1 10 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/46614/archive/files/65e17984351e249458686543bc761326.mp3?Expires=1790208000&Signature=FG6G%7EdZrWu7MIywWsb7k7mdEvDUTBpSgnEe2o4n1Iochqxg3ggrlf6KQ4FDkAxdX02CEsNCuUAXrJipz9Jbpzehbbz5Ikp3mmVFhahUqIBMq%7EtLCKEHGykiEbVpfCvnuteakzzVKIejg5MKKZ-WKizHy9x0vYzQ5Fvjw%7Eg19j-c5jyT3III9qOd0mW3F7-487nr1kp0yghqlWVv996ID0Idp9X5O7W801hsEsQE%7Em3UncCR71D6PmvLQo2PxT1G89r1LsMvSTQLSgepOZJl4bkMFqOusyPEzCqHxdzwUolqX0qZ75nc9qJ7O1TvgCz8GyNxTtbiuuPDGtsutbDiEEA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 1ea2b5fee1e7e498a898a8ad90d4bdb6 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/46614/archive/files/838dd474c6d600845e52b08081e6ccfd.pdf?Expires=1790208000&Signature=gy5f3G9RGtOzYkpnigW-EdJLF3J7Yq6zbC1A2oIXkN8mcrR30mpj9-g%7EtQlmBDjxS6t22mg5XnCHhNTJLIXWCChQIpk96H404dfRlvDua4vRvKKQ-loQi8lAUzQ7TXROFwhwqTm93-BczdkaG6yJmRXuRHEP6EuKAHERCeSBT-7vjmseLXAE8J850UcL%7EQpawXOU-w%7EfzjM14YWR3O-vlV%7EWEnIyXP-yZEHovZ0OKzMbhzfHnZz0kNjL2gBhOFSay2ik4K2ImzqjIFUCMU6No01VPNLsufAKAG%7Ey%7Ef5bkIqbCWtbwYpxBojrWgSe8RH-VGglLasS%7EKjTKa-DXADfRg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM cd0a3b158ab95ef8f8ee46b007a9f88d PDF Text Text **Disclaimer- Much of this interview was inaudible by transcriber. 2nd Interview This is Kim Morey and I am doing the second interview with Charlie Smith or starting the second interview anyhow and sir if I ask you to repeat a thing or two you said before I apologize for that. I would like to ask you a couple questions about your time in the military during WW II if I may. Where did you go for your basic training? Charlie: Kentucky I think. Kim: At a post in Kentucky was where you got your basic training? Charlie: I was in Chicago. In a ___________. Kim: Did you go to a school or some training for that. Charlie: I went down south for that Kentucky someplace down there. Kim: Do you recall about how long that was? Charlie: No, shoot. I was down there for schooling for cooking. And I was down there... I don't know how long I was down there Ken: Three weeks, four weeks Charlie: Well... shit Ken: Most training is only about 6 weeks long, most camp training in the army is no longer than a month and a half. Probably about 6 weeks tops. Charlie: When I got in the army I was in Chicago I think it was yeah and they sent me downtown up there __________ and we didn't go out of there upstairs a big bunch of us and we must get in there the army they don't let you out no more, you in the army now. See ___________. Kim: Do you know what year that was? Charlie: Shit. Lord know. _________probably have some papers or something. ______on me. For a guy way back in them days_____ one day to another. What happened yesterday at what time? Ken: It happened about 1941. Kim: Do you know when you finished with training? Do you remember your first assignment after your cooking school? Charlie: They shipped me to______? �Kim: That's ok. Ken: He was shipped to Virginia. They were going to put you on a ship overseas then they changed your orders. Remember Virginia? Charlie: Yeah I remember that. I remember ___ a couple of times. But ________ and kept me while they doing something and you had to stay_____ and you was short of some people to go overseas but didn't get a chance to go nowhere. Kim: You stayed in the United States? Did you stay in Virginia most of that time then? Charlie: _______ They shipped me all over______ feed soldiers____ stuff like that Kim: So did you travel around the country then? Charlie: Mostly in the south I think it was. Kim: So you cooked for a lot of the training camps then? Charlie: Yeah I cooked for a mess hall. Yeah I cooked in a mess hall. Kim: Did you spend a lot of time living in a tent when you were cooking? Charlie: Yeah but I had to go overseas a couple of times. __________. Ken: So he left Virginia and came to Sioux Falls Army/Air Force in Sioux Falls. Had to be about 1942. Charlie: I go through laundry _____ I keep track of all that stuff. Sometime ______ one day another day. God Dang_____. Kim: So then the army brought you to Sioux Falls. Charlie: The Army brought me to Sioux Falls? No nuh uh. How'd I get to Sioux Falls? Ken: The Army shipped you to Sioux Falls as a cook at the Air Base. They put you barracks that were designed for down south. They were cold. In Sioux Falls. After about a year in Sioux Falls you were discharged from the Army/Airforce and he decided to stay in Sioux Falls instead of going back to Chicago Kim: So Chicago was where you grew up. Or that’s where you entered the army? Ken: He came from Jackson Mississippi. What's her name coming here? She got that already. ________ Charlie: I talked to one lady___. �Kim: That's covered. Let's progress from Sioux Falls what he did. When he got out of the army and decided to stay in Sioux Falls Dot your wife joined you. She left Chicago to come to Sioux Falls. You lived in an apartment on Dakota. Charlie: Yeah on Dakota, yeah. Ken: Downtown Sioux Falls. How long were you in that apartment? Charlie: ___________________ Ken: I was born in 1944 and you were living in that apartment then. I am his son Ken. I was born at McKennan Hospital. It was a Catholic hospital. It was about 2 or 3 stories high. Kim: I am familiar with the hospital yes. Ken: I was born in 44 in Sioux Falls. Spent a couple years on Dakota Street. Then started a business. A window washing business. It was a time when no jobs that he could get in Sioux Falls that paid well so had to do that. But since he didn't have a car he walked to places downtown on Phillips and Main and convinced people he could do their windows and get paid once a month. Remember that Charlie? Charlie: Yeah I remember that. Ken: Ok go ahead and tell ‘em that. Continue on where I left off about how you would go door to door down to Phillips and Main to talk people into windows and awnings up or down. Charlie: Yeah _________ on weekends on Sunday. I ________ when they going be open they had ______ awnings up and down on Main and 5th Ave. Ken: Of course the apartment he lived in was right