Portland

The cityscape comes out of the fog

hunched and low.

It’s streets and signposts unsettled as we pass through town.

The Three J’s

The parking lots

The bridge so high it blocks the sun.

The cityscape

people and concrete slung low in the saddle

its storied buildings laden with linoleum halls

and wood and bells

elevators and floor stops.

I fall asleep on the carpet

while mother talks, father patient.

The carpet rough and cool.

The city, the car, the traffic

watching as sky and glass and concrete wave us along.

The clatter as we ride over the manhole covers.

The bridge.

I am light and delirious. My friend, the bridge

bids me welcome as home we go.

We pass by Bekins (sounds like Beeman’s Gum).

I roll over in the back.

The car goes whoosh down the road.

I am soon asleep.

Portland.

Photoshoping… is that a verb?

As we’ve been changing our economy around and figuring out what it is we want to Do with ourselves in the coming decade, I happened upon Photoshop once again and began using it. I’m ready for my fourth career change. Having done some work already with grapic basics, layout and design… I’m ready to get into college. Again. Just for the summer.

There are online classes at the local community college and that’s the problem, there aren’t any professors; it’s all online. So the state is reviewing the program for my people… my people will see your people? Only my people are the hard-working folks of the downtown unemployement office, BerkshireWorks, kudos… nonetheless, my people are looking into getting funding or accredidation… aka “The Big Okay” from our representatives at the capitol. [insert patriotic music here] While we, as a nation, struggle to get out of the hole we dug we can only hope that there’s a rope coming from our friends at the state and federal agencies.. Look! On the Horizon! It’s the “big R” Recovery coming. I can see it… just cresting the wheat fields.

Dreaming my Life Away

Self Portrait Original

I’m working some these days, getting my multiple resumes updated. I’ve been writing, selling, volunteering. It’s time to make another strike out into the cold brutal.. oh wait… the winter’s over. And so, maybe also the winter of our economy.

There are faint ticks being heard here and there. Dare I say…upticks? This company is going up. That housing is some, too. GMC… well, not so much. It’s all good though, this movement. It’s like the hull of a ship going over the swells in a storm or a creaking house on a windy night.

Movement. That  means we’re changing direction. The bow rises in a swell and the aft parts creak. Boards and Beams and Trunnels all rub in time and flex. Movement is the desired result. And if it takes a dip in the icy waters coming across the bow, so be it. ‘Tis Time to go with the season, get back to business and give it your best.

The Writer’s Life

Here we are.

I’ve had a few months to get my little writing car in gear and head it down the road. As of today, I’ve written a play that has been accepted (the staging is set for the fall – a paid gig), I’ve written eight or so articles for the local media (Read: Paid writing) and had an humorous epic poem displayed at the local Museum for a week as part of a community event. I’m also editing my writing group’s newsletter. We’re a 501(c)(3) so it’s no little club.

Works in progress are: A short play about zombies, a collaboration with a film maker on a horror flick  (his story, my script) and the assorted short stories that I’ve been working on.

Many of these situations are volunteer gigs, and that’s okay… I’m paying my dues, getting my stuff out there and filling up the resume’.  For all that, I’m very thankful.  The people I’ve worked with are great.  If I could fill my tank and buy groceries with the money I make that would be great, too.  Suffice to say, I’m putting that into play, step by step.

The next step is getting an agent, I’m thinking. Now where’d I put that query letter?

- Rocket

the Inauguration of Barack Obama

As I watch  Barack Obama take the oath and listen to him speak, I am amazed. Martin Luther King is happy. This man. This time. President Obama is a person who requires you to work for a better life. That is his call.

Here are some simple quotes from his inaugural speech.

“Do our business in the light of day.”

“We are ready to lead once more.”

“Our power alone does not protect us.”

We will encourage “greater understanding  between nations.”

“We will defeat those who slaughter innocents.”

“We cannot ignore suffering outside our borders.”

“Remember who we are and how far we have traveled.”

Millions. Millions in chairs from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial.

