►
From YouTube: Author Talk: Beth Macy on "Factory Man"
Description
Author Beth Macy reads from and discusses her book, "Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local and Helped Save an American Town." Recorded at the Arlington (VA) Central Library on October 7 2014.
From the book's Amazon.com page: "The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business.
The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas.
One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In FACTORY MAN, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America."
A
Hi
I'm
Diane
crash
I'm,
the
director
of
Burlington
library,
and
welcoming
you
to
this
evening's
program,
a
couple
of
logistical
things
we
are
being
filmed
tonight
by
whatever
we're
called
our
Linton
County's
own
cable
station
and
it'll,
be
then
available
for
streaming
later
on
on
your
FiOS
or
your
cable
channel.
We
will
have
copies
of
the
book
available.
Courtesy
of
Barnes,
&
Noble
after
the
program
and
Beth
will
sign
them
and
answer
additional
questions
and
be
an
opportunity
to
talk
a
little
bit
more
about
about
the
book.
A
We're
also
grateful
to
the
Friends
of
the
library,
as
always
for
all
of
the
programming
that
we
do
throughout
the
year
the
summer
reading
program
that
is
fabulously
successful
for
our
children,
as
well
as
all
of
the
adult
author
programs,
and
you
may
not
be
aware,
but
their
second
annual
book
sale-
is
this
week
later
this
week.
So
it's
always
a
lot
of
fun.
We
refer
to
it
as
Arlington's
oldest
recycling
program,
always
lots
of
neat
things
to
to
pick
up,
so
that
starts
for
members
Thursday
night,
and
then
it
runs
through
the
weekend.
A
So
if
you
have
a
chance
stop
by
it's
always
a
lot
of
fun
if
you've
listened
to
NPR
in
the
last
few
months
or
read,
articles
in
the
New,
York,
Times
or
The
Wall,
Street,
Journal,
Beth
Macy
will
be
familiar
to
to
many
of
you
and
her
remarkable
story
about
the
collapse
of
the
American
furniture
industry
and
its
human
cost
in
her
book
factory
man.
How
one
furniture
maker
battled
offshoring
stayed
local
and
helped
save
an
American
town.
A
What
interested
in
me
when
I
first
came
upon
the
book
in
a
New,
York
Times
review
earlier
this
summer,
was
the
fact
that
this
isn't
just
a
Virginia
story.
It's
a
national
story
and
we've
been
experiencing
it
for
a
long
time,
and
the
book,
in
fact,
is
a
remarkably
detailed
vividly
described
book.
Look
rather
at
how
industrial
America
once
set
the
standard
for
the
world,
but
then
hit
the
harsh
wall
of
cheaper
labor
and
standard
found
overseas.
A
I,
don't
want
to
give
away
too
much
for
those
of
you
who
haven't
finished
the
book,
but
I
can
say
factory
man
could
serve
as
a
guide
to
restoring
a
lot
of
small
American
towns
that
have
their
own
version
of
the
Basset
furniture
company,
and
hopefully
there
are
a
lot
more
John
Bassets
out.
There
he's
certainly
very
very
colorful
and
a
memorable
character.
If
you've
read
the
book,
his
bullheaded
attitude
was
described
by
someone
in
the
book.
As
always
boys
you
better
get
in
the
wagon
with
me
or
I'll,
make
you
wish.
A
You
had
definitely
someone
you
want
on
your
team.
Beth
Macey
is
herself
the
daughter
of
a
factory
worker
who
has
gone
on
to
win
more
than
a
dozen
awards
for
her
down-to-earth
muckraking
journalism,
and
we
mean
muckraking
in
a
good
way
in
the
Roanoke
Times
and
many
national
magazines
with
Factory
man.
Her
talents
were
recognized
even
before
publication,
when
Columbia
Journalism
school
and
the
Nieman
Foundation
awarded
Beth
with
the
J
Anthony
Lucas
work-in-progress
award.
A
B
Thank
you
so
much
that
was
fantastic
and
I
love
to
speak
at
a
library,
because
I
think
the
first
place
I
fell
in
love
with
language
was
in
the
back
room
of
the
Urbana
Public
Library,
where
I
was
memorizing,
shel
silverstein,
or
something
like
that
writing
a
biography
on
Louis
Armstrong,
and
somebody
asked
me
tonight
earlier.
What's
been
the
best
part
about
writing
this
book,
it
was
actually
in
August.
I
got
I
got
to
go
back
to
my
hometown,
which
is
this
little
factory.
B
Town
called
Nibbana,
Ohio
and
I
got
to
read
at
the
library
and
I.
It
was
standing
room.
Only
my
high
school
English
teachers
came
all
these
parents
of
friends
came
who
really
sort
of
looked
like
raised
me
kind
of
wasn't
quite
a
feral
child,
but
I
wasn't
that
far
from
it,
and
it
was
just
libraries,
I
love
libraries.
So
thank
you,
I
can
tell
this
is
a
great
one.
So
tonight
I'm
going
to
tell
you
a
story
with
pictures.
B
It's
a
story
about
globalization
that
blends
a
dash
of
memoir
with
social
history
and
some
contemporary
business
reporting,
or,
as
my
agent
put
it
when
he
first
read
my
book
proposal,
holy-shit
may
see
you
found
Moneyball
with
furniture,
so
I'm
gonna
focus
on
why
I
frame
the
story,
the
way
I
did
around
the
voiceless
millions
who
lost
their
jobs
to
offshoring.
It
starts
with
my
story:
the
little
ragamuffin.
B
That's
me
in
Urbana,
my
grandmother
lived
on
that
side
of
the
driveway
and
we
lived
on
that
side
of
the
driveway
and
I
grew
up
or
the
daughter
of
a
factory
worker
mom.
She
soldered
airplane
lights
when
the
economy
was
good
and
she
usually
babysat
and
waitress
really
badly.
When
it
wasn't,
she
said
really
badly.
I
was
the
first
in
my
family
to
go
to
college
and
I.
Did
it
thanks
to
full
financial
aid?
B
A
few
scholarships
that
I
believed
really
propelled
my
move
into
the
middle
class
I'm,
not
sure
that
leap
would
have
been
possible
had
it
been
more
than
15
years
later
and
I'm
pretty
sure
it
wouldn't
be
possible
at
all
today
with
chicks
Planes.
Why
I'm?
Not
your
typical
business
writer
I
will
interview
the
CEOs
and
the
politicians
and
the
professor's
and
I
do
in
my
book,
but
I
start
with
the
people
on
the
ground
and
that's
always
been
my
report.
B
My
approach
to
reporting
I've
always
done
that
and
because,
in
my
marrow
I,
don't
think
the
CEO
or
the
professor
is
more
important
than
the
guy
sweeping
his
his
office
at
night
and
and
I'm
sorry
Supreme
Court.
