1979

Monument Square, Portland Maine

  At the beginning of the year I started school at Casco Bay College to study accounting, I was doing very well, and drinking was decreased (for now).  I didn't make it through the year in good stead though, and by early fall, or late summer, was drunk and living on the street.  I had my Navy pension and that was enough either for a room or for drinking - it wasn't enough for both - I chose the drinking.  I lived in a field by the railroad tracks in the warmer part, and at an abandoned house in the "Old Port" district when winter came, I sometimes wonder how I made it without freezing.  As the year was winding down a guy named Floyd Jameson (who is now my brother) said I could stay at his place, so I was there for quite a while.  We met while drinking at our favorite hangout, The Westfield Inn, actually I got a job as the night desk person for the "hotel" part and moved there.  My children had been sent by Betty to live with me, they stayed with my parents for a while, but soon I had to collect them up and take care of them myself.  Jeff stayed with me at the hotel, and Rhonda was helped out by the waitress, who had some kids about the same age.  I remember one day I was drunk and was going to buy a toy for Rhonda and fell down onto a cars bumper (it was parked), I cut my chin and they lugged me off in an ambulance to the emergency room, I bought the toy later.

Cross Street in the Old Port had an abandoned house, and some wide doorways.

Sleeping in the field (that's not me, the clothes are too clean!

The Westfield Inn was sold and redone it's now the Inn at Saint John (for St. John St. nearby)