on the corner across from downtown. Kim: How many businesses did you wash windows for? Charlie: _____________________ wash the windows in Sioux Falls. You counted all the customers and so forth like that. You have to have the history of something you have to have in a book and... Ken: You can't put it in a book unless you tell someone on the recording. Charlie: Well I washed windows in Sioux Falls SD Kim: So how long would you work in a day. What time did you start polishing windows? Did you start early in the morning? Charlie: No_______________ time. If it be raining that day, you don't wash no windows. Maybe the next day. Most the time________ you wash windows in Sioux Falls SD. In the wintertime, I said I talked to a lady one time.... �Kim: We were talking about his window washing business. Just getting started talking about that. Bev Pechan: Tell me how you decided this was what you wanted to do or did you just feel you needed a job and did what was available or how did you get around to doing that. Charlie: Washing windows? You know I walked. I had two cars at one time. Bev: Now this was in the paper in Sioux Falls so this was where you started. Charlie: Argus Leader Sioux Falls Ok had all that stuff. Bev: It said you were picking up garbage at one of the grocery stores and then you washed the stores windows every week. Charlie: _________ way of washing windows, waxing floors all that kind of stuff. Bev: And you did that all by yourself without any help. That made awful long days didn't it Charlie: ___________no union own time. ________Punch no clock just get the job done. Bev: Ok but you spent a lot of hours every day working. Charlie: and picking cotton in the south. Bev: Where did you start Kim? Ken: We did the military thing already. We talked mostly about Sioux Falls and how he got started in this business. Bev: Ok and how long did you do that then? The window washing Charlie: I never did count the years, the days _______. You never keep none of that stuff. Ken: He started in his 30's. He didn't quit until he was two years 89__________ Bev: He started in his 30's and didn't quit until he was 85. _____ Ken: He worked 7 days a week. Bev: 7 days a week. I imagine you were the main bread winner for the family then. None of the rest of the family. Did your wife work too? She stayed home and raised the children. You know the other thing I wanted to talk about and I was telling Kim about this is Charlie is a part of what Tom Brokaw called the Greatest Generation. I really believe that because I grew up between WW II and the Korean War and I remember how different things were then. How people worked together, valued each other and I'd like to know Charlie when you were growing up in your family and your life what kind of beliefs did you have about life in general and how we got along with other people and what your family did for entertainment and I know you said you were a very religious man and you believe in Jesus and that you �had animals when you were growing up but can you tell me what it was like for you to grow up and what you experienced and what you thought was good and bad and how your family was you know your parents and some of that. Charlie: Well people _______________ they communicate different they were just different than they do now. Our family was always close together. They never get to far away. They don't communicate. Bev: What about brothers and sisters? Charlie: Yeah there were two boys and three girls. Five of us in the family. Bev: Ok and you said you picked cotton when you were younger. Charlie: Oh yeah I used to have two sacks. One on each shoulder and go down the row right there and pick cotton. Not two rows. Bev: And you were pretty young when you did that? Charlie: Yeah I am pretty young now. Bev: You are ( laughter) I think age is a state of mind. If you don't feel old you aren't. That's great. What about going to school and things like that? Charlie: You know something, I never did like school for some reason. I never did like it. I went one or two days, then dropped out. I did that, I did this. I came up in the south in Jackson Mississippi and so we all went to church. We are all one family. We all know one another. We took care of one another. We go to visit one another and go visit the sick and go help the blind and _________________. Bev: And they had some great gospel music down there didn't they? Charlie: They had some good music. We go to church we had _____. A lot of singing. Ken: Acapella type cause they had no instruments, no piano Bev: But they could raise the roof off the church. Charlie: And we didn't have all the _________ and stuff like that. And you go to church in the morning and go to church in the evening and we go to church and we can walk right beside someone and not notice them because it be so dark out. But we don't know where they going. I got baptized in a pond of water. And go in there we had white gowns on. Bev: And they baptize several at one time. Yeah. Ken: When you were picking cotton how old were you? 9 years old? 12 years old? Charlie: I don't know how old I was. I know I picked cotton. Bev: Ok and then you said you had for things playing. You said you had horses and a dog. �Charlie: Yeah, my brother he liked to raise pigeons and I raised dogs. Bev: Were they hunting dogs? Charlie: Yeah well they could hunt. They were pups. My uncle he found them in a field and he and the dog named Baxter and _____________________ one of my mother’s brothers___________Uncle ____ walked behind him _____ said can I have that pup___ for _______ please can I have that pup. Oh I am going to take him. And I ran ____ He went everywhere I went. I go downtown and go to the show. He go to the show with me. He would be out there in front of lobby until I come out. Bev: But he got inside the buildings and he waited for you. And when they were plowing did they use mules or did they use horses. Charlie: They used mules and horses. When the dog I had grew up he had a black on his back and brown under _____ and his feet had white socks on his little feet. I said Pup go get them. He'd go get a horse, he'd go get a mule. I'd say go get them and he'd bring them in now. He'd run around and run around and get a horse right by its nose. Bev: And then the horse would follow him in? Charlie: No that horse ___________he came back____________ Bev: How big was Pup? Charlie: Oh Pup he grew up __________. Bev: About the size of a collie dog maybe? Charlie: Yeah about that. Ken: Was the dog a Labrador or a collie dog or what? What kind of dog was Pup? Charlie: Well he was just a dog. I don't know. Bev: Did he have long hair or short hair? Charlie: Short hair Bev: And you had him for a long time? Charlie: Oh I had him for a long time and I had him and we grew up on a farm. ____ if he got tied in town he would go back to the farm. If he stayed on the farm two or three days he would go back to town. Bev: It's funny how they get used to doing things like that. �Charlie: At that time people were different. They were living different. They were communicating different. And _____ Bev: Tell me how you think that's different. What did they do that’s different that they don't do today? Charlie: They are more communicating together and more tell the truth. We didn't have to write nothing down. You could just tell someone do it. Bev: You mean buy things just by shaking hands. Charlie: Yeah by shaking hands. A lot of time they give it to you. ________They don't want no money. You want that? You gonna have it. Bev: Did you notice and I hate to ask this but from when I talked to you before. I get the impression that there wasn't a lot of problem with white people like today they keep saying prejudice this and that. It sounded like you all got along better those days is that right? Charlie: We got along better ... everybody______ mess hall. __________ a big mess hall. White boys used to come in the mess hall and they sit down and talk and they say you _______you people not like they say you are. They communicate. They talk about different people and ______ started helping them people, you talk about them. If you don't talk about them__________. Ken: (inaudible) Charlie: But we ___________. Bev: Yeah you had respect for each other. Yeah and that is something that you don't see much anymore. Unfortunately. And you talk about going to the movies. What kind of movies did you see when you were young? Did you like movies? Did you go a lot? Charlie: I didn't go to the movie too much. We maybe go once a week or something like that. Ken: What did movies cost then? Charlie: 10 cents. Ken: And what did popcorn cost? Charlie: Popcorn cost maybe 10 cents or 5 cents. Nothing cost no dollar. Nothing cost 50 cents. Ken: We went to the show on Father's Day Charlie and I. Up here in Rapid. 5.75 to get in each that's 11.00. I went to the concession stand and got a small popcorn and a water and Charlie wanted a small drink, 18.00. Bev: Yeah, I can remember. Saturday matinees were 9 cents. �Charlie: See what happened, this is what happened. See the world is changing. Different, ________ every day is different______ but you can't blame_______coming up___________it's a different world today than I came up in. You see what I'm saying. Bev: And a lot of people today I think don't know how it used to be. They have nothing to compare it to. Ken: I disagree. The kids in school have all the history on the computer of the 40's, 50's and 60's but they don't grasp it and they don't want to learn about it. It's there for them to learn. They have video on the different eras. They don't give a damn. Bev: No, that's true they don't. The teacher's really don't present it anymore either. Ken: We had history classes. I had history classes. We had to go by the book. But now of course you can see it. That's all they want to do is play video games. Charlie: That's the problem today. __________ They not communicating. Bev: I think the media probably has a lot to do with it. You kind of form opinions by the people that are on there and they all have some interest of their own that they want to promote and keep people frightened or be unsure or something and it’s confusing to the kids and they want to escape that so they zone out. Charlie: Most of the people this my freedom, this my way. ____________ everybody got different ways_______otherwise who is right now and who is wrong Bev: We don't have any idea Charlie: There you go. And you are probably right there. You got democrats and republicans. And all kind of ways. People thinking all kind of ways. This guys now who is right and who is wrong. Go back to the good book. Bev: Do you think about this a lot Charlie? About how times are different. Charlie: No I don't think too much about it. You know what happened. It keeps____ the whole world is turning. Bev: What do you see coming down the road? Charlie: I wanna say stop and think look at cars. They are going so fast they don't know which way they are going. They are running over one another and running over_________. They are running every which way you go now. Ken: Speaking of cars, let’s go back to Sioux Falls. You are walking down downtown making all these contacts. You are working at the Sunshine downtown. Charlie: Yeah Sunshine. �Ken: The first store you work at. Now to get a car in Sioux Falls. He couldn't qualify for a loan. Charlie: Right now you can't qualify for a loan to get a car. Ken: So he befriended this Jewish guy who loaned him some money in Sioux Falls to get a car. Remember him? Charlie: Yeah Ben M_____, I think we called him. Ken: Go ahead and tell her about the first car that you had. You couldn't drive it. Charlie: I couldn't drive it. I bought it. I said park it right there and put the key under the seat. _____________ that night I went back there to pick it up and I never could drive it. I didn't know how to drive it. Ken: What kind of car was it? Charlie: A Mazda or something like that. I went right through a stop sign. A cop was right behind me. He said you went right through a stop sign. Oh I didn't