Hongumart on Nostr: No real point to this story, but I wanted to type it up while it was on my mind and ...

No real point to this story, but I wanted to type it up while it was on my mind and thought I would share. Plus it contains an anecdote about Charlie Manson. #grownostr

I was thinking about this dude named Grant I used to work with at Kodak back in the day. We got to know eachother during our allotted 15 min smoke breaks every three hours. We worked together in the Kodak film...factory, I guess for a lack of a better word. The floor we worked on operated all night and day, 24/7, making different kinds of film for Kodak. Film for movies, billboards, whatever. We had to work on it in pitch black darkness using night vision, and I remember that it was purple, except when it was exposed to light in the darkness (and subsequently ruined) then it would get like a bluish hue to it. To be honest, I would go into that job and just vacate my mind because the work was absolutely mind numbing. But the pepople I worked with there were really cool, including Grant.

Grant started at Kodak as part of a reformed prisoner hiring program. Kodak hired ex-cons and were reimbursed for part of their wages. There were a few ex-cons that we worked with but it was hard for me to tell. I am a small town kid so my interactions with former cons remains limited even to this day. With Grant I only knew because he told me one time in the darkness that had done some hard time in California (I believe he said San Quinte and I only remember that because of the connections to Johnny Cash). He seemed to know all the other employees who were part of the reformed con program, not because they talked about it, but he said he could tell just by looking at someone who had done time. "They always have an anxiousness in their eyes" I believe is what he told me.

At that time, which was the mid 2000s, Grant was in his early to mid 60s. He was build like a block of wood with a thick moustache, and those 80s glasses that were made popular by Jeffery Dhamer. He was thick all over. Thick arms, thick legs. He had a tatoo of a panther on his left leg (or some kind of jungle cat, I never really asked) and he was funny as shit. Just real quick whitted and real intellegent, though I don't think he was even able to read. He had a ton of stories about prison. The best of which I am going to recall here.

Grant claimed that he was, at one time, in the same California prison as Charles Manson. He said he mostly avoided "Charlie" because he just talked and talked and Grant couldn't stand him. Charlie left Grant alone for the most part, but there was one dude that Charlie constantly made fun of. Anyway, one time Charlie was making fun of this dude, just being really ruthless towards this guy, and later that day when Charlie, Grant and all of them were hanging out (not sure if that is the prison term or not) the dude that Charlie was making fun of comes up to the group and has a hollowed out ink pen that he had filled with lighter fluid and blew the lighter fluid in Charlie's face. He then lit the fluid on Charlie's face with a lighter, causing horrible burns on Charlie's face. That was the last time Charlie messed with the dude, according to Grant, and Charlie was later moved to another cell block and Grant never saw him again.

A few years back I thought about this story and I looked it up. Charlie's face was lit on fire in the manner that Grant described. This is a fact. Whether Grant was there or not I suppose I will never know for sure. As for Grant himself, I am not sure what ultimately became of him either. When my wife and I had our oldest daughter, we moved from Colorado and I quit Kodak to go to Respiratory Therapy school. Before I left Grant gave me a bunch of baby gifts for my daughter from him and his wife. I know they didn't have a lot of money and I always meant to keep in touch with him but I got caught up in my life and a few years after I moved I tried his phone number and it was disconnected. I can't imagine he is still alive, but if he is I hope he is doing well.