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Doc Stevens & Marilyn



Last Updated: 7/15/2009

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Status: Single
City: BRYANS ROAD
State: Maryland
Country: US
Signup Date: 11/19/2008

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Thursday, July 02, 2009 

Category: Music
Tondeleo: When I was in the States in October, Doc was fit to be tied because he learned that a friend of his who lives more than a thousand miles away left his wife and kids for another woman. Doc and Marilyn were very close to the whole family and could not comprehend the madness of this man leaving his wife and kids.

When Doc gets touched emotionally, he has the gift of writing a song about it, and I have been there three times now when he was writing a song. The first two times, I was unaware, because something happened that I knew made him upset and he went back into the back room with one of Marilyn's notebooks and came out a few minutes later looking relaxed and said he just had to get something off his chest. He wasn't gone five minutes, but had written an entire song.

For this song, I was there. He got word from his friends' 11 year old boy about their Daddy leaving them for another woman. Doc was furious, upset and fit to be tied. Marilyn kept saying, "Oh, No" over and over again. Doc got Marilyn's notebook and a pen and started writing feverishly. He was writing as though taking dictation.
When he was finished, he shoved it at me across the table and said, "Here. Put that on my blob." I did do some spelling corrections.

A Song For A Cheatin' Piece of Trash
By Doc Stevens 2008

v1) You had a good life, and a good wife, but you threw them both away
your kids loved you more than you could know, but you just walked away
You left your home, your wife's alone, she cries both day and night, You've left it all I hope you fall - and pray you'll see the light

v2) A man can't hope for very much, in this short and hard life
but somehow life had smiled on you with a job a home a wife.
But all you had weren't good enough for a big man such as you,
You met that whore and walked out the door - I hope she humbles you

CHORUS:
You would not be happy with all the good things that you'd have
You lived your dream and fell for schemes of
a woman that was trash
We tried but you wouldn't listen, you just had to go your ways
Now lose it all and when you fall I'll laugh in your poor face
{Break}

Chorus again
v 4) Your children cry and wonder why their dad's left them alone
your girlfriend's kids are livin' large, now Big Man's in their home.
You're a hero now, in your own eyes with your brand new family
But the one you left was God's own best and before too long you'll see.

v5) I hope your wife can find the strength to fight for what is hers
you made a vow to love her so, for better or for worse
You're worse than what she took you for, I'm glad she'll soon be free
From a selfish fool who left his jewel for that W - H - O - R - E.
You would not be happy with all the good things that you'd have
You lived your dream and fell for schemes of
a woman that was trash
You got coke up your nose and blood on your clothes, and when you're moneys gone she will be too

So lose it all and when you fall I'll laugh in your poor face

Chorus and ending.

I have seen Doc write another song in the same time frame, about 5 minutes when he was touched, moved, sad or mad. In fact, as soon as he handed me this one to put on his blog site, he said he wasn't through yet, and wrote another one, on the same subject, and with more aggressive lyrics than I thought we ought to put on this blog. I am holding it for him for "later."
The tunes seem to come just as fast, and he sits down and plays them immediately afterwards. Now I am wondering which of the songs I have heard him sing are originals and which ones are just what he remembers of old country songs from his boyhood. But, this is one he specifically wanted on the "inner web, so that sorry excuse for a man can read it."

3:27 PM 
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Thursday, July 02, 2009 

Category: News and Politics
Tondeleo: In the light of the worldwide economic crisis, I thought it would be particularly fitting to post this conversation I had with Doc a few months ago about greed, money, and contentment.

As you know, Doc doesn't have a lot of money or material possessions, but he is content, and works hard enough at enough things that he and Marilyn and the dogs eat well.

I was asking Doc about the why America seems to have suddenly plummeted from it's position as world leader to a confused giant that has somehow lost its way. I thought his answers were worth posting.



Doc: Tondy, I'll tell ya. It's about payin' the cost to be the boss. You  gotta pay the cost to be the boss. America used to be a country full of immigrants. In my granddaddy's day, they al was pretty much immigrants, where he lived. In they's houses, they spoke the language of where they'd come from. At home, you might hear Italian, Pollock, German or whatever. They was all first generation immigrants.

But they's kids was American and called themselves American. Didn't call themselves half American like they do now. You can take some office boy what ain't never been outta the US and his parents aint, and his grandparents aint, and he calls hisself a Irish-American. No, he's American.

Same with black folks. They ain't all African American. Some is from the islands, like Jamaica or Saint Lucy. They is also white folks what is African, 'cause I met a white woman from South Africa, and she said she was African, and I said, Whoa sister! You are the wrong color but she said she was South African.

