Wapsi Square Forum

Sgt. Howard wrote:She had a look that pretty much said "I'm tired of living,"

Aaagggg... ... this is something which has happened too damned many times. Once would be too many times.

Last Sunday, Gwen and I went over to the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto to see a concert by Suzanne Vega... just her and her one guitar, no backing band, no other instrumentation. She needed nothing else. Wonderful, amazing, glad we didn't miss it.

She ended the main part of her concert with what will always be her best-known song: "Luka"

I can't remember just where I was when I heard it first... but I do remember it made me tear up then, and it still does.

"I got thousands of letters... telling me about their own experiences..."

It's times like that that one is grateful that the gene donors (for parents they are not) are probably in jail or on the run so that one is saved the necessity of explaining to them the error of their ways.

The problem with doing that, of course, is that they might (in the cliche London housemaid's phrase) "come to pieces in me 'and" and then there's all that tedious explaining to do.

Sgt. Howard wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Though i'm sure this won't go anywhere near there, i have an image of a child with a thousand-yard stare, mumbling over and over, "Naughty girl ... must be punished ..."

I actually saw her- would have been June 1983, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
{real-life horror story snipped}

The original reference i was making is to the end of the final episode of the criminally short-lived horror/weird anthology TV series, Journey to the Unknown (produced by Hammer Films).

A truly creepy bir of psychological nastiness based on a truly creepy story by Charles Beaumont.

Here's the opening sequence from the series. Creepy.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Ya know, given her apparent age, while she might not appreciate the full horror of what's happened ... i can see her being terribly embarrassed and upset if she wets herself ... and that would be, really, more painful.

I'm having to make a pretty wild guess at ages, but I was probably at somewhere around the same age as Atsali when I lost my own family the first time. It's really hard to remember, partly because it was when I was so young and also because I'm pretty sure I was somewhat concussed at the time and somewhat in shock. Mainly I just remember everything seeming somewhat disconnected from the rest of my life, and being really confused as to what was going on and what I was supposed to be doing. I don't remember feeling upset about the situation beyond being worried about what I was supposed to be doing, and that feeling of not being upset is probably one of the things that was more upsetting to me looking back at it in later years. It was at least several days (or maybe longer, as time seemed all messed up) before things started seeming connected again.

FreeFlier wrote:

Dave wrote:"Potty training" usually means training to use the potty, not to use any conveniently-placed Ming vase that might be in the room.

Not the sort of thing you want to encourage in a small child, no . . .

Though even that can have unintended results: I recall one time when a little kid went up to a worker in a Lowe's hardware store and complained that the toilets didn't have any toilet paper. The kid had just wandered out of the section of the store with the displays of bathroom fixtures. Cue a "cleanup on aisle 9" announcement over the intercom.

"... and there's no handle to make the water run."

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Sgt. Howard wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Though i'm sure this won't go anywhere near there, i have an image of a child with a thousand-yard stare, mumbling over and over, "Naughty girl ... must be punished ..."

I actually saw her- would have been June 1983, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
{real-life horror story snipped}

There is a child and
She sleeps in the gutter
Don't close your eyes and
She's easy to see

She is not your child
She's always another's and
Those you abandon
They are left to me

*shiver*

I haven't run into that sort of situation yet... I kinda hope I never do - not because I don't want to deal with that sort of thing, but because I hope it doesn't happen in the first place.

I know it does. There's gotta be a few kids like that around my area... I don't like the fact that I haven't run across one and been able to help. Makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.

The whole thing makes my teeth itch.

[quote="GlytchMeister]There is a child and
She sleeps in the gutter
Don't close your eyes and
She's easy to see

She is not your child
She's always another's and
Those you abandon
They are left to me[/url]

*shiver*

I haven't run into that sort of situation yet... I kinda hope I never do - not because I don't want to deal with that sort of thing, but because I hope it doesn't happen in the first place.

I know it does. There's gotta be a few kids like that around my area... I don't like the fact that I haven't run across one and been able to help. Makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.

The whole thing makes my teeth itch.[/quote]

After we put the little girl back together, we got to meet 'Daddy Dearest'- he'd been gang-raped and shanked in prison. One of the little girl's Mother's relatives knew another prisoner and word got out. We put him back together four times- then didn't see him anymore. Doesn't do the little girl any good but it made me feel better...

Makes me feel better too...

If I met a kid like that, and then found the person responsible... I don't think I'd let myself handle it personally. I'd probably put someone else on that case, because I fear I'd cross some lines I don't wanna cross.

...I work with some of those.

GlytchMeister wrote: . . . The whole thing makes my teeth itch.

Makes the tip of my right index finger itch.

Sgt. Howard wrote:After we put the little girl back together, we got to meet 'Daddy Dearest'- he'd been gang-raped and shanked in prison. One of the little girl's Mother's relatives knew another prisoner and word got out. We put him back together four times- then didn't see him anymore. Doesn't do the little girl any good but it made me feel better...

That sort can be categorized in one of two categories . . . those who have been properly dealt with . . . and those who are still alive.

And I wouldn't count on it not helping . . . if she believes people, she knows he won't be back, and I'm told that usually helps.


It's my understanding that in prison, the only thing lower than a rapist is a child molester.

