It’s A Living: Barney

Part of a series called It's a Living, based loosely on Studs Terkel's book Working. This tape follows a sanitation worker named Barney as he does his work.

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0:00Copy video clip URL Barney. Shots of trucks.

1:12Copy video clip URL Title: It’s a Living. Barney.

1:55Copy video clip URL Garbage truck doing rounds. Following truck in car, down Lake Street, under “El ” tracks. Barney collects the garbage. He does voice over about his feelings about his job. Barney talks about how even though he is officially allotted an hour for lunch, he never takes a break because he doesn’t have time to get his route done. He is depressed by the fact that every day his job is the same and that every day there will be more garbage. Barney says he was born in LA, and he used to be a garbage man there.

13:59Copy video clip URL Driving around Chicago behind truck with music. Barney does more voice over as we see his route. He says that if he just works hard enough, he doesn’t have time to think about his life. He also talks about his alcoholism and says that if he just has one drink, it’s all over for him. He says that after that first drink, he would sell everything he owned to keep drinking. He talks about first starting to drink heavily when he was in his 30s and in the Merchant Marines. Martin Luther King speech on car radio. The crew arranges to meet Barney at Lincoln and Belden.

26:22Copy video clip URL Credits

28:40Copy video clip URL End of tape.