see the stop sign. How do I stop the car? Bev: So you learned by doing it? That was pretty good. Charlie: I went through a lot of stuff. Bev: How much was gasoline then? Do you remember that? Charlie: I don't remember. Maybe 10 cents a gallon or 5 cents a gallon I don't know. Bev: So you taught yourself to drive after you bought the car? Did you ever wreck it? Charlie: No never did. Ken: I remember gas being 35 cents a gallon in the 40-50's in Sioux Falls. Bev: Then they had gas wars and gas rationing. People wouldn't stand for that today. Ken: Well gas rationing I think was during the war they had gas rationing just after the war the price was pretty decent. But still weren't making much money. Bev: Well I think a lot of corruption was controlling that market and at that time and of course we see it yet today. Holidays come, prices go up. Basic human greed. Ken: So you moved from the apartments. The apartments got to small. My sister was born so where did you go after the apartments. On North Phillips. �Charlie: __________________What I did or didn't do, or how I drove the car. How I went fishing. I didn't have no hook. What I used. I used thread and straight pin and made my hook out of that ______________off a tree_____________fishing pole. Bev: I bet you caught a lot of fish with it too. Charlie: A lot of fish. Bev: Did you use worms? Charlie: Yeah I used night crawlers is what they call them. Bev: And what kind of fish? Charlie: I don't know they was just fish. I know they catfish and one called a perch. Ken: That was down south he did that. Charlie: You know _________America they should never throw away history. But I know_________history in different museums and stuff. But people live so fast today they never think about it. They never go look at history. Bev: You kind of have to know where you have come from to know where you are going I think. I am really interested in how the south was when you were growing up. Do you remember any troubles with the clan down there in Mississippi? Charlie: You know what trouble happened an we still got the trouble now. But people don’t pay too much attention to it. Everything is still__________ they never did prove it. I been down in some parts down south where you couldn't walk on the sidewalk. I walk in _______ Mississippi, you walk out in the street, you walk in the street. I _______ right underneath your nose. You don't know what’s going on. Bev: Yes, I'll bet that's right. Did you ever celebrate Juneteenth down there? Did they ever have a celebration down there? Charlie: Juneteenth? Bev: Juneteenth they called it. It was celebrating the end of slavery. I forget when. Sometime in June. But it was like a 4th of July celebration. Charlie: You know what a lot of people but you'd be surprised how people divided. And a lot of times you walk down the street... I don't like that guy. How come you don't like him? What'd he do to you? I just don't like him. ____________. I don't like that. I say why? They don't know why themselves. Bev: No they don’t and you see it a lot in kids anymore. They don't have respect or consideration. It's me. This is what I want so get out of my way because I am going to have what I want and if you don't like it then we are going to fight and have a hard time understanding that. �Charlie: Now see I look at _________right now. __________That's what I am talking about. Right now we living in fear. You know what we are all going to die. We all gonna. I don't care how much money you got, I don't care how fast you can run, don't care how much you accumulate. But in the eyes of the Lord you have nothing. And the one thing you got if you got Jesus you got everything. Bev: You got to have peace in your heart. Charlie: With peace in your heart you got Jesus. Cause he said I am the light and I am the way. Too many families falling apart fighting one another. Look what we got all kind of people. Look at the churches now. Look at how many churches we got. Which is the right church. Somebody ____________ wrong. You got one Jesus right? That's all you got. You solve your problem. Bev: Yes, those things I think about a lot too and I just think it’s really interesting. You've been here on this earth longer than I have but I am catching up fast. But I really think about this a lot because I think we wouldn't have to go through nearly all of the things we do today if people just thought about being kind to each other. Charlie: But they don't know nothing about that. Now ______ right now in America people kill you for nothing. We got jail house packed full. We got prison packed full. All you want to do is kill them anyway. Ken: Getting back to June teenth they called it. They didn't celebrate that down south at all only when they moved up north could they do that. They could not do that in the Jackson area. You could not. Charlie: Ok now look at this. Now they broke down America, the north, south, east and everything divided it right there. Where you from Mississippi? Where you from so and so? I don't like people down there. I don't like you. If you American it's solid America. But you ain't you got people from all over coming in. You'd be surprise how many people going ___________America right now. _________If you say you from America they going kill. Ken: They kidnap you first and then they kill you. Charlie: They don't kidnap you. Bev: I don't know. There's some sort of power structure behind all this that we probably aren't ever going to know probably who all is involved. Power is a terrible thing and control. I guess I see America as the worst part is people don't seem to care. Charlie: You know why Bev: If the government will take care of them they don't care Ken: brain wash us �Charlie: Democrat, Republican and __________ all kind of people. Who are you, where you from? What you do? _______ got a problem Bev: Who did you think were good presidents? Who did you think were some that were better for our country? Charlie: You know frankly I can't say none of them. Cause __________ you do this