This would be the last time (so far) that I would move back West to start over. I have never felt at home in Jacksonville, although I have lived most of my life here. I feel like Jacksonville has been a duty station for me, someplace I was supposed to be, on assignment. I'm not sure what that assignment was/is and maybe I'm just rationalizing. The happiest times of my life were in Hawaii, and I really want to go back there to live. When I can't surf, hike, or be active any more, I want to go back to Western North Carolina, in the Appalachians, sit in a rocker on the front porch, and watch the sun go down.
I had been living at 266 South Roscoe Blvd, in Palm Valley, since November of 1980, currently with Madam and Blackie, my dogs. I was interested in getting into security work, and the summer Olympics were in Los Angeles that year. I had taken a security guard course at FCCJ, and had my own company, Stone Security Services. I did some house watching and worked the door at Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach. I took a VIP protection class at Texas A&M on the way to LA. I figured there would be security work in LA for the Olympics and I could get some career experience.
I had not one, but two going away parties. Maybe everyone was glad I was going? Linda Gay, who I had been dating for a year or so, threw a party for me at my place complete with Chris James and his organ, and a belly dancer. The trailer I lived in had a good sized yard. Whenever I had a party, I would always buy several bales of hay and spread them on the ground, which was mostly dirt. I usually had a hay ride as part of the festivities, I don't remember if we had one this time. The night before I left town, George and Vicki had a small party for me, which included Maxine (Crow) Althouse and Linda Stone, who were visiting. I made the mistake of letting Linda cut my hair after she had a few drinks. It was probably my worst haircut ever. I stopped in Alabama at a barbershop to get it fixed. We had fun hanging out, though.
I left my 1979 Firebird and Ford 4X crew cab in North Carolina at the "Farm", a property in the country (community of Horseshoe), near Etowah. Dad bought it originally for me to live there, but I changed my mind and went back to Florida. I don't think he minded too much, except it was extra maintenance and had a big yard. Rosemary lived there for a while with Anna. I made two trips up, one in the Firebird, and one in a big U-Haul truck that I towed my 4X with. The Farm had a barn in the back that I put the Firebird and some of my belongings in. I parked the 4X next to the barn at the top of the hill. I put some of my treasured possessions in the main house in a storage room. This proved to be a mistake as Rosemary's first husband, Tom Drewry, burned the house down in April of 1985. Rosemary had kicked him out for not working. Rosemary refers to Tom as "the one whose name we do not mention".
I had bought a 1962 Ford Econoline van from Jack Petrie in June of 1982 for $50. All the wiring had burned up and he helped me tow it home from north Roscoe extension to my place with a rope. I rewired it system by system, repaired and serviced and repainted it. I put an old Fiat radiator on the front attached to the primary radiator for extra cooling. I also attached a tow bar to the front bumper, in case it broke down and I needed to tow it. I figured I could flag down a pick up or rent a U-Haul truck to get it to a shop. The interior was paneled and had a hinged bed with storage underneath. I put a roof vent on top in the back and a CB whip antenna on the back left side. I set up most of my vans this way.
I'm pretty sure I pulled out from George's on Thursday night, June 14th. It was rainy, and I was tired, but I wanted to get on the road and not get bogged down in the morning. I made it to a rest area on the other side of Jacksonville and crawled in the back of the van. Madam and Blackie slept on the front seats. I must have driven all the next day and into the evening and found another rest area. I didn't want to spend money on a campground and definitely not a motel. I carried gallon jugs of water to shower with. It seems like I arrived in Bryan/College Station, Texas, Saturday late morning. I drove to the campus where my class was and then looked up a vet to board Madam and Blackie while I took my class. It was out in the countryside and I stopped to ask directions from a young lady whose house I came to while searching for the vet. She gave me directions and invited me to a cookout they were having that night. I found the vet and left Madam and Blackie, and went back to the girl's house and started partying. God bless Texas hospitality. They were nice people and treated me well. I drove around some the next day, Sunday, and parked on the campus at Texas A&M, College Station. I think I checked in with their security, and they said it was ok to sleep in my van at the college.
