Children of the Struggle

Alex Hopper: Alright, uh, hi. And thank you for coming to share your story with us today as part of the children of the struggle oral history collection. We are at the New Day Christian Church in Morganton, North Carolina on Saturday, November 9th, 2024. And we are talking with Mr. Tommy Carton Carpenter. And my name is Alex Hopper and I will be your primary interview. So any questions you can direct at me and I'll happily answer them. Okay. Um, and we also have, um, Reagan and Cady. Reagan will be assisting me with interviewing, checking over our prepared questions and making sure we stay on a timely manner and she

Tommy Carpenter: Okay.

Alex Hopper: Um, if there's any question you prefer not to answer, you do not have to answer it, and we will not press you on that. Um, thank you so much for participating and let's get started.

Reagan: Do you have any questions?

Tommy Carpenter: No, I'm good

All right. Um, so is there any form of a way we, you prefer us to address you? Like a Mr. Carpenter or just Tommy or?

Tommy works.

Alex Hopper: Alright. Um, so Tommy, um, I suppose let's start with, um, how old were you when integration started? Um, that's the main timeframe we're looking at here, so we want to get a picture.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. I was, uh, I guess around 1516 high school.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: Uh, 64, 65 when they first, when I first went to integrated school.

Alex Hopper: And let's see, what school was that? Just, uh,

Tommy Carpenter: Glen Alpine.

Alex Hopper: Glen Alpine. Alright. So, let's see. Um, first question is started is, um, what, how did you feel when you first heard that you were going to be going to an integrated school?

Tommy Carpenter: Well, there was a sense of numbness.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: uh, really not knowing what to expect because, you know, all your life people look like you. And now you're gonna go to a school where, uh, you felt less than everybody else, you know, because of the culture that we'd already experienced. And so it was gonna be a different way of life.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .Um, do you wanna elaborate on that feeling of being less than sort of what caused that feeling in the community?

Tommy Carpenter: Well, uh, because of the way we were brought up, uh, in the community, uh, sometimes I let my mind scroll back for a moment and I began to look at, when we came up, they were suburban buses that ran in Morganton to Morganton, Valdese Oak Hill in various areas. Okay. Now, when those buses ran, uh, would run in our area, uh, as, as I thought about it later on during life, it made me feel like an elephant. A elephant is a huge, humongous animal that was, uh, tamed by a, a rope. You know, they were tied to this peg and that elephant would, that's as far as he could go. To me, somehow we had been duped to believe that this, as far as we could go as a, a black race of people. So when we got on the buses, we had to go to the back and sit down. Nobody made us go and sit down because it, it was a, it had become a way of life. And, uh, we knew what was expected of us. We knew if the buses was crowded, if a white person got on, if we were sitting in that seat, we had to get up and move. And so those things were ingrained in us, like that rope that held that elephant and that relatively had no, that, that rope couldn't hold that elephant. But we didn't know our power nor our strength because the way that we were treated, we were always suppressed,

Alex Hopper: I suppose on that point. What sort of started the flow of change in Morganson that sort of, I suppose the elephant attempting to rip out the peg at this point?

Tommy Carpenter: Well, there was always some that, uh, by blacks was disgruntled, uh, always felt that life could be better. Uh, and I guess after integration, and we saw some of our blacks accelerating sports, begin to do different things. And then Martin Luther King with his march, I Have a Dream. And I think that, uh, generated a spark that, uh, went just worldwide, you know? Uh, and letting us know that there is freedom. That he's marched with a dream that we'd been to the mountaintop of, looked over, seen the promised land, and we saw those things that he achieved. And because that, I think that give us inspiration and hope of what we could do, even whenever they were blacks who, uh, walked in Woolworths in these, uh, restaurants where blacks couldn't sit down, couldn't be served. And then we saw things begin to change that put hope in us.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. . That's good. Um, as things began to change, what was the, what did the pushback look like? 'cause sometimes we never hear about that.

Tommy Carpenter: Well, it, it was violence.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: uh, you know, beating, turning water hoses on. Uh, our people, uh, always reminded burning crosses. And these things reminded, and I don't know if you ever saw the movie roots, but, you know, on the ship they would show a skull when the black people try to retaliate, they would always remind them that we'd kill you. So it was sort of that same type of fear that was tried to put in you when you try to achieve, accelerate or go forward.

Alex Hopper: Yeah. And if you don't mind, is there any specific instances of that in Morganton? 'cause sometimes we never hear about these sort of small, local instances of pushback on the integration movement.

