The Adventures of Todd - The Saga. (Abridged)
I grew up In Virginia ... born in Richmond at the University Hospital. My birth name was Phillip Todd and my friends called me Petey... It wasn't until years later I realized they were calling me P. T.
The Phillip was after a relative on my father's side... so after my folks divorced my mother decided to get rid of the Phillip and had my name changed. She liked the Todd part as it came from her side of the family (Yuk ... I would rather be a jimmy or Sammy etc) but I did get to pick the second name kind of. She put names she liked in a hat and I picked out Loren for my middle name. Not one I would have chosen but its better than Sue.
I went to Mary Mumford Elementary where I took advanced math starting in the 4th grade. The highlight was in 5th grade where I licked a frozen hand railing and got my ... ung uck un e ail .... (tongue stuck on the rail)
while everyone had a good laugh. I had a crush on a girl named Ellen.
My next door neighbor on Grove Ave. was Stevie Archangel. He was about my age and was always drinking a 12 ounce glass of red wine vinegar (He liked it I guess). One day when I was 9 he threw the vinegar in my face it burned my eyes so bad I ripped the upholstery off their couch trying to rub my eyes. I was blind for several days. Another time Stevie and I put lighter fluid in a cottage cheese cup and lit it (yeah I know it was stupid) ... what was really stupid was throwing the newspaper on it to try to put it out... it splashed on my lower leg and next thing I knew I was laying at the bottom of the steps peeling off skin. Heeled up without any scar though. I went fishing one day on the James River with my friend Bubba Chandler and his big brother Scott. I lost my balance and fell and started floating down river in a fast current... Scott pulled me out... Thanks Scott! Went to a dentist for a cavity filing and it was in the back... he was giving me a novacaine shot back there and he hit right on some nerve and I jerked and the needle broke off still on the nerve ... I was screaming and the nurse and receptionist had to hold me down (screaming all the while) while he dug out the needle off the nerve. I think most of the folks in the waiting room left. I tried to avoid dentists as much as possible after that. I got a bb gun for Christmas and I was out front shooting at trees and Bruce Winsted a neighbor guy about 20 came over and asked to try it ... he shot out a street light handed it backed to me and left .... and you guessed it the police came... last I ever saw of that BB gun and no one believed me that I didn't shoot out that light. At my 6th grade birthday party a girl at the party named Alice got hit by a car in front of the house... She got banged up but was back to school in a couple of weeks... lousy birthday. Those were tough times... Truly.
After I graduated from Mary Mumford Elementary I went to Westhampton Jr. High. I took advanced math there too. The first week I was out on the playground and there is this guy named Barry who looked like a 10th grader and he was terrorizing a really tiny timid kid. It pissed me off (I hate bullies) and I told him to leave the kid alone ... we got in a fight, if you can call it that... I got him in a headlock and punched him in the eye that was it. We both got suspended ... pretty bad for 12 years old. Of course after that ... the school hoodlum, a nice fellow named Branch White (cool name) became my friend. Branch was 16 in the 8th grade. That same weekend they have these regular dances Friday nights on the schools playground. I'm sitting there minding my own business and this gorgeous (I mean really really gorgeous) Red haired girl I had never seen in our School asked me if I wanted to make out. What ...??? I'm 12 I never kissed anyone except my old baggy Aunt because she gave me $5 for Christmas. But I said YES and we went over to an isolated area called the rose garden back behind some trees. We must have been in there 1/2 an hour... all we did was kiss (no tongue). Anyway I am walking back toward the front of the school and 3 guys come up blocking me ... apparently it was the girls boyfriend and his 2 buddies talking revenge... I had never boxed before but I figured they were about to kick my butt so I swung an upper cut and heard a crack just like in the movies when it hit him square in the jaw... he fell down and I took off running like Forrest Gump. Now I don't want you to get the wrong impression ... I wasn't a hoodlum or even a juvenile delinquent... these 2 weeks were just a series of circumstance and so far are the only fights I've ever been in my entire life.