The Executive Protection class was 10 hours a day for 5 days and was fun and instructive. I read about it in a Security World magazine article a few months before. It only cost $60 for a 50 hour class. It was a bargain. We had class, got to shoot guns, and practice evasive driving. I met some nice people there. I visited Madam and Blackie several times, but mostly hung close to the college.
I'm pretty sure I left College Station on Saturday, June 23rd. I drove I-10 to San Diego, Southern California, stopping only for gas, to eat, to exercise, and to sleep. I remember blowing out a rear tire (Roberts Recaps) on a freeway in San Diego. I looked in the rear view mirror and the cars behind me had all slowed down and stayed 100 yards back. I made it to the side of the road and put on my spare. I drove up to Orange County and stopped in Huntington Beach to see Bob Bolen, the "Greek", who I had worked for in the 70's, and also Rich Parr in Santa Monica, who I had hung out with in Hawaii. I spent the night on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Santa Monica. I started looking for a security or bartending job the next day. Rich let me use his phone # and address, and I stayed in the Newport Dunes Campground in Newport Beach, for a week or so. It was pretty pricey, around $30 a night as I remember.
I got a job as a security guard and dog handler with California K-9 Security Service in Stanton. I took classes at the Firing Line, in Huntington Beach, to get California certified for tear gas, baton, firearm, and security guard. The instructor, Fred Donahue, and I became buddies. I liked him a lot. He was ex law enforcement. Someone else who went out of their way to be nice to me was Charles Sennewald, a world renowned security expert and consultant, who lived in Fountain Valley. I went to his house and talked to him about my career in security work. He was very gracious to grant me some of his time.
California K-9 was owned by 2 brothers, Ron and Kelly Duffin. They had a kennel in the back yard and 2 llamas that roamed inside the chain link fence of the back yard. The llamas got out once in a while and it was quite a scene to herd them back in. If you turned your back on them, they would bite you. There were about 30 dogs, mostly Dobermans and German Shepherds. They weren't particularly trained, their natural protective instincts usually got the job done. We would drop them off singly or in pairs to sites in the evening ranging from construction sites to car lots. We used a 12 compartment truck like animal control would use. It may have been an old animal control truck. I guarded a Chinese grocery store in a Mexican ghetto in Santa Ana, and also watched the door at a Mexican bar on Main Street in Santa Ana. It was pretty exciting. Later I had the job of dropping off and picking up the dogs. Madam and Blackie fit in fine. I took off one weekend to go to the Soldier of Fortune magazine convention in Las Vegas. I stayed in the Circus Circus RV campground. I went by my old school, Orange Coast College, in Costa Mesa, a few times to go to the library, and just hang out. I visited Sallie once. She was working in a trailer, and I went by and took her to lunch. I had Madam spayed at the Animal Care Center, operated by Golden State Humane Society, for a very reasonable cost, I want to say $45 or $85. She was 2 years old, and I didn't want her to have puppies or have the hassles of being in season. Ninja crossed Roscoe Boulevard and was hit by a truck, while she was in season, looking for a mate in June of 1983. I went to Self Realization Fellowship church in Fullerton a few times. No one was very friendly to me there. I talked to a monk about needing a place to stay and he told me to pray and meditate about it. I slept outside the Salvation Army Headquarters in Santa Ana in my van some. If I worked at night, I would drive to a nearby park and find a shady spot in the daytime. By the time I headed north to Sacramento in October, I had taken 2 hot showers in 5 months. I was 37, almost 38 years old, living in a van in LA with 2 dogs. I had PO Box 1061 in Stanton to get mail. I got a California driver's license, I think with the same # as my previous license in CA, and I had a checking account. I bought a matched set of 8 Master padlocks and put hasps on all my van doors. I put a "Beware of Dog" sign on the 2 front doors. Sometimes if I was in a parking lot, people would walk too close to the van and Madam and Blackie would let loose. Some people were not amused. It started getting cold in October, and I called Pat Hodel in Sacramento to see if I could come stay with her. Pat, being the good sport that she is, said yes. I gave notice, and we headed north. We stopped and stayed a couple of nights with Rich Parr in Santa Monica on the way.