They
got
it
right
yesterday,
but
I
really
don't
think.
Corporations
are
people,
so
that's
just
I
lay
it
all
out
the
beginning
of
the
book.
That's
who
I
am
you
know
if
you
got
a
problem
with
it,
you
might
want
to
go
to
another
book.
One
of
my
favorite
quotes
about
journalism.
B
Is
this
from
a
historian
named
Will
Durant
and
he
wrote?
Civilization
is
a
stream
with
banks.
The
stream
is
sometimes
filled
with
blood
from
people
killing
stealing
shouting
and
doing
the
things
historians
usually
record,
while
on
the
banks
unnoticed,
people
build
homes,
make
love,
raise
children,
sing,
songs,
write,
poetry
and
even
Whittle
statues.
The
story
of
civilization
is
the
story
of
what
happened
on
the
banks.
B
So
factory
man
just
happens
to
be
said,
most
of
it
along
the
banks
of
the
Smith
River
in
Henry,
County
Virginia,
and
we
have
how
many
people
from
Bassett
or
have
lived
him
you're
from
Bassett.
Oh
my
god,
four,
oh
thank
you.
We
call
it
the
basset
diaspora.
They
always
show
up
like
no
matter
where
I
am.
There
are
people
from
Bassett,
so.
B
B
So
for
years,
I
watched
my
business
reporter
colleagues
swooped
down
to
write
a
story
every
time,
a
factory
closed,
and
they
were
sad
stories,
and
you
know
before
you
know,
at
Martinsville,
in
Henry,
County
had
the
highest
unemployment
rate
in
the
state
in
2012,
I
had
a
friend
who
was
a
photographer
named
Jared
Sori's,
he's
now
based
in
DC,
but
at
the
time
he
was
based
right
around
the
corner
from
me
and
Roanoke,
and
he
had
taken
upon
himself
to
document
that
after
me
of
globalization.
So
he
would
he
would.
B
He
was
hoping
to
write
a
book.
He
wasn't
sure
what
he
was
gonna
do
with
it,
but
he
started
going
traveling
down
there
three
times
a
week
and
20,000
jobs
had
left
that
region
since
1989,
which
ended
up
being
half
of
the
jobs
in
that
community
first
in
textiles
and
then
in
furniture.
It
still
has
the
highest
unemployment
rate.
So
what
happens
to
a
community
when
half
of
its
jobs
go
away?
B
You
bump
into
people
like
Samuel
Watkins
he'd,
been
among
the
last
furniture
workers
laid
off
in
2012
in
Martinsville
when
I
met
him
in
13.
The
AP
had
just
announced
new
data
that
showing
that
four
and
five
American
adults
will
face
poverty
sometime
in
their
lifetimes.
A
month
earlier,
MIT
economist,
David
autor
had
released
a
study
documenting
the
sky'
rating
skyrocketing
rates
of
disability
and
wage
deflation
in
areas
that
were
really
particularly
hit
by
trade
like
Martinsville.
So
finally,
Samuel
had
some
numbers
to
back
up
his
story
like
he
needed
it.
He
was
61.
B
He
was
gardening,
making
850
an
hour.
He
was
carrying
his
tools
around
the
day.
I
met
him
in
the
back
of
a
dented
up,
Ford
Explorer
I
think
it
was
1999.
His
wife
had
been
laid
off
from
furniture
work
and
she
was
waiting
to
hear
back
whether
she
was
getting
a
disability
and
Sam
had
just
maxed
out
his
credit
card
to
have
an
infected
tooth
pulled.
The
world
was
now
flat.
B
Yes,
and
we
could
all
get
blue
jeans
in
bedroom,
suits
a
little
bit
cheaper
thanks
to
it,
but
millions
of
working
Americans
had
been
flattened
in
the
process
to
find
that
story
in
the
media,
though,
you
had
to
read
it
between
the
lines
of
the
monthly
job
reports.
The
page
three
crime
briefs
the
wire
stories
about
Bangladeshi
garment
fires,
so
this
was
a
fire
right
in
ambassador
in
2011
police
arrested
a
34
year
old
man
for
setting
fire
to
an
abandoned
basket.
B
Furniture
Factory
he'd
been
trying
to
to
pull
out
the
copper
wire
casings
to
resell
on
the
black
market
and
instead
he'd
started
this
fire.
He
didn't
mean
to
do
it.
He
was
and
I
just
found
out
this
detail
the
other
day
he
showed
up
to
the
scene
of
his
crime
on
a
bicycle.
That's
help!
That's
how
that's
pretty
was
he
left
in
a
police
car
with
burns
on
his
face
and
when
news
of
this
fire
went
out
in
the
county,
displaced
workers
converged
to
watch.
B
Most
of
the
displaced
were
scraping
by
many
of
them
working
part
time
if
they
were
employed
at
all
that
the
new
job
numbers
came
out.
The
other
day
that
numbers
out
seven
million
American
workers
are
working
part
time.
You
know
I
wish
they
were
working
full-time.
So
this
is
Mary
red,
a
former
textile
mill
office
worker
who
now
works
30
hours
a
week
as
the
receptionist,
with
no
benefits.
B
She
was
picking
up
catering
jobs
on
the
side
when
we
met
in
2012-
and
she
was
telling
about
this
part
party
she'd
recently
helped
cater
for
Martinsville
is
elite
and
she
actually
ran
into
the
former
CEO
of
tall
Tech's,
where
she
had
once
worked
when
she
made
good
money
and
when
she
said
to
him
literally
made
me
gasp,
she
said
if
Toltecs
were
to
open
back
up
today
and
the
only
way
I
could
get
there
would
be
to
crawl
on
my
belly
like
a
snake.
I
would
do
it.
B
Frances
Kissy
had
lost
six
jobs
in
18
years,
two
closings,
first
textiles
and
furniture.
She
even
worked
at
a
movie
gallery
which
eventually
closed.
She
was
a
manager
there.
Then
she
worked
at
a
call
center
called
star
tech
which
ultimately
was
relocated
to
the
Philippines
to
make
ends
meet.
She
was
taking
in
boarders
when
I
met
her
and
going
back
to
school,
with
the
help
of
Trade,
Adjustment,
Assistance
or
taa.
She
was
in
her
mid
50s
working
toward
a
certificate
in
childcare.
B
Only
a
third
of
the
displaced
workers
even
participate
in
it.
It's
supposed
to
be
the
federal
government's
response
to
mitigating
what
happens
when
Americans
lose
jobs
because
of
trade
through
no
fault
of
their
own,
but
the
unemployed,
people
I
interviewed,
found
taa
to
be
ineffective
out
of
touch,
I
would
say
impotent.
Even
it
was
designed
in
the
60s
and
I
would
argue
that
it
needs
a
total
overhaul
which
hardly
anyone
talks
about.