I also had this friend named Mike Perry who lived on the other side of town and went to a different school. We used to hang out under the Monument Ave Bridge. One day Mike and I went chilling in our under the bridge clubhouse and these 2 girls came walking up the tracks... Vicki Reed and Julie Gentry ... Out of the blue Vicki said they want to be our girlfriends (she for me and Julie for Mike). Now Mike was kind of chubby in those days but had a personality to make up for it. Anyway I told them Mike and I needed a conference so we went up top. Now Vicki was gorgeous, and Julie was skinny with freckles and just kind of cute but for some reason I liked her better and talked Mike into swapping... (He didn't mind a bit). Unbelievably the girls agreed ... albeit Vicki reluctantly. Now Branch White was also friends with a friend of Vicki’s ... a cute well appointed girl named Roslyn Ragland and Branch had a car, a little Corvair. So you could knock me over with a feather when Julie shows up at my door at 8:30 on a school night with these giant rollers in her hair and wearing a scarf over it and asked my mother if I can come out with them in the car and then my Mother said YES... If you knew my mother you'd say NO WAY DUDE... YOU'RE FIBBIN! In the car were Branch, Roslyn, Julie and Vicki. Mike Perry never did hook up with Vicki then or in the future. So we went to some secluded spot and necked for 2 hours. During a break Vicki came over and said to me "that could have been me!" What do I say to that?? Anyway Julie and I dated for several months... I never got past the 2nd button on her blouse... but I wouldn't have known what to do if I had. She was a sweetie. If I had chosen Vicki I would probably have lost my virginity much earlier than I did... oh well Monday morning quarterback. I had an opportunity to be with Roslyn Ragland once too ... she came over to me at the park and was stroking my palm with her middle finger... I didn't know what it meant so I missed out.
There was another fellow from school, Baker Davenport. Baker was an only child, spoiled, big for his age, a little chubby, and very insecure... (I liked Baker but a lot of people took advantage of him) Baker had a habit of making a popping sound with his lips constantly... very irritating. His family was wealthy and Baker had a charge account at the drugstore soda fountain across from the school. He was always buying people sodas and candy etc. Baker, me and Steve Thacker even took a weekend trip to his parent’s penthouse apartment in Virginia Beach one weekend. (Remember I'm still 12).
Baker had a crush on Roslyn Ragland so he got me to ask her to come with us (Baker, me and Julie) to this fancy private club restaurant in downtown Richmond. So we all go downtown on the bus and all the waiters are in tuxedos and they set the dessert on fire at the table... it was cool... Baker signed for the check. On the way back on the bus we are all sitting on the back seat that stretches across the whole bus. There are maybe 7 or 8 other people on the bus... and of course Baker is popping his lips... so everyone is often looking at him. Well he does this big noisy stretching yawn and drops his arm around Roslyn’s shoulder... The entire bus including the driver watched the whole thing and burst out laughing ... I mean they laughed for a whole city block. I really felt sorry for Baker that day.
For several summers I'd been a 6 week member of Camp Bear Wallow in Orkney Springs Virginia. A really cool place. 6 cabins on a hill with a counselor, counselor in training and campers in each. Down at the bottom of the hill was a pool, a rifle range, and a huge old Victorian hotel where band camps and cheerleading camps would go. We had our meals in a huge dining room there and were very friendly with the waitresses. The closest town was Mt. Jackson about 10 miles away and Orkney Springs had one general store and a post office/candy store. There was also a stable with 10 or 12 horses and we went on overnight trail rides out in the mountains. This particular year I was a cit (counselor in training). Some of the counselors were dating the waitresses and us cit's had our own waitress crushes. My crush was on Susan Stoneburner. We had a club called SAABA which stood for "smooth as a baby’s ass". We would check the waitresses’ legs each day to make sure they were saaba. One day the waitresses decided to "play a trick" on the counselors and cit's so while we were out on a hike they went to the clothesline outside our cabins and painted the inside jock part of our bathing suits with some kind of liquid cinnamon extract. I not sure if they were aware what it would do ... but it burned like hell! So to repay them we did a mission impossible (yeah we hummed the theme while we did it). We snuck down to the hotel where they had their bathing suits hung on a line on the wraparound balcony... we painted the insides and threw feathers from a feather pillow on the paint. We got a big lecture from the coach (the head of the camp) the next day but our punishment was only 1 lap around the football field... (I guess he felt we got the worse end of the deal). That was the last year that I was to attend Camp Bear Wallow. I was the ping pong champion that year just like Forest Gump.
