Day One: Bremerton Benedict House
On December 30th I'll be out of my old apartment and on the streets or at least a friend's couch. In preparation I've secured a bunk in the Benedict House, a men's shelter in Bremerton Washington.
Bremerton is an hour ferry ride from Seattle. It was once a major naval port, but that was years ago, now the still huge and operating Naval Ship Yard is the city's main employer, but the glory days and stability of major naval presence are over, and the city thrives in maintenance mode. The downtown is actually a great choice for a condo for a person working in downtown Seattle.
I chose Bremerton because of a support network of close friend's in town and it just seemed like an easier place to plunge into the world of housing support.
It is a thoroughly weird moment. I have borrowed my ex's car to take my son North to visit my best friend's. North's best friends are the three brothers at the their home. We've been staying there over the weekend for a couple of years. Today it is weird because I have to stay at the Benedict House overnight or I lose my bunk and chance to ever stay there again.
So I go there at about 6PM. Inside there is a ring of about 15 men. All kinds of sad stories. Three or four of them apparently have mental conditions that pretty much mean hard times or need of support forever. Not to say they couldn't have a productive life and a job, it would just need to be a place made to handle their type.
All kinds of good people. The guys are measures of graciousness and...well...the manners and conversations of an Average Joe character on a 50's or 60's TV series. Talking about the latest movies, about how to use this or that, about the good places to eat. Saying "Yeah thanks" and "yeah buddy" and "good idea".
An aside on economic eras and personality types. Bremerton's glory days were in World War II through the Vietnam War. The place still has the values of that era, so it makes sense men are still locked in being that era's idea of an average man.
Trouble is Seattle is just a ferry hop away and set more in the future than in even it's own past. It makes for a time warp line of demarcation between the two. And in time warps the one in the past gets the wages of the past, and left on the curb as opportunity gives a ride for entities configured for the future.
The place is clean, the bunk rooms reminded me of bunk rooms in Alaska fish processing factories. Which means totally fine, with locker storage and bunk.
I get through the first night, the only thing to "get through" in a struggling sense is being away from North through the night. Since he's now living with his mom and I can't spend the night there, this was a rare chance to be with him and I couldn't (because of Benedict House rule about no overnight stays away for the most part, especially first night there). Truly painful.
I get back to my friend's place and to him, he answers the door when I knock. Everything fine again. We spend a good day together, the drive back to Seattle worth gold for me.
I leave him with his mom's and get along to Bremerton and the shelter. It's frustrating to miss the three o' clock ferry by five minutes, so have to wait over an hour for the next...I could have spent that time playing chess with North.
I've got a little solace in that I have a few days straight in Bremerton and at the shelter. No ferry rides, no great flux.
The next day is Sunday, and I'm looking forward to attending services at the Bremerton Latter-Day Saints Ward meeting with my best friends. I'm more atheist and inspired by the dynamics of evolution over typical religious tendency's, yet I do like LDS people and their way of living and thinking.
....to be continued...
Bremerton is an hour ferry ride from Seattle. It was once a major naval port, but that was years ago, now the still huge and operating Naval Ship Yard is the city's main employer, but the glory days and stability of major naval presence are over, and the city thrives in maintenance mode. The downtown is actually a great choice for a condo for a person working in downtown Seattle.
I chose Bremerton because of a support network of close friend's in town and it just seemed like an easier place to plunge into the world of housing support.
It is a thoroughly weird moment. I have borrowed my ex's car to take my son North to visit my best friend's. North's best friends are the three brothers at the their home. We've been staying there over the weekend for a couple of years. Today it is weird because I have to stay at the Benedict House overnight or I lose my bunk and chance to ever stay there again.
So I go there at about 6PM. Inside there is a ring of about 15 men. All kinds of sad stories. Three or four of them apparently have mental conditions that pretty much mean hard times or need of support forever. Not to say they couldn't have a productive life and a job, it would just need to be a place made to handle their type.
All kinds of good people. The guys are measures of graciousness and...well...the manners and conversations of an Average Joe character on a 50's or 60's TV series. Talking about the latest movies, about how to use this or that, about the good places to eat. Saying "Yeah thanks" and "yeah buddy" and "good idea".
An aside on economic eras and personality types. Bremerton's glory days were in World War II through the Vietnam War. The place still has the values of that era, so it makes sense men are still locked in being that era's idea of an average man.
Trouble is Seattle is just a ferry hop away and set more in the future than in even it's own past. It makes for a time warp line of demarcation between the two. And in time warps the one in the past gets the wages of the past, and left on the curb as opportunity gives a ride for entities configured for the future.
The place is clean, the bunk rooms reminded me of bunk rooms in Alaska fish processing factories. Which means totally fine, with locker storage and bunk.
I get through the first night, the only thing to "get through" in a struggling sense is being away from North through the night. Since he's now living with his mom and I can't spend the night there, this was a rare chance to be with him and I couldn't (because of Benedict House rule about no overnight stays away for the most part, especially first night there). Truly painful.
I get back to my friend's place and to him, he answers the door when I knock. Everything fine again. We spend a good day together, the drive back to Seattle worth gold for me.
I leave him with his mom's and get along to Bremerton and the shelter. It's frustrating to miss the three o' clock ferry by five minutes, so have to wait over an hour for the next...I could have spent that time playing chess with North.
I've got a little solace in that I have a few days straight in Bremerton and at the shelter. No ferry rides, no great flux.
The next day is Sunday, and I'm looking forward to attending services at the Bremerton Latter-Day Saints Ward meeting with my best friends. I'm more atheist and inspired by the dynamics of evolution over typical religious tendency's, yet I do like LDS people and their way of living and thinking.
....to be continued...
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