time jewish kid in south carolina as you said in your book and said to me dodger fan because of sandy cofax before you moved to boston and now washington. a lot of readers might be surprised you worked at a place called south of the border and i know skyline chilly and the diner i go to in cleveland and i don't know south of the border but all of i-95 points it. you were a middle class kid. not poor. not rich. but what did working at south of the border do for you? >> guest: well it is and a place where the economic situation is tough and people have to work hard. i worked as a construction worker, in my dad's construction -- dad's store and worked two years at south of the border. i was both part of the area and not part of the area. we were jewish and most of the town was southern baptist but i was part of the town going to the public schools and worked with people. in the drugstore we knew everybody in town. my father offered credit to anybody he felt he could trust. so the whole experience was one of getting to know, really, you know, ordinary americans facing economic challenges which