I stepped forward and I was very surprised when he stood aside without objections and let me come in. But he did not lower his eyes from me and since I’d heard that he could shoot at those who he didn’t like I was alert.
“I would like to talk to you about your daughter.” I declared.
“About what my daughter?” he yelled as he did not know with which one of his sisters I'm friends with. But at least he started to communicate with me and when he told me he liked going to hunt for rabbits we connected. I sighed with relief, we at least had one common interest.
“My stepbrother and I are planning to hunt for a wild boar. And I would like to hit the panther” I told.
“Really and with what will you hunt such a large animal?” he asked.
“Well, a 22d rifle with an optical sight”
“You are both crazy" he answered.
“What do you mean?”
“With such an easy weapon you will not hunt such game. You need at least a heavy Winchester”
“I am a good shot. If I hit it in the head I will kill him.”
”And if you will miss?” he asked.
“I've never missed yet" I said proudly.
“But the wild boar will not run away if you miss. It will jump directly on you. You still need another weapon”.
“I have it."
“And what is it?”
"A Pistol"
“You plan to go hunting with a pistol?!”
“Yes sir. We bought pistols and patrons”.
I probably seemed abnormal to him but anyway he offered me coffee and smiled when I assured him that next time I would go hunting with him with pleasure.
Kate's mum was friendlier. She made food for us and had even made a baked sweet potato pudding. It was her who mostly kept up the conversation while the stepfather closely examined me as though estimating what else he should ask me. I all the time thought with horror that he for sure had a lot of guns and at any moment might get one of them.
I sill didn’t not see Kate but she observed us from the next room and when she noticed that her parents started to accept me she dared to come out.
“Come here! Your friend wants to see you" the voice of her stepfather thundered. Katherine obediently sat down near the table and put her hands on her knees. She looked down but from time to time she threw glances full of love on me. Since her stepfather observed me it was not hidden from him.
“Humm Matt, the girl is in love” he remarked to his wife. (He called his wife Matt)." She does not behave as usual. I’ve observed her for some time and she is not as she was before. Is it clear to you Matt that the girl is in love?”
”Matt" had certainly noticed it too but she somehow hushed up this topic so that her husband would not get mad. I thought that this was the right moment to admit to the parents everything, well almost everything, and I told them that Katherine and I had a lot in common and that I like their daughter vey much. I did not hold back that my parents are divorced and how I grew up.
Later Kate's sister joined our conversation then the stepfather had an idea to play checkers. I never played checkers and he was very happy that he beat me so easily. Nevertheless I had to interrupt as I needed to prepare for work. When I began to say goodbye and named this reason Kate's stepfather has asked:
“What?! You work?”
“Yes sir. I work in the foundry.” I answered.
“That's how? I work across it and if my memory does not lie I've seen you there a few times. I knew your face was familiar to me. Visit us someday, I'll be glad if you visit us” he declared and patted my shoulder in a friendly manner.
I came back home with a relieved heart. Finally I did not need to be afraid that Kate's family wouldn’t like me. At home everybody waited for me but I immediately went to my room. I couldn't get rid of Lula so easily, she followed me and said:
“Well, now you will get married for sure."
“Not right away. I have to consider and weigh everything seriously once again all pros and cons”.
With such important things I never hurried.
My stepbrother who has been seriously in love with Katherine's sister did not then have any problems with her stepfather because I had blazed a path for him. And with me the stepfather was so wary because Kate was his favourite and it is not surprising. Kate was the complete opposite of her sister, she never contradicted and did everything her parents demanded. She was so lovely and gentle that there was nothing else I could do besides fall in love with her.
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Data d'iscrizione : 10.10.11
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