Free Five Television Plays (David Mamet) by David Mamet Page A

inside a mine, 1952. ‘Tober fourth, 1952. Worked 21 years in the mines.
    (T IMMY starts to sing “The Song of the Thirties.” The song of the depression, the little steel strike, and violent labor troubles, Ethiopia, Spain, the Lincoln Brigade. )
    Yup. Had things happen to me you wouldn't believe. Seen things I didn't believe. West Virginia . . . Pennsylvania . . . spent sixty-two hours once in a four-foot seam . . .
    ( The M INERS join T IMMY in song. )
    L ARS: Feller must share de action and excitement of his time, on pain of having been judged not to have lived. Oliver Vendell Holmes, a great American.
    T IMMY ( to A LBERT ) : What do you do?
    A LBERT: Well, I'm out of work right now.
    H ARRY: No shame in that.
    A LBERT: No .
    H ARRY: Might as well be, though, huh?
    A LBERT: Yes.
    T IMMY: You know anything about organizing? I like the way you look.
    A LBERT: Well, no, I uh . . . I'm flattered but . . . I really should be getting . . . home.
    T IMMY: Wide-open field . . .
    A LBERT: Uh, no, I uh . . . I mean, my father was a Republican.
    H ARRY: He outta work?
    T IMMY: Well, if you ever change your mind . . .
    A LBERT: Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.
    ( A tableau. Both groups, obviously taken with each other, are loathe to part. )
    Well I guess we really should be getting on.
    (A LBERT and C LORIS start to walk away. )
    H ARRY: Y OU take it easy now, Brother.
    A LBERT: You , too, it's a pleasure to have met you.
    ( As they walk away the voice of T IMMY haranguing the M INERS can be heard. T IMMY shouts after C LORIS. )
    T IMMY: Cloris, where was I?
    C LORIS: “The way to get strong is to be strong.”
    T IMMY: Right. ( To M INERS: ) The way to get strong is to be strong. Country wasn't founded by a bunch of sissies: “What's in this for me” . . . founded by a bunch of men and women not afraid to take a chance . . . ( His voice fades out. )
    A LBERT: What nice guys.
    C LORIS: You said it.
    A LBERT: And you support them, huh?
    C LORIS: They support us.
    ( Their stroll takes them through the turn-of-the-century street. )
    ‘Member you got a boomerang thrown at you?
    A LBERT: Yes. I do.
    C LORIS: Potawatamies. Neo-Potawatamies. Bunch of nowhere creeps. Trying to knock off Rudy.
    A LBERT: Why?
    C LORIS: For his pension check. Everybody in here lives off the pension checks of the old folks.
    A LBERT: Oh.
    C LORIS: So prices go up and Pierre and his Neo-Potawatamies come up with the bright idea that if we whack out the old folks and take their checks, there's more food for the lot of us.
    A LBERT: That's terrible.
    C LORIS: The terrible thing is that Pierre has been talking with John and the Farmers, trying to get their help getting rid of the old folks . . .
    A LBERT: (Senior citizens.)
    C LORIS: (We just call ‘em old folks) . . . and John is starting to come around.
    A LBERT: No .
    C LORIS: Yes. Pierre comes in there with all this garbage about Survival of the Fittest, Natural Selection, The Law of Life, and so on, and the Farmers listen. (You can convince an intellectual of anything, ever notice that?) ( Pause. ) It's terrible. I mean, growing old is no joke . . .
    A LBERT: No . . .
    C LORIS: But it's not a crime, huh? How you going to beat Entropy? It's a surefire losing proposition. ( Pause. ) Had a guy used to live here, used to be the office boy for Robert Todd Lincoln. Used to tell us stories Robert Todd told him, his father told him. I mean, we're talking about the transmission of infor ma tion, here.
    A LBERT: Yes.
    C LORIS: I mean, we're talking about real history here. (You don't getclose with the old people, who's going to tell you about life, Nevins and Commager?) What are you going to do when you get up there, jump off a building? It's very adolescent.
    A LBERT: Uh huh.
    C LORIS: Best goddamn organizer in the Country. John L. treated him like a son. I'm glad to have him here. (Sonofagun knows a lot of songs. ) Goddamn Potawatamies should be ashamed of themselves. What kind of a society is frightened of