Now right about this time I also started smoking cigarettes. My mom worked for the Richmond TV station as a promotion manager and since the station was owned by a tobacco company with their weekly check they got a carton of cigarettes. They were all non standard brands. Mom smoked Larks and that wasn't one of their brands so she took dominos because they had these coupons on the back you could use like green stamps. I used to carefully open the bottom of the packs take a few cigarettes out of the middle and seal the pack back up. I thought I was sneaky. I remember they had a cigarette machine at the standard drug store where cigarettes were 26 cents ... you put in 30 cents and the package had 4 pennies change taped to it. Maryland now charges $2 taxes on each pack of cigarettes ... (drive to Virginia)
This was also about when I drank beer for the first time. A couple of guys I made friends with at the rec center near the monument street bridge Bo (can't recollect his last name) and Sam Dipp. They heard about a teen dance at some firehouse way across town and we had planned to get someone to buy us some beer and get drunk first. Sam looked the oldest so he hung out by the entrance to this place called the tempo and asked an older guy to pick us up a 12 pack. I drank about 3 cans and was drunk as a dog... I vomited after we got off the bus at the dance.... after that I kind of had a good time. It was certainly a major adventure... for me anyway. There was this guy that hung out near the bridge and rec center named Tommy Richmond. He was 18 and a real alky... He would brag all the time that he could drink a case still not get drunk. We thought that was cool... till we grew up and figured out what a lousy financial deal that was...
Ok so it’s back to school and in the 9th grade I'm going to Augusta Military Academy in Fort Defiance Virginia. It's located about 10 miles outside Staunton Virginia. It Closed a few years after I went there... as did most military academy high schools. Anyway I was reluctant to go there... but after I was there for a while it was okay. I made the honor roll. Now I don't think I am smarter than anyone else ... but some people have to study their butt off to get a C and some have to study hard to get an A and other people like me can sometimes not study at all and get an a or a b. I admit I did study a little there because there really wasn't much else to do. Math was a breeze because all the classes I had was stuff I had already learned in the advanced math class years before (algebra 1, 2, and 3). My room mates name was Tommy Meadows. He was ok, came from Virginia Beach Virginia... I visited him there during one semester break.
My Mom came up to visit one time and actually brought me a carton of cigarettes... and I thought I had been so sneaky ... That’s only the 2nd time she's shocked me... the other I mentioned earlier was Julie Gentry.
They had a formal dance at the school once a year with Stuart Hall a girl’s prep school in Staunton Virginia. We all wore full dress uniforms... white gloves ... hats ... the whole bit ... the girls wore formal gowns. Most of the cadets were just standing in a group on one side and the girls the same on the other side. Well I was totally surprised when a girl came up to me ... turns out she was a friend of my sister's from school (Linda ... sorry Linda I don't remember you last name) and I had met her before. We talked and I gave her a tour around... we held hands and danced a little and when everyone was outside and the girls were getting on the bus she gave me a long kiss. Now several things happened after this. First I caught hell because apparently both the schools chaperones were terrified and looking for us while I was showing her around ... asking everyone if they knew where we went. Now because of this and the holding hands and goodnight kiss I was temporarily elevated to hero status among the cadets. I don't know what those chaperones thought we were doing... well I do know... but no we weren't. The second thing that happened is I came down with mono and was laid up in isolation in the infirmary for 6 weeks. Maybe that’s why I can't remember Linda's last name.
