The Homeless Terrorist of Neighborhood Watch

By Brian Hunt

A true story about a bipolar Father and his escapades. Why did he watch the Rocker Bar at night? Who was the Spy? It all made sense to him.  Does it to you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Hunt
• Release date: Jul 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546772613

Book preview

The Homeless Terrorist of Neighborhood Watch

Brian Hunt

Published by Brian Hunt, 2017.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

THE HOMELESS TERRORIST OF NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

First edition. July 12, 2017.

Copyright © 2017 Brian Hunt.

ISBN: 978-1546772613

Written by Brian Hunt.

The Homeless Terrorist of Neighborhood Watch

A memoir about my Father

––––––––

Brian Hunt

Copyright © 2017 Brian Hunt

All rights reserved.

ISBN:10:1546772618

ISBN-13:9781546772613

This book is dedicated to my brother and sister who shared Dad’s life, his love and the occasional challenge. This book is dedicated to Don Thorsen, my good friend who inspired me to write it.

And kids, this is for you to appreciate the Dad you have .

-  Brian Hunt

Introduction

Please allow me to introduce my father, sharing with you his life and mostly his adventures. His adventures came in his later years and are a small part of the life he led as an exceptional son, father, soldier and citizen. We kids love our father and he earned it.

Somewhere around his late forties, Dad’s unique outlook on life became more pronounced. Thank goodness it was only bi-polar disease, something that can be treated. Unfortunately he denied his diagnosis and without treatment, he was left to his own methods to combat injustice as he saw it.

Helping those with lesser means, fighting city hall, fighting for his civil rights, he causes were noble yet his actions were not completely thought through.

It’s a tragedy really. Mom’s premature passing triggered something in him and made it impossible for him to stay in one place or consider consequences or retire comfortably like he should have.

In the military, a soldier mourning the death of a brother soldier, injects some humor as a way to cope and go on. Dad’s life is tragic but we’ve had some humor and adventure along the way which is why I want to share this true story with you. I have embellished a little but not much!

My measure of each sentence was whether Dad would enjoy reading it. I think he would and I think he would say it’s a hoot!

Contents

I.The Fast Ride

1.The False Start

2.The Preacher

3.The Riders

4.The Interruption

5.The Road to Dallas

6.The Embarrassment

7.The Landing

II.The New Wife

1.The Wedding Announcement

2.The Search

3.Church’s Chicken

4.Finding Laci

5.The Fifty One Fifty

6.A Parkland Chapel

III.The Lost Motorhome

1.Camping at Walmart

2.Freedom

3.Police Effort

4.The Compassionate Bus Ticket

5.The Red Convertible

6.Mystery Solved

IV.Know Your Civil Rights

1.How Not to See a Judge

2.The Bomb That Wasn’t

3.Dad’s Appointed Lawyer

4.The Sentencing

5.Kelly’s Prison Ministry

6.Staying Put

7.War Plane

V.Some Short Stories from Childhood

1.The Formative Years

2.Weekend Ski Trips

3.Caving in New Mexico

4.Skiing Grand Prairie

5.Birth of a Manager

6.1967 Firebird

7.An Early Funeral

8.The Wandless

VI.The Visit Too Long

1.Dad’s Diagnosis

2.Reunion

3.The Cell Phone

4.My Wife’s Patience Comes to an End

5.The Runaround

6.A Sheriffs Dilemma

VII.A Man’s Troubles in the Inner City

1.Homeless in LA

2.The Fight

3.Having the Time of My Life!

4.Broken Jaw Bone

5.Released

6.The Blessed Mayfair

7.Clandestine

8.The Mannequin

9.A New Man

VIII.The Transition

1.Our Home

2.The Plan

3.The Arlington House

4.City Hall

IX.The Final Four Years in Amarillo

1.Enterprise de Mexico

2.The Refuge Center

3.A Good Beginning

4.Neighborhood Watch

5.The Rocker Bar

6.Closing the Big Western Bar

7.The Iranian Spy

8.Last Days

Prologue

I.  The Fast Ride

1.  The False Start

It was afternoon in the parking lot of the LAX rental car center. I remember the weather as the best California has to offer, a vibrant blue sky, still and 72 degrees. Maybe it was not the weather I remember but rather the feeling of joy which flooded me when I realized my father was leaving for Texas. Whatever it was, I remember feeling happy and content.

I made the sign of the cross over the red Cadillac. I was behind the young rental car employee who was walking around noting scratches and dents on his clipboard. He was a perfect Norman Rockwell with cheap dress shoes, a little too big, black pants, a little too short and a white dress shirt that would not stay tucked in. His inspection was humorous. If he knew who he was renting to, he wouldn’t bother. I was sure once Dad drives out of here, Budget will never see the car again. I couldn’t help think it wasn’t much loss. Who rents a big red Cadillac anyway?

Dad, who looked amazing at sixty, was dressed nicely in some new clothes from Macys, freshly showered, and except for a broken jaw which was wired shut, looked every bit the executive which he was no longer.

Dad had some credit on his Sears credit card, a minor miracle in itself, but no less miracle than finding a rental car company who would take it. On my travels, I see Budget at the airport, and I remember their bad decision to rent to Dad, and how it wouldn’t take but just a few of those bad decisions to put a company out of business.

The agent handed a clip board and pen to Dad to sign the various sections, to which Dad answered to the young man, my son takes care of that for me. I sighed and it may have been obvious that I rolled my eyes for less than a split second. But in any case I signed it. I signed his name.

The keys were handed over ceremoniously and once again I winced. Subconsciously, my mind drifted to the insurance agent who might be appraising the damage in a few days.  I wondered about the value of the car. Excuse me, I said to the agent, what year, model, about how many miles are on it? Whatever his answer was, it snapped me out of the fog and was time to hug Dad good bye.

I said, Love you Dad, Please don’t come back for a while, and good luck on your trip back. Be safe!

2.  The Preacher

Dad didn’t want to return to Texas, so he didn’t. He went right back to downtown where he had lived for two months, and for his evening meal at the Union Rescue Mission’s soup kitchen. Today to his surprise he met his pastoral idle, the former Minister of First United Methodist Church of Dallas, Dr. Walker Railey.

Dad had attended the First United Methodist Church of Dallas where he was influenced by Dr. Railey who shepherded 3000 souls. In Dad’s words, He was a hoot! Railey was famous for impassioned sermons on civil rights and social justice. He also was famous for a notorious high society murder.

One evening, someone killed his wife. Dr. Railey lied to the police about a number of things proving himself worthy to be the number one suspect. He lied about where he was that night, he lied about the chronology, and he lied about his ongoing affair with the secretary.

A jury failed to convict him. However society convicted him in the op pages and in the private circles of friends, so he resigned and skedaddled. Dad finds Dr. Railey now at the Union Rescue Mission soup kitchen in downtown Los Angeles as a volunteer feeding the homeless.

Dad was ecstatic at being fed by Dr. Railey and took it upon himself to reminisce with the pastor about goings on in Dallas. Dr. Railey found that even hiding fifteen hundred miles away from Dallas in the city of angels and its three million people, he could not escape his past.

Dr. Railey was an outcast and though he preached every once in a while at a good friend’s church, he never returned to glory. Instead, he drove a forklift and worked other blue collar jobs to stay afloat and showed up sometimes to help at the Union Rescue Mission where his past could be forgotten. 

3.  The Riders

Like Dr. Railey, Dad had a place in his heart for the homeless. There are camps for the gays, camps for the straight, camps for persons using drugs, camps for families he told me. He loved to hear their stories and he thought of the drug dealers as business people who broke bad. "Can you imagine the success