Neither does well in prison.

--FreeFlier

GlytchMeister wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Sgt. Howard wrote:
I actually saw her- would have been June 1983, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
{real-life horror story snipped}

There is a child and
She sleeps in the gutter
Don't close your eyes and
She's easy to see

She is not your child
She's always another's and
Those you abandon
They are left to me

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

Glytch, you mean that scene where the Hunters Shoot Bambi's Mom, don't you?

(Huh, seems I didn't send this when I thought I had...)

I'm stalling, you know, chasing links and posting comments on YouTube. I'm avoiding looking to see if the page is up yet...

FreeFlier wrote: That sort can be categorized in one of two categories . . . those who have been properly dealt with . . . and those who are still alive.

And I wouldn't count on it not helping . . . if she believes people, she knows he won't be back, and I'm told that usually helps.


It's my understanding that in prison, the only thing lower than a rapist is a child molester.

Neither does well in prison.

--FreeFlier

yea that is the truth, back when i was active duty we had a SSgt get court martialed for child molestion and sent to the military prison in Washington state. Just a few days after he got there he fought off several other prisoners and before the guards could get to him he took a swan dive off the railing on one of the upper floors onto a concrete floor, he did not survive.

oldmanmickey wrote:

FreeFlier wrote:That sort can be categorized in one of two categories . . . those who have been properly dealt with . . . and those who are still alive.

And I wouldn't count on it not helping . . . if she believes people, she knows he won't be back, and I'm told that usually helps.


It's my understanding that in prison, the only thing lower than a rapist is a child molester.

Neither does well in prison.

yea that is the truth, back when i was active duty we had a SSgt get court martialed for child molestion and sent to the military prison in Washington state. Just a few days after he got there he fought off several other prisoners and before the guards could get to him he took a swan dive off the railing on one of the upper floors onto a concrete floor, he did not survive.

Sounds like the prison staff wanted him dead too.

That's about the only reason to assign a child molester to an upper-tier cell.

And I didn't remember there being a military prison in Washington state . . . McNeil Island was a federal prison, but it was turned over the the state years ago then closed later.

--FreeFlier

TazManiac wrote:Glytch, you mean that scene where the Hunters Shoot Bambi's Mom, don't you?

(Huh, seems I didn't send this when I thought I had...)

I don't remember the Bambi movie. I know I've seen it, but as a wee kid I was much more into Lion King. That's the movie that stuck in my head.

FreeFlier wrote:

oldmanmickey wrote:

FreeFlier wrote:That sort can be categorized in one of two categories . . . those who have been properly dealt with . . . and those who are still alive.

And I wouldn't count on it not helping . . . if she believes people, she knows he won't be back, and I'm told that usually helps.


It's my understanding that in prison, the only thing lower than a rapist is a child molester.

Neither does well in prison.

yea that is the truth, back when i was active duty we had a SSgt get court martialed for child molestion and sent to the military prison in Washington state. Just a few days after he got there he fought off several other prisoners and before the guards could get to him he took a swan dive off the railing on one of the upper floors onto a concrete floor, he did not survive.

Sounds like the prison staff wanted him dead too.

That's about the only reason to assign a child molester to an upper-tier cell.

And I didn't remember there being a military prison in Washington state . . . McNeil Island was a federal prison, but it was turned over the the state years ago then closed later.

--FreeFlier

Fort Lewis, washington state. could not remimber the name yesterday. its still open i guess

oldmanmickey wrote:

FreeFlier wrote: . . . And I didn't remember there being a military prison in Washington state . . . McNeil Island was a federal prison, but it was turned over the the state years ago then closed later.

Fort Lewis, washington state. could not remimber the name yesterday. its still open i guess

Fort Lewis is now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord after being combined with McChord Air Force Base.

So that would have been the former Fort Lewis Regional Correction Facility, now known as the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility

I didn't know about the NJRCF . . . the AFB, the Logistics Center, I Corps and the other combat formations, the Yakima Training Center (formerly Yakima FIring Center) and the various minor units (vaguely - I knew there were some) and the adjacent Camp Murray, but not about the NJRCF.

I learn more every day.

--FreeFlier

FreeFlier wrote:

oldmanmickey wrote:

FreeFlier wrote: . . . And I didn't remember there being a military prison in Washington state . . . McNeil Island was a federal prison, but it was turned over the the state years ago then closed later.

Fort Lewis, washington state. could not remimber the name yesterday. its still open i guess

Fort Lewis is now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord after being combined with McChord Air Force Base.

So that would have been the former Fort Lewis Regional Correction Facility, now known as the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility

I didn't know about the NJRCF . . . the AFB, the Logistics Center, I Corps and the other combat formations, the Yakima Training Center (formerly Yakima FIring Center) and the various minor units (vaguely - I knew there were some) and the adjacent Camp Murray, but not about the NJRCF.

I learn more every day.

--FreeFlier

Then today is a good day, at lest anytime i learn something and this is new info for me its a good day.

I finally realized something that's bothering me: Atsali commented that her mom told her that she (mom) knew Atsali's father was the one when he was immune to her singing . . . if Atsali is a toddler when her mother died, why would her mother have been discussing that with Atsali, and how would Atsali remember it?

--FreeFlier