We had a couple of other events that year. Two of the cadet officers at the school I knew from Camp Bear Wallow where they had been counselors ... Bob Crozer and Craig (can't remember his last name) Craig died in a car accident during a semester break. One night after taps there was a bunch of noise like a party coming from the room next door. My room mate Tommy Meadows went over there and opened the door and they punched him in the stomach and threw hit back out onto the walkway. We found out later it was a pot party and they thought he was the sentry.
By the end of that year my Mom had moved from Richmond Virginia to Alexandria Virginia to take a job as director of the Alexandria tourist council so I spent that summer in Alexandria... nothing too eventful. I did go out with a couple of my sister Lisa's friend. Connie Maxwell was a real sweetie with Dolly Parton attributes... she was very nice and attractive but sometimes theres just no chemistry. I also went out with Sandy Stempler (I think that was here last name). She's the first girl I every dated who wore a full girdle.
Summers over and its time for a new school. I don't remember why I didn't go back to Augusta, but I wouldn't have minded it... Anyway the new school was a boys boarding school in Severna Park Maryland called Severn School. It’s closed now. At the time Severna Park was a sleeping little town on the outskirts of Annapolis Maryland ... now it’s a metropolis and you really can't tell where Annapolis ends and Severna Park begins. I only remember 2 people from the school... Jesse Hall who was my best friend... he was from Galena Maryland, and Mr Spicer ... The nazi like disciplinarian vice principal.
There was a church about a block from the school that had a rec room were some of us hung out. That’s where I met Kathy McDonald ... we had a crush on each other all year... she was my second best friend and we never got romantic until the last week of school (I still regret to this day not following up on the Kathy Mcdonald relationship).
There were several crazy times at Severn. Jesse had met these 2 girls in Annapolis so we hitchhiked over there and they had black lights in every room... they played Led Zepplin II and we drank beer. It was the first time I ever heard Led Zeppelin...
I was walking along the shore of the Severn river down below the school and met this girl that lived in one of the nearby house ... she was really cute and really perky .. We made out sitting by the river and over a few days she got really possessive... it was kind of freaking me out... like a stalker. Anyway the church where the rec room was that we hung out in was having a teen weekend retreat so I signed up. Well Meg found out I had signed up so she signed up to. Great... and I was trying to avoid her and that certainly put a damper on my weekend plans. Everybody had to find there own ways to the "retreat" which was 3 huge cabins dorm style one big room with about 20 beds each and about 1/4 mile away was the main building with the dining hall and other rooms. Now being a church retreat the idea was boys in one cabin and girls in the other. Well the only adults there were staying at the lodge so the dorms quickly became coed. I met this girl named Lindy Lamins ( I'm not sure if that’s how you spell it) I'm don't know why I was attracted to her ... her face was cute enough but she was skinny as a rail and her personality was on the weird side and her teeth were really sharp when you kissed her .. But I did like her. She helped me hide from Meg Keppel all weekend (successfully). Later that night we were all in the cabin and about 1am there were about 10 of us still awake (out of about 30 in our cabin mostly 2 to a bed). Their was a couple sleeping on one of the single bed cots together (most others were bunk beds) ... the girl had her feet by his head and her head toward the back of his legs... well the sleeping guy cut this huge loud fart right in her face that woke her up and she started slapping the jesus out of him.. Poor guy didn't know what the hell was going on... Everybody else was roaring with laughter... one guy fellout of the top bunk from laughing so hard and that got everybody laughing even harder... it woke up everybody in both cabins.
