Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1975)
'Working' litany of discontent Working-People Talk About What Tliey Do All Day and How Tliey Feel About What Tliey Do, by Studs Terkel. Pantheon Books, New York, $10. Avon Paperback edition, $2.25. Terkcl's Working, newly out in paperback, becomes even more fascinating in light of our current economic plight. Job-hunting seniors may want to take a look at the nearly universal discontent Terkel finds that people have with their work. Interviews His book is a collection of interviews with many people of many professions. He talks to people in their homes, on their front steps and in their hangouts and eventually tries to record their feelings on tap". His interviewing is a conversational art and he says in the introduction that he avoids a journalistic "get all the facts" manner of questioning. From TerkePs tape recorder, like from a Pandora's box, springs the raw material for his books. His earlier works include Hard Times, a chronicle of the depression years through the lives of those who experienced them and Division Street, America, which showed the grind of living in the city. Now he has tackled working, an institution both praised and cursed throughout the centuries. Louis Hay ward talks about being a" washroom attendant, and how at one time he couldn't have imagined how menial the job would have seemed. Now vince boucher the intervening years have dulled that perception. Housewife Therese Carter prattles on about how she fills her time, while, the author notes a copy of Vic Savage God (a study of suicide) on a nearby table. Pharmacist Nino Guidici claims that work is the normal thing, yet admits "that to be successful, you have to be a rat," even if that success is managing the corner drug store: Stockbroker Ray Wax always claimed he didn't rip anyone off, until he found the whole world was rigged. -Varied discontent The litany of discontent varies with the status and the duties of each job; workers trying to find some corner of their activity to take pride in, bureaucrats convinced of the mcaninglessness of their efforts so far from the decision making, laborers who feel the greatest tragedy of their lives would be to see their children do the same work. Very few are even satisfied, fewer are edified and many are surprisingly articulate about what '.hey dream of doing. , A sobering book for seniors, entering the great employment marketplace and a thoughful one for everyone to read. These personalities are ill different, yet the similarity of their experiences catches the reader. They each are involved in disparate work. But they are there together and you can see them on any street downtown, trudging resignedly toward home, at 5 p.m. Any day. n ; ; - V f- " I f ? ; ' f . '' M ..kJti . v- lll j Smithing fakes timing, work Continued from p. 8 Pehoski compared blacksmi thing to music. "Becoming a talented smith involves timing, rhythm, and lots of practice, just like a musician." Smiths are not awarded "Master Smith" certificates but "talented, dedicated smiths are known and recognized by their own kind," Pehoski said. "Craftsmen have no legal protection against frauds," he said. "But poor Work usually does not find a good market." No mass production A skilled smith is able to make , items which cannot be mass produced and that is the appeal of a true craftsman, Pehoski said. "A lot of effects can be reproduced in mass but there are creations which can only be produced by hand," he said. The blacksmith is always looking for new techniques and new designs. New ideas arc always welcomed, he said. "The greatest compliment a skilled smith can pay to another is to ask him how something was done," Pehoski said.. He also told participants about the Stuhr blacksmith shop and said he and others had just made a foundry to produce molten iron for casting. Participants also toured the LL;. Smith Blacksmith shop on the grounds of Lincoln Steel and Pehoski explained uses for several of the special-use tools in the museum. . r J i . ' W- : -. - u " i ' .( I J ' .If1 fl -A. BIack8mith Pehoski explains and uses the basic tools of his trade while presenting a short history of the craft to Centennial students. OlSTOfl'S DEPENDENT SPECIALISTS, INC. Our business is the repair of VW vehicles and the selling of parts and accessories tor Volkswagen vehicles. "K-.iii.uuiil U.I J. ..i ' Brake Work Engirt Rebuilding RSairwnclfi$Pctiort Parts & Accssorir Tlras Lubrications & Oil Front End & Smpamion Work Hurrtar Whwef Aliflnmawt Dynamic Whsel BaWirtcirtg An Independent Service Center 2435 N. 33rd 467 2397 CLOCK TOWER STUDIO 70TH & "A" STREET 489-0063 CREATIVE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHJ VERY REASONABLE PRICED r s r j I .. w- . -i 1 ' '-I nil BY APPOINTMENT ONLY GARY CERDING. PHOTOGRAPHER i it .t page 17 daily nebraskan thursday, eoril 17, 1975