He did it. We did it. We turned our backs on the hate-filled rhetoric of the past and opened ourselves to the greater ideals of virtue and hope. And that makes this a Great Day.

Borrowing Ourselves Out of Debt

Okay. I saw the President as he gave his sales pitch for the $700B bailout (aka HR 3221 being debated as I write). The gist of his speech was thus:

“We need this bill. We are spending $700B that will buy mortgage packages, taking the devalued debt load off of banking institutions. That will free up banking institutions so that they can loan money to businesses and individuals so that the economy doesn’t bog down.”

Excuse me?

To pass this bill we first have to increase our federal debt limit to $10.6 Trillion dollars. So now we are borrowing the $700B (from who? China? Japan? Saudi Arabia?) so that we can save overextended financial entities (who have been under-regulated) so that they, in turn, can extend more credit to more people to finance their homes, and businesses…. and give banks the ability to loan money to each other for a day or two. This should lead to that golden nirvana: keeping people employed.

I’m sorry, but I still don’t get it. This is a solution? I understand the need to do something now. And this bill does have benefits. There is language in the bill to help our vets, our communities, and our primary homeowners (not speculators). More importantly, it establishes an independent regulator – The Federal Housing Finance Agency – to oversee Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Banks. This is all good, yet that I have this uneasy feeling.

Now, my parents, married in 1931, had a different view on money. My Dad gave me a lesson that I still struggle with today. “Pay cash for everything.”

I was taken aback when he told me this and responded as only a self-confident teen could, “Oh, right… you didn’t pay cash for the car.”

“Well… yeah. I did.” Okay… I stood corrected.

Now let me attach a little nugget from Economics 101: “You can never borrow yourself out of debt.” Never.

I’m in a quandary. If HR 3221 is supposed to be the solution, I’m not seeing how it ultimately solves the problem. That problem? Somebody, sometime has to pay for all this borrowing. At some point someone has to work just to pay off our personal and institutional debt – first. We managed to do it during the Clinton administration; I can only imagine what it will take to do it in the next.

As this bill is being finalized in preparation for the President’s signature, I have only one question, “Just how long is $700B in borrowed money supposed to last?

After all, it is only a loan.

HR 3221 Summary and full text

Sarah Palin – Gleanings from the web

Here’s a really great writer on why Ms. Palin should not be much of a draw to the ‘Hillary Dems’.
Mary Lyon: Cue Lloyd Bentson – The Huffington Post

Here’s a good set of pages that introduce Ms. Palin, her life and her views, from Time Magazine’s website.

Ms. Palin is all for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. She’s also ready to deregulate the energy industry to allow Big Business to have it way to supply our huge appetite for oil.

Here’s some info on Palin’s ethics investigation concerning the firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan

Here’s a notice concerning the same ongoing investigation from the Alaskan state website.

Here’s an Alaskan’s view on the situation – Alaska Pride

Okay… I admit it. This next little tidbit is outrageous, disrespectful, insulting, non-PC, and just plain funny. There are all kinds of comments made about some communities by others… we have one around our area… What’s a compliment in such’n’such a place? ‘Nice tooth.’
This fits that mold, but it comes from an Alaskan as a comment to this blog entry at The Conservative Pulse -

# Old Shoe Says:
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 am

“And not only has Palin been a governor for the last two years, but she’s worked in state and local government for the last 12 years. A resume that’s at least as impressive as Barack Obama’s.”

haw haw, Mayor of Wasilla is as impressive as Barack Obama’s ?

you must be smokin some of that hillybilly crack that they get out there in Wasilla.

Dude, have you ever been to Wasilla?

Here’s a joke about Wasilla.

You know that you’re in Wasilla when you let your 12 year old smoke at the table.

In front of her kid.

That’s Wasilla in a nutshell.

Give me a freakin’ break, this woman is NOT qualified to be VP.

Check the wikipedia link… it seems April Flowers grew up in Wasilla. Wow! I wonder if she was in that beauty contest! Well… i guess that’s enough for now. I’ve already stepped over some freaking line I’m sure

As one fine creative mind declares, “‘Nuff said”

Rocket

Sarah Palin???

