Brad: Were you like 13 or 14 when you got put into straight? I think about that and kids like Greg Peay who was 12. My oldest daughter is going to be 13 in May. I can't imagine subjecting her to that kind of torment. Hell, I was 17 when I got put in. I'd been living on my own and working to support myself and putting my mother through so much crap. For a long time, I felt like I deserved Straight. But I just can't imagine how a little 13 year old kid could deserve a place like that.
Maybe that's why I got into counseling after I left Straight. I wanted to save kids.
I worked at a place called Sundown Ranch in Canton, TX that was absolutely beautiful! They had an oldfashioned school house and horses and cows. A pond they could fish out of that had a pair of black swans and turtles popping their heads out. They had a vegetable garden. Every Friday we would have this huge barbeque cranked up cooking brisket. And we'd play volleyball in between raps. They even had a couple of llamas. Sometimes I would take the kids on this long hike to this hill that made you feel like you were on top of the world. And they hated it. The kids complained about how hard the program was and how bad it sucked being there. And I just wanted to ring their freaking little necks, because they had a paradise compared to where we were. Once in a great while, I would tell them about Straight and remind them to thank God every night when they went to bed that there was no more Straight in Dallas!
