The Croatian Candidate

"He got a tooth right in there in the middle," said Steven, looking into George Jr.'s mouth.

"It's had an effect on the children," Lynne said. "Many's the time I wished he had an ordinary 9-to-5 job like everybody else. But he's done it for so many long, hard years and the money's just around the corner. It would be silly to quit now. If he didn't take this chance he'd always hate himself. A couple of years ago, when he was in Detroit, we were all just living on practically nothing. Hot dogs."

"Hamburgers," said Chuvalo. "I was living on hamburgers and coffee. "I was living like a dog. I stayed in a cheap hotel. They kept stealing my suits in Detroit."

"I never really got on his back," Lynne said. "He'd always hate me for it. Every man has to do what he wants. But I don't think too many people know what hard is."

"My first fight in Detroit I went a day and a half without eating," Chuvalo said. "I weighed 203. I was gaunt!"

"He really looked terrible," Lynne said.

Chuvalo told about driving from Detroit to Toronto in the fall of 1963 in a '54 Ford with a dollar and some change in his pocket. Lynne, who was pregnant with Jesse, had a suitcase on her shoulder; the right front window would not roll up and the suitcase kept the wind off Mitchell, Steven and George Jr., who were sleeping in the back. Then the gas pedal fell off. Chuvalo stepped on the pin. That went, too. Chuvalo told his wife to get down and stick her finger through the hole in the floor to depress the gas-linkage bar.

"I knew there was nothing else to do," Lynne said. "You have to cooperate."

" 'O.K., honey, we're going through a town,' I would tell her," Chuvalo said. " 'Slow down.' I didn't know whether she was cussing or praying down there. 'Got to do 60, honey, we're on the highway now.' "

"It was the dark of night and the wind was howling," Lynne said.