Day 39 - 7/31/21 - Sat.
- mainemoviepirate
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Journal Entry:
“I was awake at 5 AM, had an HLR drink, kind of overdid the ‘spices.’ Moderation—that part is like gold here. To me, anyway. I’ll get it right. Mom is the only one who responded to the email. Steve may or may not be on vacation. I'm trying to make this a full productive day even though I’m in here. Cut back on the naps; push through the depression of missing the ‘Old World,’ do a f*ck-load of writing, somehow.
BREAKFAST: Some kind of cream of wheat/rice, a lemon roll. Ate most of it. Took another nap after saying I was going to cut back. I’m in the library now, going to try to work on Walking Distance. Got some done. I’ve wrote it in out-of-sequence sections, so I should be able to piece it together in a few days.
BRUNCH: Scrambled eggs, tater tots. I had two wraps because CC gave me one. I was going to save it but mowed it instead.
After brunch, went outside, did two laps, more later maybe. Read my The Factory book, hung out with the ‘white supremacy crowd’ (kidding). H.I. was there too. Lol.
SUPPER: Roast beast chunks, gravy, potatoes, mixed veggies. Gave my bread to CC. What the heck, I don’t have any PB anyway.
Thinking of doing more laps; it’s really beautiful outside. Let’s see what happens. Saw a cool wishin’ rock on my way in; let’s try that one. Did four laps total. Five tomorrow.”
Notes for Day 39 (Four Years Later)
I was really trying to get into a daily writing habit. Working on the Prison Journal (PJ) was easy, just recording what was happening, random thoughts, and ideas. Writing something more involved, like a cohesive structured story or, later on, legal documents (which is really just another form of storytelling), was very difficult in the early days of Camp Devens.
The White Supremacy joke was created by the other inmates. Outside were several picnic tables. There was one that was a favorite, as it sat under a tree and was situated where the occupants could see the track, ballfield, and the front of the camp—basically the entire compound. You could also see part of the actual prison as a reminder of where we didn’t want to be. The same group sat there every night. And yes, they were mostly white. That wasn’t some hard-and-fast prison racist rule; it just happened to be the way it happened.
The other inmates called it the ‘White Supremacy’ table, but the reality is, I considered it to be H.I.’s table. Not because of his race (he was non-white), but because of his size. And if he didn’t want you sitting there, you didn’t sit there.