for me I do this for you. You do this I do that. Ken: What about Roosevelt? Charlie: Roosevelt? But it’s all the same. All of them the same. Bev: I remember when I was young and WWII was going on and after everybody thought he was a great savior and now in recent years things are coming to light that none of us had a clue about. You know different deals that they made. Ken: But he is the only one _____ 4 different times. Charlie: ____ Oh yeah Roosevelt Ken: He served 4 terms Bev: Yeah he did a lot. He did help the people that came up with the WPA and CCC's and got a lot of those things going that gave people a chance that wouldn't have during the depression. But in the war I read some things since that time that make me wonder what he knew and when he knew it just like all the rest of them. So and if you try and do a good job. I talked to someone once that had worked in Washington pretty high up and she was saying that you may think when you are elected and you go there you are going to do this and this. Ken: They do try. Bev: They do try and she says they take you in a room and they say this is the way it is. And so you either resign or stay in there and join the group. Ken: _________ Bev: And it’s been profitable for a lot of people to be in a better position to help this country. And there's money and poverty in government programs. Ken: JFK tried to make major changes and remember what happened to him. Bev: Yep and everybody that was associated with him. Ken: And his brother was an attorney general. Trying to make changes. Bev: Yeah any people that knew anything were gone in a short time. It's really scary and now they've got drones that come into your house. The size of mosquitos. �Ken: They don't need drones. Those high definition TV's, you turn them off and they still can record.your voices. Bev: Oh really I know there is a lot of stuff out there. I look at these movies. My boyfriend is a big movie buff and so many of these things....America and whats going on and all the technology they are using and the spyware they are using. Ken: Tell your boyfriend to go down end of July, Monday the 5th to the arena downtown Rapid City they got a thing at 5 o'clock. Bev: That's what they have been advertising on TV. Ken: Yeah check it out, me too. Bev: Well one thing working for the newspaper a lot of things come across your email that never is seen by the public and some things you feel like I should put this out there but you don't dare. Ken: Yeah go check it out first. Go check it out then you can make your decision. It's a free movie. Charlie: One thing to take a look at too. Don't ever go where a lot of people is now.________ where you get them all together you kill them. Bev: Yeah it happens a lot. I know they were pretty worried about this 4th of July. Charlie: Oh yeah they talk about that already now. And also they named some of the places. They named United States too. Of course how many people out there hate United States may have never been here but still hate us. We have a big problem now. We have a big problem. The army can't take care of you. And policemen and law enforcement can't take care of you. No way. Bev: And we have some Americans that aren't happy with their lot in life and they are going overseas and joining up with these groups. Charlie: ____________ and they here already. Bev: Yes they are, I think so. I have that feeling. You know they had plenty of time to practice all these little glitches we had and I wonder if that is a practice run to see if they hit a power grid how fast it will go down somewhere. And Mt Rushmore is one of the top targeted areas of the country so. Ken: All these forest fires how they start you don't know. Bev: That's true too. Charlie. One thing everything is in Jesus' hands. Bev: It always has been. We forget about that. I never thought in my lifetime. It started back I think gosh in the 60's where there was this outcry about having a manger scene in public. �You know you couldn't have it in front of the courthouse or library anymore. I thought I would never see that in my lifetime. Ken: You mean a demonstration you talking about. Bev: No just displaying religious things in front of a public building. And then for a while we tried to take prayer out of schools and it went back and forth but the more they take away the more you forget because they replace it with other things that tell you oh you need this, you need to buy this, you need to belong to this group, or belong to that group or whatever and children growing up today have no idea what other options are out there. Charlie: One thing they say now is this is not right this is my freedom. I can do this I can do that. ____________ Every kid________where'd it come from. It's a part of you. ___________Where'd you learn that? From America. __________ You can't do this you can't do that. ___________ That's the stuff they gonna do. Bev: Television is a powerful tool for that. Charlie: __________ stuff. Look what they do in Doctors’ offices. Look what they do all over. They still doing it. They ain't doing nothing right. __________ I do what I wanna do. Even the kids now. This is my right, this is my right. See. Bev: Can you imagine if we went to another country somewhere around the world and insisted they do this for us and that for us and if we weren't shot we would be laughed out of the country. Charlie: No, they kill ya. Bev: Well that's true. But I mean people come in here and people who are here that have worked so hard for everything and then put money into social security now we have to give it to somebody that doesn't even like us. Charlie: No, what they do they gonna take it away anyway. They take it from ya anyway. You don't have anything, you got your freedom but you really don't. They’ll take it away from you too. They got it already. Ken: How can they tax your social security when they already taxed? Now they can because social security. ________ taxes to regular income. Bev: Well yes, and I still see that as an entitlement because it is