When Work Is Done (ca. 1943)

[Music] this is the story of what is happening to the American small town in Americans people from the Farms the mountains the far away cities and Villages they pour into the towns and into its houses and churches and meeting places the town is flooded and overwhelmed [Music] it was meant to be a living space for 5 to 10,000 people 20,000 30,000 40,000 people roll into it double up in its houses camp on its outskirts the new people have come here to work in the shipyards in the machine shops and small factories they work hard under the 90° sun in the electric oven heat of the steel bulkheads the heavy work and the small exacting precise work then they come off the shift a friendly good-natured Army but an army almost without organization the small community is overwhelmed every Power Plant pumping station and grocery store pushed to the Limit they stand in line at the post office sending money home to the cities and the Hill Farms they line up with their laundre in 3 weeks they may get it back lunch counters jammed up people being turned away from the diners they swim on schedule the LIF guards heard them out working in shifts and swimming in shifts some new housing has been put up it's comfortable enough but the people haven't been able to get together yet they live in their separate cells people need other people they need a get together a little fun a little swapping of talk and Goodwill they want to feel that they belong the new community the community of Town's people and new people has not yet been built the people must build it themselves all the people they jam into the Juke joints play pool when they'd rather be playing baseball one shift and then another shift with nothing much in between sometimes it gets to be too much they decide to try another [Music] town this is another town a town where the people are doing something something about it the town is silaka Alabama this town has the same problem it had the same boredom and lassitude people were always thinking about getting out of it now they've changed their minds they're doing something about it they're getting together the mayor the city manager the Civic leaders army officers from the nearby posts people from the plant a man from the division of recreation of the United States Federal Security Agency he's seen this problem before he knows how to help people get it in hand but the people must do it themselves they are doing [Music] it they hunt up rooms and boarding places for the newcomers [Music] they hold a get together at the church the local police help out as guides and advisers the women's clubs begin to organize things they clean up the town pool [Music] tennis Red Cross work and the rest sports are good for people and the Red Cross work is essential but the main thing is is to get people together cooperating with each other working together playing together a new community is being born Americans have been making new communities for 300 years and dancing in these communities quadrilles under the colonial candles of Williamsburg Dusty H Downs in the new Pioneer towns of Kentucky Square dancers in the middle of the Kansas cornfield miners romping together in the California Gold towns recreation hall games instead of shooting matches [Music] nutrition programs instead of recipe swapping but the impulse is the same the tradition is the same storytelling and play acting in [Music] music The Negro boys and girls ban they hit it on the beat and take it on [Music] down the children dancing and speaking pieces [Music] the mothers and fathers looking on [Music] they remember the bond dances too Dave Crockett and Abe Lincoln kicked their heels in these dances the Americans haven't forgotten how Pop Goes the Weasel and turkey wing and the soldiers real one community did this one town full of people who belonged there and people who wanted to belong made a new community other towns are doing it everywhere in America Americans finding out how to get together all over again a good thing in Wartime and a good thing afterwards now they have a life incoming now they have something to look forward to nobody needs to be walled off or bored or lonely they go back to work every man on the shift is a neighbor and a friend every man on the ship knows that he belongs [Music]