WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.490 --> 00:00:00.990 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:00:00.990 --> 00:00:02.790 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLING] 00:00:02.790 --> 00:00:03.540 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Garett. 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:90% That was awesome. 00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:10.835 align:middle line:84% My stay here is short, but Tucson is really cool. 00:00:10.835 --> 00:00:12.210 align:middle line:84% I was saying that, wherever I go, 00:00:12.210 --> 00:00:13.612 align:middle line:90% I say wherever I'm at is cool. 00:00:13.612 --> 00:00:14.820 align:middle line:90% But here, I actually mean it. 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:19.530 align:middle line:84% Got to walk around 4th Street today, 00:00:19.530 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:84% and had some nice tacos and a piece of pie. 00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:26.640 align:middle line:84% And the temperature was right, but I 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:31.140 align:middle line:84% was feeling the mojo of the place a little bit. 00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:33.320 align:middle line:90% And I liked it quite a bit. 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:84% I'm very happy to be here, in this beautiful venue. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:40.560 align:middle line:84% I get to stay in what I-- just right next door, here, 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:41.310 align:middle line:90% there's a little-- 00:00:41.310 --> 00:00:44.880 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you guys know-- it's this hidden little room. 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:48.300 align:middle line:84% Beautiful modern little apartment 00:00:48.300 --> 00:00:50.220 align:middle line:90% that I get to stay in. 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:53.460 align:middle line:84% And have many new friends on the faculty, 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:58.230 align:middle line:84% here, who are writers who I have admired, and still admire, 00:00:58.230 --> 00:01:00.500 align:middle line:84% and who are also very nice people. 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:02.694 align:middle line:90% Which is always a good thing. 00:01:02.694 --> 00:01:04.319 align:middle line:84% This is all to say I'm glad to be here. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.546 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLING] 00:01:07.546 --> 00:01:09.150 align:middle line:90% 00:01:09.150 --> 00:01:12.010 align:middle line:84% The book's been out a couple of years, now, 00:01:12.010 --> 00:01:16.290 align:middle line:84% which is amazing to say, because it just seems like yesterday it 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:17.860 align:middle line:90% came out. 00:01:17.860 --> 00:01:23.970 align:middle line:84% But I've been interviewed well over 100 times. 00:01:23.970 --> 00:01:28.470 align:middle line:84% And there's a question, or a line 00:01:28.470 --> 00:01:34.000 align:middle line:84% of questioning, that follows me everywhere I go, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.070 align:middle line:90% which is this question of why. 00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:42.420 align:middle line:90% Why did you write these stories? 00:01:42.420 --> 00:01:43.650 align:middle line:90% What's the matter with you? 00:01:43.650 --> 00:01:45.570 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLING] 00:01:45.570 --> 00:01:47.220 align:middle line:84% And it's an interesting question. 00:01:47.220 --> 00:01:49.880 align:middle line:84% I remember the very first interview I gave, 00:01:49.880 --> 00:01:52.110 align:middle line:84% this was the very first question. 00:01:52.110 --> 00:01:54.390 align:middle line:90% And I had no idea what to say. 00:01:54.390 --> 00:01:56.880 align:middle line:84% I just stuttered around and said some stuff. 00:01:56.880 --> 00:01:58.650 align:middle line:84% I listen to that, now, as nostalgia. 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:03.180 align:middle line:84% Oh, the naive young man with his first interview. 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:05.730 align:middle line:84% But it's an interesting-- it's a very important, I think, 00:02:05.730 --> 00:02:08.265 align:middle line:84% artistic question to have to answer. 00:02:08.265 --> 00:02:11.820 align:middle line:90% 00:02:11.820 --> 00:02:14.670 align:middle line:84% I'll give you an example of what I mean by this, just 00:02:14.670 --> 00:02:17.040 align:middle line:84% to have you guys participate a little bit. 