I did a lot of work in Bellefontaine Neighbors. Also I spent a year between the ages of 15 and 16 locked up. First at Hogan Street and then 8 months or so at the DYS facility at the very end of Bellefontaine rd. on what is now the Missouri Hills campus.
Yeah I wasn’t what you would call a good kid, but nothing I ever did was that bad. I was never a thief or anything. Drinking, smoking dope and fighting mostly. My parents lost the ability to tell me what to do when I was 15 or so. What did me in was beating the hell out of a security guard at KMart who tried to detain me. He claimed I was shoplifting. I wasn’t.
I remember around 1989, we were doing our yearly tour of the Bissell Mansion (it's 1 mile away from school and basically my backyard) and the tour guide...a woman presumably 75 years old at the time told our class about how slave labor built the house, and curated the grounds. I remember looking around at the ornate woodwork, the finely cut wood and the overall attention to detail in every facet and fixture in every room. As I toured the grounds...the well manicured trees were fruiting and simply running around eating apples and peaches was something out of a dream. My backyard, which was part of the former grounds of this area, had a sour cherry tree. Such detail was put into every thought. It was at that moment I truly knew and promised myself....someday I will have slaves.
You’re a youngin. By 1989 I had spent a couple years living in LA and Tampa, trying to hit the big time, and was for some ridiculous reason back in Missouri married to my first wife.
I was 8
A-are you Hulk Hogan??
This is why we don't always see eye to eye. I was a St. Pete guy for a long time. IME those are like two almost completely separate scenes. I always miss St. Pete this time o year.
We used to go over there sometimes. Clearwater more often. Surfing, drinking.
What a strange thing to say. No. I'm not Hulk Hogan.
I liked St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island, Madeira beach the best. Didn't go to Tampa much but did gig Ybor and Davis island a couple times.
Fuck Ybor City. I was staying in a shithole on Nebraska and Sligh and had occasion to walk all the way to Kennedy Blvd. ( which is where we hung out). Had homeboys chucking bottles at me the whole way.
Your secret is safe with me, brother!!
I used to work out on St. Pete Beach for a friend of mine off an on for many years. Some of the spring break times was like trying to manage a business amongst pure chaos. Travel Lodge/Post Card Inn was someplace worthy of packing a pistol and being ready to use it. Morons and nuts, everywhere.
Nebraska and Kennedy? Were you buying meth?
No. Not Nebraska and Kennedy. That’s just how I got there that day. Besides, meth wasn’t really a thing back by then.
Sorry to necro this sucker but, having worked at the Choice off Howdershell as well as Dunn Rd in my teens, you are not wrong. Lol