But what made America great, Tondy, was them first generation folks. Immigrants. They left everything they had in they's own countries and spent all they had to come here, to start a new life. They paid the price.

But that second and third generation, they is the ones that lose that sense of bein' hungry and havin' a dream to pull them along. A ot of them is spoilt, and ain't got no work ethic. Some of 'em won't even work. But they's parents and grandparents worked day and night and sacrificed so they could live the American dream. But the grandkids just ain't got that drive.

They ain't got the drive, they ain't got the work ethic, but they want everything that money can buy and they want it NOW. N-O-W, now. And if they cain't get it, they feel like they is being held back and mistreated. That is what has happened to America, Tondy.

These folks is so indulged, they feel empty if there is something out there that they haven't been able to buy yet, or if they find out about some place they ain't been to yet, and then they feel like they is bein' held back. They gotta have EVERYTHING they want and not ever be told the word, "no."

That's why most people in America is so in debt. They want everything right now, when they aint got the money for it, so they makes payments, and they spend more than they make every month.

Like most people gots credit cards. And they can't pay it off every month because they spend more than they make. They can't afford how they is livin.' And they think they gotta have all that stuff. They don't.

That is the kind of people what got in control of our country, and the banks and car companies, and they think they have to have everything and have it all right now. And they don't care who they hurt or have to rip off, and that is how they grabbed millions of dollars for themselves and ran the common people into the ground.

As for me, I think you are rich if you don't need anything. Like I seen a rich dude at the mall up to Waldorf. Me an' him got to talkin' an' I asked him what he was buyin.' He coulda bought half that mall if he wanted. Know what he said? He said he wasn't buyin' nothin. He already had enough of everything. Now, that is rich.

Bein' rich is about having enough that you don't need everything. I got a pickup truck an' my old panel truck. I ain't need a new car. Ain't even tempted. I like where I live, and I like my guitars and my tools and my dogs and my friends and Marilyn. I ain't needin' anyting else. So I am a rich man, Tondy. I ain't needin' nothin'.
Here's a story that my cousin down in Gate City told me.

A rich man dies and wants to take along at least one bag of money with him. It's all he has. He ain't never been very religious - ain't never helped nobody neither. He just made money all his life. The angel of death, he didn't care if the man brought along a bag of money.






So the man stands before the throne of God, up in Heaven, and Jesus asks, What's that? The man said, "it's my money, it's all I have."

Jesus says, to the angel: "Let me see it, bring it here." Jesus takes that bag of money and tries to sit on it. He says, This is too lumpy to be a good cushion."

So Jesus pulls it out from under himself and tosses it on the floor and puts his feet on it. He says, "It's too small to be a good footstool… and it never gets cold up here, so it is no good to burn it for heat."

So he tells the angel to give it back to the man and tell him he to carry it around. It's all he's got.

Tondy, that's the way a lot of people is. That story ain't in the Bible, but it's a good one.
3:20 PM 
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPyTYonfIII

NEW VIDEO - Each Step I Take. Ronnie Perkins sings one of his original Gospel songs, as arranged and accompanied by Doc Stevens and his niece, Marilyn.

2:50 PM 
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Saturday, November 22, 2008 

Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Minimum Wage: What's wrong with that?

Tondeleo: "Doc, I've been taken your advice on meeting and picking up women. As you know, I'm not American and I live on the money I make writing, and..."

Doc interrupting: "So what, Tondy? You tryin' to say you ain't got enough money to take her out once you got her? A woman don't want no broke man. Don't blame her. A man needs to be able to make some money and show a woman a good time. What you tryin' to say, that you can't afford to take her out once you got her attention?"

Tondeleo: "Well, not exactly, Doc, and it's not just me. Plenty of young Americans are working for minimum wage and find themselves in the same situation. A person really can't live on minimum wage, much less have any kind of life, or money for dating."

Doc: "Tondy, you sound like a crybaby. Here's how it works here in America. Minimum wage ain't MEANT to be lived on! That's why they call it minimum. That means as little as possible. And so what? If you have minimum skills and cain't do nothing, why should you be paid more than minimum? You shouldn't!

"And you aint supposed to be stayin' there. Minimum wage is the bottom step on the ladder, not a place to live, Tondy. Here in America, everybody knows that already. Even immigrants who can't speak english knows it. You start off at minimum if you can, and take what you can get if you can't. Then you start learnin' and increasin' what you is worth to the employer. As you get worth more, they pays you more to keep you from quittin' and goin' somewhere else and makin' money for them.

"I ain't a rich man. As far as the world's concerned I'm a poor man. But I ain't in debt, and I don't cry about it an' I never been on welfare. Welfare is a bad thing to give to someone who is able to work. It's bad for a person to be given money if they is able to work but isn't workin."

