Chicago Slices, episode 9311

Episode 9311 of the show featuring everyday Chicagoans.

1:22Copy video clip URL Open w/ Studs Terkel: “Chicago is a city of hands.  See this hand I got? Hand is an old fashioned word for working people, working men, working women. Chicago is a city of hands.”

2:02Copy video clip URL “And this week it’s working people. A pilot, a poet, an options trader (an options trader, yeah, like he works), a UPS man, an elevator operator and we start with the guy who delivers our bottled water.”

2:20Copy video clip URL Hinckley and Schmitt: Starting at the factory at 63rd and South Harlem, delivery man Jim Nitka travels from loading docks to elevators to offices delivering 50 pound bottles of water to downtown businesses. He shares the “water man’s philosophy”: “Sell more, make more,” and comments on company policy.

5:56Copy video clip URL Elevator Attendant: As she travels between floors, Le Trice Franklin talks about her job as an elevator operator in the Gainer Bank Building in Gary, Indiana. “I meet a lot of different people, some of them are quite rude. But the majority of them are nice and I have a lot of connections here… doctors, lawyers, you know, it’s pretty nice. The mayor comes in and the governor. We have a governor’s office on the 4th floor and he comes in every now and then. They make a big deal about that. You have to like people to have this job.”

7:17Copy video clip URL Commercial hole

8:18Copy video clip URL Ed Sadlowski Roast: Family, friends, and co-workers gather together at Local 65 Union Hall on 93rd and South Chicago Avenue to celebrate the retirement of former Union Organizer and Director of District 3, Sub District 31 of the United Steelworkers of America, Ed Sadlowski. Studs Terkel talks about the history of Chicago labor and the legacy of the union movement, “Chicago is a city of hands and it’s these working men and women of calloused hands that built the city. It wasn’t hot shots; it wasn’t sharpies; it was the muscle of these people who built this town and that’s Chicago… and that’s why we honor Eddie Sadlowski tonight as he retires from the steelworkers union.”

10:48Copy video clip URL Chicago Board of Trade: From the pit, trader Jim Hensel describes the concept of US Treasury Bond Futures, “They’re trading the debt of the United States of America here, trying to put a value on what you’d be willing to take on the debt of the U.S. Federal government.” He also shows the items he wears and carries in his pockets: a lucky tie, pictures of his kids, dental floss, a miniature harmonica, and a lucky dreidel. “This is the secret to my trading (the dreidel). There’s four sides, one side is sell, one side is buy, one side is go flat, and the other side is to spread the trade. So, if I get into a real bind and don’t know what to do I spin the dreidel and see what I come up with.” How is the dreidel doing? “I’ve never used it (laughs), but I’ve got it here in case I have to use it!” We follow him home to Northbrook on the two thirty five pm Metra commuter train.

15:36Copy video clip URL Sno-Cone Man: Street Vendor Percy Fair makes up a snow-cone for Slices cameraman Andrew Jones at 75th and Jefferey.

16:48Copy video clip URL UPS Man: Angel Correa picks up packages at the UPS warehouse at Jefferson and Roosevelt Road and delivers them to downtown destinations. On the way he talks about his work philosophy, “The job has its good days and its bad days. It’s kind of frustrating, but if you keep your mind on what you are doing, it will turn out to be a good day. It’s all about mind over matter.”

19:38Copy video clip URL Commercial hole

20:38Copy video clip URL Then and Now: A montage of images of the old O’Hare and the new O’Hare International Airport.

21:14Copy video clip URL Pilot: Cathy Rumsey, a first office r for United Airlines, talks about the advantage of being the captain from the cockpit, “The captain is the ultimate authority… everyone aspires to be the captain… it’s better to be the boss than work for the boss.” What’s good about being a woman with her job? “I get to work with men. That’s key. I liked that a lot, but everyone’s so professional here. It’s never been an issue. They treat me just like they treat anybody else. It’s the passengers that look sometimes surprised.” Rumsey also takes a spin in her own small prop plane out of Du Page County Airport.

23:22Copy video clip URL Oscar Brown, Jr.: African-American singer/songwriter performs with his family at Spices Jazz Bar.

(Text on Screen)This family reunion concert on July 24th, 1993, was Chicagoan Oscar Brown, Jr.’s homecoming from the west coast. He appeared with his wife Jean Pace, daughters Maggie Brown and Africa Pace Brown, son Oscar Brown III (Bobo) and Calvin Johnson. Jean Pace comments on her cultural identity, “We understand where we come from and why we’re in the position we are in now. We came from the strongest dudes and women that survived on that ship. That’s where we came from – the ones that lived across that ocean and they’re our ancestors and we’re strong. That’s where the Michael Jordans, the O.J. Simpsons, the Arthur Ashes, Althea Gibson…we came from the strongest people and they want to keep us down, but they can’t.” Brown adds, “If they try and put black people down and keep them down perpetually it will exhaust white people forever…it would be much easier to join forces and cut out the crap.”

26:25Copy video clip URL Commercial hole

27:24Copy video clip URL Credits: w/ people working at different jobs.