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The Eagle was an Orlando Bath house and pool room for Boys. Down the road the Colonial Motel was an after Hours party and hookers worked the fringes wherever particular people congregated. Trading a ride for sex was the bargaining chip of aesthetic need, constant pressure and the cost of doing business. There was one little settlement outside of Orlando where taxi customers took me down a dirt road where crowds of Black youths swarmed the taxi, reaching through the open windows, hands squirming like man eating flower petals with cellophane packets and glassine pouches of powders that I ignored while the passenger made his or her deal. Snickers and coffee was my get-em-up and a pocket full of condoms. And during the day I was in the company of spoiled brats that snickered and giggled and went to church on Sunday. Spike was the only other student in our class that had to work; he worked for a boiler plate telephone soliciting service—the school got him the job and may have owned the marketing service with their motto of anything for money—JESUS!
The Naval Training facility was a regular call for the taxi. I also gave my cell phone number to a few of the recruits since my father had been in the Navy in WW2 on board “Lucky Louie”, the USS Saint Louis. I remembered the story he told about the ship being hit by a suicide bomber and he survived–His image of body parts scattered like so many Christmas tree ornaments haunted him the rest of his life. The recruits I often took to Kissimmee, South of Orlando were training to work on nuclear submarines with Trident Missiles. I asked well over 60 different trainees a simple question: “If you were out at sea and the order came down to nuke Philadelphia or any other US city, would you do it?” I remember only two or three of all the recruits I asked saying, “NO”. All of the other recruit trainees, and usually without hesitation, answered “YES”. I remember one female in particular I asked where she was from and she said Tampa.
“Do you have family in Tampa?” “Yes,” she said.
“And you would still nuke Tampa?”
“I would feel bad, but I would nuke it. I took an oath to protect my country against enemies both foreign and domestic and I put my faith that if the order came down to nuke anywhere it was for the good of my country.”
“Tampa, Philadelphia, Saint Louis—that is your country.”
“I’m trained to follow orders,” she said.