Field Interview Transcript (excerpt)

Field Interview Transcript (excerpt)

DPW

011712.a
Interview of Howard Dorsey, 17-year employee of Department of Public Works

[Portipont Correspondent]: What is something you enjoy about your job?

[Howard Dorsey]: Well, there’s lots of things I like about my work.  I mean, there’s a bunch of stuff that gives me headaches and bothers me—but really, I like my job.  I like being outside—even in the cold like we got now!

[PC]: What are you doing now?  Something you like about now…

[HD]: Well.  One thing we been doing the past couple weeks on and off is trimming the median bushes.  You know, the plants and trees that grow up the middle of the big streets?  A couple days ago we was on North Avenue, in the cold morning, cutting the junipers.  I love that smell of the junipers…it’s…sharp—sharp in my nose, like the cold, you know?  I got these loppers, the cutters, you know, I got a pair that’s real sharp, and they cut through those thick branches—junipers is tough plants, man!—these loppers go through those branches so smooth…it feels so soft in that hard cold…and then the smell starts comin’ up, into my nose…Ahhh…it’s hard to take a deep breath in the cold like that, but I do it anyway, ‘cause I love that smell.