Pat was still living on 633 Riverlake Way. I don't remember if Sharon was there or living with her boyfriend, Kevin Standfield. Pat still had Kelly, her Doberman. She and Madam and Blackie got along good. Madam liked to be dominant, but Kelly was older and it was her home. Blackie was one of the best natured dogs ever. He was Ninja's grandson, and I helped Giblet give birth to him. Three of his littermates died of hookworms at about 4 weeks, but Blackie made it. I trimmed the oak tree in the back yard of Riverlake Way again for Pat. Jonathan Ramey and I painted a rental house Pat owned with a Wagner Power Painter. I knew Jonathan from the Beach. He had been in the service there and helped Randy and me with tree and fence work. He had rented from Alice Sheridan while he was in Neptune Beach.
I got a security guard job with Golden State Investigating pretty soon after arriving. They had gray uniforms that made you look like the Maytag repairman. I remember patrolling a housing project and the bloods calling me "Barney". Pretty humbling. I got a better job with Eaton Brothers Security and patrolled a car lot in the foothills. Man, was it cold. I ran an extension cord from the building to my van for a little heater and came out once an hour to make my rounds. I believe this place had time clock punch meters that you had to punch hourly. I also worked part time for a detective, Claude Covey, B&W Security Services. We were paid to shop adult bookstores to see if the clerks rang up their sales. I had dinner with Claude and his wife, Eileen once. I did a little tree work with Mark Sorum, (Mark's Tree Service) who I had worked with at Oakley's Tree Service in 1979 and 1980. I once hung out at his apartment on the weekend for him to answer the phone in case his parents called. He had to spend the weekend in jail for something.
I took an adult ed self defense class from the Learning Exchange, a private school. Later, I went to classes at the instructor, John Glabas', house. He was a good guy. He later confided in me, when he and his wife were splitting up.
You could get a free bus ride from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe, in Nevada, if you took your bus ticket into a casino. I went to Harrah's, got my bus ticket price in chips, played a slot machine once or twice, and cashed in my chips. I caught a local bus to Heavenly Valley Resort and tried my hand at snow skiing. I rented short skis and blew off lessons. How much different could it be from surfing? I actually did pretty good on the beginner slope, but crashed my way down on the intermediate slope. I stuck to the beginner slope and had a pretty good time. This story may have happened on a previous trip to Sacramento, but I'm telling it here too. I may have borrowed Pat's car in 1979/1980 to get to Heavenly Valley. I may even have gone in 1976/1977 when Sharon and I were together. I know I went once to Heavenly Valley, by myself, and snow skied.
Mary Hess was living in Colorado, and came to Sacramento to see some friends in December. She got us tickets to see the Grateful Dead, New Year's Eve, at the Fillmore in San Francisco. It was ok, but the jam band music and zombie like audience got boring pretty quick. I like the Dead's work on disk, but their performance was pretty uninspired as far as I was concerned. Mary and I did a few things together, and she went back to Colorado. She stayed with Pat and me some while she was in town.
Sharon was going with Kevin Stanfield, and we used to hang out at her Mom and Dad's house some. Her Mother, Barbara, was a nurse-practitioner, who really looked out for me on my next trip in 1991.
By the Spring, I didn't have a lot of work, and left Sacramento in March of 1985 to head back to the beach. I moved in with George, Vicki, and Jamie at 912 21st Street North in Jax Beach and stayed there until the end of 1985.
July 31, 2010
Hard Times - Sort of
As I put fingers to keyboard, I played some old Butterfield Blues music to inspire the muse. Song #1 was “One More Heartache”. Carlos Castaneda would have something to say about “agreements from the world around you”. Seemingly random coincidences are also talked about in The Holographic Universe book.