B
It's
I
went
to
one
of
these,
this
particular
session
information
session,
and
it
was
as
if
the
people
running
it
had
never
actually
spoken
to
a
laid-off
worker.
That's
this
is
Lane
Nunley.
He
worked
for
18
hours
for
18
years
at
Hooker
Furniture,
which
was
in
Martinsville,
and
he
was
the
sample
man.
That's
the
person
that
takes
the
drawings
and
makes
the
prototype
in
wood
and
figures
out.
You
know
exactly
how
to
make
it.
B
When
her
car
closed
in
2007
and
started
importing
from
China
Vietnam
and
Indonesia
Lane
used
taa
to
become
a
certified,
auto
body
mechanic,
he
went
from
making
$18
an
hour
with
full
benefits
and
profit
sharing
to
$9
an
hour
with
no
benefits
when
he
gets
sick.
He
told
me
I,
write
it
out
and
use
home
remedies
when
we
met.
He
hadn't
been
to
the
doctor
in
three
years,
a.
B
Lot
of
people
were
making
the
rounds
to
area
food
pantries
and
still
are
they
would
they
would
show
up
like
between
the
20th
and
the
30th
of
the
month.
They
would
just
there
would
be
lines
out
the
door.
The
director
of
this
particular
pantry
told
me
he
could
divine
what
people
used
to
do
for
work
by
their
disfigurements.
B
The
women
who'd
bent
over
sewing
machines,
making
sweatshirts
all
day
had
humps
on
their
backs,
and
the
men
who
had
cold
lumber
were
missing,
fingers
many
of
them,
and
he
said
we're
the
last
last
last
resort
to
stand
in
line
and
get
a
box
of
old
food
and
that
by
the
way,
that's
a
textile
mill,
conveyor
belt,
converted
for
use
in
the
food
pantry
people
were
growing
their
own
food
raising
chickens
cobbling
together
a
patchwork
of
under
table
jobs.
This
is
Jana
Pollan.
She
had
been
a
sharecropper
as
a
little
kid.
B
Her
parents
were
sharecroppers
turned
both
she
and
her
parents
eventually
became
furniture
workers,
she's
now
unemployed.
She
would
meet
her
at
the
food
pantry.
She
was
getting
one
of
those
boxes
of
old
food
to
share
with
her
parents
who
were
96
and
98
when
I
met
her
last
year,
and
they
shared
this
salad
patch.
She
calls
it
in
between
their
two
homes
and.
B
Her
parents
are
incredible,
but
Charlie
passed
away
around
Christmas,
but
Mabel
just
turned
98
last
Monday
and
Janet
says
of
her
mother.
Nobody
on
earth
has
worked
as
hard
as
my
momma
after
my
newspaper
story
ran
I,
did
a
story:
I
didn't
meet
them
for
the
book,
but
every
I
loved
talking
to
them
because
everything
they
said
sort
of
underscored.
B
What
had
learned
from
the
book
and
they're
actually
gonna
be
in
my
next
book,
I
wrote
this
story
for
the
Roanoke
Times
about
cuts
in
the
food
stamp
program
and
I
had
met
her
at
the
food.
Pantry
and
I
went
out
and
met
them
and
after
the
story
ran,
I
got
a
check
in
the
mail
from
a
very
generous
reader
who
it
was.
It
was
gonna,
be
Thanksgiving.
He
wanted
me
to
take.
You
know
to
help
him
out
with
their
food
bill.
B
B
Among
the
most
ironic
of
my
interviewees
were
scores
of
the
displaced
workers
in
their
50s
and
early
60s
I'd
interviewed,
who
done
everything
asked
to
them,
including
retraining,
but
still
had
only
managed
to
land
part-time
work
at
Walmart
the
retailer
that
had
done
more
to
champion
offshoring
than
any
other
country
company
in
the
world.
So
this
is
Wanda
Perdue.
She
was
58
when
we
met
laid
off
from
Stanley
furniture
when
it
closed
in
2010,
her
big
splurge.
She
bought
all
generic
ingredients,
but
she
still
bought
Lux
pinto
beans.
B
She
told
me
and
she's
the
one
who
asked
me:
Stanley
had
first
had
the
furniture
made
in
China
and
the
Vietnam
and
most
recently
in
Indonesia,
so
when
her
job
was
the
people
who
replaced
her
actually
working
in
Indonesia,
not
China,
and
she
said
I'd
like
you
to
go
there.
So
you
can
tell
me
why
it
is.
We
can't
make
it
here
anymore,
and
that
became
really
the
driving
question
in
my
book
and
towards
the
end
of
the
book.
B
I
do
go
to
Indonesia
and
I'm
the
workers
there,
who
are
not,
unlike
the
early
workers,
abasa
furniture
in
1902,
but
the
other
question
that
really
propelled
me,
especially
once
I
met
the
main
character,
was:
was
there
another
way,
hadn't
anyone
at
all
fought
to
keep
their
workers
employed,
so
it
turned
out
somebody
had.
He
was
from
the
tiny
hamlet
of
Galax
Virginia
and
from
that
tiny
little
town,
which
is
better
known
for
bluegrass
and
barbecue.
It's
they
have
this
huge
Fiddler's
come.
Is
anybody
here
from
Galax?
B
No
okay,
anybody
been
to
get
legs:
okay,
okay,
great,
okay!
So
from
Galax
you
all
know
it's
just
a
small
little
former
furniture
town
he
had
taken
on
China
at
the
US
International
Trade
Commission
filing.
What
in
2003
was
the
largest
anti-dumping
petition
in
the
world
and
he
once
I
met
him
whoa,
so
he's
super
feisty,
Falken
Aryan
and
from
a
strictly
storytelling
perspective,
this
factory
man
seemed
to
have
all
the
elements
for
me
to
write.
My
first
book
never
mind
an
HBO
miniseries.
B
His
grandfather
was
JD,
Bassett
senior
aka
mr.
JD,
and
he
had
started
the
company
in
what
was
basically
the
family's
front
yard
that
you
see
there.
The
Smith
River
is
in
the
foreground
of
the
picture
in
front
of
the
trees.
He
started
1902
using
free
timber
from
his
property
and
cheap
labor
subsistence
farmers
and
former
sharecroppers
who
were
eager
to
join
the
cash
economy.
B
He
used
the
Smith
River
spitting
distance
away
to
move
the
logs
from
the
sawmill
to
the
factories,
and
later
he
harnessed
the
steam
from
the
river
for
the
boilers
they
built
a
town
eventually,
so
people
wouldn't
have
to
walk
in
from
the
mountains.
In
the
pre-dawn
I
mean
they
used
to
carry
lanterns
in
the
morning
as
they
walked
into
work
as
the
first
southern
furniture
maker
to
hire
blacks
at
the
height
of
Jim
Crow.
