The Guy With The Tear Drop Tattoo

Let's make a long story short.

First,

I have mentioned before that I used to drink alcohol.

I'm not going to say I regret what I did,

because I believe if you regret things in life,

it eats away at you,

and you become afraid of living.

What I am going to say is,

I did make a lot of mistakes while drinking

and I've learned from it.

One mistake I made was the day I was busted for a
DUI,

here in
California.

Actually,
at the time I was arrested,

it is not as bad as it is now.

Now,
you automatically receive a
30 Day Suspension
of your license,

and depending on how drunk you were,

you could be spending your weekends picking up garbage.
Either at the side of the

Highway,

or at the
City Dump.

Yes the
City Dump.

Because,
they didn't want debris flying out of the dump into neighboring neighborhoods!

I had to do weekends:(

One the very first day,

you drive to a designated spot,

where there are about 20 other people waiting.

Then everyone hops onto a
Prison Bus,

and you are taken to the
City Dump.

I had the good fortune,

or should I say the misfortune,
of being one of two white guys on the bus.

And we were the oldest members on the bus.

On that first day,
on the bus,

I was being harassed from a guy who had a
Tear Drop Tattoo.

He was throwing ice at the back of my head,

with him
and his buddies laughing.

I know,

it sounds childish,

but they all had enough
Gang Sign Tattoos
that I knew I was outclassed,
as far as fighting them off,
if it came down to it.

But a stroke of luck came my way.

You see,

we don't all start on the same day.

Some of these guys have been doing weekends for awhile.

One guy had three years,

of doing weekends!

The old timers get to drive their own cars to the dump,

so when we got their,

our total reached about 30 people.

Did you ever noticed how,

no matter what situation you are in,

their always seems to be a leader of the group your with?

Just before roll call,

the person that everyone respected,

because I believe he was their the longest,

came up to me,

and after doing all the gang handshakes with everyone else,

was just about to do the same with me,

when I said,

"Hi, I'm a white guy."

And I gave him the classic white guy handshake.

Everyone burst out laughing,

including the leader,

and he said,

"That was sweet."

From that day forward I was known as

"Sweet"

from all these guys

and was considered one of the bunch.

I actually got to talk to a lot of them.

They were really surprised that I wasn't some
Snobby Rich White Guy.

And a lot of the problems they were having raising a family,

were the same problems I was having.

I became friends with some of them,

as far as

Weekend Prison Worker Frindships

are concerned.

And to this day,

15 years later

(or more, I'm not sure),

I still talk to one of those guys

and I consider him a good friend!

This is,

I Will Always Be Friends With Mark,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter.”

- Nicholas Sparks, -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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