Tommy Carpenter: Well, uh, let me give you a personal experience. Perfect. Uh, my first year of high school, when I went to Glen Alpine, I took a course called Agriculture. And for the life of me, I cannot think of why I took agriculture, but in agriculture, uh, they had two judging contests that we had to learn all the tools. There was cattle. But anyway, I, the class that I was in, I was picked to be on the tool judging contest. Okay. And my other friend, he was in a higher grade, he was picked to be on the cattle judging contest. That was Elijah Bryant.

Alex Hopper: Okay.

Tommy Carpenter: And, uh, so we went to High Brighton School to, uh, participate in this contest that was blacks and whites. But we, our school, Glen Alpine, we won the contest. Okay. So on Monday when we went back to school, they was gonna give us, uh, a dinner at the restaurant. It was, uh, the fish camp, hush puppy Fish camp. Now, you might not be familiar with this area, but over on Interstate 40, on Exit 100, they's, uh, continental Tevis a huge plant that's over there now. But that area used to be where hush Buffy Fish Camp was. Okay. Now, when our school won this award, this achievement, they was given a dinner. So when they gave the dinner, the teacher reminded us on Monday morning when we went into class and he set it through every class. We having a dinner at Hush Puppy Fish Camp.

Never, it hadn't been integrated. We weren't allowed, we still only could go to the window or the back door to be served. Okay. So during that time, he kept saying, we're invited to go, but you "N's" can't go. He reiterated that throughout the class, "You N's can't go." What do you do? I mean, there was fear. You know, you, your first year of, of, of high school, you, you on somebody else's territory. What do you do? So, uh, uh, we went home. But the day of the, uh, of the dinner, I, I had gone home. I had eaten my dinner. And uh, all of a sudden this black truck pulls up in my yard and it was Elijah Bryant. I said, Elijah, man, where you going? He said, I'm going to that dinner. I said, man, I ain't going. I said, I've already eaten. He said, well, I'm going. I said, I can't go Elijah. 'cause you know what they said, no "N's" allowed.

So Eli got ready to leave and pull off. I said, hold up Elijah. I said, let's go die together. We went over to the that hush puppy fish camp where nobody had ever been served that looked like us. We may could work in the kitchen, but we couldn't eat in the, in the dining room.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .

Tommy Carpenter: We walked in that restaurant, walked in the private room where we sit, and Mr. Gaylord said, I'm glad you boys could make it. And we sat there and eat, you know, but we had to get past that fear, you know, because you didn't know what was gonna happen. You know, uh, were you gonna be hung, beaten, you know? And we have seen this before, you know, we have seen where at first integration, where some of the black guys would date white girls. And then, uh, then it was open to them, but they were caught by the parents and then serve prison. You know, there was always something that they would try to do, you know, to suppress us, to keep us down.

Alex Hopper: So you would say that the primary tool used to suppress the general movement forward is the fear of something terrible might happen, even if a lot of times it didn't actually happen. It's just more select instances, but the fear was enough to keep y'all down?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. Uh, uh, I know one of my cousins, he had to run home, you know, because the Klu Klux Klan was chasing him, you know, and, and threaten to burn the cross in his yard. You know, there's always that fear of something to take something from you or, or to keep you from having what others have. You know? Now, even when my relationship is in grammar school, I couldn't understand why come every book that we got in school was already written in, you know? And it was because it was passed down to us, you know, we weren't able to have our hands on what was first. It always had to be on second or or less turn, you know. And then when you read the history of where, you know, our people were beaten, uh, our women were raped or men were hung, you know, castrated, these things, that type of fear was ingrained, you know, and there was always evidence of could this happen? You know, KU Klux Klan was open and wide open. You know,

Alex Hopper: I can't imagine having that around today.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Alex Hopper: It must have been a nightmare for y'all.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Alex Hopper: Um, I suppose on the resource front, what, let's get specific. What was transportation like for y'all before full integration and even after, I imagine it still caused trouble.

Tommy Carpenter: Well, you know, I guess, uh, my grandmother was the only one had a car. And it was like, for the family. So my daddy used her car. Uh, we had only one phone. My grandmother had a phone. So we all used that same phone. You know, we had a well, you know, we had outdoor bathrooms, things like that. So, and, and we depended on getting back and forth to town. Even the workers depended on that suburban bus because they caught the bus back and forth to work.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: you know, because a lot of people didn't have license. So transportation was limited to where you could go, what you could do.

Alex Hopper: And would you say that the more white communities had better access?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah,

Alex Hopper: For sure.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. They always had access to these different things, you know?

Alex Hopper: Right. 'cause those routes would run more in the white areas.

