Summer Vacation at Theo Lacy

SUMMER VACATION AT THEO LACY

My idea of the perfect summer vacation destination was not Theo Lacy Correctional Facility. I should be somewhere to get relief from the heat and boredom. Swimming pool. Beach resort. Even somewhere with air conditioning. My three-month stay is the result of local law enforcement finding a few roaches in my car's ash tray. The prosecutor kept continuing my trial until late May. When I was finally sentenced to three-months of county time, it was almost June. That meant I wouldn't be released until late August, even with time reduced for good time and work time. Work time is for spending six days a week at the Sheriff's Firing Range doing grounds maintenance and raking up lead from behind the targets. Good time is a day off for each month I don't cause trouble. I believe the timing of my sentence was intentional, as the authorities want to keep us long-haired freaks out of the public view while the so-called normal folk are spending their week or two summer vacations at the Orange County beaches and camp grounds while they escape from their work and school life. Keep the undesirable element out of sight.

I don't complain too much. I know I'm here because of my own doings. Did the crime so I have to do the time. I look forward, though, to my next summer vacation. I had been planning to spend this one with my friends Kevin and Chip through-hiking the Sierra Nevada trails with stops at Stevenson Falls, Eagle Lake and Yosemite. Then hitchhiking back down the coast, stopping for few days in San Francisco to visit friends and then a few more at Big Sur, camping on the beach, I try not to think too much about what Kevin and Chip are up to as I want to keep my head in a good place. One benefit of my current accommodations is I've developed a daily meditation and yoga practice. A few of us meet every evening before chow to sit quietly and meditate. Charlie, who's here for a non-support conviction teaches yoga on the outside. He's helping us get into head stands and downward dog positions. It really helps keep our minds calm in this otherwise hectic environment.

My friends John and Ray are going back to where they're from for the summer to make their friends jealous, telling them about living in California with the hippies and surfers. They'll be big shots among their peers with all their stories. Big fish in that small suburban pond. Probably recruit a few of them to come back to SoCal with them when summer of over. Ray had come out west last fell after talking one of his friends into driving from Florida to California. Guy stayed a month and went back his old familiar setting. Ray stayed an made a living selling grass to the weekend hippies who came to Laguna to score and party, putting their mundane work or school lives on hold for the weekend. Should be easy for John and Ray to find rides back in the fall since California is Mecca to the youth culture of the country.

My friend Jerry the Boxer has his summer plans. Jerry is from Chicago. He was boxing in Gold Glove circles and making a name for himself. He met a girl at a Howlin' Wolf concert who was into blues music and the peace and love movement. After moving in with her and getting into her scene, he became aware that his involvement in boxing was a form of violence. He stopped going to the gym and put his thumb out for destination California beaches. He ended up in Laguna Beach and we became friends. Jerry is spending the summer in Santa Barbara at a commune where he'll be helping other young travelers learn how to meditate and live in peace. Good luck with that, Jerry. Hope to see you in September. Jerry and I also became room mates and shared rent on a cottage at Top of the World. Folks who own the place said we could come back when tourist season ends. If Jerry doesn't make it back, a few other friends said they'd split the rent with me.'

Crazy Horse is staying in Laguna for the summer. He established a house-painting business that does pretty well. He hires local vagabonds when he gets a job and supervises to make sure they do good work to keep his customers happy. Most of his business is from references from his satisfied customers. I worked for him a few times but I prefer the consistent and less stressful work at the local car wash. Only a few of us know Crazy Horse's real name, Heschel Rourke. I only know because we got hassled by the cops a few times and had to show them our ID's. When he came to town, wearing a full buckskin outfit, someone asked him if he was Crazy Horse. He said yes and that's who he was from then on. People come to town with actual first and last names but end up with a new name that matches that their appearance or personality quirks. Around town I'm know as Redbeard. It'll take me some time after I get out to reclaim my persona.

