If everybody is gonna jump off the bridge, are you gonna do it? HELL NO!

Ernest, Ellen, Stella, Jean, Henry Barbra

What is the best thing about nature?
It’s just kind of nice to get away from everything that’s indoors. The birds and the bees and enjoy them. It’s nice to think. Nobody’s lying and stealing because the birds don’t do that. That’s amazing, isn’t it.

How much influence do people have on each other?
A bad person can have a lot of bad, bad influence on other people. Get the hell way as fast as they can. .A good person would have to really have to work hard to make a bad person good, and that’s hard to do. That’s why we have police and priests, to help people like that. But those people are still most likely going to be bad. I think they are influenced by other people. Like a husband cheating on his wife because his friends are cheating on their wives. I don’t think a good man can help his bad friends who are cheating. Everybody would tease them. An accident is different than being influence by something. I think they are a very weak person. That’s follow the leader.

If everybody is gonna jump off the bridge are you gonna do it? HELL NO!

What is so important about college?
Learning, experiences, and earning your degree. Number one, when you walk into a place with a college degree, they’re gonna wanna to talk to you. They know you have spent a lot of time and energy and that makes them like that. That makes everybody love you, going to college.

What makes a good person?

A good person doesn’t lie, doesn’t steal. Obeys gods law and rules. Doesn’t mess around with someone elses wife or husband, because the mate finds out and it’s bad. Helping people that need help. What about listening to people talk? That can be boring. Sneak out of that place. It’s just as important to be a listener as it is to speak.I think one thing. If you tell one lie, anything that comes out of that mouth is a lie. Once a cheater always a cheater. Why would they not be? If they got away with it once they will do it again. That’s like. If you steal one piece of a bread, getting away with it, and stealing more bread. Bread? No.

What makes a bad person?
a crook. Who goes into places they aren’t supposed to separate them from their finances. I would say people that are trying to find out something. Nosy people. When somebody tries to get out the truth, they learn. One who steals from another person.

What does it mean to be happy?

Whenever I get a chance I do something about that.  Living. That you feel at ease and are enjoying life. You are comfortable. No crooks around,that makes me happy. Being satisified with yourself. I haven’t done anything great, but I do my best. I try to make life better for other people. And not by doing stupid things, eother. I’m doing the best I can do. I’m not talking about somebody who thinks they have everything. Very good. It happened to me in my house when I lived in my house in Seattle

What do you think of the Lord?

I do think of the Lord. It’s not something that I can be like come on buddy, lets go lets go lets go. I love the lord, and the lord loves me. I haven’t been able to get to church the past two Sundays because of this incident but he knows I love them. I think the lord tends to make things even. Some people tell a lot of lies, and the community believes them, but there's a day that they will know the lord never believed them. I forgot all my stuff about him. I don’t know him. It’s something that my brain knows nothing about. Jesus, God, The lord..good people, but you’ve got to believe it.

Do people need religion to survive?
Yes. I do. Not all, but some. You need to live with the love of god in your heart, and not everybody has it. It’s less and less every generation. No, you don’t need it to survive. But people who need to explain it need to make it sound better rather than mumble it and make it sound bad.

What do you think of politics?

They know how to place it to make it sound better and the people don’t even realize what they’re doing. They just say ok I’m voting for that guy and it makes it bad in the long run. I think there are lies. They are gonna be out there automatically. This side realized they screwed up and then the other side straightened out. People can’t get along with lying, and they hate them more than the beginning. Liars are always found out by the end. Seattle, that’s where the crooks are headed. They start out in the East and work out in the West.

Writer's Block

by Christine, Mary, Maxine, Margaret and Joseph

New York is fun and fearless. We are excited to jump off this [she points to the tallest building] with a parachute. I see a mountain in New York. You go down, and it is very exciting. Realistic. Aware of your surroundings and situation.

It looks like Washington, and I said New York. It’s a busy place, isn’t it? Is it a mystery? You better start writing and then see what happens.

The good guy, a tramp with a dog. You’ve got to start writing and one thing will lead to another. He’s going to be the star of the story, a bum. I don’t have ideas. I’m not good at that, but sometimes people have their homes taken away from them, one way or the other. He is a good main character. He only has one leg. That is interesting and bad.

