Monday, 7pm at Tyrrell Prison Work Farm
Monday, 7pm, at Tyrrell Prison Work Farm
So what would I be doing if I were at Tyrrell Prison Work Farm?
At
this time of year (Fall) it is almost dark as of 7pm, as the days get
shorter. But when I was at Tyrrell, it was from about early spring to
early Fall. For those of you who read my older posts, I was kicked out
of Tyrrell just before Thanksgiving, so I can actually give you a
pretty good account of what I would be doing at this precise time….or
again rather what I WAS doing there at about this time.
By 7pm would likely be finished cleaning up in the kitchen. Let me back up on that a bit….
Tyrrell
Prison Work Farm is in Columbia, NC. While there I worked as a pot
washer, something I have already touched on in another post. My job is
simply to clean up all the cooking utensils used to make the meals.
That meant washing dozens of sheet pans, multitudes of deep stainless
steel pots and pans, and numerous other things as well.
My job
starts at lunchtime, after the first shift cleans up after the lunch
meals. I am technically “on duty” until the end of the day, or after
the last meal. Chow time for dinner is usually about 4:30 or a little
later, and runs until about 6:30 or so.
So by 7pm, I would be
nearly finished, or finished with my chores. I mentioned before, I
don’t do this alone. There are usually 2 pot washers, so I had
help…sometimes. I won’t go too much into detail about that, let’s save
that for another time.
My number one priority is to finish in
the kitchen, especially with the yard getting dark. As I look outside
now, the sunlight is gone and it is clearly starting to get dark, so if
I was in Tyrrell now, the yard would be closed to inmates. However, the
yard may “technically” still be open.
Tyrrell has two canteens,
and because they are centrally located on the prison grounds, often
times they let the yard stay open so inmates can get their things from
the canteen. This is also important to people like kitchen workers,
because if the yard closed at nightfall, the second shift would never
get a chance to get canteen since we finish kinda late.
So some
concession is made to keep the interior yard open so inmates can get
canteen. This also includes guys on work squad. But the problem with
that is that the lines can get unusually long, and when it gets too
dark, the yard has to close.
But since we are talking about a
Monday, the lines may not be so bad. Most camps in NC pay on Mondays,
Thursdays or Fridays. I think Tyrrell paid on Thursday, so the worst
time to get in line was that same day. But by Monday the lines should
have slimmed down a bit. This means that I could get in line and not
wait forever; maybe 6-10 guys in line to wait with, but that is about
normal. If everyone knows what they want, we can all get through, but
sometimes you get guys that draw a blank and act like a kid in a candy
shop. I made it a point to myself to not do that, and to get in, say my
order, pay the man, and get out.
By 7pm most everyone is in the
dorms, taking showers, making phone calls, playing cards or dominoes,
or relaxing. The day is over as far as work for most of us, so for many
it is a time to wind down. For me, I spent a bit of time writing my
journals, and doing some creative writing.
I had to keep my wits
about me, and the only way to do that was to write. I was no good at
cards, and didn’t understand dominoes. Television wasn’t my favorite
pastime unless it was some sports, and I didn’t make a lot of phone
calls to home.
To be honest, I didn’t like taking showers that
late in the evening, because everyone is in the dorms. I try to time my
showers so that the number of potential wandering eyes would be less
than if I was performing to a full house. Very rarely would I take a
nap that early, because it is hard to sleep with the bright lights on
just above your head. Even if I put my jacket over my head, it was
still hard to sleep, and it would get stuffy.
There however was
something interesting that I did from time to time, playing a game of
“Magic”. Some people might have heard of that game, but I actually
might take credit for “introducing” the game to not just one camp, but
perhaps 2.
I won’t get into that much, but to the quick, it is a
card game that became immensely popular in the late 90’s, which may
have started other games like Yu-gi-oh, Pokeman and other like games. I
had learned the game in the mid 90’s, before I went to prison, and met
a guy at Pasquotank who liked the game, but was never taught. Since I
knew, I showed him how, and it went like wildfire with a bunch of other
guys. When I came to Tyrrell I saw the guy and we started playing
again, even getting other inmates to play.
Often times about
this time, we would play a hand or two, and have a few other guys watch
and learn how to play. It was very challenging, and I really enjoyed it
a lot. Now I know some of you have a lot of questions of how we
actually played this game, wondering how we got the cards and stuff
like that….I’ll explain that on another blog.
Anyway, that’s a Monday, about 7pm, at Tyrrell Prison Work Farm.