It’s just a truck i suppose, a mass of steel and glass from which an accumulation of greenish mildew and brown water stains trickling and etched from rusted hard-used overhead racks are scrubbed fairly clean and each year upon return from Upper Peninsula. But never right away. There is enough readjustment here in this Deep South of solitary intense humidity, year round vagrant drifting of leaves to the earth, startling deluges of pounding water and vicious random lightening claps exploding inside head in time to their flash, to fathom, re-adjust both physically and emotionally a steady recalibration which also considers the romanticising of passions which can sometimes in their hyperbolic scope over-reach the harsher realities of losing a step or two on the elongated path of Time. The painful if somewhat clarifying self-awareness that some people take up more space in our own heads than we do in theirs is just one thing to be wary of with an over-heated imagination. I am ok with that now if still wary. Rejection for those who have experienced its searching, searing and ecstatic opposite and often enough resonates more powerfully, the echo of an explosion in a confined space shattering the protected solitary silences Yet still we acclimate, our eardrums adapt.
As per usual so many topics rambling around in head and heart and a back story too complex and demanding in its self-absorption concerning the truck and our mutual history, how i purchased it in Vermont barely used and at 40 climbing out of a steep ravine of misery paid it off within 2 years of concerted labor. A time i had allowed the legal system to continue the control a woman had already exerted on my life and i am not blameless there. When i won my parole after 30 days in jail and serving a few months of house arrest on a one year sentence of'“violation of probation” and this all playing out over a one year period in during which the office of probation and parole in Barre had become a secondary if humiliating home where i never gave into the demands of admitting to be an alcoholic or needing anger control but played along as if in a trance, outside myself. I had ceased writing the weekly humor column i had enjoyed scribing for a local paper around my carpentry work, wry amusing anecdotes of small town life until i found the calmness to write one final one in contemplation of all that had happened.
I hadn’t quite shed myself of the justice system and may have been wary but said what the hell.
I guess no one was too perturbed by it as there it was on my final visit to probation and parole office thumbtacked onto the bulletin board for employees. It was redemption of a sort, this nod, and i walked out to the truck with a certain jauntiness in my step even as i sensed there were a shitload of doings ahead. For sure.
Hardwick Gazette September 1997
Jest Pickin’
by Appleton King
Unforgiven
To explain briefly: Jest Pickin’ apologizes for his absence in these pages for awhile but understands entirely if nobody much cared one way or another. Jest Pickin’ can relate to those kind of feelings. It’s a tough world out there and to survive you had better get a thick skin, a little faith and someone to curl up next to for the winter. Those are the facts of life here in the Great White North, that and the assurance that work will taper off around deer season.
Either Jest Pickin’ was making more money elsewhere or was doing some time in the “Big House”. I’ll make it easy for you; Jest Pickin’ wasn’t making alot of money elsewhere.
In light of the fact that three out of 100 Americans or currently on parole, probation or in jail and the number is increasing almost as fast as the new laws to put them there a glossary of terms concerning “Corrections” may be in order here. Probably not a wise idea considering Jest Pickin’ is currently on parole but no one ever accused him of being shy to express his own opinion or of making great decisions.
To cover my , uh, rear end, let me jest say that the Vermont Department of Corrections and the many fine women and men that work for it DOES exist for a reason even if at times it may appear that reason is to MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL!!!
~~~N.E.R.C.F. : These initials stand for “Northeast Regional Correctional Facility”. Advantages: free room and board, easy to address mail to, ongoing tattoo clinics. Disadvantages: people listen in on your phone calls, mediocre cuisine, obstructed views from few and tiny barred windows. Does not honor major credit cards in favor of cigarettes. Definitely does not honor “snitches”.
~~~the Duck Walk: Anyone who has ever endured this humiliating contorted parade-shuffle into court in front of friends deeply horrified by your predicament can relate to this description.
~~~Doing Your Own Time.: In jail you try not ask people too many personal questions. First of all you may not REALLY want to know the answers and second and most importantly a guy who has been there 2 years waiting for a hearing and lifts weights 3 hours a day may not REALLY want to be bothered by them if you catch my drift….
~~~Hotel 1 or H-1: In jail the units are named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc. as if you were preparing to storm a Normandy beach-head defended by Rommel’s Africa Corps rather than lining up for meds or oatmeal and powdered eggs. Hotel is out front at entry the cell where after booking they hold you communally to wait for an immunising shot to take effect while you contemplate your own deplorable fate and overhear the guards gossiping and grumbling about not getting enough overtime. The cell doors clang open and shut constantly and the overhead lights never go out.
~~~Lock In. About 5 times a day a headcount is made of all inmates requiring them to return to their cells interrupting alot of card games and TV not surprisingly the most popular of which are “911” and
~~~~the Scrambled Channel: with clever manipulation by more experienced inmates the rabbit ears of black and white cable channel can be manipulated enough to tune into a distorted porn feed which features an incoherent faintly recognisable array pf splayed and naked body parts but none of them where you might expect them to find them in relation to each other,
~~~Ninja Turtles: a half dozen guards decked out in black body armour with helmets shields and shinguards trailed by another guard filming with a video camera the subduing of a 140 pound inmate in the isolation unit who is slamming his bars repeatedly and refusing to put clothes on.
~~~Day For Day: Usually you can get one day of credit for the bulk of sentence for every day of time served. Inmates who weren’t originally good at math become experts in a hurry.
~~~Max Date: This is the most frequently uttered phrase in jail aside from “what are you gonna do throw me in jail!!?” referring to the possibility of shedding the legal system’s insidious insinuation in your life by serving out the full term. Many prefer to “max out” their sentences rather than to serve time on
~~~~House Arrest or Furlough: The good part is you can cook your own food. The bad part is a spot urinalysis test may reveal someone ummmm put drugs or alcohol in it. Must have!!! Great for people with high tolerances of paranoia.
~~~FSU or Field Supervision Unit: they drive around in jeeps which look likemthey belong tom an El Salvadoran death squad and administer the urinalysis tests and if you aren’t where you are supposed to be its back in the slammer.
~~~Work Camp: compared to the rest of the jail this is like Club Med although with precious little jet-ski instruction.
~~~V.O.P.: never could quite get this one straight as it could mean either violation of probation and incur anything from a slap on the wrist to jail time or violent offender program for which i don’t believe college credits are handed out but plenty of highly suspect “aspirin”.
~~~P.O. no this isn’t the place you pick up your mail. Your probation officer is there to guide you like Dante through the concentric rings of Correction Hell. At times he or she may need to make a pleasant but ohhh so firm “emergency arrest” at which time you may need a
~~~Public Pretender: Many inmates feel that public defenders don’t quite measure up to say the quality of lawyers who defended O.J. Then again their bank balances and focussed attentions don’t either.
~~~Pro Se: but in all that anyone can tell you “he whom represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer”
So that was weird. Came out of nowhere. You’ll have that. On these big jobs. Ha.
Apple, a blast from the past! Rad!
“The painful if somewhat clarifying self-awareness that some people take up more space in our own heads than we do in theirs is just one thing to be wary of with an over-heated imagination.” — you’re in my head. How awkward lol
haha i beg to differ
plus i planted seed by sending you books written by people who tolerate me 🤪