At the end of the school year we could leave on Friday or Monday ... so I told my mom I was leaving on Monday and I told the school I was being picked up on Friday (clever huh?).With my unaccountable plan me and this black guy who was a transient hippie I had met at the rec center decided to hitch hike to Ocean City Maryland... we hung around there for a while then hitched to Keansburg New Jersey which is way up by the NY state line so he could visit an old girlfriend there .. We got picked up for hitch hiking by the police in NJ but they just checked us out and let us go... We met a lot of nice people on the trip and one couple took us to dinner Saturday night at a bonanza steak house. When I got back Sunday night ... as usual all hell had broken loose ... apparently my mother had called the school on Friday to find out what time to pick me up Monday and they put 2 and 2 together. The school cordially invited me not to enroll the next year ... huh... imagine that and I wasn't even skipping school. I turned 16 while I was at Severn.
As I mentioned earlier Kathy McDonald and I had had a mutual crush on each other the entire year I was at Severn and we only discovered we both had felt that way at the end of the school year... I remember the first time we touched hands... I was reaching to help her out of a car...and I knew... the minute I touched her hand I knew... It was like going home... only to no home I had ever know before ... it was like ... magic (OK...yeah that line is from the movie Sleepless in Seattle.. but that really is what it was like). I came back for a visit about a month later and Kathy skipped school and we were sort of... ahem... were romantically involved on the path down from the school that leads to the river. Apparently someone from the school saw us head down there because the cops caught us in a ... ahem ... slightly askew situation ... They took us both to Kathy's school and gave us a lecture and the Cop told me to go home and took me back to the highway. That was the last time I ever saw Kathy. I can say unequivocally now that in my entire life there was only one women I should have married if I had the opportunity ... Kathy McDonald ... she was so sweet , so kind, she was modest and not a false modesty, she had a huge heart, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. The are other notables ... Sandy Costlow , April Maquire, Dawn Fedori, Janet Transue. You will hear about them later ... but alas they are all regrets of opportunities missed that I still remember today.
Next it is on to public school at Francis H Hammond High in Alexandria Virginia ... I remember the next few years as the crazy years ..........
So ... its the 11th grade and I'm in public school within walking distance of my house. Francis Hammond High was in its next to last year as a high school. It was renamed and became a middle school in 1972. Going from a smallish private school to a huge public school was a shock to the system. Nobody paid attention to anything you did. I went September thru April and never even received a book for any of the classes. When I quit in early April they were amazed that I hadn't been issued any books. As I mentioned before tests were easy for me ... all I did was listen in class and I could get a B or better ... (I skipped 43 days from September to April). Don't worry ... I got my GED on a lark in Front Royal Virginia 2 years later. Took the test without studying and got a 95 average.
I left home around this time ... sleeping at friend houses, a runaway shelter in DC, Stairwells in high rise apartment buildings in Alexandria and an abandoned car at Seminary Shopping Center. The worst I remember was sleeping in a discarded refridgerator box on the the balcony of John Kaufman's mother's high rise apartment in the middle of a blizzard. Evetually I got a job as a dishasher at the Seaport Inn in Olde Town Alexanria and a room for $25 a week at the Monticello Hotel on King St (bathroom down the hall). I stayed there a good while.
For those of you not familiar with that era the late sixties early 70's there were 3 classes of teenagers ... the preppies the jocks and the hippies. Here in Alexandria Virginia .... the hippies, which I was one of ... were vastly outnumbered by girls with peter pan collared shirts and guys with gant shirts and penny loafers or letter jackets. I only had about a half dozen really good friends and none of them were much interested in school either.