Tommy Carpenter: Well, they had more privilege to cars

Alex Hopper: That too, right.

Tommy Carpenter: Than we do, you know?

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: because like, uh, when Daddy worked, see he always rode with somebody else that had a car. Eli's his dad, the young man I was telling you about.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: his daddy had a truck and a camper that would carry workers to work back and forth. 'cause they didn't, people didn't have, everybody didn't have cars.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. , um, on school, y'all mentioned that y'all got secondhand stuff.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Alex Hopper: Primarily. Did that change at all when integration first started?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah, it changed because when integration come about, we had access to whatever they had.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: you know, so that, that made, made a difference.

Alex Hopper: Do you know anything about, um, sort of like the school you left, do you know if they ended up getting more stuff through integration? Or did their, the school still get the secondhand stuff regardless of whether of who was there?

Tommy Carpenter: The school that I left,

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: Closed down.

Alex Hopper: Oh, man.

Tommy Carpenter: See, the school that I left is now as a rest home.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .

Tommy Carpenter: So, uh, a lot of our schools didn't stay open.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: Mac Alpine didn't stay open. Uh, I think the Willow Tree School, it didn't no longer exist as a school. Uh, so only the white schools had the privilege of really staying open. Mountain View stayed open, you know? Uh, so then, uh, olive Hill, you know, that was something that was deprived from us at integration.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: I looked forward to going to Olive Hill because of the, the proms and the dances and the intermingling of football. The camaraderie. Camaraderie that we were exposed to in the basketball games. Excitement. But then all of a sudden integrated integration came, that shut down a lot of things that we looked forward to, you know? 'cause we, when Integr- before integration, when all the schools like Mac Alpine, uh, Drexel, Harland, all these schools that come together, that meant that you would meet a variety of people. It meant that your expectation of meeting a young lady or a young man would be different from what you were used to. Now all of a sudden, you are limited.

Alex Hopper: Um, about the teachers specifically after the integration did, were there black teachers still around

After that?

Especially after, I imagine the originally all black school was closed down. Did that, did you notice any discrepancy between how many white teachers there were and how many black teachers there used to be?

Tommy Carpenter: I, I noticed that, but in Glen Alpine we didn't, at the high school, they weren't any black teachers.

Alex Hopper: So none at all.

Tommy Carpenter: None at all. And that came on later. Uh,

Alex Hopper: Um, let's see. I suppose what tensions were there specifically in school? Um, like in the classroom? Did people heckle you at all when things first started? Or was it just more, I suppose the question I want to ask is, was there any violence against you or people you knew? Um, while in school

Tommy Carpenter: No. Uh, at least in my grade, uh, uh, we, they weren't any violence.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: a lot of the white kids I knew before I went, because we played ball together in the community, you know, that would be a black team, white team we played, you know. But then, you know, uh, at the same time, they, you know, we'd get fights and stuff like that, and they call us N Words, same way in school, you know? And it seemed like, you know, you always, it was a place that we convened and it was a place that they stayed, you know? Uh,

Alex Hopper: So you're saying it pretty much ended up separate anyways?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. By, it was just separate,

Alex Hopper: Just by general association bias, yeah.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. I think it took a while even, you know, after it first integration, before there'd become more harmony, you know, as time went along, you know, because they found out that we were just as gifted and talented and knowledgeable as anybody else.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: you know.

Alex Hopper: So, um, you said you went to the Armed forces, but, um, was that right out of school?

Tommy Carpenter: No, not right out of school.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: I was 21.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: When I went in.

Alex Hopper: So then, was there ever any mention of higher education? Was there any discrepancy in how your school handled, pushing people towards higher education? Because nowadays they just send people like, go to college, go to college, go to college. So I want to know if there was any, like, if they were sort of pushing white students more to go to university or what

Tommy Carpenter: I, I, I would say that was on a low key at Glen Alpine. You know, uh, uh, some of my friends, they, they went off to college, you know, and, you know, and my family, my mother had been sick for so long and we didn't have the means and the methods, and it wasn't all this grants that you get now to go to school.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.. Yeah. Gotcha.

Tommy Carpenter: So, you know, some of us, uh, weren't blessed with that type of funding to go, but we made other ways and other things happened. But some of our friends, they accelerated went on to college, but I didn't see a great push like there is now to go out and achieve and accelerate and become all that you could be.

Alex Hopper: Well, I suppose the next question is, is what were work prospects like? Especially since you were around 16, 17, during time. I imagine you worked somewhere.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. I, uh, I worked at Valdese Hospital.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm..