something the people have paid into. Ken: So they are taxed when they are working. How can you tax them again when they are not working. Charlie: They don't talk about it. ____________Why they want your name and what you do. Now they want to find out what you eat. �Bev: And they probably know. Probably they put tracking devices on people’s cars and monitor your phone calls. Ken: But Hitler did that and he was considered a tyrant. __________Gestapo they call it Charlie: I tell you what. _________ Ken: You got any more questions? Bev: I don't but I want Charlie to talk because I think it’s important to get his philosophy of life. He has had a lot of years he's seen a lot of things, he's had a lot of experiences and like we said people today have forgotten. This is history. Ken: They haven't got as much in school ________. They don't want the kids to learn it. They don't teach it and they gloss over it and I know when I went to school in South DakotaSioux Falls. They would show you pictures of people in Africa with bones through their nose. Charlie: They said this is a free country I can do what I want to do. Then they said you can't do this in this country now. And __________ no matter what they do. They do it anyway now. Bev: Or they will arrest you for something and totally turn your life upside down to where you are afraid to fight back. Charlie: You just say something in this country and they get you. Where'd you get that from, who said that. __________. What happened. I don't know what happened to him. _____________. I give it up. Bev: I want to ask you. I don't know if I should but I am curious. What was your opinion, what did you think of Martin Luther King and his movement that he was trying to do? Charlie: It ain't right, by the people, for the people and it______ the devil is loose. Something you ain't said, you know this guy said this. Did he say that? You kill___ shoot you right away for something you ain't said. __________ You can do anything you want to do. Oh boy hey this and that. Are you kidding? Bev: But do you think the man they said killed him James Earl Ray, do you think someone put him up to it? Or do you think he really did it? The man that shot Martin Luther King? Do you think he was really the man that did it, that was responsible. Charlie: There you go. The man who did it you ___ right now you can get someone to do anything you want to do in this country. And to anybody and nobody know nothing about it. �Bev: And what did you think when Kennedy was shot? Charlie: The same thing. If not we ____the same thing. Only thing ______ don't have nothing, don't say nothing, don't do nothing, they leave you alone. Bev: Maybe. But somebody else is pulling the strings. Charlie: Well sure. That's right in your own country. Bev: Who do you think it might be? Charlie: ___________if you say he did this, he did that you still got _______ you can't say nothing. You got to know what you talk, what you say, and what you do. Bev: Do you think it will ever change for the good again. Charlie: You know why, when you got away from Jesus. ______ take care of what you got, take care of all the things you have and what you are ______never be right, never be the same. Bev: Say again what you just said about if you give in you don't have a life anyway. You are already dead. Charlie: You dead yeah. You give in. _______ things keep popping up everywhere. This, that, you never do nothing right. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. He got your brain, he got your eyes, _________ he got you so you can move. You got to man. I don't know what’s wrong with you. He probably kill you. Bev: He's probably pretty upset with us. Charlie: You know what happened__________ that you ain't going around. And he's the only __________ that ___________. I look at my mother and my grand-dad and my dad and they are the only people ____________. There's some good people in the south and some good people everywhere. But _________. Right now in America__________. Bev: What do you think about all the writing they have had. The problem in Jefferson Missouri and then the boy that was shot and killed this Trevon Martin. What do you think about those things? Charlie: The death is __________everywhere. One thing about the war is __________. __________ trying to fix everything. And the boys come along ___________ sell it_________ drug it behind my car__________. They all raised human being. What do you think. And they still do it. _______ If someone’s coming around to kill you, you wouldn't repeat it. Bev: Yes, I am sure we probably don't hear all of it that goes on either. We see some of it on the new s and read it but ... Charlie: No there's so much stuff on the news they got to put it out to the people to let the people know what's going on. �Ken: Yet the people still clamor to get in here though. The south into the north. Bev: Still better than what they had. Ken: Yes, it is. Charlie: You know what. They ___________what they do. Don't care when it is or what it is. If when the north and the south ___________ I am free now. Are you free now? You ain't free. Ken: ___________. Charlie: I ain't talking about what there was free. This country be just like another country. ___________. Ken: Is that why they keep coming over here. Charlie: You'd be surprised how much going on right now in our own country my good man. Do you know what's going on. Ken: But the people are still coming over here in the thousands. Charlie: By the thousands. Well that still doesn't solve your problem. Ken: It doesn't have to solve your problem. It's helping them be the ____________ do the less oppression. Bev: Then they start to oppress others Ken: But the point is they can at least get a job doing something and in the other country they couldn't. They were starving. Charlie: You know what? That was the beginning of times. And it’s going to be unto the end of times. Bev: Oh yeah there always war I'm afraid. Charlie: Always say just be ready. You go outside, tie your shoes up or leave them unlaced. You