this did make me wonder though...is the "working class" given the same definition here as "middle-class" sometimes is (a income ranging from just below median to somewhere in the six figures)?
Alex Lantsberg ---------------
Everybody on the boat, except my boss is making in the mid-twenties--which is working class for this region. Joe is a warehouseman (African American, born and raised in Oakland--as a Navy brat), Larry (Native American, born and raised in Half-Moon Bay--a small coastal town just north of Monterey and Santa Cruz) used to be a tow truck driver and is a mechanic like me (born and raised in LA).
Except for my education and intellectual interests, and my boss's income everybody was working class by sensibility, interest, background. My boss John, grew up in the UK during WWII, quit school and joined the royal navy. After he got out of the service, he went to navigator school for British Air and flew commercial and freight routes in the Middle and Far East. He is definitely upper-middle class by income, but not by sensibility.
Loi, the other guy in the warehouse, also a mechanic (born and raised in Vietnam, served in ARVN) only goes out occasionally because he takes care of his wife who had a stroke recently. He also has a thing about boats which has to do with the fact he was one of boat-people in the late Seventies early Eighties. One of his cousins had a fishing boat for the Mekong, and they re-outfitted it for the ocean to make the trip to Manilla. He was the mechanic on-board. A few days out to sea, the passengers were so miserable they demanded the boat put in somewhere and a Malaysian island was the nearest land. That was a big mistake--the Malay officials confiscated the boat, stripped it of everything of value and threw everybody into refugee camps. It took Loi a year to get out of the camps and get to Manilla.
The other interesting thing about fishing are the recipes--we are all crazy about cooking. John following the notoriously bland English style, likes salmon poached or ground up in patties and fried--but he doesn't do it himself Joe, following Oakland style BBQ traditions is completely convinced smoking is the best. Larry is also a smoking fan, but tried to get me to go for a fish head stew. I gave him the ten pound head, so I'll see it later in the week. These dishes tend to show up as lunch a few days after the dinners. The weekend before last, the catch included Ling Cod (very ugly) and Stripe Bass (pretty), so Joe brought in some to warm up in the micro-wave last week. They were deep fried in a Cajun batter of corn meal, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and chili power. The cod was very good, but the bass was just okay. I am not a big bass fan. I gave the Striper from two weeks ago to Joe because I had also caught a salmon that day. I followed Joe's recipe for a brine of brown sugar, salt, and water and then smoked the older salmon pieces in the freezer from a few weeks ago. This is definitely good eating. If you like it sweet, then use more brown sugar. I like it hard smoked, salty, and dry as a lunch snack. I think the trick here is to let the brine dry to a glaze before you start smoking it. Loi also has his recipes. The best so far was a hot Thai marinade, and then BBQ'd and served with sweet rice.
What does all this mean? I am not sure, except it illustrates something about the presumptions of who the working class are and what that term means in the concrete. The stereotype or ideal is beer gusling assholes who eat junk food, beat their wives, drive pick-up trucks with gun racks, and vote proto-fascist Repugnant. Now there have to be guys out there like that--a lot of them. But I don't know them and have certainly never worked with any.
Chuck Grimes