Abandoned in the Heartland by Jennifer Hamer

Author:Jennifer Hamer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2012-01-23T05:00:00+00:00

Early in the morning, outside Top Metal Buyers, a metal recycler on Walnut Avenue, out-of-work men and a few women often gather, waiting to cash in the cans they have collected over the previous twenty-four hours. At the time of my research, one of them was Marvin Gantt, thirty-seven. After seven years in a Mississippi prison for robbery, Gantt returned home to his mother in East St. Louis. He spent months job hunting unsuccessfully. Finally, he took up odd jobs, paid and unpaid, just to stay busy. He also scoured the streets and sidewalks for loose change and for aluminum cans, which could be recycled for cash. Marvin used his earnings to purchase cigarettes, toiletries, and beer.

Darshawn Williams, a former truck driver and armed-forces veteran, found it difficult to hold a job after his return from the Gulf War. According to him, “I came back with the shakes. I couldn’t keep focused on anything.” His formal diagnosis was depression, and the drugs that doctors prescribed did little to ease him back into the normal work world. He ended up trading his prescription drugs for cash and used the money to purchase beer, which numbed his daily and ongoing psychological turmoil. Collecting cans and bottles, cutting yards, and occasionally doing minor auto repair kept money in his pocket.

Oliver Simon, once a recovering alcoholic, relapsed after four months of sobriety. He had a violent relationship with an on-again, off-again girlfriend. He barely knew his children. And he had problems with his liver and both kidneys. Soothing grief and aches was his pastime. When he was in pain, vodka seemed the most cogent solution. “It’s not like I got a lot of money to spend,” Oliver said. Commenting on collecting cans and bottles, he explained, “It’s better than me knocking somebody in the head or robbin’ little ol’ ladies, ain’t it? I got habits, and this is how they get paid for.”

Dirty or clean, hustling in East St. Louis is about survival. Charles was recently released from prison for selling drugs. For him hustling was an “extra”—something he did to supplement his legal, paid work activities. “I didn’t make enough working,” he explained. “When I started selling drugs, I jumped from making three hundred dollars a week to nine hundred a day. And the money just be coming so fast. Selling drugs is a game that is not hard to learn at all. You put yourself in the industry, and your money will come just like that, like clockwork. . . . Working at McDonald’s [which was his legitimate job], you pay your bills an’ ain’t got shit. . . . I want nice clothes. I want nice jewelry. I want a nice car. . . . A lot of people do what they have to do to bring in extra money. . . . I’ll keep my little job, and I’ll keep a hustle. That will put extra money in my pocket, because I want nice shit, too, like everyone else. Just because I’m keeping a hustle, doesn’t mean it has to be negative.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.