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:23.880 align:middle line:84% If I ask you, what's your favorite color, some of you 00:02:23.880 --> 00:02:25.440 align:middle line:90% might go, I don't know. 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:26.910 align:middle line:90% Panic. 00:02:26.910 --> 00:02:27.840 align:middle line:90% Say, you say red. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.030 align:middle line:90% Red's my favorite color. 00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:35.040 align:middle line:84% Then, if I asked you, why is red your favorite color. 00:02:35.040 --> 00:02:37.715 align:middle line:90% 00:02:37.715 --> 00:02:41.070 align:middle line:84% Uh, well, I like the Chicago Bulls, 00:02:41.070 --> 00:02:44.670 align:middle line:84% and their uniforms are red and black white. 00:02:44.670 --> 00:02:49.110 align:middle line:84% In high school, our school colors were red and white. 00:02:49.110 --> 00:02:52.425 align:middle line:84% I once read a book on feng shui, and red is a power color. 00:02:52.425 --> 00:02:55.125 align:middle line:90% 00:02:55.125 --> 00:02:59.280 align:middle line:84% You have to track your way back to what 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:01.402 align:middle line:84% might be the influence that would 00:03:01.402 --> 00:03:03.360 align:middle line:84% make you say red, as opposed to green, or blue, 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.040 align:middle line:90% or anything else. 00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:07.650 align:middle line:84% And it was the same sort of process 00:03:07.650 --> 00:03:11.550 align:middle line:84% of going back through what I had written, what I had done. 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.620 align:middle line:90% What have you done? 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:16.350 align:middle line:90% Why did you do this? 00:03:16.350 --> 00:03:21.660 align:middle line:84% And I got some very, very interesting results 00:03:21.660 --> 00:03:24.910 align:middle line:84% in thinking about the answer to this question. 00:03:24.910 --> 00:03:27.872 align:middle line:84% One of the things I learned, pretty early on-- it was 00:03:27.872 --> 00:03:29.580 align:middle line:84% the third or fourth interview that I did, 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:30.270 align:middle line:90% and it was one of those-- 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:31.350 align:middle line:90% I did a radio interview. 00:03:31.350 --> 00:03:33.370 align:middle line:84% And it's one they put on the internet. 00:03:33.370 --> 00:03:36.850 align:middle line:84% So my relatives all over the country could hear it. 00:03:36.850 --> 00:03:42.660 align:middle line:84% And in that interview, I said, I come from a long line 00:03:42.660 --> 00:03:44.820 align:middle line:90% of storytellers-- 00:03:44.820 --> 00:03:50.640 align:middle line:84% which is true-- though I am the first writer in my family. 00:03:50.640 --> 00:03:54.870 align:middle line:84% And I immediately got a message from my Auntie Cheryl. 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:59.040 align:middle line:84% And she's like, you are not the first writer in the family. 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:02.160 align:middle line:84% I'm like, who else is writing in the family? 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:04.755 align:middle line:84% No one even reads books, let alone writes. 00:04:04.755 --> 00:04:05.880 align:middle line:90% What are you talking about? 00:04:05.880 --> 00:04:08.520 align:middle line:84% She's like, I'll send you some stuff in the mail. 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:15.030 align:middle line:84% She sent me 11 typed pages that would be-- 00:04:15.030 --> 00:04:17.310 align:middle line:90% someone had typed it up-- 00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:20.670 align:middle line:84% the translated version of the diary 00:04:20.670 --> 00:04:25.230 align:middle line:84% of my great, great, great, great, great grandfather 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:29.700 align:middle line:84% on my mother's side, a man named Floyd Barker. 00:04:29.700 --> 00:04:36.300 align:middle line:84% And it was reading just those few pages, 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:44.010 align:middle line:84% I had this extraordinary, enlightening feeling, 00:04:44.010 --> 00:04:45.940 align:middle line:90% for a couple of reasons. 00:04:45.940 --> 00:04:52.920 align:middle line:84% One was, I always wondered, why do I have words in me. 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:55.560 align:middle line:84% It's one thing to say I'm a storyteller, 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:59.100 align:middle line:84% but there's another thing to say that I have words in me. 