Full Text of the Excerpt

JEFF COWIE:

When you look back on the closing of the factory, you know, it sounds like it launched you on a different track. You're thinking about law enforcement now. Do you think it could have been a good thing for you personally?

ANDY FOLEY:

Yeah. I think everything happens for a reason. That there, I think it just happened so that I could, you know, it gave me an opportunity to go to school which is something I would have and should have done when I first got out of high school. It just led me on the right track and hopefully I can make better of myself. I don't regret working at White's or nothing. It wasn't the greatest job in the world, but it was far from the worst, too.

JEFF COWIE:

During that time that you were unemployed I realized you traveled a lot and stuff, but was there a sense while you were looking for work that made you feel kind of useless?

ANDY FOLEY:

Yeah, it got me down every once in a while I'd think, you know, that I wish I was still back there, and I wonder if I'll have a job, and wonder what my next job will be and things like that. Will the people be as nice as they were at White's and if I get along with them and stuff like that?

JEFF COWIE:

But there was never… It doesn't sound like you were ever in despair that you would never find another job?

ANDY FOLEY:

Naw, I mean, I'm an optimist.

JEFF COWIE:

You're young.

ANDY FOLEY:

Yeah, I like to think that somewhere there is always something out there for somebody. I mean, nothing is going to come easy. You've got to come work for no matter what you want in life. The first month when I got laid off or closed down, whatever you want to call it, it was like, "What am I going to do now," because I hadn't started school or nothing so it was like fishing got old for a little while, not long. [laughter]

JEFF COWIE:

[laughter]

ANDY FOLEY:

Yeah, it got me. I would sit down and write to some of my friends in South Carolina or Mississippi or something. I would tell them about it. Wasn't sure what I was going to do now. Didn't know if I'd be working in another furniture factory and if it'd be the same. I really wasn't sure what I was going to be doing, you know, while I was in school, until I finished school, and stuff like that.

JEFF COWIE:

It sounds like you kept your spirits up.

ANDY FOLEY:

Yeah, I was trying not to, I mean, I don't let things bother me, I try not to because even bad things something good got to come out of them sooner or later.