Tommy Carpenter: I used to clean up at Valdese Hospital. I left there. Uh, and when I graduated, well, I was working at the, uh, Burke Orange. I left there and come to DC container in, uh, right after I graduated.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: in 1969. Uh, I think I started out there like a dollar 65 cent an hour.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: Uh, things was different there, you know, as I tried to move up and accelerate to become better, you know, it was always that stigma that, uh, uh, one time they wanted me to be a lead man, but because of the color of my skin, they would guys wouldn't work under me.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, and then I, I, uh, I had, uh, moved up to a triplex operator, and that was a fairly good job. Uh, but one of my white friends told me, he said, I wouldn't have your job. I said, man, why you wouldn't have my job? He said, your job's for an "N". I said, yeah. I said, so, uh, I said, how would you like to be the inspector back here? Oh, yeah, I'd love to be The inspector wasn't, no, that wasn't a job. Inspector. I said, so you could be my inspector N, you know. So, uh, and, and, and then on the corrugator where I, where they made the paper, made the sheets that come out, uh, the hard jobs, the lifting, the heat, we got those jobs.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, and, and the white people got the other jobs.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, on the corrugated, I think there'd be like seven people. Then you have a tow motor driver that be, he'd be white. You have the guy that made the glue. They'd be white, but everybody else had to climb up working the

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .

Tommy Carpenter: In the heat is black.

Alex Hopper: It's always the subtle things, ain't it?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Alex Hopper: That's what it seems to be. Um, let's see, I suppose back to school, since that's more kind of our focus.

Tommy Carpenter: Mm-Hmm. .

Alex Hopper: What was, was there any notable differences in disciplinary action towards white and black students that you can think of?

Tommy Carpenter: Not that I can really think of. Yeah. Because I guess, you know, at the first especially that happened, I don't know what was like in Morganton but I was talking to one of my friends, uh, on down the road from us when integration came about. The blacks refused to go to high school because of integration. Uh, but, you know, uh, it was difficult. It was, uh, challenging.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, uh, uh, but as time went on, things got better.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: 9I guess they figured out this is gonna be the way it's gonna be. But there was always slight limitations, uh, even in the bands. I remember whenever the bands was integrated, and one of the girls first, I think it went to Avery County, they had never seen black people before. And they asked, was that a bear? You know? Uh, so they didn't know how to take us, you know, because of so many stories that had been told, you know, looking behind, thinking we had tails and this stigma that had been put on us for years, you know? Yeah. And then, uh, right here in Morganton, uh, Olive Hill High School had one of the greatest bands. And that we could always remember every year at Christmas that when Olive Hill Band was in the Christmas, uh, celebration, marching through Morganton.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .

Tommy Carpenter: And right over there at the clock, it's still there. That Olive Hill would stop, perform the streets would, they would, uh, stop because they, they loved our music. They loved Olive Hill, the performance, it was powerful energy that would come from, you know, seeing us performing and, and, and being what we could be and showing people our talents, our gifts, how God had blessed, you know, and they looked for that every year, you know?

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm..

Tommy Carpenter: And, uh, it was so impactful after school integrated, I wanna believe that they brought a school up from Johnson c Smith and played in, in the, uh, Christmas celebration.

Reagan: May I ask a question?

Alex Hopper: Go for it.

Reagan: Um, you had mentioned that a lot of the black students did not wanna go to high school because it was an integrated school. And so I'm wondering what inspired you to want to go to an integrated high school? And how did your community around you, whether that be friends or family react, were they supportive? Were they encouraging

Tommy Carpenter: You didn'tknow my daddy , my daddy was tough. What Dad, whatever Daddy said, that's what you did. So we didn't have a choice. And I think because of daddy seeing the signs of the time, culture changing, and he knew that there was something better for us. And if we didn't step out, step up to the plate and try to achieve and make a difference, it never would happen for us. You know? So then, uh, that wasn't the talk. That wasn't the norm. It was a must, you know, that was the rule. So when we integrated happened, you know, they may be a sum few, they was a few that that dropped out. We had a very small class in my ninth grade. There was probably about 10 of us, you know, that left Glen Alpine to go to the school. But other classes, you know, had more, but that was the norm. Yeah, but Daddy was yeah but when daddy spoke, that was it.

Reagan: Thank you.

Alex Hopper: Um, so another thing, did, did it have like an atmosphere of hope about it? Like, once the change started happening? I know, I know you mentioned that initially your feelings were numbness towards this. And I imagine that at first it was like, all right, dad said I gotta do it, so I'm gonna go do it. But as time went on, did it feel like things were getting better?