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:01.060 align:middle line:90% I'm interested in words. 00:05:01.060 --> 00:05:04.540 align:middle line:84% I'm passionate about words, and putting words together. 00:05:04.540 --> 00:05:06.610 align:middle line:84% It's not that when we were telling stories, 00:05:06.610 --> 00:05:09.317 align:middle line:84% we didn't care about how we were telling them. 00:05:09.317 --> 00:05:10.900 align:middle line:84% We always tell them as well as we can. 00:05:10.900 --> 00:05:11.830 align:middle line:84% But it's a different thing to say, 00:05:11.830 --> 00:05:13.210 align:middle line:84% I need to put the words down the page. 00:05:13.210 --> 00:05:15.290 align:middle line:84% And I'm like, I don't know where that came from. 00:05:15.290 --> 00:05:18.280 align:middle line:84% And I felt like a freak in my own family. 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:19.780 align:middle line:84% Like this thing that had emerged out 00:05:19.780 --> 00:05:23.470 align:middle line:84% of a weird, brown egg, instead of all the white ones. 00:05:23.470 --> 00:05:25.420 align:middle line:84% But then I read Floyd Barker's diary. 00:05:25.420 --> 00:05:28.430 align:middle line:90% And I'll read you a passage. 00:05:28.430 --> 00:05:32.320 align:middle line:84% And again, this is a man who's just a farmer. 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:33.550 align:middle line:90% Just a farmer. 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:34.050 align:middle line:90% Here. 00:05:34.050 --> 00:05:35.592 align:middle line:84% Let me read you a passage, and you'll 00:05:35.592 --> 00:05:37.900 align:middle line:90% understand what I'm saying. 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:40.900 align:middle line:84% Says, on the return trip, William 00:05:40.900 --> 00:05:44.260 align:middle line:84% cut a cottonwood width at the river, and used it for a weapon 00:05:44.260 --> 00:05:46.720 align:middle line:84% after arriving at the home near Old Pigeon. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.390 align:middle line:84% He stuck it into the damp earth near the spring, 00:05:49.390 --> 00:05:52.640 align:middle line:84% and the resulting tree blew down only a few years ago, 00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:56.056 align:middle line:84% and saplings may yet be found about the stump. 00:05:56.056 --> 00:05:57.370 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:05:57.370 --> 00:06:00.250 align:middle line:84% It's a beautiful sentence, right? 00:06:00.250 --> 00:06:03.310 align:middle line:84% Nine years of graduate school, to write sentences 00:06:03.310 --> 00:06:05.950 align:middle line:84% like this man, who was just a farmer, and probably only 00:06:05.950 --> 00:06:09.460 align:middle line:84% had the family Bible in the house. 00:06:09.460 --> 00:06:10.600 align:middle line:90% I'm like, OK. 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:14.410 align:middle line:84% Maybe words have always been in there. 00:06:14.410 --> 00:06:16.327 align:middle line:84% Maybe words have always been in there. 00:06:16.327 --> 00:06:18.160 align:middle line:84% I'm more convinced, now that my book is out, 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:20.950 align:middle line:84% and I have conversations with my other family members, 00:06:20.950 --> 00:06:23.410 align:middle line:84% and find out that they had been secretly reading. 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:25.720 align:middle line:90% And what my dad said, no, no. 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:27.130 align:middle line:90% I love Robert Frost. 00:06:27.130 --> 00:06:28.660 align:middle line:90% What are you talking about? 00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:30.910 align:middle line:84% I've never seen you read a book in my whole life. 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:35.975 align:middle line:84% And then he recites a Robert Frost poem. 00:06:35.975 --> 00:06:36.850 align:middle line:90% The things you learn. 00:06:36.850 --> 00:06:38.740 align:middle line:90% The things you learn. 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:42.820 align:middle line:84% The other thing is the content of what I write about. 00:06:42.820 --> 00:06:46.360 align:middle line:84% Why are these preoccupations in me? 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:49.810 align:middle line:84% There's a certain amount that is where I grew up, 00:06:49.810 --> 00:06:52.570 align:middle line:84% and the things I saw, and the things 00:06:52.570 --> 00:06:55.360 align:middle line:84% I was in close proximity to, that have imprinted, 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:57.830 align:middle line:84% forced me into thinking about certain things. 