The following is a reprint from a much earlier post concerning the scope of parent involvment in the evolution of straight. After that, I will comment on some more current shit directly relating to this thread, so try to keep up and away we go........
In the Pinellas County area in the late seventies, many 'inmates' came from families where the parent was directly or indirectly employed by the Defense/Aerospace industry. I would give my left arm to know the name of the person responsible for informing these workers of the "danger signs" and luring them to check out the program.
Now I am not discounting that there was a drug problem back then, but they were just attacking the symptom and not the cause. The average Joe in Pinellas County had not had a meaningful raise in over ten years, while rampant inflation was eating into whatever was left. The only workers that had it made in the shade were the aforementioned ones. They were priveleged, their jobs were secure, they saw little of their families, and god forbid, they did not talk too freely about what they do at work. This loyalty to the big daddy government guaranteed an aura of anonymity that may have made the Straight Inc. Program look like it was tailor made just for them. This is my theory. Anyone from that era want to go in on this with me then maybe I'll be a little more inclined to help out with your projects. One thing comes to mind. Prior to my coming into Straight, there was alot of construction going on at General Electric in Largo and we all know the name Mel Sembler as having a hand in redevelopment. Just something to think about is all. After some thought I have decided to name a few names of clients who's parents worked Defense/Aerospace and the place that their parents worked.
Tom and Steve Andrews............Honeywell
Mike, Bob, and Scott Patterson...General Electric
Chuck Haig..............General Electric
Lance and Lewis Cantrell........Paradyne
Ted Eckhardt..................E-Systems
Mark Errett..................Rand Corporation
Mike Kubica..................E-Systems
Mike Sailor...............Rockwell
There are more, these are just the ones I am sure of from them either being friends or oldcomers.
Actually, after some thought I decided to edit this post. I now remember that one girl's dad was a U.S. Postal Worker and another girl had a father than ran a UPS route that serviced quite a few defense plants in the Tampa Bay area. I guess the parents of kids already in the program spread the news to other parents like a bad cold or something, but I am sure it was all a part of Sembler's game plan.......Oh wait, there is a guy from UPS knocking on my door. Be right back. (kidding)
I fucking almost swallowed my tongue when I saw the crappy typewritten document. I recognized the print at once. I used the very same typewriter on my final composition for Sociology Class at Dixie Hollins High back in 1980. Back then it was still owned by Tom Schifferel's mom. She let me borrow her IBM Selectric that had a glitch in which the letter "l" when followed by an "i" would have about half a space between them. It was annoying as hell, and I pointed it out to her when she came to get it back. She only lived on the other side of the Cemetary separating our neighborhoods.
I even tried to buy it off of her, but she told me she was donating it to the Straight offices at the Morgan Yacht Building. Them cheap bastards had it ever since! Simply amazing, and just goes to show what a small world it really is.
I was talking to my dad shortly before Christmas, and come to find out that he actually was a big part of the Straight Machine in that he presented a 'horror' movie at General Electric about the dangers of drug and alchol abuse, and teen deaths due to auto accidents. They probably got about 10 or 15 intakes just off of that. My dad is not a tall man, he's about 5-6 with shoes on, but the peer pressure and the spotlight really put the zap on his head. At least he feels a little bad about it now.