"When you pay a man not to work, he gets to be afraid to work lessen he lose his benefits or SSI check. I know people like that. The years go by an' you can't really live on welfare, an' you can't make no money so a man jus' feels lower n' dirt. An' his woman got to work an' he don't feel like no man. An' he gets to drinkin' an' druggin' an' fightin' an' gamblin' tryin' to deal with is pain. That's why I have slept out on the streets rather'n be on welfare."

"But, Tondy, I always been willin' to work when I was able. Sometimes I got hurt on a job an' couldn't work for a few weeks at a time, but when I could I would take my guitar an' sing on the streets an' people would gimme a little somethin' for singin' for 'em."

"When I would get better, I'd look for work, an' I'd do mos' anything. I LIKE doin' body an' fender work. I like goin' to a place where all they have is young guys that ain't real bodymen. All they can do is replace parts, but cain't fix a panel what's been hit hard. I can do that. I can take a junk panel and can use a torch an' hammer an' dolly and beat it back to the right shape an' use just a little mud [body filler] on it. But these new boys, cain't do that.

No, I cain't fix EVERYTHING. Lookit this, Tondy: Saddest picture of a wrecked car I ever did see. A wrecked 55 Chevy convertible. Hit a tree an' pushed the motor back three feet. Frame's shot, front clip is gone an' the body is twisted. A cryin' shame. In good shape, that car's worth more than $10,000. But I couldn't fix that. I don't think no one could. A man that wrecked that, all he can do is cry.
A wrecked car is no better than a wrecked man.

"I like paintin' signs. I done pretty good at that. But in some towns they ain't no body shops hirin' an' nowadays the sign shops mostly use stick on letters so they ain't hirin' any signpainters. I have took work in sawmills, paintin' houses, carpentry, plumbin' you name it. An' I will work the first day for FREE, boy. FREE, then the bossman can tell me what he will pay me. An' I worked many days for less than minimum wage while I was learnin. Now, they can see what I can do an' I get paid 10 or maybe 12 dollars a hour, under the table, which is better 'n waitin' til the end of the week an' gettin' all those tax reductions taken out.

"Immigrants understand that. They get a gold [goal] an' work toward it. They work hard an' put off havin' fun 'til they has some money. An' they's willin' to learn whatever they got to learn so they can make a life for them an' their family. I have met a Mexican doctor who does windows an sidin.' He started off here as a laborer cause he couldn't even do windows an' sidin' He did it for 5 dollars an hour. He ain't too good to do that. He wanted a chance to make good an' he is doing it. His brother is a professor in Mexico an' is comin' to America to do windows an' sidin' for $10 a hour. Americans won't do that hard work for $10 a hour. But you come back in ten years an' those Mexicans will have their own business an' a big house an' fancy cars. An' the Americans who turn up they's nose to $10 a hour is still going to be broke an' still complainin' about it.


"Minimum wage is for minimum work, Tondy. That's all they is to it."


"When I ain't got no money I ain't never asked a woman to go out. That's when I was not married, before Mrs Stevens. I would work, get a place to stay, an' a place to wash up, an' then I would ask a woman out when I could treat her right an' be able to put on the charm.

"Minimum wage is for minimum work, Tondy. That's all they is to it."
7:05 AM 
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Saturday, November 22, 2008 

Explaining Doc Stevens and this Blog


Hi, I'm NOT Doc Stevens. I'm Tondeleo Lee Thomas. I'm a journalist and traveller. I am based in Bromley, Kent, UK, where I have a bedsit that I am nearly always gone from. I grew up living quite internationally, being a miltary brat, and then holidaying Summers with an aunt in Madagascar as a teen. I love America and try to get assignments as often as possible there. I am frequently in the Washington, DC area doing research and spending as much time as possible at the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

I'm writing this for Doc Stevens because he can't type well, and doesn't have Internet services. He doesn't have a "puter," either. But he is rich with good thoughts and a good head and a bit of a quick wit, considering his life.

Doc has insights and front porch wisdom that I want to pass on to you, and he doesn't mind if I do it. "I have a pinion bout everything and there's nothin' I won't talk about. Sure, you can put it on that interweb if you want. That's freedom of speech." That's what he says.

Most of these blog entries are made from conversations I've had with Doc out on the porch or in his back yard while he lays in his hammock at the end of a hard day's work. Some of them are from interviews over the phone. Whenever I'm with him, I have my recording stick handy, to catch some of his gems.

He and his family got a telephone in 2002 and he is still kind of wary of it, but will talk to me when he is in a talkative mood.

