157: Secret Life of Daytime
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
1, 2 from W.B.E.Z. Chicago in Public Radio International. It's this American life. I'm Ira Glass. And I'm standing at the corner of diversity and Broadway in Chicago. As I record this, it's just a few minutes after 3 o'clock on a weekday afternoon here in Chicago. And the people are everywhere, even though it's still the middle of the work day. In the, in the bread shop, just off the corner, I stuck my head in. And there are people at the tables. Some of them are just sitting there reading books. I saw two guys speaking Spanish, walk in and find their friend who greeted them in Spanish and they headed out. A guy in a goatean and knit cap just walked by wearing a pair of professional grade stereo headphones around his neck, talking to his buddy. In the last 10 minutes, I've seen three different people. Oh man, wearing professional grade, stereo headphones just on the street. I didn't know this was a trend. How you doing? A guy in a suit staring at me. In the hours when most of us are at work or at school, there is a whole life going on out here outside, an alternate world. I would say it's a world with its own rules, but its rules are actually a lot like the rules of Saturday, except taking place during the week. And different people taking part. This is the secret world of daytime. A guy just ran the red light. Can't get his plates. Well, back in the studio now. Today we take a little tour of the secret life of daytime with five separate stories. Next one. Why aren't you at work? In which one intrepid reporter has a little chat with some of those people who are on the street at three. Next two. In a world full of soybeans, the men turn to love. The surprising story of how people kill time at one Lincoln, Nebraska, grain elevator. Next three. The geography of childhood. The tale of the secret places that children go during the day in one town in Vermont. At four. Invisible man. A postman explains how it is that he can beat so much a part of the scenery that people commit crimes in front of him. Crimes on quiet daytime streets as if he is not there. At five. 82 50 a day. Writer Mona Simpson reads from a forthcoming novel about the daytime life of Filipino nannies during the hours in which they run a lovely homes of certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Let's begin with a few simple answers to a few simple questions. All those people you see in the middle of the day when you run out to a doctor's appointment, you see them in coffee shops and bookstores in most cities and suburbs. Who are they? Why are they not at work? Investigative reporter George Gurley tackled these tough questions on a scenic little island that we like to call Manhattan. Hello America. I did what we all attempted to do. On four afternoons, I approached these people and asked them why they weren't at work and what exactly were they doing? We haven't seen each other in about a week and a half so we thought let's get a bite to eat. It's a beautiful day out so we'll come to the park. Are you retired? Are you still working? I am semi-retired. I'm old enough to collect social security but I still work a few days a week. Of course next question is what kind of work do you do. I'm a don't call my cat. Okay. I'm a furrier. Do you think that you've had a productive day today? Uh, I got showered. What are you doing right now? Why aren't you at work? I'm here on a business trip. Oh okay there we go. So I'm sure I am at work. See you're working. As it turns out a lot of these people actually have jobs. The kind of jobs where they set their own hours are work nights or weekends. They're actors, sculptors, bartenders. I'm at one guy who takes care of primates and other mammals at the Bronx Zoo who has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. Released from his cage, he spends those afternoons drinking screwdrivers, guilt free. Daytime hours are different if you're not working. They're about going with the flow, one thing leading to another. Alana Canty, a 50 year old English tutor from New Jersey, was in Central Park purely by coincidence. I was an extra on a TV show which I got because I suffer from depression and I don't sort of actively pursue stuff like that but I have a friend staying at my house and he signed up with the agency and they called last night and I took the call and I said do you need any women? He said sure. Okay so I had a show up at eight o'clock at the boat house and I was taping of a scene from the program once
Transcription truncated.