The bad guy, what does he do? He doesn’t look like a bad guy, because he is a bad guy with no gun. He is the bad guy of the clock, walking, not doing much. Would you have to get his permission to put him in a story? He works in at Show Glass Works. He doesn’t do much of anything. He looks aggressive, drinks.

A child’s face is there, and the bad guy is threatening the child. The child is so prominent to me.

He grew up in a seedy part of town, and that made him bad. He wants a multitude of things from the child. Money, sexual, many ways. It is possible he will abduct the child.

A wall with bubble gum stuck all over it. People passing by saw holes in the wall, so they plugged the holes with their gum. That’s not a lot to go on. We have to put it in the story. I don’t have much imagination when it comes to cooking up things. Not one person, a lot of them, kids [put gum on the wall]. If the bad guy sees all the gum, he probably wants to put more gum there. Something that shouldn’t be done.

He’s getting arrested. Stopped for speeding. We can come up with a lot on arrested. The police stopping him. He was just doing his duty. We can put them all together.

You are the magician, so you write it. How will I get home? Someone stole my car and everything that I had. You have a car. Why do you come over here to these ladies who work very hard? If you don’t read, you will never learn how to write. You have to have training. You should go to school and then write two [he holds up two fingers]. There is no sensation. There is no interest.

Would that be a book or a short story? Difficult to say the least. The good guy has a dog. I have writer’s block. Most writers do eventually. [One workshop participant asks the other, “Do you have writer’s block?” She replies, “I don’t have anything. I’m completely out.”]

If you get with a group of people who know how to write, you can get some good stuff out of them. It is fading away into the sunset, the ending. Is that the world?

I can’t look at it. It hurts to talk. Quiet. That could be the beginning or the end.

Trees and buildings. I shouldn’t have even started it. That’s how it ends.

The dog has talent. A lot more has to happen. It seems to be more than just a short story. He’s sitting there with his dog. He’s a good guy, yes. He’s good at saving dogs. The dog is too nice, not menacing.

You’ve got to have a plot before you can start anything. Next time. See you next time.

Seattle Was the First Thing

by Jean

When they started it up, it went vooom! That’s how it all started. My jacket and husband were getting it there. I had to go to school. I was taking all the everything and going dut-dut-dut.

You are the best student. You’ve got it all. You think about it. You’ve got a great thing. These things are wonderful.

I remember when all that went up. It was pretty good. It was pretty crumby when all the people came from Seattle. It would be nice if we could do it the other way around. When school came out and everything came in, everyone said, “No, no, no.” I don’t remember what I did now, because for all those years I told them. There was nothing else we could do at that time. It was a strange time and a small time.

There were some just going, “I don’t know about this.” I have seen it many, many times. Seattle was the first thing. They said I was the first picture to come in and say, “Here it is! Right now!” I would like to know how it really happened.

My mother did my hair this morning. I’ve done a lot of things into it. It’s kind of dumb. I keep thinking about somebody I know, but I don’t know right now. Did you get millions of pictures? God that would have been wonderful to you. If you have anything in you, you have beautiful you. You have everything that you have. You don’t have to worry about anything.

This is fantasy, the best thing in the whole world, beautiful and wonderful. The people will put their coats on and say, “This is the place to go out, right now.” I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world. We’ve been trying to go through it, to make things better.

The more you get under, the more it goes back and back. I would be worried about it. I did worry, a number of times, but never again. My mom was doing the same thing. She got a thing in it, the same as me, a tough woman. My father said, “Don’t do this ever again.” I’m not afraid any more. My father got very upset, four times. No, never again. You could die from it.

That’s amazing. This is really wonderful. It went kaplooee quite a bit. The biggest baddest thing that ever went on in the country. Downstairs, my father, brother, and mother were trying to get out. They said, “Help us get it back into the way it should have been.” All of this, I just try to plunk it in. One of the kids was killed. I can’t remember.

I love about it. The kids are absolutely wonderful, incredible. They want something, they get it out, they hold it up. You say, “Look, we just have to slow it down. Just look at it.” That guy hates me. This is always the same.