He
was
progressive,
you
could
say,
but
he
was
also
wily
and
shrewd.
B
He
paid
them
half
of
what
he
paid
the
whites
and
he
gave
him
the
worst
jobs
such
as
here
in
the
finishing
room.
It's
Stanley
Furniture,
which
he
helped
his
son-in-law
TB
Stanley
open
in
1924
Bassett.
Also
mr.
JD.
Personally,
spawned
Hooker
Furniture,
Vaughan
furniture,
BOM
Bassett
Stanley.
He
had
a
hand
in
all
of
them.
He
would
sort
of
get
them
going
and
he
would
keep
stock
in
exchange
sort
of
in
twining
it
his
wealth
with
his
competitors.
This
is
pretty
interesting.
B
Bassett
was
the
definition
of
paternalism.
Black
workers
lived
in
shacks
along
a
snaky
hollow
road
that
flooded
every
time
it
rained
white
workers,
lived
in
company
homes,
closer
to
the
factories
and
everyone
paid
their
light
bills.
At
the
company
headquarters,
police
cab,
drivers,
street
sweepers,
streetlights,
the
town
doctor.
B
It
was
all
owned
and
operated
by
basket
furniture
industries,
but
paternalism
could
be
kind
also,
such
as
when
basket
furniture
weathered
the
depression
without
laying
a
single
person
off,
which
is
something
you
just
can't
imagine
today,
almost
according
to
the
little
girl
in
this
picture
on
the
Left
who's.
Now
in
her
80s,
mr.
J
JD
went
around
to
every
worker
and
surveyed
the
number
of
mouths
each
person
had
to
feed
and
then
cut
everybody's
salary
in
their
hours
accordingly,
but
no
one
like
a
loan
had
to
suffer.
No
one
lost
their
job.
B
Everybody
took
a
little
bit
of
a
cut,
so
that
was
upward.
Mobility
trajectory
before
globalization,
Betty's
grandparents
have
been
sharecroppers.
Her
father
was
a
furniture
worker
and
Betty
herself
ended
up
with
a
master's
degree
and
a
in
social
work.
She
remembers
money
being
so
tight
during
the
Depression
that
her
mom
couldn't
afford
pencils
and
paper,
and
she
learned
how
to
draw
our
letters
on
the
condensation
of
the
windows,
so
Basset
furniture
modernized
during
World
War,
two
and
positioned
itself
to
become
and
did
become,
the
largest
furniture
maker
in
the
world.
B
The
GIS
came
home,
the
American
suburbs
began
to
boom
and
people
needed
furniture
for
those
new
ranch
houses,
and
there
was
drama
galore
juicy
drama,
as
there
usually
is
in
family-run
businesses,
especially
those
with
millions
on
the
line,
and
so
little
John
as
the
whole
town
called
him.
That's
him
on
the
right.
That's
John
Bassett,
the
third.
He
could
he
couldn't
get
along
with
his
tempestuous
older
brother-in-law,
Bob
Spellman,
who
was
second
from
the
left
and
Bob
eventually
became
the
CEO
of
Bassett,
grew
it.
It
eventually
became
fortune
500.
B
He
basically
made
sure
that
Little
John,
who
was
thought
at
his
birth,
would
eventually
inherit
the
company.
He
basically
drove
him
out
and
made
his
life
a
living
hell
until
he
left
in
1982
and
so
Little
John.
Finally,
quit
after
a
fight
that
you'll
have
to
read
about
in
the
book
and
decamp
to
Galax,
where
he
resurrected
a
struggling
bond,
Bassett
furniture
which
had
been
founded
by
John's
grandfather,
mr.
JD
and
his
wife's
grandfather
in
1919.
His
wife
is
also
his
distant
cousin
and
the
only
person
to
raise
her
voice.
B
B
Like
his
grandfather,
John
Bassett,
the
third
was
wily
and
he
was
shrewd
he'd
arrived
in
Galax
with
the
dresser
sized
chip
on
his
shoulder
in
an
insufferable.
Competitive
drive
is
more
than
one
of
his
competitors.
Barked
at
me,
when
they
heard
I,
was
writing
a
book
with
him
as
a
main
character,
he's
an
in
the
late
90s
and
early
aughts.
When
Chinese
furniture
makers
started
flooding
the
market
with
imports
that
were
so
cheap,
he
knew
they
had
to
be
dumping,
and
that
means
illegally.
B
According
to
the
rules
of
the
WTO
they're
selling
the
furniture
cheaper
than
the
cost
of
the
wood
to
make
it
in
an
effort,
you
know
expressly
to
put
the
Americans
to
capture
the
market
share
and
put
the
American
factories
out
of
business.
He
alone
had
the
audacity
to
fight
back
in
his
industry.
He
knew
they
were
dumping
because
he'd
already
had
his
line.
Workers
deconstruct
deconstruct
a
particular
dresser
that
was
threatening
to
put
the
whole
industry
out
of
business.
It
was
this
hundred
dollar
dresser
from
Dalian
China.
That
was
the
only
clue.
B
There
was
a
sticker
on
the
back.
That
said,
Dalian
that's
in
northern
China
and
he
he
journeyed
with
his
son
Wyatt.
That's
his
son
Wyatt
on
the
right
in
the
khakis
undercover
with
a
friendly,
a
Taiwanese
translator.
That's
her
third
from
the
left,
Rose
Manor,
when
she
harbored
no
love
growing
up
in
Taiwan
for
China,
and
she
had
married
into
somebody
who
had
a
lot
of
connections
in
the
furniture
industry
in
Asia,
and
she
knew
just
what
to
do
to
find
that
hundred
dollar
dresser
and
they
went
basically
went
factory
to
factory
posing
as
buyers.
B
They
were
gonna
have
their
furniture
made,
but
they're
really
looking
for
the
source
of
that
cheap
chest
of
drawers,
you
can
read
the
book
and
find
out
exactly
how
they
pulled
it
off
with
huge
help
from
a
team
of
trade
lawyers.
Do
we
have
any
trade
lawyers
than
the
audience
sort
of
ITC
awesome?
Okay,
Joe,
Dorn,
yeah
yeah,
so
Joe
Doran
was
the
he's
the
main
guy,
but
know
this.
It
took
a
certified
with
millions
in
the
bank
and
a
dresser
sighs
chip
on
his
shoulder
to
prove
that
the
Chinese
were
cheating.
B
B
So
one
by
one,
the
seven
Bassett
factories
closed
as
that
company
followed
the
path
of
so
many
others
in
the
industry
and
Bassett
furniture
itself,
which
had
factories
all
over
the
country
ended
up
putting
8,500
people
out
of
work,
elegant
homes
that
have
once
been
occupied
by
the
company
founders.
That
used
to
look
like
this
and
by
the
way,
that's
Gracie
Wade.