Sarah Palin???? Who the hell is Sarah Palin?

So far I’ve learned she’s been the Governor of Alaska for a term, was mayor of a town of 9,000, has a husband named Todd. They also have four kids at home and a son ready for deployment in Iraq. Oh, and she served on a state board involved with the Oil interests…. Big Surprise. She has minimal political experience and no national security exposure.

God love her… this lady is not Ready to be a heartbeat from the Presidency. Period. End of story.

Senator McCain has no possible argument about Obama having no experience when he picks a lady with limited political exposure of any kind. What was he thinking? If this is the kind of person he picks for the second highest office in the United States, what kind of other decisions is he going to make? This appears like a complete party-shill situation. My apologies, because this is my early, knee jerk reaction. This choice reeks of Republican’s desire to drill oil in Alaska. That’s really that issue that made this choice even possible. The Republican machine has been amiss in their evaluation of this person’s abilities. Personally, I think the media is going to tear her up. There’s hardly dry ink on the choice and the first thing that comes out is that she may have had an in-law fired from a job with the state police…. what the hell is up there?

This is just a plain bad choice on McCain’s part. If he thought he was going to have a tough fight ahead (given the mood of the country concerning the last administration) then he has just taken two steps backwards in the race. If the choice of a running mate is the first executive decision that a candidate makes… with all it’s importance and the ability of the public to judge his decision making qualities… this is a big mistake. Obviously, the Republican machine likes her. I can’t imagine that McCain even knew her. She’s a sympathetic person, so it may be a difficult for Democrats to go negative on her. She’s a mom, she’s young (relatively), she’s photogenic, and she’s a woman… I guess that’s supposed to make it easier for the “Hillary Dems” to vote for the Republican ticket. Maybe the machine thinks this race for the Presidency is about simply avoiding attacks. That could be their mindset… well… because… attacking IS their mindset. But that’s not what this race is about. This race is about competancy. President George H. Bush has clearly been an incompetent leader. He and his party have ruined so many things in the last eight years that it’s hard to count them. Pick an issue – the Environment, the Markets, FEMA, New Orleans, The Patriot Act, Education, the failed “War on Terror”, our standing with our Allies, International Respect…

Sarah Palin? Oh… she’s the candidate that Big Oil likes… like Big Oil ever knew how to run a Government. If we let Big Business run a country it would surely end up being a Corporation. And we know how that always ends up….with the people at the top making the Big Money.

ELECT BARACK OBAMA the NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!

See Palin’s opinion about including Creationism in the classroom

The Launch of the Obama/Biden Ticket

Okay. It’s been decided. Hillary has quietly, formally stepped far stage left and let Joe Biden come aboard this ship sailing toward the White House. This is going to be a Great Race.

I was always confused as to why Biden’s campaign was so truncated during the primaries. As far as I was concerned, he had all the things that this country needed. What I really… Really… liked about him was his grasp of the complexity of international issues and how he made these issues comprehensible to the common man. Every interview, whether on Meet the Press, or Morning Joe, or CNN… Joe Biden always left me thinking… “My gawd he’s Right! That’s the best way to approach this (leader, issue, conflict, policy)”. He didn’t apologize for his opinions, but stated them clearly and comprehensively, so that even if you didn’t agree with him at least you knew exactly where he stood. Add to this the fact he doesn’t have Al Gore’s “bore factor” when he gets detailed and you have a “points on” winner. He comes across as the man he is… fully committed to everyday Americans, to people that work 9 – 5 (or two and three part time jobs) all the while struggling to raise 3 kids and a dog while keeping the bills paid.

Me? I’m a happy camper. I think Barack made a tremendous choice! And I’m not saying that just because I want the Republican stranglehold to end, which I do. I’m saying that because, picking Joe Biden is a clear win/win situation. Barack Obama wants someone he can work with, someone who will give him a valid opinion, even if it’s not shared… someone who is capable and willing, and who has an historic ability to reach across the aisle and make things happen. Why can he make things happen? Because he knows the value of Working Together for the American People.