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah, I, uh, I played football.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: Uh, I felt like I was pretty good, but because of first integration, you had to be above of the cut.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, but we saw others who made it. And because we saw others that made it, that felt, that gave us hope. You know? Uh, even with basketball, I had friends that played basketball that helped Glen Alpine achieve and accelerated different things, you know? So then that made you feel better, you know, that they were picked out, made a difference on the team. And if we could make a difference on the team, then we can make a difference elsewhere.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: We can make a difference in our education. We can become teachers, we can become lawyers, you know, we can become counselors. We can have a career that really makes a difference.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. .

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Alex Hopper: So would you say that extracurriculars were very important in getting people to finally, I suppose, break the ice between each other? Like to get from, oh, we're just gonna stay in our separate groups to like, hey, we're all, we're all friends here. Would you say that extracurriculars were important?

Tommy Carpenter: I think they were very important, you know, because knowledge is power. You know, information opens up a whole new world, and if you allow that world to be shut out, then you'll lose on a lot of different things, you know? But because of that information, and because those curriculums what was offered to us, we saw others celebrate and become better. And that's caused us to stretch and become better, become different.

Alex Hopper: Well,I Think we're about, yeah.

Tommy Carpenter: Okay. And I also, I think that made a difference in my, my family.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: That as I see my family, you know, my son retired 20 years from the Navy.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: I got a, my, uh, my, my, my wife would push our kids when they were slow in something, she would go to Rose's and buy books to help them to achieve, to accelerate. And because of that, one of my daughters works full and wide, and one of my daughters is a, a supervisor over here at the hospital over micro. I got a grandson who graduated from Charlotte, who is a electrical engineer. I got another son working in, in Durham. Grandson works in Durham. You know, uh, where they do, you know, works for like, where they hearts, kidneys, things like that accelerated him. Uh, he's, he really marvelous, you know, got another Grandson. They all accelerated because somebody was pushing them.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, it wasn't given to, you had to push for it.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You had to fight for it, you know?

Alex Hopper: I'm glad to hear that. Is there any other specific stories you wanna share? Um, I know we may not have stumbled upon something, but if there's anything specific go for it.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah.

Reagan: Or just that you want people to know or understand about your experience, just generally.

Tommy Carpenter: Yeah. Well, you know, I'm proud of what you're doing today because, you know, I feel like sometimes we live in a dark period and it was scary because you felt like what was going on could happen to you.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm. ,

Tommy Carpenter: You know, uh, and your car could be taken, uh, your house could be taken or things like that, you know. And even scary moments like on the news now where you seeing these hate signs going up, we'll send you back to Africa. You know, things like that. We live that. A lot of people don't know that they come up on the shoulders that our fore parents live, you know? And, and, uh, so I, I think the dream needs to stay alive. Somebody needs to know what we came up through, how hard it was for us to press it and make a difference, you know?

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: When you thought you never have anything? Uh, uh, one, uh, when I started accelerating and achieve and trying to be better for myself at work, we was talking about, uh, having a car and then we've talked about TVs and I told them I had a TV in the bedroom. What you doing with the TV in your room? As if I couldn't have one.

I couldn't have a second tv, you know? And so we, things were still held over on us, you know, but thing of it is that the same young man that told me that I didn't need another TV is the same young man when his wife was in the hospital, that she was in the hospital and it was time for us to get, uh, income checks were coming through the mail, but in order to cash his check, he had to have her to sign it. She'd have to come to the bank and sign and they wouldn't cashier's check a white man. And he asked me a black man to go to the credit union and ask them permission to sign cashier's check. That wasn't heard of. But because he knew that I was advancing, he knew that I was building a reputation, 401k, and started a banking process and had a relationship with the manager at the bank. He asked a black man, and those things had happened, asked me. And I went over there and saw Ken. I had no better sense than go to the manager at the credit union and ask Ken would he allow this man to cash his check, and he did it

Reagan: Because of you.

Tommy Carpenter: Because of me.

Alex Hopper: Thank you for sharing, sir. Yes. It's an honor to have you here.

Tommy Carpenter: Thank you.

Alex Hopper: Mean, I think we are out of time.

Tommy Carpenter: Okay.

Alex Hopper: Sadly. Yeah. Okay. Thank you though. Thank, you've given us a lot. Thank you.

Tommy Carpenter: It's been a privilege to meet you.

Alex Hopper: Mm-Hmm.

Tommy Carpenter: We off now?

Alex Hopper: Yes.

Tommy Carpenter: Okay.

Reagan: Would you like some water? This.