B
B
Volunteers,
pull
resources
to
pay
for
the
town's
streetlights
because
the
company
doesn't
pay
for
him
anymore,
so
over
in
Galax,
John
Bassett
had
won
his
anti-dumping
case
and
not
without
copious
amounts
of
more
drama
in
his
family.
In
his
industry
in
the
courts
he
not
only
kept
his
factory
going,
he
opened
up
an
abandoned
Platt
plant
next
door,
saving
700
jobs
and
as
many
in
the
town
and
in
the
region
argue
saving
the
town.
B
This
was
actually
the
scene
that
my
book
was
supposed
to
end
on.
When
I
wrote.
My
book
proposal
I
said
that
I
would
end
with
this,
and
just
it's
a
press
conference
he's
gathered
the
politicians
and
they're
there
in
the
front
row.
Those
are
the
factory
workers
he's
standing
on
a
furniture,
conveyor
belt,
that's
probably
been
there
since
nineteen
and
nineteen-
and
you
know
he's
announcing
that
he's.
You
know,
he's
gonna
hire
150
more
workers
and,
as
he
told
me
right
before,
he
went
on
look
peering
over
saw
dust
cover
glasses.
B
So
that's
really
how
I
thought
the
book
would
end,
but
I
really
fell
in
love
with
Bassett
Bassett,
the
town
that
isn't
so
thriving
and
one
day
on
one
of
my
reporting
trips
back
from
Bassett,
the
real
takeaway
of
what
my
book
should
be
hit
me
and
that
was
that
I
think
nobody
was
minding
the
backroom
of
this
new
global
store.
When
China
joined
the
WTO
in
2001
politicians
promised
Americans,
it
would
be
quote
a
win-win
that
our
workers
would
not
lose
jobs,
that
we
would
simply
export
more
goods
to
China's
growing
middle
class.
B
But
few
people
had
ever
bothered
to
go
back
and
say:
didn't
didn't
really
work
out.
That
way,
did
it
we
can
all
get
blue
jeans
and
bedroom
suits
a
little
bit
cheaper
now,
but
few
people
in
Washington
had
paid
attention
to
pictures
like
this
to
the
creeping
small-town
carnage
created
by
acronyms
like
NAFTA
and
WTO,
and
an
impotent
taa
all
of
it
forged
by
far
away
people
who
had
never
bothered
to
see
the
full
result
of
what
globalization
had
wrought.
That
to
me
is
the
heart
of
Factory
man.
B
So
over
the
course
of
two
years,
I
watched
factories
go
from
looking
like
this
to
this
abandoned
and
then
to
this
it
was
set
on
fire
when
they
were
tearing
it
down
and
then
the
demolition
process
over
the
course
of
two
years.
It
was
just
slow.
I
but
I
watched
this
happen
with
this
particular
Factory,
and
then
you
know,
everything's,
leveled
and
grass
has
grown
and
offenses
put
around
it,
rendering
it
unusable
and.
B
Which
gave
me
I
felt
really
that
this
is
how
I
decided
to
end
the
book
and
I'm,
giving
it
all
the
way
which
now
you're
not
gonna,
buy
it
dang.
So
quite
by
accident.
One
day,
one
of
my
sources
said:
I
want
to
show
you
something
and
she
drove
me
up
to
the
outskirts
of
Bassett
and
she
introduced
me
to
Harry
Ferguson
and
he
he
was
the
guy
that
had
been
hired
to
haul.
B
Embassador
paralyzed
was
quite
storied
in
the
history
of
massive
furniture.
It
was,
it
was
the
former
plant
manager
said
we
were
printing
money,
I
mean
it
was
they
made
the
low-end
furniture
Chuck
a
luck.
The
workers
still
remember
the
sound
of
the
furniture
just
zooming
down
the
conveyor
belt.
It
was
a
very
cheap,
quick
and
it
was
super
profitable.
B
On
the
other
opposite,
the
ravine
and
I
asked
him
what
what
that
was
for-
and
he
said
those
are
the
bricks
for
the
people
of
Bassett
that
that
come
by
all
the
time
and
asked
me
for
one
and
like
commemorative
bricks
as
reminders
of
the
work
they'd
done
and
the
friendships
they'd
forged
in
those
factories,
but
they
weren't
just
for
nostalgia
sake.
I
think
they
were
also
proof
that
unfettered
free
trade
had
not
been
a
win-win
for
everyone.
B
So
while
the
CEOs
were
cashing
bigger
checks
and
the
wal-mart
heirs
were
accruing
wealth
equal
to
that
at
the
bottom,
forty
1.5
percent
of
American
families
did
the
American
job
market
had
hollowed
out
in
many
of
these
trade
impacted
towns.
That's
the
story,
I
think
of
what
happened
on
the
riverbanks.
B
Ferguson
picked
up
one
of
the
bricks
from
his
stack
and
he
chinked
off
the
mortar,
and
then
he
handed
me
one
really
sweetly
and
ceremoniously
like
he
was,
like
somebody
might
hand
over
a
sleeping
baby,
really
gently
and
the
brick
was
warm
from
the
Sun
and
it
was
solid
and
when
he
looked
me
in
the
eye
we
didn't
say
anything,
but
we
both
knew
that
there
were
people
out
there
still
who
would
crawl
on
their
bellies
like
a
snake
if
they
thought
it
would
bring
it
all
back.
Thank
you.
B
I'm
happy
to
take
questions.
This
is
filming
now
and
I.
Don't
it's
in
the
way
it
works
and
I
didn't
know
it
could
be
a
couple
years
before
you
know.
We
even
know
for
sure
if
it's
gonna
be
made
so
I've
just
been
told
to
sit
tight,
but
it
was
very
exciting.
He
sent
out
a
tweet
in
I
guess
it
was
early
August
recommending
that
people
read
it
and
he
gave
it
142
stars
I
just.
B
B
Well,
cuz
in
I
really
try
to
be
back
fair
to
buy
some
furniture
because
they
are
different
kinds
of
entities.
Bassett
furniture
is
a
public
company
with
shareholders.
As
a
see
II
told
me
that
have
to
get
profits.
We
are
not
a
social
experiment,
he
said
which
sounds
sort
of
tone-deaf,
but
it's
it
is
true
and
I
tried
to
give.
You
know.
B
I
tried
to
really
understand
the
decisions
that
went
into
closing
all
those
factories,
including
some
that
were
still
very
profitable
at
the
time,
because
they
they
went
a
totally
different
way
and
went
into
they.
They
had
always
sold
to
the
middle
and
lower
middle
market.
You
know
the
whole
sell
to
the
masses
to
eat
with
the
classes
thing,
and
they
made
a
really
conscious
decision.
Their
response
to
globalization
was
to
make
slightly
higher
end
stuff.