00:06:57.830 --> 00:07:02.230 align:middle line:84% But the main thing in reading Floyd Barker's diary 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:05.620 align:middle line:84% is that I found his preoccupations are 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:08.530 align:middle line:84% my preoccupations, in a strange way. 00:07:08.530 --> 00:07:11.230 align:middle line:90% I'll read another paragraph. 00:07:11.230 --> 00:07:15.490 align:middle line:84% Said, after passing the present side of Brandenburg, Kentucky, 00:07:15.490 --> 00:07:18.220 align:middle line:84% the party was attacked by Indians, and those not killed 00:07:18.220 --> 00:07:20.200 align:middle line:90% were made prisoners. 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:22.600 align:middle line:84% It is said that one of the Barker boys 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:24.580 align:middle line:84% tried to escape by swimming the river, 00:07:24.580 --> 00:07:28.120 align:middle line:84% but was killed in the water, and his body caught, 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.140 align:middle line:84% and the heart taken out and broiled, 00:07:32.140 --> 00:07:37.400 align:middle line:84% and an effort made to compel his mother to eat it. 00:07:37.400 --> 00:07:42.640 align:middle line:90% However, this she refused to do. 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:45.250 align:middle line:90% What? 00:07:45.250 --> 00:07:47.500 align:middle line:90% I write fiction. 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:52.510 align:middle line:84% This is a man putting down stuff that happened. 00:07:52.510 --> 00:07:54.160 align:middle line:84% It was an extraordinary moment for me 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:59.560 align:middle line:90% to say, why, why do I write? 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:01.840 align:middle line:90% Why do I Write? 00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:06.220 align:middle line:84% The same reason this man wrote that paragraph. 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:08.350 align:middle line:84% He's not sending it off to The New Yorker, 00:08:08.350 --> 00:08:09.580 align:middle line:90% trying to get published. 00:08:09.580 --> 00:08:11.230 align:middle line:84% This stuff, no one even knew about it. 00:08:11.230 --> 00:08:15.070 align:middle line:84% This man is writing because he's trying to express 00:08:15.070 --> 00:08:17.202 align:middle line:90% that these things happened. 00:08:17.202 --> 00:08:18.910 align:middle line:84% And I can read you other paragraphs, too, 00:08:18.910 --> 00:08:22.120 align:middle line:84% of seeing him struggle with some of the things that 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:25.090 align:middle line:84% were happening, trying to make sense of the world. 00:08:25.090 --> 00:08:27.230 align:middle line:90% And this is what we do. 00:08:27.230 --> 00:08:29.950 align:middle line:84% We have these stories that are in us. 00:08:29.950 --> 00:08:33.400 align:middle line:84% And for some of us, the impulse is 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:37.240 align:middle line:84% to get them out of us, to put them down, to write them, 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:39.309 align:middle line:90% to find words to express them. 00:08:39.309 --> 00:08:43.100 align:middle line:84% 11 pages of extraordinary stories, family history, 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:46.240 align:middle line:84% which is important, but a man sitting by himself 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:48.910 align:middle line:84% and writing down words to express things 00:08:48.910 --> 00:08:52.750 align:middle line:84% that he has seen and felt. It's a powerful thing. 00:08:52.750 --> 00:08:55.360 align:middle line:90% 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:57.370 align:middle line:84% The story that I'm going to read from tonight 00:08:57.370 --> 00:09:00.880 align:middle line:90% is also based on a family story. 00:09:00.880 --> 00:09:03.010 align:middle line:84% In a similar fashion, it's based on a man 00:09:03.010 --> 00:09:04.120 align:middle line:90% having to tell a story. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:05.770 align:middle line:84% It's a story my grandfather told me 00:09:05.770 --> 00:09:10.690 align:middle line:84% when I was just a little boy that's nine years old. 00:09:10.690 --> 00:09:13.840 align:middle line:84% And my grandpa Heathcock told me about a time 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.530 align:middle line:84% when he was a foreman for Sinclair Oil. 00:09:17.530 --> 00:09:21.040 align:middle line:84% And his job was to drive all around the oil wells, 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:23.080 align:middle line:84% and make sure everything was working properly. 