So lets see ... who were my friends ...? Well its funny cause I actually had 2 sets of friends ... My best friends were Phil Davey and Ron Sharpley. Phil was one of 4 brothers ... Alan , who was also a close friends and Jimmy and Larry who were more strait laced and went on to become lawyers. Phil was an adventurer a was fortunate to date the beautiful April Macguire. Phil and I also shared the same birthday ... along with another acquaintance of ours Billy Cowhaig. Ron Sharpley Lived with his Mom and sister ... Ron was into hard rock ... Phil and I were into Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young and Jethro Tull. Eric Behre was another good friend .. he was friends with Alan Davey and also Phil and I. We never did much to write about .. our idea of a good time was hanging around Seminary shopping center ... maybe scoring some bottles of 99 cent Boones Farm and chugging them for a buzz. There are a few stories with Ron and Phil later in our timeline.
The other set of friends were on the more dangerous side. Ralph Penn a hippie/biker/hoodlum who remained a good friend for many years (several stories). Johnny Thomas, a full blown criminal ... (more stories), Jimmy Jones, a black guy who was well liked and easy going and trying to stay out of the trouble Johnny Thomas was trying to get him into. Paul Bunyan ... his last name wasn't Bunyan but thats what we called him because he was about 6' 8" and looked like a lumberjack ... as big as he was he was frightened to death of any kind of violence or aggression ... Mike and Wally Hanes, Charlie Quevas, Sandy Costlow (I had a HUGE crush on her), Denise Munnerlyn, Cookie Rivera, there were several other associate friends but I'll be darned if I can rememeber their names. It was a long time ago.
Paul Bunyan was dating this tiny little girl who had recently broken up with a jock from a local fraternity. He and Ralph Penn and Ralph's girlfriend Linda were at Seminary shopping center when about 15 guys from the fraternity surrounded Paul... Ralph Penn pulled out a switchblade and started screaming like a wildman ... cut one of them and chased all 15 of them about a 1/4 mile. He got arrested ... but got probation.
So after the Monticello Hotel I went in with Phil Davey on an apartment in old town. I was working at the Alexandria Journal resizing photos and burning plates for the press. The place was party central. Regular visitors were Ralph Penn, Eric Behre, Cheryl Mclish (yum), Anna don't remember her last name but grew up to be gorgeous, Debbie Fedori, and Linda who ended up marrying Ralph Penn and giving him a daughter. So one night a group of us met some merchant marines from a british cargo ship docked in Alexandria a few blocks from where we lived. They invited us onto the ship. Well they had a a rec room with guiness on tap ... looked like a real english pub ... All of us left except for Phil ... he stayed there drinking to the wee hours of the morning. The next morning I woke up and 2 of the guys from the ship are asleep in chairs in the living room and Phil is passed out on the huge 5' by 8' plywood sign shaped like a kidney with a painted picture of a pool that said Anthony Pools Inc. on it.
One of the saillors woke up and explained that they were helping Phil home and he passed out so they ripped the sign off the wall of a business and carried him home on that. During the night Phil had vomited and soiled his pants ... the vomit and excrement had dried ... Phils face was resting in the dryed vomit and stuck to the sign. I mean it was nasty .... He had to use a scrub brush to get the dryed up excrement off. Phil had a lot of different jobs during that period ... He would tap the alarm three times ... then reason with himself ... well I'm already late I may as well not go in .. etc. When we were moving out of the house we couldn't leave the sign inside. Phil and Eric Behre put a sheet over it and carried it behind the apartment building. When we finished and went to leave 2 cops cars pulled up and stopped us ... apparently someone had called in about suspicious behavior ... Eric was pissing his pants because he had some pot in his pocket. We told the cops the story about Phil and the merchant marines and they felt sorry for him and just made us carry the sign back to the business.
Warning - Some sections after this point not suitable for children.
Now I was in between a place to live .. can't remember how I got by but I do remeber staying a few nights at Jesse Hill's house on the sofa. That was the first time I ever had sex. Debbie Fedori who had been a frequent guest at the Olde Town apartment and I just kind of hooked up. I had taken some seconal which I guess had something to do with why I maintained non stop for a solid 2 hours with the exception of a few times when she said ''Stop ... just lay inside me for a while" ... Being a novice I didn't know that 2 hours was unusual. Debbie was a cute and a sweetheart of a girl but she had Austin Powers teeth and they kind of freaked me out ... The beautiful April Macguire was living there too and we went out on a date and as much as I had fantasized about her when she was dating my friend Phil ... I could have ... but didn't sleep with her ... just wasn't feeling the chemistry ... damn shame!