It could have been many different things. My father got hit very badly. Nobody wanted to see about him. We all thought he was going to die. I can’t say anything more about it. Sick. Oh my God, what is the matter with this kid.

The teacher fell over-darn in the water. She’s still alive. You don’t have to worry about it.

Everything else I know is just that one world where everything is crumby looking. The best thing in the whole world was Seattle. This is kind of fun. Pretty neat. We were doing it just for fun, we all stay out, we all stay there, it is kind of silly. We don’t have to go anywhere. We go together every single day. If I was home and had nothing to eat or do, I would get out of there. That’s a wonderful way to do it. Take stuff out. Easy stuff. You can do it if you just do a small little thing.

I drop it down. You have to wait. You have to know what you are talking about. I wish I had thought about it. People would come all the way around, pretty much, but not all. The most important thing of all is away from this, away from that, and when they said they wanted to go outside and go higher and higher, I couldn’t get over this. It is way beyond.

We don’t know this, yet, outside, up here. That’s all I can come up with. It’s too cold. What is going around? God, this is not too good. As things are going on, they get big and big and big. I don’t understand this. I’ve got to go home.

Is that my brother? I can’t believe that. I thought he lived all the way across town. I always had to work, jump out of the sky like that. Somebody who had it left off had it better, put down. A very special gentleman, we wanted to know everything about him. How many days in? Sometimes. Sometimes straight, straight, straight up and I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know if it goes to that same amount.

We can just ignore it. I would really love it. This is good. I’m getting a little bit happy.

How to Write a Story

by Joseph

[Would you like to tell a story?]

Stories? The things in books. Well, you see, that will require a description of what the story looks like, what it is all about. The main, basic story you are looking for is what? Somebody is running away? I cannot write or talk or say anything about anybody, because that would be false.

Number one - A long time ago, when I was watching television, I could get interested in a story. Now, my mind is on something else: how to find my wife, my grandmother, and Poland. I don’t want a person to separate Poland from the story. People change. The whole country changes. That is why I cannot tell you the story. It is impossible.

Number two - I am quite old, myself. I am over eighty. I cannot tell you what the story will be. When you are born, the story will be right there waiting for you. When you were dying, the story was already written. It is very difficult. You have to be really right there in what it is all about.

If you try to make a story, you try to know something with your own eyes. Pictures don’t say nothing. That’s right. It could be Russia. The city is extending further out, further out, further out. It was a town in the western part of Poland. If you go to Poland, you can buy a thousand stories. I will have to translate them for you. If you read the story, you will know what Poland is about.

[I show the workshop participant a picture of a Seattle. I tell him that the story begins in the city.]

Who is against the city? Against. In the start of the story, you have to tell the reader what the story might be that will be interesting. Slowly, you expand to the point until you know. You write the story. Create interest. When I was in school, the teacher was telling us to read the stories, small stories each day, for each one of us. You know, when you are a small boy, the story is simple, but for older people, the story must be complicated, or else you have nothing. Different sources.

[How can we make this story interesting?]

Interesting is a word that is very hard to describe. For example, when I walk on the street, I see two girls. One is interesting; one is not interesting. The interesting girl has many stories. On the basis of this story, there is more and more and more, until the whole story comes out.

The point is, I don’t write stories, I read them. Sometimes it is interesting for you, but it is not interesting for me.

[Do you want to end the story now?]

Are they going to leave me?

[He looks around for the nurse who was with him when we started the storytelling workshop. She assures him that she is not leaving.]

Please don’t.

Okay, I am explaining how to write a story. I have already explained this twice. Interesting depends on who writes the story. You can tell a story with two words.

Who killed such-and-such? The person who is talented will listen, and in writing, will learn these things. The one who really tells a story of interest is writing one year, someone who likes this kind of stuff.

[He says something in Polish.]

That is how the Polish saying goes.

[He says something in Polish.]

Do you know what that means? It means, I will tell you something.

[He says something in Polish.]

It means, what do you want to know?

[I tell him that I want to know if anything interesting happens in the city.]

Interesting is very difficult. It has to be written in itself, because pictures take all kinds of stories of light, luck, or heaven. They show you something in mountains or walking on the street.