I don’t see this team firing cabinet members or military leaders for seeing the Big Picture through a different lens. I don’t see these men tearing apart working relationships because of differences of opinion. I don’t see them working for the top ten percent of the population at the expense of a burgeoning middle class… a group that has been left to fend for themselves of late. Not these two.

On the other side of the coin, I saw some Big Business types on Fox today. The subject was centered around that big house debate – “How many bathrooms does Biden have in his $1.5 million house? What’s wrong with having more houses… bigger lifestyles… isn’t that the American way?” These Corporates were decrying the tax cuts they may face with a Democratic Administration. “We employ people. If we lose tax advantages, we’ll have to stop buying equipment and lay off workers.” (I paraphrase). The funny thing is this. Nobody said “I’ll have to take a pay cut.” Nobody said, “I’d have to sell my condo in Belize.” Nobody said, “I’ll have to see if I can sell the Mazerati/Lear Jet/Baseball Team.” Nobody took responsibility. They just said, “If you take away our tax breaks, we’ll have to let it fall on the little guy. That will be bad for the American people.” It won’t be bad for them. Just us.

How Nice. It’s nice to see our Corporate Executives are so in tune with the needs of the working stiff. It makes me just blush with pride. (insert gagging sound here)

Take some time to view the speeches made in Illinois yesterday. It’s well worth the 33 minutes. Ciao!

Team Launch courtesy of MSNBC.

And if you have a grass roots kind of program going on, let’s get in touch. I’d love to get some links and dialogue going on this site. Let’s get people talking about it. Let’s get people involved.

They may say, “Yes we can!”
I’ll be chanting, “Hell, we Better!”

Rocket

The Summer Layoff

Extra for hire

Well, it has been a while. A month and a half since we’ve all been laid off. I hope everybody has been enjoying the summer (what there is of it). Me, I’ve been plugging away.

I’ve worked on my three (yeah three!) resumes… theatre, warehouse, printing. To those who missed the CfRE workshop, it was pretty incredible. I’ve put in resumes at about a dozen places, spread out across the spectrum. Interprint looks promising as I aced the color test Molari gave me. That’s been the most recent development and I haven’t heard from them about an interview at the main office… yet… but the color test was only Thursday.

The 3+ weeks without any income was horrendous. Telling bill collectors, “Oh, yeah, I have this money coming in and then unemployment isn’t started yet… blah blah blah… ” Then I get the big fat check and “What?” They took 40% out for taxes!!! 40 cents on friggin the dollar! What the hell is up with that??? Well, there goes the spending money I thought I’d have! Everything went for bills. Then Mass Unemployment held up my check cuz they thought the Merrill money was a severance pay. My lady from DUA played phone tag with Minnesota and called me back to ask how much time my check covered because she’d been told it was to help in the ‘transition phase’ aka Severance. Well I balked but Good! I knew it would be TEN WEEKS without unemployment, so I got on the horn fast to Gail and left her a “No Way in Hell!” message. That afternoon I got a call back from my DUA lady and it was all straightened out because we had signed that waiver! YES!. Now That was a freakin relief cuz the idea of being without a check scared the crap out of me.

Meanwhile I was on the “job search” trail. I’ve submitted two sets of resume/headshots to film makers. Ang Lee is doing a movie about the guy that signed the special event permit for Woodstock back in the day.The movie is called “Taking Woodstock” and it begins filming this week. That was a good time, discussing my aptitude to play a long haired hippie extra. However, they won’t call until the day before they need you for filming, so I’ll be checking the messages every day for the next couple of weeks. The other movie is a Mel Gibson, Robert De Nero legal thriller, “Edge of Darkness” that’s filming in Boston and Northampton. Myself and a buddy from the Writers Room went down to Northampton to apply for that one.