Shortly afterwards I met Dawn Fordori, Debbies sister and I was truly in love for the first time in my life. Unfortunately I was 17 and homeless and her parents were sending her away to private school out of state. I was shattered. Several months later I was at a party at Charlie Quevas apartment and Dawn came in ... she said she was back and wanted to get back together ... I left the room for something ... came back and she was gone . Shit ...! I would have gotten back togehter in a heart beat.
Now here is where some unpleasantness starts ... I'm only mentioning this because its pertinent to where I went from here .... I'm sitting at the seminary shopping center and a friend Bryan comes up to me and asks if I know where he and his friend can get some pot. I knew Jesse Hill usually did so I rode with them over there took their money and went in and brought them back the pot. A month later I was charged with accomodation sale of pot (done as a favor with no profit) ... a misdemeanor. I went to a group home called Shalom et Benedictus and eventually the charges were withdrawn ... clean record.
Now I've gotta tell you ... Shalom was a great place. None of this calling you a pice of shit for hour while you scrub toilets ... this was a group home of mostly wayward adolescents with very little structure ... there we no classes , no group sessions and maybe 4 counselors to 35 kids. It was located about 10 miles outside Winchester Virginia on a huge old Hotel grounds that have recently been used for a seminary for the Trinitarian Church. I was 3 stories with at least 60 rooms and several other houses and workshops etc on a few hundred acres in the middle of nowhere. My first day there I made friends with Mike Chulis ... He said watch this ... and climbed out a windows onto the porch roof crawled into the office windows and came back with $10 he took from the office safe which they left open all the time. Don't know why he did it .. wasn't anywhere within walking distance to spend it ... I guess just because he could. Now I had just turned 18 so this would have been 1972 ... Shalom was running until 2007 when it finally closed down. The person running it ... Mike Foster, was a counselor when I was there ... 35 years before ... amazing! I remember a lot of people from Shalom. I probably had more sex there than any point in my life. Terry Quinn ( a sweety), Thea Powell (another sweety and gorgeous to boot), Melanie Racey (a kind heart), Nikita something ..., Becky Rhoads (absolutely hot), Pam something, ... (something ladies ... I'm sorry I forgot your last names ... its no reflection on you ... its age..) ... and I remember some good friends too Patti Marouchi, Moochie, Mike Chulis, Dave Fuller who married the counselor Barbara Black, Jim and Marlene Rectinwald a pair of counselors ... Paul Desmond, Father Eric Williams, and of course Mike Foster.
I remember Moochie had a 5th of Jim Beam and we chugged it in under 3 minutes. Thats when I understood what the term "Blind Drunk" meant ... all I could see was white light ... I was hungover for a week!
I mentioned a Johnny Thomas story ealier. Well several of my acquaintances had been to Shalom before me ... Kevin Millls, Jesse Hall my best friend when I was at Severn School in Severna Park Maryland, and Johnny Thomas. Now Johnny was a hard core conniving druggie. He'd sell his sister for 1/2 price to get money for drugs ... So here's what happened. Johnny's mother and brother both lived in the northern Virginia area. Johnny's mother got remarried to a wealthy man in Boston and offered to give Johnny her 2 year old car if he would come pick it up. Johnny's brother, a businessman, arranged to pick Johnny up and take him to National airport so he could fly to Boston and drive the car back. Well as soon as he dropped Johnny off he cashed in the ticket and spent the money on drugs. So Johnny goes back the next day and tells his brother " I screwed up" ... and his brother again buys him a ticket and takes him to the gate. Guess what ... yep ... he does it a 2nd time ... cashes in the ticket and buys drugs. By this time his brother has left town for a business trip ... so Johny goes to his brothers apartment and sells everything .... I mean the stove, the fridge, the tv and vcr, his suits, his dishes, the furniture ... everything ... even the electric carving knife ... He buys a bunch of drugs ... hitchikes to Boston and drives the car back to Shalom and hides drugs in several places around the property ... When he was in Alexandria its said he would break into apartments in his mothers building by climbing from balcony to balcony. What a guy! I heard he finally ended up in prison ... probably the best place for him.
