Great Regulars: Chuck [Shinn]'s wife died young

and left him with three little girls. In the 1950s the company bosses found out about Chuck's unionizing history from factory spies. They tried to bully him into quitting his job.

He was held out an eight-story window by his ankles. The thugs told him they would drop him on his head next time if he came back to work.

Chuck gave his little girls to his poet-friend, Max Ellison, and his wife, Florence, for safe-keeping. He went back to work. "Bethany's Story" was told to me at Max Ellison's wake. "Troublemaker" was written before the Elders Project but shows I was learning how to listen.

from Terry Wooten: Traverse City Record-Eagle: Elders Project: Workers and their rights throughout history

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