I finished listening to Bill Bailey's in depth interview in the archives yesterday. The majority of the tapes consisted of his war time experiences. He recalls witnessing many tragic deaths that obviously have stayed with him for the rest of his life. For example, he remembers the mayor of some Spanish city in a field trying to run back to fascist lines and Republican soldiers taking their time, waiting until the mayor was "about 100 yards away" and then shooting him down in the back with a machine gun Bill remembers the death of his friend Arie, a fellow seaman and "a really great guy." H remembers sending Arie's personal belongings back to his sister and the entire account is cloaked in a solemn tone. He remembers that the three guys in his battalion who had fought in World War I "were killed right off the bat- boom." He uses a lot of onomatopoeia in his descriptions, like "boom!' and "bang!" and it is clear that these war images are still extremely vivid in his mind. He describes "the worst shelling I've ever seen in my life," recalling all of the sensations associated with shelling, including "the sound of it-'whoof!'"

The most interesting tape i listened to was the final tape, in which Bill commented on the current political situation of the 1980s and reflected on how his political ideology and affiliation changed his life. Commenting on the new conservative political surge, Bill says "there must be something wrong with the people" for them to have voted for Reagan. He predicts (correctly) that "we're gunna go through a stage before liberals can get a hold again." He asserts that liberals "hands are tied" at the moment (1988).

When Gerassi asks Bill if Spain was the biggest part of his life, he gives a more complicated answer than "yes" or "no". He believes that Spain was one of the major accomplishments of his life, but that the "biggest part" of his life would have to be his dedication to the Communist party. His dedication to this ideology changed not only his thoughts, but his actions, and therefore shaped his entire life. He has always rejected material things and in his rejection of materialism, he rejected a settled, comfortable American life. Instead of settling down with a woman, getting a decent job, working, paying bills, buying a house, and raising a family, Bill lives by himself in a rented apartment, always with an anxiety that his landlord will kick him out at any moment. Sometimes he worries that he made a mistake and should've done some things differently in order to "get more material things." However, he, Gerassi, and I know that Bill Bailey was a product of his time and place and could not have done things differently. Even when he is talking about his mistakes, there is an underlying pride for his Communist ideological convictions and lifetime commitment to the causes that drove him to Spain in 1936 and led him to his solitary apartment life as an old man.