Who is this guy?

[Tell me about the guy.]

What happened? Where? Why? Who committed these crimes? What are you writing?

If you go to New York, you will witness this kind of struggle. There are writers who do write, and there are writers who do not write. You must be educated and corrected.

Who is that guy over there?

[I don’t know.]

That’s my brother, Peter.

Say, “Peter.”

[I call out Peter’s name. I tell the him that Peter did not answer.]

Maybe he learned not to say anything when they call his name. He left home a long time ago. He had many, many stories. I cannot tell you a story. I am not able. I know nothing.

Look here, something over here.

“Hi, Pete!” You see? I can hear his voice. I can hear his voice. I did.

I cannot tell you a thing about making a story interesting, because it takes talent.

Being Thoughtful and Considerate of Eachother

By: Stella, Alice, Anne, Margaret, Ellen, Jean, Joetta

What does it mean to be beautiful?

Being beautiful means several, several things. You have to be thinking about more than one or two things. Keeping yourself looking at the very best, at all times. Thinking of others often. What does it mean to be beautiful, to whom? I don’t consider myself beautiful, but I always try to keep myself looking attractive- from the time I was a little girl to my old age, now. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder because my husband thought I was beautiful, and I was glad. I had to be the most beautiful person when I met my second husband because he loved me. He was looking for things to do for me always. He’s interested in a nice girl, and she’s beautiful.

What does it mean to be beautiful?  As soon as we get water into it, you put your head in and go “Ah, ah, ah.”  This is not it.  Forget the silly thing you put in.  You have to go in and say this is the nicest place to go in.  That’s a good deal.  Come on (blows kiss), next person (blows kiss), next person (blows kiss).  Keep yourself looking the best at all times possible.  Thinking about the other person.  What does it mean to be beautiful to whom? 

What makes a good husband?

You know the difference when you see the real gem. And you’ll think to yourself, “what the hell am I doing with this?” if you’re with a phony.  My hal.  I called him “gem hol” because he was a gem and his last name was Holiday. The best husband I ever had. That god created. The epitome of what a good husband is. He’s a gentleman, and god’s gift to me. When you get a gem, you don’t want to let him go. I was so used to my old husband mistreating me for 48 years.  Because they know they have a place to come home and talk to. They know they have to help other people. The only thing he can do is write and write and write and that’s a bad and good thing. They have to have their clothes, they have to have their things for school, and that’s the responsibility of the husband. It’s not just a fun, fun, fun time. You make up your mind that you’re going to help out people. Being thoughtful, being considerate of others often. It’s a way of thinking. There is no such thing. We’re not perfect, and they’re not perfect. We can’t expect them to be perfect.

Describe your perfect vacation.

That’s how it was. One, two, three, four and then it’d stop.  I had so many because my husband was military. The best was when he was with us. It was idealistic when we were all together. He was always gone, he missed so many things. Like kids birthdays. It was the best when he was there. Hawaii, I loved it. So many good ones. Seattle. Downtown Seattle. My generation didn’t take vacations.  I like the sunshine, but I didn’t want to be out in it. You’re a vacation for my day and I’m a vacation for your day. I like you better.

That’s how it was, you go like this [hand motions] 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, just keep going, not up high 200, 250, one thousand.  It is easier for all of us if we do it like that.  Like that man over there, he doesn’t care.  Just like that.  Oh, beautiful day.  There are so many good ones, everyone thinks differently.  Do you like Seattle?  It depends on the person.  I like the sunshine, but I don’t want to be out in it.  My husband loved it.  The only time he would come in…  I love the best things that happen.  The good things are always good, they always have been.  Comfortable warm weather, very little rain, be active a good part of the day.  That’s wonderful.  I went all across the United States, I got sick when I was there.  Mom and Dad said, “Stay here as long as you can.”  The good Lord said, “If you need to get something in the house, down is different, the down deals are the best deals.”  Not necessarily, they just go zhooomp and get it to everybody else.  Yeah.  I do.  I like to.  I like her better.  I like you.  I like me. 

We have a good one!  (Applause)  A good one today.