B
You
know
not
quite
Ethan
Allen
but
right
before
and
to
go
vertical
and
to
sell
to
open
their
own
stores,
which
they
have
they've
got
almost
a
hundred
stores.
Now
across
the
country
and
the
like,
bassett
superior
lines,
furniture
that
was
designed.
You
know
that
was
designed
to
furnish
the
bedrooms
that
the
gi's
came
home
to
not
not
hand-carved
stuff
from
Indonesia
and
but
to
your
question.
I've
asked
John
Bassett
that
and
he's
very
careful
about
not
criticizing
his
relatives
cuz.
You
know
he
still
has
to
see
them
at
family,
dinners,
I,
guess
and.
B
B
I
wanted
to
see
where
he
got
his
first
haircut
and
where
he
went
to
the
movies
when
he
was
a
little
weird
grew
up
and
the
schools
he
went
to
and
I
was
hoping
that
he
would
really
like
kind
of
come
alive
and
what
he
did
most
of
the
tour
was
like
turn.
The
tape
recorder
off
I
was
like
no
and
but
every
now,
and
then
he
would
say,
because
he
was
just
very
guarded
about.
B
He
didn't
want
to
come
across
his
clothing,
that
he
had
done
a
great
thing
and
his
relatives
hadn't
and
which
I,
which
I
appreciate
we
pulled
up.
We
were
driving
around
Martinsville
and
we
pulled
up
to
an
another
abandoned
plant
called
American
of
Martinsville,
and
that
was
a
particularly
gut-wrenching
one,
because
people
had
shown
up
for
work
on
Monday
morning
and
the
gates
were
locked,
and
that
was
how
they
found
out.
They
lost
their
jobs
like
they
didn't
even
have
the
nerve
to
look
him
in
the
eye
that
wasn't
a
basset
plant.
B
It
was
a
different
company,
but
he
said,
as
we
were
sitting
there
looking
at
this
crooked,
like
jobs
wanted,
you
know
like
where
were
you're
supposed
to.
It
was
a
sign,
a
crooked
rusty
sign.
That
said,
where
you're
supposed
to
go,
if
you
were
gonna
turn
in
the
job
application,
he
said,
I
know
we
had
the
clothes
and
factories,
but
I
don't
think
we
had
to
close
them
all,
and
so
there's
a
there's.
A
gentleman
who
was
running
a
Bassett
plant
in
Dublin
Georgia
named
buck
Gayle,
who
grew
up
ambassador.
B
His
father
had
run
the
WM
Bassett
plant
in
Martinsville,
which
is
another
chapter
of
family
drama,
and
he
had
he
knew
he
saw
globalization
coming
and
he
figured
out
how
to
make
how
to
make
furniture
really
profitably.
It
was
before
I
akia
was
so
huge
here,
but
he
had
gone
out
into
his
workshop
in
his
back
yard
and
had
figured
out
this
new
process,
which
was
basically
IKEA
style
like
like
just
it
was
a
kitchenette
cabinet
style.
We're
gonna
put
a
new
front
on
it.
It's
not
gonna
be
super
expensive
and
but
they'd
figured
out.
B
B
He
he
he
was
so
angry
when
I
was
interviewing
him
that
he
was
near
tears
on
the
phone
and
he
he
just
feels
that
the
company
betrayed
all
those
people,
and
so
you
can
I
mean,
but
you
can
find
people
that
disagree
with
that.
I
put
all
the
viewpoints
in
there,
but
I
think
what
John
Bassett
says
is
probably
right:
I
think
they
had
to
close
some
I,
don't
think
they
had
to
close
them
all.
F
B
I
gave
Friday
was
national
manufacturing
day
and
the
Alliance
for
American
manufacturing
had
me
come
up
and
they
did
a
really
beautiful
kind
of
book
party
and
they
invited
a
lot
of
probably
your
colleagues
at
the
ITC.
Were
you
there
Friday,
okay
and
trade
lawyers,
and
there
were
some
trade
enforcement
folks
who
are
there
and
and
I.
Don't
remember
who
said
what?
But
a
lot
of
people
asked
if
I
would
testify
before
Congress
and
I
said
well
sure
nobody
says
I.
B
Often
you
have
to
show
injury
first
of
all,
and
often
by
the
time
like
you
can
show
injury,
you're
either
already
super
invested
in
importing
yourselves
or
you're
you're
going
broke,
and
so
you
don't
have
the
lawyer
money.
So
that's
the
way
you
say
it
took
an
with
millions
in
the
bank,
I
mean
he
put
a
lot
of
us,
it's
personal
money
on
the
line.
The
other
thing
he
had
to
do
to
file
this
petition
is
he
had
to
get
51%
of
his
industry
on
board.
B
He
didn't
know
about
the
law
until
almost
it
was
too
late
to
do
that
and
I
would
argue
that
only
somebody
like
him
would
have
had
the
gumption
to
sit
down.
I
mean
literally
called
the
CEO
of
every
single
Furniture
Factory.
He
called
his
nephew,
the
CEO
of
Bassett
and,
like
beg
badgered
bullied,
him
said
I
sure
would
hate
to
see
people
picking
in
Bassett
and
he
was
going
to
take
out
ads
in
the
Martinsville
Bulletin
to
tell
him
about
this
law,
because
workers
can
actually
bring.
They
can
file
a
petition
themselves.
B
But
it's
you
know
it's
a
right-to-work
state,
it's
not
like
they're,
you,
nice
and
but
he
wanted
to.
Let
him
know
they
could
do
that
and
his
nephew
told
me
that
story
and
then
once
he
had
Stan
you
know
once
he
had
Bassett,
then
he
could
get
Stanley
because
it
was
right
next
door,
because
how
bad
would
it
look
to
be?
G
I
actually
had
a
privilege
of
meeting
mr.
jd3
mr.
Bassett
back
around
2005
and
2006,
when
I
worked
for
the
US
Trade
Representative's
office,
which
is
actually
the
agency
that
negotiates
all
those
wonderful
trade
agreements
and
I
will
definitely
say
that
mr.
Bassett
was
by
far
the
most
memorable
and
colorful
person.
I.
B
B
B
You
kidding
yeah,
like
we
he's
called
three
times
today,
he's
very
involved
in
every
decision
he
wakes
up
at
for
the
morning
any
reads
like
five
international
newspapers
on
his
Kindle,
which
he
barely
knows
how
to
operate
and
and
then
he
goes
to
work
at
the
factory
in
Galax,
which
is
about
45
minutes
away
and
drives
his
sons
crazy
and
is
really
intimately
involved
in
every
detail.
They've
they
they
didn't
really
understand,
I
mean
I.
Did
this
story
on
him
and
I
showed
up
Doug?
B
His
son
Doug
had
said
dressed
down,
we're
gonna
be
in
and
out
of
the
factory
I
wore
hiking
boots
and
jeans,
and
my
hair
was
long
at
the
time.