In 1984, at the age of 34 I was trying to get a security services business started in Jacksonville, Florida. I had some experience as a lifeguard, doorman at a bar, and vacation house watching. I even had a business license. There was a security guard certification class at our local community college, which I completed.
The summer Olympics, if you remember, were held in Los Angeles in 1984. I had the idea that it would be a good opportunity for me to get some valuable experience, working security in some fashion at the Olympics.
So I put most of my belongings in storage, and loaded up my 1962 Ford Econoline van in June and headed West. And by the way I took my two dogs, Blackie and Madam along. Madam was a two year old female Doberman and Blackie was a one year old male Doberman lab mix. We stopped along the way in Bryan, Texas, or was it College Station, at Texas A&M, to take a week long VIP protection class, which was offered for $60. This was a crash course in how to be a bodyguard. The other attendees were all either in law enforcement or the military. I felt a little out of place, but I was made to feel welcome.
I went to LA by way of San Diego. I had spent some time there years before and wanted to stroll down memory lane. Being poor, I put some Roberts Recap tires on my van before leaving Jacksonville. One of the rear tires blew out on I- 5, just outside San Digeo. I remember looking in the rear view mirror to see five lanes of the formerly bumper to bumper traffic retreating a hundred yards or so behind me, as I carefully applied the brakes and pulled over.
Well, LA was no bowl of cherries. I never did find housing and stayed in my van with two dogs for five months, until the weather changed in November. I slept outside the Salvation Army at night and at parks under a shade tree in the daytime. After several weeks of job searching, I found work with a security dog agency in Stanton, Orange County. Madam and Blackie were hired too, and went out most nights to construction sites or car lots. By the time I set sail for a friend’s house in Sacramento, in November, I had taken two warm baths in five months. Otherwise I showered under a hose or a gallon jug.
This whole experience was somewhat stressful, but not really overwhelming. I was still young enough to be resilient and energetic. I lived in a van in Hawaii for a while too, but that’s another story.
5/17/2022
College Station, Texas
In 1983, I decided to get into the security business. I had taken some security guard classes at the local Junior College in Jacksonville, Florida, and was working as a doorman at a local bar. I did some vacation house watching and had taught some self defense classes. In July of 1984, I took all my worldly possessions to my parents’ rental house in a community between Penrose and Horseshoe, near Etowah, North Carolina. My sister Rosemary was living there, and there was an empty barn at the back of the property.
I was driving a 1962 Ford Econoline van, which a year earlier I bought for $50 and towed home with a rope. After extensive repairs it was roadworthy. I even attached a tow bar to the front in case I broke down and need a tow. A CB radio was aboard for emergencies and entertainment. My two dogs, Madam and Blackie were along for the ride. Madam was a Doberman and Blackie was a Lab-Doberman mix. They were both first class dogs and were obedience trained.
By the way, I was heading for Southern California, where the 1984 Summer Olympics were being held. I figured they would need security people and I could get some good experience and boost my resume’. And coincidentally, Texas A&M was offering a week long VIP protection class while I would be passing through the state.
After two days of driving I arrived at Bryan or College Station, I can’t remember which, Texas A&M has campuses in both cities. I located a vet out of town who did boarding, I couldn’t leave my dogs in a van all day in the Texas heat, plus I wanted to concentrate on my class without having to let the dogs out.
So I’m driving around the back country, looking for the vet, when I pass a young lady at her mailbox. After giving me directions, she said, “We’re having a cookout tonight, would you like to come.” Not being the shy type, I said, “Sure, thanks a lot.”
I came back around six pm and the party had already started. There was plenty of beer and barbecue, and probably some guitar picking and singing. The twenty or so people there were as friendly and nice as they could be. They made a stranger feel at home. Around midnight I crawled into the bed in my van, and happily fell asleep.
July 25, 2022
