["Alina's Place" by Fredrik]
- Samuel Black: He worked late hours,
especially in the wintertime,
'cause you had to keep the pipes from freezin'.
And workin' in the boiler room, it's burnin' up hot
and it's probably like, over 100 degrees down there.
- Edda Fields-Black: Did he ever talk about
what it was like to do that kind of work?
- Samuel: He didn't have to talk about it.
Daddy would come home tired to the bone every night
and he would just fall out on the bed.
And I remember climbin' on top of him
and playin' with his muscles, you know.
And there we times when he would ask us to rub his feet.
You know, and back then, we hated it.
I mean, he'd been working 16-hour days.
[laughs] You'd take his socks off, you know,
as you rub his feet, you know.
You hated to walk past his bedroom
'cause he'd call you in there and ask you to do that.
But lookin' back on it, his body was probably killin' him
and he was being soothed by his little boys.
You know, workin' all those hours,
he didn't have time to discuss things.
You had to get it right that time and that time only.
- Edda: So he was a stern disciplinarian?
- Samuel: He was a very stern disciplinarian.
Sometimes he didn't have to do anything but look at you.
But you knew what that meant.
For instance, I think I might've been about 10 years old,
me and a friend, our goal was to get
a 16-ounce root beer and potato chips.
So we went hunting for pop bottles.
You know, the pop bottles had a deposit on 'em,
you take 'em back to the store.
And I didn't have enough to get my treat,
so I decided to take some of the store's bottles,
put 'em in my bag, and then go up to the counter
and turn 'em in as my own.
So all of a sudden, I get this feeling that come over me
and I look up, and standing in the window
lookin' down at me was my father.
And all he did was gave the finger motion to come here.
So I just walked out of the store,
and he just said real quietly, "Get home."
And so I turned and started walkin' home
and he was walkin' behind me,
and it seemed like the long march, you know.
So we got home and he asked me why did I do it.
I told him, "All I needed was a dime.
"The chips cost a dime."
And so he said, "The next time you need some money,
"you ask your mother."
So I was, "Okay, okay," and I'm wipin' my tears and everything.
So I walk over to Mama and I said,
"Mama, can I have a dime?"
And she said, "No." [both laughing]
And it wasn't till after he passed
that I found out we had credit at that store.
And so my going in there stealin' pop bottles
could've like, ruined that whole relationship.
["Den Sista Fabriken" by Fredrik]