I
had
it
back
in
a
ponytail
and
I
could
see
the
look
on
it.
I
could
see
the
judgment
I
could
see.
He
was
thinking.
What,
in
the
hell,
has
a
newspaper
done
sending
this
damn
hippie
down
here
to
interview
me
and
he
was
gonna.
Give
me
like
ten
minutes,
but
I
was
I
was
totally
prepared.
I
had
done.
B
I
didn't
know
that
much
about
the
dumping
case.
I
knew
a
little
bit
about
it.
I
mean
it's
so
complex:
I
knew
all
about
the
family.
History
I
knew
about
the
brother-in-law,
the
elbowing
out
and-
and
it
was
you
know,
it's
irresistible
to
tell
your
story
to
somebody.
Who's
actually
interested
in
has
done
a
lot
of
research
and
then
the
day
the
newspaper
article
came
out,
I
got
him
while
he
was,
he
was
super
moved.
B
Are
gonna
write
it
for
me
with
a
ghostwriter
and
I.
Think
that's
gonna
happen
like
he's
they
working
on
a
proposal
for
that
now
with
my
agent
actually,
and
he
really
thinks
he
has
lessons
to
teach
America
about
not
turning
tail
and
running
and
fighting
back
and
he's
thinks
he's
figured
a
lot
of
things
out
about
how
to
communicate
with
your
workers
and
when
I
first
met
him.
He
would
talk
about
his
five
rules
for
competing
in
the
global
marketplace.
B
A
really
sharp
PR
group
out
of
Cincinnati,
Ohio
and
they've
got
videos
and
all
these
things
he
would
have
never
thought
about
before,
because
he's
really
sort
of
proud
of
being
anti-technology
I
mean
he
has
millions
of
dollars
worth
of
computerized,
routers
and
stuff,
but
he's
proud
that
their
their
furnace,
their
furniture
in
their
office
is
horrible
and
the
carpet
is
dirty
and
I
asked
him
once
because
I
knew
like
Spillman
his
competitor
had
a
private
jet
I
said:
do
you
ever
jet?
He
just
laughed
that
was
hell.
B
D
So
I
was
really
intrigued
with
Bob
Spillman
as
a
character.
He
seems
you
talk
a
lot
about
what
he
did
and
he
you
know
I
know
you
didn't
sort
of
explicitly
say
this,
but
he
seems
sort
of
like
the.
If
the
story
as
a
hero,
a
story
sort
of
has
a
opposite
of
a
hero.
Yeah
did
you
get
a
sense
of
what
sort
of
motivated
him
internally
I
mean
it
seemed
to
be
I,
couldn't
tell
if
it
was
just
sort
of.
D
B
You
know
cuz,
his
son
didn't
want
to
be
interviewed
originally
and
then
eventually
he
let
me
in
and
really
gave
me
some
great
material
and
he
was
easier
to
interview
actually
than
John
I
mean
cuz.
You
could
just
ask
him
anything
and
he'd
answer
it
or
he'd
say
didn't
know,
I
mean
I
didn't
get
the
feeling
he
was
playing
me
or
making
me
turn
my
recorder
off
every
other
minute
and,
and
so
I
was
just
when
I
finally
got
to
him.
B
I
said
you
know,
I've
heard
a
lot
of
really
kind
of
bad
things
about
your
dad,
and
you
know:
I've
told
him
what
they
were.
The
corporate
pilot
said
he
kicked
him
in
a
drunken
rage.
One
night,
you
know
he
did
this.
You
know
he
sent
John
to
Mount
Airy
to
make
him
run
this
to
start
this
new
plant
and
when
he
got
back,
he
took
his
off.
B
He
like
had
demolished
his
office
and
giving
it
to
somebody
else
and
set
him
up
a
little
strip
mall
with
no
secretary
and
no
no
real
office
and
some
really
harsh
things
and
and
his
wife,
nicknamed
him
sweet,
ol,
Bob,
sob
and
but
you
know
his
son
said
you
know
he
his
dad
left
the
family
when
he
was
young
he
in
and
he
had
an
unhappy
childhood.
He
had
called
a
military
school
and
he
was
just
this
fierce
kind
of
control
person
and
so
and
then
his
talked
about
like
when
he
first
became
CEO.
B
His
dad
will
call
him
up
every
day
and
say
what
the
hell
are
you
doing
now?
What
did
the
hell?
You
do
it
and
finally,
Rob
got
so
frustrated.
He
said
dad
are
we
friends
and
he
said:
oh
I
guess
we're
friends
and
he
goes
well
as
my
friend
get
down
off
my
back
and
he
just
like
he
stood
up
to
him
and
then
he
finally
chilled
out
up
some
what
and
so
I
said
rah.
So
finally,
I
said
like
on
my
last
interview.
B
I
said:
I
have
so
much
more
negative
stuff
about
him
than
positive
stuff
and
I
know
not
everybody's
evil
or
good
and
I'm
really
trying
to
flush
him
out
as
a
person,
and
that's
when
he
told
me
the
story
of
he
said
you
know
dad
was
a
just.
He
was
a
black
belt
asked
you
where
he
he,
but
he,
but
he
could
get
along
with
people.
You
wouldn't
expect
him
to
get
along
to
the
guy
pumping
your
gas
and
the
guy
from
Wall.
Street
I
mean
he
could
just
he
was
very.
B
He
was
a
great
salesman
and
but
he
but
but
he
said
he
had
great
sense
of
humor.
So
to
illustrate
the
story
about
how
complex
but
kind
of
funny
and
well
I,
don't
know
what
this
I
I
thought
he
was
gonna.
Tell
me
something
really
good,
but
he
told
me
this
story
about
this
plant
manager
named
Rosenberg,
who
ran
one
of
the
factories
and
Rosenberg's
wife
wouldn't
deign
to
live
in
Bassett
like
she
was
not
gonna
live
in
that
podunk
town,
so
she
stayed
in
Atlanta.
B
So
every
Friday
Rosenberg
wanted
to
get
out
early
to
drive
to
Atlanta,
because
this
is
a
long
drive
and
so
Spillman
the
CEO
of
a
fortune.
500
company
takes
it
upon
himself
every
Friday
afternoon
to
find
out
where
Rosenberg
is
like
he's.
Gonna
keep
a
night.
You
would
not.
You
may
not
leave
until
5:00
p.m.
so
one
day.
He
calls
him
the
second
where's,
the
hell
where
the
hell's
Rosenberg
and
she
says,
he's
already
gone.
B
So
he
calls
the
Virginia
State
Highway
Patrol
and
he
has
him
set
a
roadblock
up
on
the
North
Carolina
Virginia
line
and
they
escort
Rosenberg
back
to
Bassett,
at
which
point
Spillman
is
standing
in
the
lobby
in
front
of
the
elevator.
