The collapse of the American Dream

The collapse of the American Dream

Every day for 40 years, Bill McGill caught the 34 bus before sunrise. Reared on a north Mississippi tenant farm, rising at 4.30am was second nature. Besides, clerking at a Memphis dry goods wholesaler was lightyears better than hoeing cotton, like he did as a boy on the farm. But when McGill woke up on Monday, 20 December 1982, things were different. On that cool, sunny winter day, the 65-year-old donned a tie and fedora and drove his prized lemo