Oh, and he wants you to know this. The first time we met, I asked him what he was a doctor of. He said he wasn't a doctor. So I asked why they call him "Doc" Stevens. His answer:

"Why they call me Doc? Heck, I aint a doctor of nothing.' Listen this all got started years ago when I was working on Mr Mitchell's farm on Nanjemoy Creek. There's some good catfishing in the creek, and someone gave me a flatbottom boat. I got a bad back so I aint into hefting that boat into the water even tho it's alumium. So I built me a dock, an I was the onliest one round there that had a dock so they took to callin me Doc. They call me Doc Stevens because that's my last name: Stevens. That's all."

I'll be typing his material close as I can from the way he says it on the recordings, and to the best I can understand it. I'll probably post some of the sound files on here as well so you can hear just how he talks. He has a style all his own, not really a southern accent, more of a well travelled but rural one. It is reminiscent of the brogue that is spoken in southwestern Virginia among the mountain people near the border of Tennessee where Doc's family came from. I like it, anyway. Maybe you can pinpoint it better than me.

Doc is living in a small house in southwestern Charles County MD, with his niece, Marilyn. He usually introduces her as "Marilyn, the daughter of my brother what died."

I am hoping he will let me put some of Marilyn's words on here. She is 18 or 19 now and has some fiery opinions about a lot of things. Seems to run in the family. As time goes on and we build trust, I am hoping this blog will give some good solid glimpses into a shrinking world - the one of uneducated but intelligent country people on the edge of society and who are invisible to most of us.

From the August 16th, 2008 post: He has been taking care of her since his brother Wayne "passed on" when Marilyn was nine years old and her mother had already taken off and gone back to Tennessee or somewhere down south. He is fiercely proud of Marilyn and extremely protective of her. Having responsibility for her has given him stability and has gotten him to actually care about his life and take some degree of interest other people.

Writing Doc's thoughts, opinions and ramblings is not an easy job. First off, because he mumbles, and his English is atrocious. He misuses words and mispronounces a lot of them.

On the other hand, his lack of education and culture is part of what makes his opinions and advice interesting. Most of these postings are made from recordings of phone calls and one on one conversations. Whenever I visit Doc, I have my digital recorder on, and when I leave several hours later, I have enough fodder for a dozen or more blog postings. Doc has an opinion about everything and there is nothing he won't talk about... well, unless it is something that I try to bait him into pontificating on, and then he can get sort winded pretty quickly.

As I listen to the recordings, I usually transcript them based on however I am feeling at the moment. Transcripting with only mild deletions or editorial comments is a task in itself. I do my best to spell his worlds the way he pronounces them, and also to try to have the postings make sense.That is harder than I first imagined. However I find it to be a positive challenge and I am starting to get into the flow of it, and to know what he means by certain malapropisms the instant he mumbles them.

As for the photos on this blog, I carry a digital camera with me when I visit him and when I am able to go with him when he and Marilyn are playing music somewhere.I take as many pictures as he allows me to. Sometimes we will go for a ride while visiting - "C'mon Tondy, let's go for a ride and you can buy me a sandwich an' bring one back for Marilyn" - and part of the deal is that I can take a few pictures of him if we find a place that is interesting. Again, he gets antsy about it sometimes - "My mama warned me about men like you what want's to take my picture" - and other times he seems impressed that someone would want to see pictures of him on the "interweb." The pictures are posted randomly with the postings, just as I go through the pics that I have and then try to match them up appropriately to the editorial content.

I gave one of my old digital cameras to Marilyn and she has gotten some good ones of Doc. He is more relaxed around her and lets his guard down. Most of the ones where Doc looks more relaxed or even nearly pleasant have been taken by Marilyn. She has also made recordings of some of his musings and has emailed them to me when he takes her to the library for Internet access.

Anyway, that's how it is done. I also have video of him playing and singing and several of him and Marilyn at different venues and also playing out on the streets. I plan on putting them on Youtube at some point. I may also link the original sound files of these postings where possible and when I can find them on old SD cards, just so you can get the feel of how it is to talk with him.

UPDATE!!! DOC NOW WAS EMAIL!!!

Doc called me all excited to let me know he got an email address:

"Tondy, I got one of them addresses so I can get electric mail on the interweb. Marilyn set it up for me up at the liberry. We can be gotten in contact with now and answer about once a week if you don't mind bad spellin' unless Marilyn is with me. My name on there is DocStevensYes at Hotmail dot com ."
6:57 AM 
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Saturday, November 22, 2008 

Current mood:  chipper
Category: Blogging
I interview American country blues roots street performer and singer Doc Stevens. He gives his opinions on teaching a boy to be a man. Not bad advice! Enjoy! - Tondeleo
6:48 AM 
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