Looking
at
his
watch,
he
said:
well,
it's
five
o'clock
have
a
great
weekend,
and
that
was
it
I
mean
that's
pretty
funny,
but
it's
pretty
mean
another
really
great
story,
and
this
is
maybe
my
favorite
story
of
the
whole
book.
B
B
He
was
going
to
other
countries,
but
you
know
without
getting
permits
and
he
had
figured
it
all
out
way
before
anybody
else
and
so
I
was
I
was
taking
a
tour
of
plan
11
in
Martinsville
with
Rob
the
first
time
I
interviewed
him
in
person
and
I
said:
did
you
ever
know?
Larry,
Moe
and
I
can't
remember
what
he
said
he
goes.
Oh,
my
dad
did
my
dad
met
him
a
couple
times
and
I
said
what
and
at
this
point
I
knew
a
lot
about
sweet
old,
Bob
and
I
was
like.
Oh
that's
interesting.
B
What
did
he
think
of
Larry
Moe,
and
so
Rob
tells
me
this
story
about
its
high
point.
It's
a
big
buffet
party
and
there's
the
suckling
pig
in
the
middle
of
this
beautiful
table
all
elaborate
and
then
one
of
those
pigs
with
the
apple
in
its
mouth
and
and-
and
he
said
just
apropos-
of
nothing
in
the
middle
of
standing
around
having
a
cocktail.
His
dad
picks
up
the
carving
knife,
stabs
the
pig
and
says
Larry
Moe.
B
C
C
E
H
B
Yeah,
no
I
think
that's
exactly
right
in
fact:
Anna
Logan
Lawson,
who
was
on
the
board
of
Hollins
with
her
when
she
was
the
chairman
of
the
board
of
Hollins
University,
said
that
exact
same
thing.
If
she
had
born
a
couple
decades
later,
she
would
have
been
running
Bassett
furniture,
although
like
there
still
hasn't,
been
a
female
running
bass
or
furniture.
It's,
but
she
was
her
father's
favorite
I
mean
she
basically
told
me
that,
and
she
grew
up
on
Sundays.
B
B
She
would
come
alive
when
she
would
talk
about
being
a
girl
with
her
father,
look
checking
on
the
factories
and
I
mean
she's
very
bright
and
I
asked
her
did
so
did
Bob
like
let
get
let
you
give
your
input
and
she
said
no
and
it
broke
my
heart.
Other
people
who
know
them
very
well
say
that
wasn't
true
at
all
that
she
had
a
lot
of
input.
So
I,
don't
really
know
you
know
I'm,
not
privy
to
those
kitchen
table
conversations
that
they
had,
but
I
asked
about
it,
and
he
said
she.
B
H
Most
of
the
people
in
the
book
are
parents
of
my
friends.
You
know
one
generation
had,
but
a
lot
of
them
are
contemporaries
like
Jeb
Bassett.
He
and
I
were
in
the
same
class
same
as
our
Lindo
and
Hiram
Dylan,
rocks
and
Ellen's
sure,
kids
and
I
guess.
The
thing
I
want
to
ask,
because
you
know
the
fact
remain
discussion
group.
That's
out
there
right,
yeah.
B
H
B
B
Yeah
and
you
know,
because
John
was
from
the
JD
side-
I
didn't
get
as
much
into
it,
so
Bassett
furniture
was
founded
by
JD
Bassett
in
1902,
with
his
brother
CC
and
a
brother-in-law,
and
maybe
a
cousin
I
think.
Maybe
they
were
four
men
initially,
but
it
was
really
clear
at
the
beginning
that
mr.
JD
was
like
running
the
show
and
mr.
C
in
mr.
CC
was
liked
being
on
the
farm
better
and
in
fact
there
I
found
this
I
think
it
was
a
charter
for
like
the
original
Kiwanis
Club
or
something
like
that.
B
And
mr.
Sisi
listed
his
occupation
as
furniture
owner
and
mr.
JD
wrote,
capitalist
and
so
si
si
Basset
died
in
1930
in
a
car
accident,
really
young,
and
so
obviously
JD
is
gonna,
pass
it
down
to
his
family
and
then
it
was
like.
Then
it
became
this
like
which
sides
gonna
get
it.
So
then
it
went
to
his
son,
WM
and
then
Doug
Bassett
John's
father,
who
died
young
well
unexpectedly
in
1965,
and
then
it
went
to
mr.
ed
and
Spillman
and
mr.
Edie
was
a
CC
side
person.
B
But
Spillman
really
really
ran
the
thing
and
then,
when
mr.
Edie
finally
retired
and
wasn't
chairman
of
the
board,
then
just
Billman
ran
it
and
he
did
both
of
those
roles.
As
chairman
and
the
CEO
and
so
I
know
there
is
some
tension
and
I've
heard
people
say:
well,
we
don't
have
the
money
they
have.
You
know
saying
that
about
the
other
side
and
and.
B
I've
seen
that
in
the
discussion
group
to
somebody
a
friend,
I,
don't
even
know
her
that
well
I
haven't
known
her
that
long,
but
she
asked
if
she
could
to
start
a
facebook
discussion
group
I'm
week
or
two
after
the
book
came
out,
and
my
husband
is
one
of
the
administrators
and
I
said
sure.
I
did
I,
didn't
really
have
time
to
look
at
it
every
day
and
it
quickly
grew
to
how
how
many
does
it
have
now
over
okay?
B
So
it
has
probably
as
many
people
as
they're
in
Bassett
and
they're,
almost
all
from
Bassett
right,
there's
a
few
people
here,
a
little
of
elsewhere
that
are
not
that
are
on
it.
But
somebody
said:
oh,
it's
just
like
a
high
school
reunion
and
it
is
but
it's
I
mean
there's
some
depth
in
there
too.
It's
not
just
I.
Remember
Trent's
door
tread
Hill
or
it's
it's.
It's
it's
a
place.
It's
this
virtual
water
cooler,
because
the
reality
doesn't
exist
anymore
and
I,
find
that
pretty
cool
and
there's
some
really
smart
discussion
about
global
people.
B
Post
links
today,
they
posted
somebody
posted
a
link
from
martinsville
bulletin
about
they
closed
the
Bassett
Country
Club
a
couple
weeks
ago,
and
somebody
wants
to
reopen
it
again:
yeah
yeah
and
they're
all
sort
of
debating
that
and-
and
you
know
every
now
and
then
it
gets
totally
like
kind
of
mean
spirited
and
mem.
Our
discussion,
leader
or
Tom,
will
say
civility
and
kind
of
bring
everybody
back
and
there's
probably
there's
a
handful
of
people
on
there
that
hate
the
book
and
but
most
of
the
people
are
pretty
positive
about
it.