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:27.040 align:middle line:84% And one day, his truck came nose-to-nose 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:29.470 align:middle line:90% with another truck. 00:09:29.470 --> 00:09:32.560 align:middle line:84% Now, the roads were so narrow, and the ditches were so steep, 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:34.540 align:middle line:84% that there was no way for the trucks 00:09:34.540 --> 00:09:37.300 align:middle line:90% to get around one another. 00:09:37.300 --> 00:09:39.513 align:middle line:84% My grandfather told me that he got out of his truck, 00:09:39.513 --> 00:09:40.930 align:middle line:84% and went and told the other driver 00:09:40.930 --> 00:09:42.970 align:middle line:84% that he was the foreman for Sinclair, 00:09:42.970 --> 00:09:46.030 align:middle line:84% and that that other man needed to put his truck in reverse, 00:09:46.030 --> 00:09:50.650 align:middle line:84% and drive in reverse for miles, back the other way. 00:09:50.650 --> 00:09:53.680 align:middle line:84% And the other man did not care for my grandfather's 00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:55.840 align:middle line:90% suggestion. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:57.470 align:middle line:90% They had some words over it. 00:09:57.470 --> 00:10:01.390 align:middle line:84% And this is what I remember vividly. 00:10:01.390 --> 00:10:04.630 align:middle line:84% Because my grandfather, he was a very genial man. 00:10:04.630 --> 00:10:09.250 align:middle line:84% He can play 100 country gospel tunes on his guitar by ear, 00:10:09.250 --> 00:10:12.910 align:middle line:84% and he liked telling funny stories, practical jokes he 00:10:12.910 --> 00:10:15.650 align:middle line:84% played on his brothers, fishing stories, that kind of thing. 00:10:15.650 --> 00:10:17.620 align:middle line:84% So this was kind of unique, a little bit. 00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:23.110 align:middle line:84% But I remember he balled a big, meaty fist, and he leaned in, 00:10:23.110 --> 00:10:30.040 align:middle line:84% and he said, so I went and got me a tire iron, 00:10:30.040 --> 00:10:34.780 align:middle line:84% and I hit that man until he went back from where he came. 00:10:34.780 --> 00:10:37.990 align:middle line:90% 00:10:37.990 --> 00:10:40.660 align:middle line:84% And that's the type of story that'll stick with a kid. 00:10:40.660 --> 00:10:44.980 align:middle line:90% 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:49.930 align:middle line:84% I thought a long time about, why did grandpa tell me that story. 00:10:49.930 --> 00:10:54.370 align:middle line:84% I think, for a while, I thought there was some edifying 00:10:54.370 --> 00:10:55.210 align:middle line:90% purpose to it. 00:10:55.210 --> 00:10:58.720 align:middle line:84% Like he was trying to teach me something about what 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.070 align:middle line:90% it means to be a man. 00:11:00.070 --> 00:11:03.770 align:middle line:84% We're not macho people, so that never set well with me, 00:11:03.770 --> 00:11:06.160 align:middle line:84% but that's what I thought maybe it was. 00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:09.610 align:middle line:90% And I was 18 years old. 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:11.980 align:middle line:84% My grandfather had passed away for a few years, 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:14.740 align:middle line:84% and I was on a fishing trip with all my cousins. 00:11:14.740 --> 00:11:18.733 align:middle line:84% And I remember saying, do you guys-- 00:11:18.733 --> 00:11:19.900 align:middle line:90% I was talking to my brother. 00:11:19.900 --> 00:11:23.020 align:middle line:84% And he said, you remember that story 00:11:23.020 --> 00:11:25.730 align:middle line:84% that Grandpa told about hitting a man with a tire iron? 00:11:25.730 --> 00:11:27.978 align:middle line:84% And they're all like, what are you talking about? 00:11:27.978 --> 00:11:29.770 align:middle line:84% I'm like, well, Grandpa told me this story. 00:11:29.770 --> 00:11:31.953 align:middle line:84% And I told them the story I just told you guys. 00:11:31.953 --> 00:11:33.370 align:middle line:84% And they're like-- even back then, 00:11:33.370 --> 00:11:34.990 align:middle line:90% I was known as the storyteller. 00:11:34.990 --> 00:11:35.948 align:middle line:90% Patting me on the head. 00:11:35.948 --> 00:11:37.590 align:middle line:90% Oh-- I was the youngest-- 00:11:37.590 --> 00:11:39.410 align:middle line:90% oh, little Al, telling stories. 00:11:39.410 --> 00:11:40.120 align:middle line:90% I'm like, no. 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:41.110 align:middle line:90% No, no, no. 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:43.930 align:middle line:90% Grandpa told me that story. 