Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ted Trumble, a Skid Row professor, goes home





It has indeed been a big day. It started out at 10:00AM. I rushed to the Transition House to say good bye to Ted Trumble. That is Ted in the two pictures.
The third is a mountain shot that I took. Ted is going back to the mountains today.

He arrived at the Transition House a month after I did. He was charged with a similar offense. However, they made his a misdemeanor. He had a great public defender. She fought for him. That is not a given in today's public defender office. On Skid Row, they are known as "Public Pretenders".

Ted tried to take care of his dad as best he could. The one thing he could not do was force his dad to change positions or go take a shower. His dad just wanted to lay comfortably. Some officials noticed bed soars and they charged Ted with a neglect offense. I would like to know how one is suppose to force an adult, albeit it an elderly adult, to do something they do not want to do.

I remember my sister writing me in jail. She told me that she had to lie to our mother to get her to see the doctor. She tricked her. I could not do that because I did not have a car.

Anyway, they court sentenced him to a year at a program or something. He did not have to go back to court. He was one of the few that spent dam near a year. Others are gone within 60 days. They are the drug sellers who say they have a drug problem and are given prop 36.

Ted arrived a month after I did and he and I were close from the start. He was known as the gentle giant. He loved working in the kitchen and would do anything for anybody.

He let me use his library card so I could study journalism. Every knows how much of a news fanatic I am. Even down here my nick name is Walter Conkrite or Walter Concrete, depending with whom I am talking.

I had the idea I was going to work for a news station. I would sit in that guard shack everyday and watch news from 8 in the morning until 8 at night. Ted volunteered for the kitchen and I volunteered for the guard shack. I did anything I could to find some peace and quiet. Ray, another friend in our aisle, took over the receptionist desk. Between the three of us, Rory, the program director, said he did not have to worry about anything. We handled everything.

I took out 7 books about broadcast news. The first one I studied was
the Associated Press--Broadcast News. The second one was the history of television news broadcasting in Washington. I studied the history of radio and television. I studied how those two mediums impacted the presidential elections and politics in general.

I took voluminous notes. I outlined every chapter. I started where I left off before all of this started because I trained and studied at the same time.

I went from those books to studing video production. I checked out anything the Los Angeles Library had available. Ted would check on me and mad sure I studied and made sure I was writing.

He is very much responsible for the creation of this blog and my blogging career.
Before he Christmas, Ted had to go to the hospital. Subsequently, he had to get his toes amputated. He is ok now. I am glad that I had a chance to get to know him.

Ted taught me alot about duty and doing things the right way. He spent dam near a whole year in the Transition House for something he did not do.

Now he is on his way home. Probably there now. He has this cabin in the mountains in Saugus. His cabin is next door to the cabin that was once owned by the famous acress Mary Pickford.

With Ted gone, it closes a chapter. I met him when I was in severe pain. Ted taught me how to make the best of things and to continue to learn. He said he had no anomosity for having to spend a year down here.
When someone went home a few weeks ago, I remember I was happy for him but I was sad and depressed that I was being left behind. I did not feel that today.

I feel today started a new beginning. It has been brewing for some time but with Ted leaving, it marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. I left Ted and toured Downtown Los Angeles. I tooke over 100 pictures of Downtown los Angeles.

Godspeed Ted. You said you learned alot but Skid Row learned alot from you.

1 comment:

Dallas Cowboys said...

Walter Concrete, now we need to get you home. Did you tell Paul to call me?

Keep your head up!