I wonder what went through your head Woof, the night you saw me on the unit at PEMHS that blustery October night back in 1988. T----sa thought it best to break up the "reunion," because it was awkward as hell and probably for the best, clinic rules and all.
I went through my own period of rage and blaming society for my own shortcomings and it was not until a diesel tanker collided with a barge in the late spring of 1993 that I was thrust into the position of healing others and putting what I had learned through my own bad experiences to use in an effort to right the wrong and make a difference. The Pinellas beaches suffered from the resulting oil spill and tourism abruptly ended for the season. I was working the field crew for Advertising Air Force, a banner towing service at the time and was laid off indefineatly. Out of sheer desperation, I took a job driving a van part time for a run down Day Care in the poor part of town near the yet to be used for baseball Tropicana Field.
I would ride my bike to work, load up the kids and make two runs each morning to 4 or 5 area elementary schools. One of the schools was Azalea Elementary, just down the road from the Morgan Yacht Building, so I was constantly reminded each day of Straight. I even used the turn around road off 30th Avenue that went under Tyrone and came out next to the mall as a short cut to save time and get the kids to school early enough for breakfast.
To this day, I think it was all a part of God's Plan. The kids that went to this before and after school care came from poor, yet well meaning families, while others came from better homes, but their own behavior got them kicked out of the "primo" programs like the Y or Salvation Army. Once I had gained the trust of the owners, they gave me more hours and duties. In Service days were the best. I would load up my 16 passenger van with toys, ice chest and kids, and head to a county park and just go nuts until about 2 p.m. when we went back to the center for parent pick up. I had next to no training, and had to rely on common sense, which I had very little of in some areas. I'll never forget the time I foolishly handed out super soakers at Sand Key Park without really knowing the layout of the place. As the kids were busy reloading in the public restroom sinks, a Park Ranger stepped in and started admonishing the kids for making a mess. These inner city scamps were without fear, and proceeeded to waste the poor guy with water cannons.
He came to me soaking wet, thanked Camp Rascals for "donating" 10 dollars to the parking meters and informed me we still had a 5 minute head start on the sheriff's deputy who was stuck behind the Clearwater Pass drawbridge. Needless to say, I was a little pissed, but we had no choice but to load up and get the hell out of dodge. We wound up at the little used North Shore Beach near where I lived in northeast St. Pete and finished the day there. In the months that followed, I went to night school to earn credits in Child Development, spent the summer as a chaperone, and gained the love and admiration of some of the most hardcore, toughest kids any caregiver would ever want to deal with. Most of these kids had an invisible stamp on their foreheads that said "NO FUTURE" the day I met them, but by working together, we turned things around for the better. I went on to become the first bipolar bus driver for the Pinellas County Schools due in part to what I had learned on that job. As the years went on, I was approached my many young teens and young adults who remembered me from their childhood and thanked me for being there and making a difference.
Back then there was no Fornits, no protests, Straight was just a bad memory hardly ever talked about. Sembler was'nt even around much, and while I may have not closed down any second generation programs, I kept about 23 kids hand picked by God from becoming second generation casualties in the "War on Drugs."
Does that make me special? No, it just makes me Bob Patterson, Morgan Yacht stepped August 24th 1979. Later...........