00:11:43.930 --> 00:11:45.633 align:middle line:84% And I said, let's go ask Uncle Bob. 00:11:45.633 --> 00:11:46.550 align:middle line:90% He's the oldest uncle. 00:11:46.550 --> 00:11:48.280 align:middle line:90% I said, let's go ask Uncle Bob. 00:11:48.280 --> 00:11:49.600 align:middle line:90% So we went and asked Uncle Bob. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.430 align:middle line:90% And uncle Bob was, yeah, yeah. 00:11:51.430 --> 00:11:54.250 align:middle line:90% No, I remember that story. 00:11:54.250 --> 00:11:57.188 align:middle line:84% Grandpa got in some bit of trouble over that. 00:11:57.188 --> 00:11:58.480 align:middle line:90% How did you guys know about it? 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.180 align:middle line:90% And they're like, Al told us. 00:12:01.180 --> 00:12:05.830 align:middle line:84% Come to find out, I was the only one he told. 00:12:05.830 --> 00:12:10.630 align:middle line:84% This was not a story that was the lesson that he taught 00:12:10.630 --> 00:12:12.280 align:middle line:90% all of the boys in the family. 00:12:12.280 --> 00:12:14.750 align:middle line:90% It was something else. 00:12:14.750 --> 00:12:16.876 align:middle line:90% And so, it's again, why? 00:12:16.876 --> 00:12:20.410 align:middle line:84% Why did Grandpa tell me that story? 00:12:20.410 --> 00:12:21.790 align:middle line:90% The same reason I write stories. 00:12:21.790 --> 00:12:24.430 align:middle line:84% The same reason Floyd Barker wrote this down. 00:12:24.430 --> 00:12:26.200 align:middle line:84% These stories can be a burden to us. 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:27.880 align:middle line:90% They're a burden. 00:12:27.880 --> 00:12:32.050 align:middle line:84% And there's something in us that says we have to get them out. 00:12:32.050 --> 00:12:33.190 align:middle line:90% We have to get them out. 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:37.090 align:middle line:84% We have to let people know the way the world has 00:12:37.090 --> 00:12:41.860 align:middle line:84% worked for us, or against us, however we want to look at it. 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:45.130 align:middle line:84% I had to write a story about it, to try even 00:12:45.130 --> 00:12:48.700 align:middle line:84% further to make sense of my grandfather's story. 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:51.520 align:middle line:84% And I wrote a story called Smoke. 00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:52.623 align:middle line:90% And I'm going to start-- 00:12:52.623 --> 00:12:54.790 align:middle line:84% for time's sake, I'm going to start in a little bit. 00:12:54.790 --> 00:13:00.200 align:middle line:84% I think all you need to know is, in my story, 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:01.750 align:middle line:84% there's a confrontation on a road. 00:13:01.750 --> 00:13:05.710 align:middle line:84% And the only-- a couple of things I changed from the story 00:13:05.710 --> 00:13:09.070 align:middle line:84% my grandfather told me is, in my story, I had-- 00:13:09.070 --> 00:13:11.140 align:middle line:84% he hit the man with a tire iron, and he actually 00:13:11.140 --> 00:13:12.910 align:middle line:90% killed the other man. 00:13:12.910 --> 00:13:14.410 align:middle line:90% I think about that a lot. 00:13:14.410 --> 00:13:17.440 align:middle line:84% I grew up in Hazel Crest in South Chicago. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.520 align:middle line:84% And I think there's a very small difference in watching 00:13:21.520 --> 00:13:25.450 align:middle line:84% some of my friends who have had bad things happen, 00:13:25.450 --> 00:13:27.940 align:middle line:84% and some of my friends who've had almost bad things happen, 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:30.320 align:middle line:84% and the divergent paths of their lives. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.160 align:middle line:84% And I think about, for my grandfather, 00:13:33.160 --> 00:13:36.100 align:middle line:90% who hit a man with a tire iron. 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:39.220 align:middle line:84% If that man would have done this, or that, 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.530 align:middle line:90% a couple of inches more. 00:13:41.530 --> 00:13:45.790 align:middle line:84% You hit someone with a tire iron, that's serious business. 00:13:45.790 --> 00:13:50.260 align:middle line:84% And what that would have done to my father's life, and my life, 00:13:50.260 --> 00:13:52.060 align:middle line:84% and the way the name Heathcock is 00:13:52.060 --> 00:13:55.420 align:middle line:84% known, at least in the region, and all those different things. 00:13:55.420 --> 00:13:57.500 align:middle line:90% I put that in my story. 00:13:57.500 --> 00:13:58.000 align:middle line:90%