Cover-Up

00:42:01,333 --> 00:42:02,708 So I got that. 614 00:42:02,791 --> 00:42:05,750 I got that. It wasn't that explicit, but I got that. 615 00:42:08,375 --> 00:42:11,666 I had two older sisters. They were also twins. 616 00:42:12,166 --> 00:42:14,791 They couldn't wait to get the hell out of the house. 617 00:42:17,083 --> 00:42:19,541 I was always living a little bit by my wits, 618 00:42:20,208 --> 00:42:23,375 because from the age of 15 on, I was carrying the family. 619 00:42:25,041 --> 00:42:26,750 I remember his coughing at night. 620 00:42:27,583 --> 00:42:30,541 Three packs. I remember his coughing. 621 00:42:33,500 --> 00:42:35,791 It went from lung cancer to brain cancer. 622 00:42:36,625 --> 00:42:37,875 As he got sicker and sicker, 623 00:42:37,958 --> 00:42:39,208 I could take him, I could bathe him, 624 00:42:39,291 --> 00:42:40,708 I could do all that stuff. 625 00:42:42,458 --> 00:42:44,458 I went from getting straight A's to nothing. 626 00:42:44,541 --> 00:42:46,000 {\an8}I didn't go to school. 627 00:42:49,250 --> 00:42:51,541 {\an8}His argument was, forget about college. 628 00:42:51,625 --> 00:42:53,166 He needed me 629 00:42:53,250 --> 00:42:55,750 to stay and run the store because I could do it. 630 00:42:55,833 --> 00:42:59,041 And Alan, who was my brother, he just... 631 00:42:59,791 --> 00:43:01,833 He wasn't going to cut it. He had to go to college. 632 00:43:01,916 --> 00:43:04,250 But Seymour doesn't need college. He'll be okay. 633 00:43:04,750 --> 00:43:07,125 That was the way he did it. Because I could run the store. 634 00:43:07,208 --> 00:43:08,833 And I could, you know? 635 00:43:09,375 --> 00:43:11,625 What skills did you have to run the store? 636 00:43:13,583 --> 00:43:16,166 Talk. Pizazz. Like people. 637 00:43:22,500 --> 00:43:25,500 One night, I was driving from the store after closing it. 638 00:43:26,791 --> 00:43:28,000 And the way I knew he died 639 00:43:28,083 --> 00:43:30,125 is I looked up and the light was dark. 640 00:43:32,708 --> 00:43:34,958 I didn't even know he was on the deathbed. 641 00:43:35,666 --> 00:43:38,875 I mean, it just was an unthinking family. 642 00:43:38,958 --> 00:43:40,791 That I couldn't say goodbye? 643 00:43:58,375 --> 00:44:00,208 There was a junior college. 644 00:44:00,291 --> 00:44:02,833 The University of Illinois had a junior college, 645 00:44:03,458 --> 00:44:05,041 and it was very cheap. 646 00:44:05,125 --> 00:44:06,500 That was the big thing. 647 00:44:07,833 --> 00:44:09,416 I always knew I was a good writer. 648 00:44:09,500 --> 00:44:11,458 I didn't think it was that valuable. 649 00:44:11,958 --> 00:44:13,375 I just didn't think that... 650 00:44:13,458 --> 00:44:15,875 I couldn't see any reason that was so important to me 651 00:44:15,958 --> 00:44:17,541 when I'm ringing up the cash register, 652 00:44:17,625 --> 00:44:19,291 giving people clothes. 653 00:44:20,375 --> 00:44:21,833 One of the first assignments was 654 00:44:21,916 --> 00:44:26,041 to compare any British novel you want with an American novel. 655 00:44:26,875 --> 00:44:28,708 And so I wrote this essay about it. 656 00:44:29,208 --> 00:44:30,916 At the end of class one day, I'm in the back row, 657 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,208 eager to get out. 658 00:44:32,708 --> 00:44:34,333 And he said, "Is Seymour Hersh here?" 659 00:44:34,416 --> 00:44:37,250 "Oh, fuck," I thought. "What have I done?" 660 00:44:37,833 --> 00:44:39,916 I walked up to the front, you know, head down. 661 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,125 And he said, "Are you Hersh?" I said, "Yeah." He said, 662 00:44:42,208 --> 00:44:45,208 "What are you doing here?" And I knew what he meant. 663 00:44:45,958 --> 00:44:47,666 "Well, my father died..." 664 00:44:47,750 --> 00:44:51,583 He said to me, "So where's your store?" 665 00:44:51,666 --> 00:44:54,416 "47th and Indiana on the South Side." 666 00:44:54,500 --> 00:44:57,166 He said, "You've got your own schedule? 667 00:44:57,250 --> 00:44:59,833 Well, meet me tomorrow at the admissions office." 668 00:44:59,916 --> 00:45:01,791 I tear up thinking about it. 669 00:45:01,875 --> 00:45:04,166 "At the University of Chicago." 670 00:45:04,250 --> 00:45:06,750 And I go there, and they give me a test. 671 00:45:06,833 --> 00:45:09,333 They said, "Wait, we can-- You don't need English 1." 672 00:45:09,416 --> 00:45:11,333 I said, "Yeah, yeah, I need it, I need it all." 673 00:45:11,416 --> 00:45:12,458 So I took it all. 674 00:45:14,416 --> 00:45:16,958 And that was it. It changed my life. 675 00:45:31,375 --> 00:45:33,458 You gotta understand. I get to Chicago, 676 00:45:33,541 --> 00:45:35,208 and it's a different world. 677 00:45:39,625 --> 00:45:41,458 I had a girlfriend, and she was from Washington, 678 00:45:41,541 --> 00:45:43,166 and her father was in the government. 679 00:45:43,250 --> 00:45:46,208 And she shocked me by saying... I must have been 19, 20... 680 00:45:46,291 --> 00:45:47,458 She said, "Oh, my God. 681 00:45:47,541 --> 00:45:49,958 M