driving around my old haunts. i stop to look at horses galloping in a muddy field, the sound of hooves, the splatter of mud as it's thrown up, the breathe that escapes their nostrils, it's cold and misty, slightly perfect for the scene. i recall horse riding with my girlfriend when i was younger, we had two horses sparkle and sapphire. i met sarah in america.
having left university and getting a job with a fashion photographer in london i quickly became bored with the glamour and photographers assistant life. i was paid peanuts, had to set up all the shots and this guy would come in and press the shutter, then he would leave me to run down the lab and organise the printing. my days would finish so late i'd end up staying in the studio, i met a lot of people but fr the $ i was getting i felt some what exploited. also there was so much to the photographic industry that was business, not that much art at all. i wanted excitement and adventure and a war to document. one day in my lunch break i bought a one way ticket to the usa and packed a small bag and went off on a jack kerouac like adventure.. i ended up at newark new jersey which looked like an industrial waste land on the moon at the time, i managed to get a bus into NYC where i stayed at the Y hotel in times square, a hotel inhabited by transexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts and alcoholic poets. i liked it, the energy of NYC was wild, this was before they cleaned it up, a different city. there was an edge and a electricity that ran through the air, everything had an edge, i wandered around for a few days exploring the sights. i went up those twin towers, man they were amazing, really amazing. i roller skated through central park, bought a bag of green goddess from a rasta, they came in dime bags or nickel bags at that time. imagine that with the cost of inflation now.
i met a couple of girls wendy and adrieana whom seemed to adopt me, they paid for everything, gave me the keys to their home, a loan of a car, tennis lessons, took me out for dinner, to bars and clubs, we had a great time. i went to see gremlins with them, it was the first time it was showing in the cinema so it was quite an event, a premiere. i'd never been to one and never even heard of gremlins. before the movie we went to a bar and drunk about half a bottle of jack danials each, plus we'd smoked a dime bag and taken some quaaludes which all the young girls seemed to do in america, we were very very smashed.
i recall wanting to see zelig the woody allen film that was also opening instead but the girls insisted we would see gremlins. everything was fine till they pul a gremlin in a liquidizer, then i could feel the nausea.
oh what a night, the three of us absolutely trashed. i never saw the end of gremlins but we did go see zelig the following week which i loved but the girls didn't, in fact they almost got thrown out for flicking popcorn at the people below.
i was in a bar, late night drinking millar beer reading john fowles the magus. when a guy sits next to me, we start talking, chewing the fat and it turns out this guy, gene, runs a therapeutic agency based out in pennsylvania where inner city impoverished and disadvantaged kids get a taste of life in the country side and an adventure along with counselling, he employs about 70 staff and they work with these kids. take them camping, give them tennis lessons, go kayaking, water skiing, swimming, and run these therapy sessions where they get to talk about their personal issues. he asks me if i want a job as he has one vacancy driving speed boats for the water skiers.
'oh yeah i can do that.'
i say ever the opportunist.of course i have never been in a speed boat in my life before but i know it can't be to difficult. he offers to pay me cash, feed and accommodate me. writes an address down along side a date and time. asks me to show up pre camp so i can set up the site with the other staff.
i break the news to the girls who are not happy.
i have about three weeks before i need to be at round lake in pa so i potter around new york, smoking and exploring the place, the girls are withdrawing and i feel a bit sad but what the hell, they were beginning to give me a head ache. we did have a lot of fun though but i will never touch JD again.
i hitched down to the location, rocked up to the jetty where a few young guys were mucking around on the boats, i asked for a quick lesson in how to drive them, a guy with blond curly hair takes me out for a spin. we are travelling across this huge lake, i take the wheel and throttle. i get a feel for it, easy. we must be travelling at 70mph when he says what ever you do don't spin the wheel.and off course i do. the boat turns at a 90 degree angle and we both go flying, fortunately i have one hand on the wheel and correct it before we are thrown overboard.
anyway i make my apologies and head back to shore with his guy who is actually very cool about it, he gives me all the information i need to know about driving power boats for water skiers.. i report to gene and he invites me to dinner with his family. they stay in a big house at the top of the facility, it's a massive operation, there are about 12 cabins each sleep 12 kids with one councillor, they are in a horse shoe shape around an american flag. there's a canteen and a nurses quarters. the whole thing is built around a massive lake and mountain range, it's quite beautiful. some of the staff are staff have arrived and they look kinda beautiful to.
anyway i take to driving speedboats like a duck to water, it's in my blood, out in the sun on the water, the sound of laughing kids, i keep everything cool, no speeding, safety first, start feeling some responsibility for the first time in my life.
the strangest thing is these kids all take a shine to me, they start hanging out with me, taking to me, i'm not sure if it was my strange accent or the fact i never asked them how they were feeling but i guess they felt i was a novelty and somewhat safe.
each evening i would be invited to have a meal with gene and his family and i would start bringing up in conversation small bits of information that these kids told me about their home life or some event that they had been through and gene said i was actually getting more information than the councillors. i think the reason these kids liked me and felt okay about opening up to me was i was just a big kid myself, the speedboats were the most fun i ever had, i laughed all day long and never took anything to seriously. i never really knew what to say to these kids after they told me they ad been abused or beaten or whatever it was, i just said something silly like, 'jesus man that's heavy shit, your a great kid, really smart and your family are fucked up.'
really bad huh?
anyway the kids liked this, they liked not having to open up everything and then being told their parents were fucked up. i think it confirms what they know but are afraid to acknowledge.
however i was totally naive about this and it was an area i was careful not to dabble in.
often gene would give me a task, 'see if you can get harry to talk about his pets.'
i'd return the following night saying, 'harry's mother flushed his puppy down the toilet in front of him,'
yeah it got pretty intense.
anyways gene asked me if i wanted a job as a councillor next year he would offer me on site training with his other councillors who were acknowledging that i was relatively good. i agreed, seemed like a good idea.
anyway for the rest of that season i just drove boats but i met sarah who was an english horse riding instructor.
when we returned to the uk i moved into her place and learnt how to ride. i like horses, although keeping them is hard work and not my idea of fun.
watching these horses in the field running along took me back.