First stop on my Theo Lacy vacation saga was to exchange my civilian clothes and possessions for dungarees and a denim shirt with Orange County Jail stenciled on the back. Next stop on my tour of the facilities was the barber shop where my strawberry-blonde, shoulder length locks were shorn into a mandated buzz-cut. Here at Theo Lacy, our appearances conform to the standards set by the whims of the County Commissioners. No long hairs at Theo Lacy. It will take months when I get out to grow my hair back to let my freak flag fly.

With my less than dangerous criminal classification, I was housed in one of the multiple-bunk dormitories designed for those of us doing county time. Sentences less than one year are spent in the county jail. Longer than one-year sentences result in state prison time. Those more dangerous inmates are housed in a separate section while they wait to see which institution they'll they'll be residing in for the next couple of years or so. This segregation is made to allegedly protect inmates and staff, but I think it is more about keeping us from having contact with each other. Inmates rights groups are forming in many prisons around the country. They are discouraged at Theo Lacy. The trials of Black Panthers are also going on at this time. There has been a lot of support to free Bobby Seale and other Panthers among the prison populations around the country. Public support has also been happening. Anyone associated with the Panthers is housed in segregated facilities. It looks like this includes many black faces with no evidence of gang affiliation. We hear news of their exploits from visitors who keep us informed of goings on in the outside world.

It's almost July 4th and the heat index is in the upper 90's on a daily basis. While southern California summers are typically hot and dry, this year the humidity levels are oppressive to say the least. The only air conditioners at Theo Lacy are in the administration offices. My work detail at the firing range has me working outdoors all day. No shade. No respite from the sun beating down. Not sure what kind of job training I'm getting from raking lead and melting it down in a smelter to make more bullets will provide. What kind of career will that help me to get? Who am I going to make bullets for, the Black Panthers? Guess I'll go back to my old job at the Laguna Car Wash. I got written up here last week for taking my shirt off to catch a few rays, make it look I got a tan on my summer vacation. Against the rules, they said, even though I was never informed about the rules until they were broken. Hope it doesn't affect my good time. If it doesn't, I'll have three days shaved from my sentence, a reduction of a day for each month I here without causing trouble. Not much trouble to get into with cameras in every corner of the joint. I counted a dozen or so around the barracks but I probably missed a few. They even have cameras in the john. There are fights every so often, that cause the bulls to come running out with night sticks drawn. Couple of guys got into a shoving and shouting match a few days ago. Got more injured from the cops breaking it up than they did from each other in the scuffle. No good time for those guys.

Maybe next year I'll stay in Laguna Beach for the summer. During the off-season, we live there while rents are affordable. Then they triple when the tourists arrive and most of us leave for the summer and come back in the fall when rents drop back down to off season rates. The powers that be will probably find a way to keep my ilk from staying there, though. Probably try to find a way for us to spend the summer vacation at Theo Lacy. Afraid we'll pan handle, hassle the tourists, hit on their daughters and conduct a generally unruly behavior. Actually, Laguna is known for its off-beat character. There are so few actual hippies in town now that the tourist have a hard time finding one to aim their cameras at. Think I'd prefer to find somewhere else for my next summer vacation. Maybe Haight Ashbury or Greenwich Village or somewhere it isn't against the law to have long hair and wear tie dyes.

I'm glad I won't be going back to school in the fall and have to write the obligatory essay about my summer vacation. This is one I'd like to forget. Summer vacation at Theo Lacy isn't my idea of a story I'd like to write about (even though that's what I'm doing now). This vacation is worse than all the ones while I was growing up, traveling to visit one or the other of my parents relatives and calling that a vacation. The last couple of trips were especially confrontational as I had become part of the counter culture. I was ridiculed for my long hair and becoming a hippie. I was called a Communist and accused of all sorts of activity. Drug use. Free love. Left-wing politics. Practices offensive to my relative's conservative values on both sides of the family. some of my cousins were interested in my exploits, bringing wrath to the adults, including my parents. Not my fault the younger generation was not intrigued with the status quo and what was expected of them. Theo Lacy doesn't seem all that bad in comparison. At least here I'm with like minded people who share my values. But I don't think I'll plan a repeat vacation here if I can help it. My Trip Advisor review will probably not get published.