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Date with fate - post 21 - Arlee stopped by, died the next day - Fourteenth Job of Bob, Park and Rec Part XVII
This entry was posted on 8/19/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob, Fate Fairies.
Seems like I told this story on this Web platform at some point; but, a search comes up blank. Maybe it has haunted my mind for so long I just believe I have told it before. I have told it to myself a thousand times. When I worked for the City of Dallas as a Park and Recreation supervisor one of my colleagues was a guy named, (let's call him Arlee) Arlee. Arlee worked downtown as a low level supervisor managing the schizophrenic nuances of the City Hall grounds and the many park properties that loomed in the general vicinity of downtown Dallas - Dealy Plaza for one - home of the infamous assassination of John F. Kennedy. Arlee was about my age, maybe a year or two older. At some point I learned he had been in the Navy during 'Nam and the Cold War, as a cook on a ship in the South China Sea. I had been a backhoe driver for the Army on the border of Czechoslovakia. Welcome to our world - everyone can't be a Green Beret.
For years we worked in parallel universes, Arlee in downtown, me in the Fair Park area by the infamous Cotton Bowl complex. I knew Arlee was a drinker. He did not hide it. He was a train wreck. But, somewhere at 29 years old I mustered up the ability to be non-judgemental. You readers try to deal with the kooks and perps that occupy a major metropolitan area and see if you can refrain from demons for too long.
After several years of working in similar formats but never really getting know each other, Arlee all of a sudden started to self destruct (as alcoholics might just do). He missed a bunch of work time. Everyone thought he quit, or disappeared or...what ever. One day he reappeared. Our mutual boss must have dragged Arlee out of the abyss.
In out-of-character fashion, our mutual boss came in to my humble (and cluttered) office one morning. He never came into any of our offices. We front-line supervisors were the keepers of the rabble. We were the "Head, Driv'n Niggers" ( a black supervisor friend of mine tipped me off to the slave era verbage) that drove the Mexican, White Cracker, and African American workers. We were the lower class bosses that drove the lower class employees
"Talk to Arlee," Boss-man said as he stuck his head in my door. His crispy white shirt and perfect tie and cuff links painted a stark contrast to my faded, hole filled jeans, and worn out flannel shirt. He startled me as I prepared my work schedule for the morning. In those days, I only had Army first aid training. I had little concept of humans that were about to self destruct.
Arlee came in my office and sat on the one extra chair I had. He just sat and looked at the wall with his yellow hepatic eyes. He lit up a cigarette under the "No Smoking" sign.
"Arlee, my guys got to repair a swing-set some drunk fool ran over with a '72 Buick...you know that cluster fuck of a Buckner Park...the Mexicans, Brothers, and drunk white boys beat that park to death...we spend half of our time putting that war zone back together," I remember saying, trying to talk supervisor shop talk. Arlee just smiled and took a long drag on his cigarette. After about 15 minutes of silence between us, he just got up and left.
Hell, I did not know shit about a self destructing person. In retrospect, supervisor shop talk about work and the inner-city hell we worked in, was one reason he was probably drinking himself to death. I had said, "Hi dude," mentioned the wrecked swing-set and just kept working on my worker assignments for the day.
"Did you chat with Arlee?" Boss-man said a little while later.
"More than we have chatted in five years," I said. That was not a stretch considering we had never talked at all in the years we worked together.
Arlee did not come to work the next day and disappeared again. Apparently any significant other was long gone for Arlee. He lived alone. A co-worker found Arlee in his small one-room apartment...dead. Word had it, he was sitting in his easy chair in front of the television with an empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his lap and a burned down cigarette butt between his fingers.
Fuck!
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, 20, of Merrill, Wisconsin, died Wednesday, August 2, 2006 in Tikrit, Iraq of injuries he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy. In Iraq, Sergeant Jopek was assigned to the Army National Guard's Company A, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment 32nd Infantry Brigade based out of Waupun and Appleton, Wisconsin. Jopek's unit was activated in 2005, and began training in June of that year at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Their mission was to serve as armed escorts for civilian and military convoys traveling from Kuwait north through all of Iraq, protecting personnel and supplies. According to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ryan had planned to return to college after returning home. Jopek was remembered for his dedication to his high school basketball team. He was called "Kansas" by his teammates on the Merrill High School Blue Jays basketball team because that's where he lived before his family came to Merrill in 2002; his former coach is quoted as noting, "One of the neat things about [Ryan] was even though he wasn't a starter, he came to practice every night and worked hard." The Journal Sentinel went on to mention Jopek's father had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq in January 2005; and, Ryan was his oldest son. In a subsequent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article it was noted that while campaigning for President, Barak Obama mentioned he was wearing a bracelet honoring Sergeant Jopek that was given to then candidate Obama by Ryan's mother. The Website iraq.pigstye.net mentioned Jopek was only weeks from finishing his tour of duty when he was killed. Ryan was also planning to continue his education at UW-Marathon County the fall semester of his return home. He had indicated interest in being a park ranger. Wisconsin 2007 Assembly Joint Resolution 46 noted Ryan was was born on June 1, 1986, in Alliance, Nebraska. Sergeant Jopek was serving as a gunner in convoy security when he was killed. In his home unit in Merrill, Sergeant Jopek was a member of Troop E, 105th Cavalry. The Resolution noted Ryan was a 2004 graduate of Merrill High School. He enjoyed playing basketball, soccer, and golf; he also enjoyed music, monster trucks, airplanes, and his 1966 Chevrolet pickup truck. Ryan was an avid Chicago Bears fan and modeled his life after his childhood hero, Walter Payton. Resolution 46 goes on to mention Sergeant Jopek's many awards and decorations as the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with Mobilization Device, the Army Overseas Service Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, and the Combat Action Badge. At the time of his death Ryan Jopek was survived by his mother, Tracy Jopek of Merrill; his father, Staff Sergeant Brian Jopek, Wisconsin Army National Guard, of Antigo; his sister and his brother, Jessica and Steven Jopek of Merrill; his maternal grandparents, Carrie and Donald Smith of Bayard, Nebraska; his paternal grandparents, Peg and Joseph Jopek of Antigo. Sergeant Ryan Jopek was the 59th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
97,196 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,643 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,419 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1229 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
775 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,911 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
7,529 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
19 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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