are still going to fall. You sure are going to fall. Bev: What people do you admire anyplace in the world? Do you have people you think are really special that you think have done a lot for other people. Charlie: No you know when you once bad you bad. Once you can help other people and you don't help them you feel bad. Bev: Do you think there is anybody besides Walt Disney that's made anybody feel better over the years? Do you think there were really some people that did help the country? Charlie: Let me tell you something. If I can help my brother, help your brother. If you can help your brother and don't help him, you should have. �Bev: What about you didn't have to be in combat when you were in the service? You never had to kill anybody. Charlie: No, But see here's what happened. Look what happened overseas now. Look what happened with man by hand _______ trying to catch, they caught them the other day didn't they? Bev: Oh those prisoners? Yes, one got killed and the other one they caught. Is that right? Charlie: Yes, and what you think they do with him now? Bev: Give him more time I suppose or try to rehabilitate him. Ken: ___________ be there for life anyway. They cannot be rehabilitated at all. Bev: But then the guard. I wonder what it took for her. Ken: She's dead meat. She going to do 5-6 years. But they had to have other help besides her. She did not give him the power drill. She might have given him some of the tools. ____ So where'd they get the drill from? How did they poke through a metal pip and know where to cut to get out? You can't do that by hand. Charlie: You know what happened? Right now you can't travel all through this country here ________ something happen to you. Bev: Bad days for hitchhiking anymore. Charlie: I tell you what. Hitchhiking may be safer other things now. Bev: Well it might be. It could be you just don't know who you are going to run into. Ken: They still hitchhike in Europe. They've got a different mentality. I was over there in the 60's and 70's people just hitchhike. Even now I hear from people come back, students hitchhike in Germany and France to get around. Different mentality than we have here. Bev: Yeah I remember and this is a little off the point but when the newspaper that I write for in Hill City. The parent paper is the Custer Chronicle and every week they do a question of the week and they go out and talk to people about what they think of this or that. It's been a few years ago now but one of the owners went out one time and she asked people in Custer "If the government promised to take care of you, would you be willing to give up some of your freedoms?" Everyone answered yes. Children grow up with that mentality. You have some of this 5 or 6 generations of people just expecting people to take care of you or bail you out or whatever. Ken: All these politicians that are running for office now that is their main theme. We going to take care of you. But they don't ______ do the same thing. They don't. They could get corrupt. _______ tell president this is how it’s going to be. You will follow this or this will happen to your family. Like the mafia. �Charlie: They got them going Bev: They are in a lot of businesses that seem fairly legitimate. That's where the money is. Charlie: ______how much stuff they throw out___________nothing to do about it. They just take it to the Lord. They did this, they did that. They did .. so what. Bev: I certainly don't have any answers but I think that like I said Charlie because he's had the experiences he's had and led the good life as long as he has, you're contributing valuable history to things that a lot of us don't know about. Charlie: Yeah _____ I went through a lot of stuff. But __________it is pretty hard. I remember the first time ____________ we at one church we go to. Bev: Is this a Baptist church? Charlie: Baptist. Everybody go to church, everybody go to church in the mornings, go back in the afternoon and go back at night. Everybody. Bev: You spent the whole day in church basically. Charlie: Yep whole day in church and around all church people. We used to go to church at night. We couldn't even see. ____________We could hear them talking but we couldn't see them. No Streetlight but we still went. Now you can't go to church with all the lights on. Ken: But the people that helped Charlie get started in Sioux Falls were Jewish people. Charlie: __________ Ken: ________ helped him get first house because he could not get a loan from the bank because of his color. He could not move. ____________house in Sioux Falls in the 50's-60's. Charlie: You know what happened? It's the same thing today. I'm not gonna say not as bad. Still the same. It's still the same. Ken: ___________ to get this house. Charlie: and the car, I ____________pickup. And I didn't know how to drive. Bev: I think that’s funny. Must not have been as much traffic back then either. Charlie: I couldn't stop for a stop sign. I tell you what they'd have hit me if I was still driving. Ken: It wasn't as much traffic in the smaller town and he didn't go far. �Bev: I want to ask something else and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Personally I always have a lot of trouble with the word black. To me it sounds offensive. How do you feel about that? Ken: That started in the 60's when the black power came out but it doesn't bother me because in grade school and middle school __________ but it got to a point where I backed down from the bullies I got their respect and they left me alone. But the other kids coming up behind me couldn’t fight for themselves. They got persecuted not me. Charlie: Yeah you know it’s still going the same now Ken: Yes, it is. Now the schools say you shouldn't fight. The school say you can't bring a pocket knife ____________ boys scouts. You can't bring a pocket knife to school. These double standards. But yet you turn 18 they want you get in the army and go kill people. I was called names but I didn't tolerate it. ____ my sister on the other hand did