The two calls were as different as night and day. The Ang Lee people set up shop in a New Lebanon church. I went in, filled out paperwork, got a photo taken, and talked with a casting person for two minutes. I was in and out in 20 minutes, tops. When my buddy and I got to Northampton there was a line of 200+ out the door of the Clarion hotel. The line moved quickly enough. Casting people gave us forms to fill out, plus “Do’s and Don’ts” for extras for when we get on set. It took 30 minutes to get close to the building, where they stapled our form, resume, and headshot together. Then it became a quick walk (in line) to the basement conference rooms where fifty or so of us got a 20 minute talk and discussion on the details of the shoot. Hey… they need 1000 extras including bunches of 40-70 year old hippies with protesting experience! It’s well worth the adventure, especially if they give you two or three days work at $100/day (plus the great food!) Ang Lee’s film is the same. $100 a day. But theres a better chance of getting multiple days. Gibson’s movie (he’s the star, not the director) would be only 1 – 3 days max, in Northampton.

Other than those, I’ve been to a few places and got my name in as a grip/carpenter. The Colonial has me on their list for a possible in October. With the summer winding down, there aren’t too many places hiring right this minute, but I’m getting around. In other arts related stuff, I’m going to be facilitating a scriptwriting workshop for The Berkshire Writers Room. Meetings will start on Sunday evening, September 21st, at Berk. Community College, and continue every third Sunday thereafter. Email me if you’re interested in the specifics. And I’ve been writing. I did one short story for a woman I found on Craig’s List. It’s about troubled teens and how parents lose them. I wrote about my time in Framingham and my relationship with my dad. If she accepts the story, I get $20 and if it gets published there’s another $20. I find that the price about average for a ‘breaking in’ kind of situation. Plus it’s another published story on the resume.

Oh… and the big… “I’m going to work on the house”… stuff? Oh, brother… Right after we left CfRE, the stepdaughter, son-in-law and grandkids showed up for three weeks! That was Awesome! We had a great time and got to spend boodles of time with the grandkids. However, I didn’t do any more work next door. Since they left I’ve been more focused on getting the resumes finished and looking for theatre work, and getting my finished resumes out to every job that looks worthwhile, that I haven’t done anything with the apartment. Well, there’s been one thing. I was able to score a whole bunch of cabinets from a friend’s remodeling job, so when I start putting the kitchen together I’ll have something to work with.

Between getting used to a new schedule (I still get up at 7am or earlier), working on my writing (which I’m more serious about) and looking for that elusive “day job”, I left the remodeling alone. It’s always tempting to just sleep in, waste time on TV or the internet, but the need for a job (yeah, even a ‘real job’) keeps me going. Now that I’m getting a serious schedule, the remodeling is going to get its due share. At least until I start working 12 hour swing shifts or start spending 12 hours a day in New Lebanon or Northampton. See you all in the funny papers.

Barack & Hillary

Is it True? Is it Really True?

It seems that it is. Barack Obama has, it seems, clinched the nomination for the Democrats. We have not seen the likes of this since JFK. It’s not just that an Obama Candidacy breaks a tradition of two hundred plus years of white men leading the country – even as JFK’s Catholicism was a hurdle for his time. It’s Barack’s outlook – his honest, ‘can do’ attitude… his whole hearted belief that we are better than the last twelve years. Yes, Twelve years, ’cause that’s when the Republican political Machine began their viral attacks against Bill Clinton led by their pitbull, Ken Starr.

The Republican Party pulled out every stop to take Power. No device was too low, no cover up too sleazy, no accusation too far fetched too keep them from their ultimate goal – Domination of the political landscape. Total Control. And did they do this to benefit the American People? Did they do this to make this a better world? Absolutely not! They did it to grease their friends pockets, to push agendas that create wealth for the wealthy, to lock tight a changing world where resources are dwindling, where those that have power can consolidate that power to benefit themselves.

The only problem is that the plan is only effective so long as the great People of this nation can be duped by fear mongering, sidestepping, and politicians constantly repeating lies as though they are the truth. (Recession? What recession?)

