Split Coconuts:

By the summer of my 20th year, I was finished with Miami and decided to head back to Jersey. I had been living with a roommate, Mark, in the enclosed porch of a house in the Kendall section of southwest Miami. We had to knock on the back door and ask permission from the owner of the house to use the bathroom. We were fired from our "pool boy" jobs at the local condo/hotel where we worked when Mark argued with an owner who was too cheap to have her towels cleaned She was embarrassed when her guests noticed the soiled towels, so she blamed Mark for not cleaning them and then threw one of the towels in his face. When I came to his defense, she complained to the management and we were both fired. Our boss explained that there was nothing he could do for us. In that building, the “owners get what they want”; “they are always right.” Obviously, this does not hold true for all condos.

Mooks and Mamalukes:

In my opinion, at the Galaxy the only people that “get what they want” and “are always right” are the ones picked by a small handful of Board members. I feel this way because a few months ago we had a water problem in two of our bathroom sinks. We woke up to find that black sewer smelling water had overflowed in our sinks overnight. When I called the maintenance department, they told me the earliest they could come to fix the problem was eight days later. That evening I read on another internet site that a member of the site and friend of the Board had his similar problem, along with a neighbor, fixed almost immediately the same night. The next day, I brought this "double standard" to the attention of the manager and my problem was fixed shortly after. I was fortunate enough to have read this person’s boasting about the service in the building on the internet or I believe that I would have had to wait the full eight days. Even though I was very appreciative of the manager’s quick response, it is hard for me to imagine that something as critical as leaking water would initially be put off for eight days by her staff. I believe the reason for this delay could be attributed to either my criticism of the Board or to a poorly managed and understaffed building. The cheap woman at the pool reminds me of some of the Galaxy people who drive $80,000 cars but leave an $8 dollar tip on a $100 bill in a restaurant. In downtown Jersey City, we called them “mooks”. They are the kind of people who wear expensive-looking designer clothing but buy them at bargain basement outlets. Some of them are unemployed and broke but walk around the Galaxy with the kind of elitist, arrogant attitude more becoming to international diplomats - all because they are friends of the Board. We call them “mamalukes” downtown. One of them fabricates stories to defame and discredit people. He has posted an untruth about me on the internet and has known for some time that it is untrue but has not corrected his fabricated story. He poses as a representative of government but failed to file his income tax returns for three years while being gainfully employed. This little “mamaluke” has the chutzpah to become a member of a government committee and also gets paid with money from people who “pay” their taxes to sit on his brain all day in the movie theater whenever there is an election. The extent of this little rat's hypocrisy is overwhelming. I have placed him in the same category as the Association Attorney, General Manager and Board President for the disparaging remarks they made about me in a televised Board meeting and have refused to correct them. The category I have placed them in is; “not worthy of my spit” until they correct their misstatements. Some other people act and dress like they are wealthy, but when you look at their bank accounts, they are barely surviving “month to month” but have the nerve to make insulting remarks about their neighbors because of the way they look or dress. Some of them are obnoxious effete snobs who have convinced themselves that their “tent” is a castle. They are the type of people who would sell out their mother for a free cup of coffee. My mom would sum them up in one sentence; “they don’t have a pot to piss in”.

Easy Rider:

Mark and I were living off of the money we received from donating blood for $12 a pint. We usually ate coconuts in the park at Coconut Grove for our meals. Mark took out a $1,000 student loan and instead of using it for school, he bought a used English sports car. We decided to drive back to Jersey in his new old car. We set an alarm clock on the dashboard and switched driving responsibilities every four hours. Somewhere in Georgia, he decided that I had turned the clock ahead to cheat him out of his sleep time. We had a major argument and he turned to me in the car and said: “If you don’t like it, get out”. I thought about getting out of the car in the middle of nowhere with no money and a brown bag for a suitcase. Then I thought about staying in a car with someone I now truly disliked. It would have been easier for me to just stay in the car, but I didn't. It wasn’t a hard decision to make: sane people don’t usually stay in a place they don't want to be, unless they are forced to. I got out of the car at a gas station in some 2x4 town in Georgia full of rednecks. For me with long hair, it was like being one of the characters in "Easy Rider" - the one who gets shot.

The “Artist” Formerly Known As Zero:

This is why I find it very puzzling when some Board members and their friends say that I hate the Galaxy. I may have sold my apartment but it had nothing to do with disliking the Galaxy. We didn’t move out. We stayed in the Galaxy because we love living here and we will stay until that changes. Some of the Board’s biggest supporters have recently sold their apartments as well, but they moved out. One of them was a Board member who moved out in the middle of his term and abandoned the commitment he made to the people who supported and voted for him. Another one in particular professed to absolutely, positively love the Galaxy. She was very happy here and very supportive of the way the building was run and managed. She loved it here so much that she even created a web site to defame and discredit anyone that criticized her Board friends. Well, she's gone. What was her reason for moving? Was it because her husband’s job relocated to another country, state, or county? The answer is no, no, and one more resounding no. She sold her Galaxy apartment and bought a new one just a few blocks down the road in a different building. What does that tell you about her professed love and devotion for the Galaxy? What would you say about someone who became so repulsive that in the end even her own friends turned against her? I know what my dad would say if he were alive: “she couldn't draw a pimple on an artist's ass”. Only a hypocrite would profess to love something and then abandon it for no apparent reason.

The King:

With no money and no car, I decided to hitchhike home from Georgia. My trip started out as a 24-hour ride but turned into two of the most interesting months of my life. I lived those two months as a drifter hitchhiking from town to town on my way back to Jersey. My first ride home was one i'll never forget. As I ran to catch up to the big gold Cadillac that had pulled over, I read on the California license plate “King”. I remember thinking: “could it be Elvis?”

Coming Next: MY Ride To Mobile Alabama - Memphis - and the Permit Story