After Shalom I went back to Alexandria briefly. My mom was director of the Alexandria Tourist Council and the city had become sister cities with Dundee Scotland (on the North Sea coast of Scotland between Edinburgh and Aberdeen)
Part of her job was to escort Bailee (judge) Nigel Law the representative from Dundee Sctoland there to officiate the sister city ceremony. Nigel said "You should come to Scotland" ... I said " I can't afford it" He said "I could get you a job" and I said "Ok".
So its off to Scotland for me. 20 years old and its my first travel anywhere. The job was as a counselor at a "list D" school in Montrose Scotland .. Rossie School. A list D school is like 1 step before "Borstal" the hardened criminal prison for adolescents. The school has an open wing and a locked down wing. I worked in the locked down wing basically babysitting and setting a good example for the teenagers there. The first day I was there the assistant head master asked me to come with him ... we went into a small room where a boy of about 12 stood. The boy had misbehaved in class .. he belched. Mr Imlach who was was about 6' 3" and 250 pounds reached inside his jacket and pulled out a leather strap about 2 feet long and 1 inch wide and 1/3 inch thick with splits at the ends. The boy holds out his hand palm up and Mr. Imlach rears back like hes making a throw in cricket and with all his might whips the boys hand ... this is repeated 6 times ... after which the boy has to thank him. Quite disturbing ... thats the only time I saw a whipping ... older boys got it on the bare butt.
The Scotland deal is pretty nice ... I have a single room in the staff dorm where there are 2 other staff members ... Dave and Frank that shared a tv room. Frank was my best friend and I got to visit Franks family in Glasgow. Dave was crazy about the John Prine album I brought with me from the states. We would often go to the Chance Inn in Inverkeillor or over to John and Mary Lundy's cottage for beers and stovies. Joe was another counselor and a good friend. He and his wife Stella lived in one of the staff cottages for married couples. Meals are provided in a private staff dining room for the 3 of us. We had a lady counselor move in later in the year (that's a story) I don't remember how much I was paid ... but generally whatever you would make in the US you got 1/3 that amount in Scotland ... and things didn't seem any cheaper ... in fact in 1974 I remember that gas was $5 a gallon and cigarettes were $5 a pack ... food seemed to be about the same price ... don't know about the housing as mine was included. Most people didn't have cars .. the trains and buses were cheap and convenient. Tv was a trip ... you had 3 channels ... BBC1, BBC2 and STV.. Back then BBC was like public tv here or documentaries .. STV had shows like Kojak . You had to buy a license to have a tv ... no kidding it was like $150 a year for a black and white TV and $275 a year for color TV ... to watch 3 channels ... 2 of them crappy!
Most of the kids there were there for minor stuff ... stealing pie from a window sill, fighting in school, incorrigable etc ... None of them where criminals and most were just victims of livng in poor sections of their town. I would occassionally take a kid out for a day trip to Montrose or Dundee. The biggest guy there was always acting tough to the smaller guys all the time ... but really he was just an insecure kid that wet the bed. One time he mouthed off and I said "what did you say" ... he says "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself" I said "what" and he says "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself" and I said "what"again and he says "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself"and I said "what" a third time and he says "I'm not in the habit of repeating ......" at that point the whole room broke out laughing ...
While I was in Scotland I had 6 weeks paid vacation.
To Be Continued....