Now we have a political landscape that we haven’t seen before. Our two Democratic front runners are an African-American man and a former First Lady. And they are running a statistically even race. Hillary is not giving up… don’t even suggest it. The whole thing is going to Denver, and before Denver things should be worked out. These days Hillary and Barack are cordial, even friendly. One can only imagine the works behind the scenes.

So is it going to be Candidate Barack Obama and VP Candidate Hillary Clinton? How about Presidential Candidate Clinton and VP Barack Obama? That seems to be the dream team scenario one way or the other. If they can do this one thing I believe that, either way, they can take the White House in no uncertain terms. The people want the team. It’s a question asked over and over during the campaign. It’s been a question without a definitive answer… (that would be presumptive, so they say).

God help us if the winner doesn’t use the other as their running mate. I can’t imagine anyone else that could fire the imagination of the country more than these two have. If Hillary pulls a coup and doesn’t take Barack it will more than a slap in the face (I can’t imagine it happening). If Barack sustains the nomination and doesn’t take Hillary there will be a massive slide of people either staying home or voting for (dare I say it?)…. er… John McBush… uh.. McCain. Now THAT’s a scenario that scares me.

J

Here’s some stuff that has happened since my post
Hillary’s concession speech

The Kids are Alright

Well, we did it.

Finally. Now it’s 2008 and we have a Viable Candidate for President who is a man of African descent. Now, integration began in the fifties and sixties with the likes of Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Voting Rights, School integration, and the death of Jim Crow laws.

In the swell of action during those times I can remember few images that so captivated me as the one taken in Boston during the busing demonstrations. A well dressed black man was being held by another man, who was white… the black guy’s arms were behind his back he struggled to free himself. Another man… obviously trying to keep segregation alive in Boston… used the American Flag… secured to a long pole… to spear the helpless man. The image of that man, held in battle… the flag, not hanging, but in full speed, trailing like the wake of a yacht as the staff sought its mark… made me cringe to think this is how people treated others, whatever their race or background.

A great deal has happened since then. Integration has worked. It has been Fifty-plus years since the Brown vs. the Board of Education and our society is more diverse than ever before. Just look around at the twenty and thirty-somethings. Our images, our jobs, our entertainment, our society… show more diversity than ever before and a more relaxed attitude toward those from other backgrounds. And although we are still plagued with social evils of crime, gangs, drug addiction, crooked politicians, poverty, racism, war, and other ills, our society is more open to the various peoples that make up our Union.

This is a good thing. We cannot just ignore the rest of the world. The American ideals of the 1950s – a homogeneous society with a chicken in every pot and a Ford in every garage – just didn’t work for everyone. It still doesn’t.

Even in this time of great uncertainty, I have great optimism. The last seven or eight years have been a fearful, unsettling, and worrisome time for America. We’ve lashed out, made enemies, alienated friends, and shown the world that we are incapable of unilaterally being the world’s police force. This “me-first”, Cowboy Idealism has not served the American people. That is not who we are. We are better than that. Oh… yes we are.

Let us return to being a ‘city on a hill’ whose light cannot be hid. A nation to be emulated. That would be good.

Later all,

Rocket

Truth Justice and the American Way

So… The common standard is that you can’t talk about Religion with people – can’t talk about POLITICS with people. It’s not polite.

What the hell else is there to talk about? Sports??? Britney-freakin-Spears? What is more important than Truth and Politics??

But you have to be Polite. At least that’s what we were told. What? Can’t people be polite when they talk about Politics? What a crock.

I’m really sick of people… petty people. They want to know (for 45 minutes) if Barack Obama is Patriotic (I guess). Does he keep in the right circles? Does he know whom he’s dealing with? Is he American enough to be President… Does he wear a freakin PIN??? What a CROCK I say again.

I guess that’s politics tho… it’s always been that way… The Test, I mean. “If he can’t stand the campaign, how in the hell will he weather the Presidency?” This ain’t no picnic he’d be heading up. No church social, this.

But what good is it to America if we can’t talk about Religion, Race, and Politics without getting sore at one another. We need desperately to find our common ground. I say, we need it desperately. Hate, threats, and “49% vs. 51%” do not make for a good Union.