not. They had to put her in the Catholic School. I went through the public school system in Sioux Falls. By the same token come summertime I could ride anywhere in town I wanted to ride and nothing would happen. I went in visited my cousins in Chicago. I could not go outside a block to a gangs had different blocks. ________ beat your ass. Sioux Falls they fought one on one. Chicago they fight in gangs. This is the 50's Bev: Yeah and so among themselves. Charlie: You know another thing that would happen some people cruel, you can't help yourself, a girl having a baby ______________and she bring the kid up. And the kid have a tough time coming up. Coming up by itself. Even now some of them come up with a mother and a dad. They have a tough time coming up. Now how many of their kids didn't do nothing and _________ and stuff. Some put them in prison. Even in jail_____. Bev: Well theirs so many today where there are no fathers in the home and it seems to me the mothers work hard and are probably gone a lot but there's something about a father figure. There's no hero's today. Ken: Well some of the fathers who are home in large cities now. They are on drugs. Be beating their wives up. Even they go or being there and kids witness beating their momma's up or be on drugs or be an alcoholic. Bev: But this is like Charlie said that people think different today. They've forgotten Jesus they’ve forgotten kindness. Ken: They haven't forgotten society makes priority __________ used to. So society Charlie: As a whole of a country most countries you grow up __________ what your kids have to be, every kid have to do, every mother have to do, every dad have to do, ________ but they grew up they free. They got no Dad no mother. What they got? What do the kids say? I ain't got no mother, no Dad. What do I do? �Ken: That's where the gangs come in. _______________ Charlie: That's where you divide your nation. Now right here in America you get kids do anything. And they got everything. Good schools. Everything. You see that's what happens. Bev: But they don't feel connected to anyone or anyplace or they need a hug and there is no one to give them a hug. So they band together. Ken: That's the gangs. They gain substance in pairs. Charlie: There are a lot of gangs out there. This guy here he helped me. He tied my shoes up. He do this he do that. But this whole universe, this whole nation. That's what teared it apart. Who cares. I don't care. Only myself that’s it. We got a big problem. Bev: Life is cheap anymore. Charlie: You don't have a right anymore. Bev: You are very definitely right. You are 98 now Charlie is that right? Charlie: I don't know how old I am. Ken: 1917 __________gangs I experienced it the gangs who are selling drugs don't get the drugs unless it come from outside the ghetto. If it comes from outside the ghetto... Italians, Mexicans or Jamaicans they bring in from outside the country to the ghettos. So who is the first one to get busted? People in the corners. Bev: The little guys Ken: They come in ships and planes _____________ Charlie: See that's what happened now you can build this country up but we have bad people coming in this country and ___________one minute I look at the paper _________ president and stuff like that___________ they got connection___________ Ken: _________people got the power to look out for their interests and I still can't grasp the politicians that will speak at the colleges. They were on the radio a couple days ago. They could demand 30-40 thousand dollars for a half hour speech. That's ridiculous. Bev: But that's our taxpayer dollars at work in a roundabout way and of course they shape minds. I remember when Timothy Leary came on the scene and nothing has been the same since. Charlie: Get rid of it no more get out of this country Ken: you know what happened next to you. The people in Utah. They got two or three wives. They want their rights next. �Bev: Well we got the rainbow people visiting here now and they are all free thinkers and free lovers Charlie: I demand what the people in this country. Ken: Polygamists they want their rights next. Charlie: No, they got no rights. They.... (laughter) Bev: Way to go Charlie Charlie: I love to cut you up. All you politician all you run for president, politicians doing .._____ get rid of every one of them � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interviews Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid City Public Library Description An account of the resource Oral Histories recorded for the Rapid City Oral History Project by Rapid City Public Library Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Charlie Smith Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Bev Pechan and Kim Morey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 56:23 Location The location of the interview Rapid City Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview: Charlie Smith Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-07-01 Subject The topic of the resource World War II, Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois, Field Cook, Army Airforce, Sioux Falls, Business Owner, Civil Right Movement, Oral History, South Dakota, Jackson, Mississippi, Politics, Fishing Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Yes Description An account of the resource Bev Pechan and Kim Morey interview Charlie Smith along with his son Ken Smith. In the interview, Charlie relates childhood stories about his birthplace, Jackson, Mississippi. He tells of his time in the Army Air Corps during World War II and how he ended up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The interview spans several different discussion topics. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 290758 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid City Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rapid City Public Library Chicago Civil Right Movement Fishing Illinois Jackson Kentucky Mississippi Politics Sioux Falls South Dakota United States Army Air Forces World War II