NEXT

The TOP TEN LIST – I’ve been reading The Secret. “We create our lives,” says Rhonda Byrne, its author. (You’ll find I have a deep thread of cynicism with the ‘you can have it all’ types)

The problem is I LIKE the book. I believe it, really. And I’m changing the way I feel about abundance, happiness, wealth, and reality.

Can we actually… Do we actually create our own Reality?? Do I actually have no money BECAUSE I think thoughts of never having enough money? Do I actually create CREATE money out of nothing by BELIEVING in it?

Happiness? Success? Friendship? Love? FAMILY?

I dunno (there’s that damned cynic again).

I do believe… and have seen… how we can claim things and you go on and get them. I have about 12 cases of that stuff happening in my ‘Christian’ experience. So it’s not just a crock, like a snake oil salesman in a bad bowler hat. Been there, done that.

But I have seen how one… anyone… can create your own reality by changing what you DO.

“I want to have friends. I want to do things with these friends.” So volunteer – museum, library, theatre, river cleanup, peace coalition, writers room… stay connected – call people, write them. List their addresses make the effort. DO. There is no ‘try’. Then you will have friends. Get off your ass. That’s the Secret.

WelL, I guess that’s all for now. Later.

Rocket

A Church Family

% “It’s a far far better thing that I do than I have ever done.”

What a day.

I’d wake up in Bath. Eat a breakfast downstairs, and get a ride to the church. Wednesday nights were midweek services, Sunday was early church and night service. Then the after service rap (although I don’t think they were called that, just “after service fellowship” or something.) I think.. now I think… it was at Lou K’s that we met on a regular basis. It could have been only once.. but by this time I really knew I wanted to stay. It was the night that Miriam’s brother Rob sang.

There were about 30+ people and two coffee urns… not coffee pots, oh no, 2 coffee URNS, big suckers – one with high test and the other with hot water for tea. We gathered in the living room, spilling out toward the kitchen… not a space was left to walk in because of people sitting on the floor… and Rob sang his own music, beautiful, melodic… worship was great. But Pr.Stevens was still too revered. I became used to the idea that everyone viewed Stevens as the reason the church even existed, because of his preaching, his anointing (yeah, sure, whatever…) and his dedication.

Dedicated he was. He had one thing he wanted to do, Build a big church for… I still don’t know how to call Him, The Lord… i.e. “The One Who Is” (my words, my terminology)… Carl wanted to build a church for Jesus, where the Bible was central, where people were fervent, where anyone and everyone who wasn’t part of The Group became targets for the salvation message. He was always fond of saying that he knocked, personally mind you, on every door in Wiscasset until they were really sick of him. You’d be sick of him, too.

“I’ll knock on their door ten times, if that’s what it takes, because it might be that tenth time that their hearts will be softened to word of God.”

Back then I believed that witnessing, preaching, evangelism about the saving grace of Jesus was the core focus of one’s life… evangelism gave everyone around you the ability to choose or not choose Jesus and that beyond that decision all the other things in life were just window dressing.

Career? What greater or more important career is there than making sure everyone knows about heaven and hell?

Family? My family is those that believe the word of God and obey it. (yeah… okay… BS maximus… )

Education? What is more important to learn than the Bible? It should give us answers on how to live. All man’s education can give us is… the ability to be more worldly. (just forget about thinking critically and being prepared for life) “Bible College is the highest form of education.” (a standard Stevens mantra)

Savings? A House? A decent wage? What?… Are you going to live for all these carnal things when the world is going to hell? What kind of a Christian would you be then?

“Don’t get a savings account. I don’t have a savings account.” (Carl actually said that in a message or rap.. yes, he did…The Putz).

Yeah dude.. and look at all these loving people… What we need is a place where everyone can live together. Everyone spends so much time together already… wouldn’t it be wonderful instead of just talking “Corporate Body talk” if we could actually live together as a Body… wouldn’t it be cool….

Tune in next time, kids, when we hear The Duke of Dallas say… “By Gosh, Angie, I didn’t think it would be THAT big!”

My Introduction to Biblical Recall

In this case, my case…It was a particularly cold and sunny day…

When, I had finally decided that I wanted to go to some sort of generic liberal arts/bible college… I had prayed, specifically, that I wanted to know God’s word, and this one day I spent all afternoon writing to a dozen or more colleges. That night, I go with my friends, acquaintences really, to a local bible study in Framingham, the town where I lived. They, in turn, had been invited by another, retired lady. Well, here was this guy, Pastor Stevens preaching, not in a house in someone’s living room, but in an auditorium with about 50-70 people in attendance. It was a little more than your average neighborhood-three-people-and-a-youth-pastor and it was… incredible. He could quote the stuff off the top of his head verbatim (or so I thought – sometimes he gets it right and sometimes, not so much – but I digress )

It was pretty cool.

I got invited to the after-fellowship deal.. cool – hit a neighbors house… grab some fellowship and chips… but the neighbor was in Lowell, MA. We dropped off my friends.. acquaintances really… and the old lady and I headed north on I-495.

“The Band was out”… well, there wasn’t a band, but the microphones sure did appear. Pastor started talking and there must have been four or five people recording this guy. This is 1972? 73? We had a fellowship, folks sitting around, drinking coffee… about 20 or so people. then some of the regulars, kids like me… some a bit older, I was 19… they start telling me about the signs, the raising of the dead… oh.. and they have a bible college. Seems my prayers were, indeed, Answered.

Well, I’ll just have to check this out.

“You could come back with us.”

“Where?”

“Woolwich-Wiscasset… Maine. You could stay in the dorm in Bath overnight and see the school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I guess I could… check it out.”

So I hopped in a station wagon driven by Lou K. Sr. (Louie and Phil were still in high school, and junior high I think), his wife Miriam, and 3 or 4 other people and away we went.

I stayed that night in the boys dorm over Chute’s Bakery. It was inhabited by the likes of Joel and Steve, Jim F. might have been there, Marty O. was I think… all long haired hippie types. I felt at home, it all looked cool, a little loose and plenty of excitement.

It was late when we bunked but we were up bright and early the next morning. “You can eat downstairs you want. Poppa Chute will run you a tab and you can pay him when you get some money.”

Yes, indeed, it WAS true. The Bakery was just up the hill from the Iron Works and around the corner from the church where services were held. It had a few booths or tables and with a smile and generous attitude, Poppa Chute whipped us up whatever we wanted. Eggs, bacon, texas toast… his place was some of the best eatin’ I’ve ever had. And just the pleasure of the people who really seemed to care about you. They were a giving bunch of people as I’d ever seen.

We hopped in a car after breakfast and headed for the school. I’m thinking something like 3 or 4 buildings with lots of classrooms, a campus with trees and walkways… a real school atmosphere. We pull up into a large parking lot where a big church is on one side and a small office building on the other. “Well, we can’t use the church on account of it’s been gutted by fire. A guy was mad that his wife was coming to church, so he set it on fire.”

“Oh, yeah, bummer.”

“So we have classes in the basement of the office.”

I can’t remember the name of the first class of the morning. It was “Corporate Body” or some regular TBS doctrinal stuff. The class was taught by Stevens usually, only he was away and Dean Dan taught in his place.

Dave and Sandy B. were there, Bobby O. Steve Q., Joy O., I think.. Mosher, and Norwood, he might have been there too… Lisa and Tom WAY before they got married. All in all it was about 20-25 people. I think Lou K. Sr attended too. It was the second semester of Bible college, the thing was just starting up.

After the second or third class I went up and saw the Dean. He was in this tiny office with the paneled walls.

“I really think I’d like to come to school.”

Well, he showed me the paperwork, and told me I could sign up today and pay it off in time when I got work and had some money. Until then I was welcome to stay at the dorm and eat at the Chute’s Bakery as well.

“Welcome to Northeast School of the Bible.”