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of Bob Moats |
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The story continues...
Updated on January 24, 2005
After seeing the huge upstairs over Don's garage, we talked about my remodeling it
as an apartment. I started driving the 60 mile round trip every day or two and
worked on putting insulation and dry wall up and making rooms. I had two bedrooms
made and an open kitchen - living room, and even put a small bathroom to one side.
When it was livable I moved Pat and son to the small apartment and we lived as
though we were camping. We had to use a port-a-potty as there was no plumbing but
had a hose from the house to the sink I installed for water. When it started
getting cold, I had a large kerosene heater that we used to keep toasty warm. I
started looking for work, but made a little money by making my stained glass signs,
that provided a bit of cash to live on. After a while I found a job at Wadhams
Lumber and worked in the lumber yard, eventually becoming the yard manager. I
worked there for a while and found a job in Port Huron at a printing company. I
started there and worked for a while still living in the garage. One day one of
the printers announced he and his wife were going to move across the state and I
asked if their apartment in town was going to be available. They checked with the
landlord and when they moved out we moved in. After almost two years in the garage,
we had a home.
We moved all our belongings into the house and got settled in. I continued to work
at the print shop and things there were all right but the owner had this habit of
screaming at any little screw up, made me feel like a child who had done something
bad. I just put up with it and continued on. During this time I kept looking around
for places to do my magic, but didn't have much success.
After a while Pat had another breakdown and it seemed to be worse. She was moving
things around the house and hiding stuff along with covering windows, tying things
together and just generally out of control. I contacted the
mental health people in Port Huron and they put her in the hospital. She received
good care and they explained things a little better to me about her problem. She
was in there a month before she was well enough to come home.
We were in the house two years and two breakdowns when I found a local guy who ran
talent shows in local bars around the county. His Name was Jimmy Cox and I started
working as an M.C. for his shows and doing my magic. I met a number of performers
who became friends. I did this for about a year and Pat was still having problems
functioning. Also from the time we left Frankfort and after Justin was born she had
went from 140 pounds to almost 240 pounds in weight. Basically she was a whole
different person from the woman I married. Both mentally and physically, I didn't
know who she was. My job at the print shop was getting very hectic with the owner's
tantrums and having a wife who was not the woman I married, and bills piling up,
my nerves were stretching thin.
One night after a show I headed to a local bar called the Active Lounge to talk to
the band that was playing there, the Bob Mertz Trio, about an MD show they were
putting together for Jerry's Kids. I sat with the band's spouses while they played
and I was introduced to a woman who would make my life totally hell for the
next two years. She used my life problems to twist me around her finger and I fell
for it with a hook in my mouth. I consider this to be the black period of my life, so
bad that I'm not going into great detail here. I moved out of my home for her as she used
me to pay her way for an apartment we shared before she kicked me out and moved in
another guy and I ended up living in my van. When that went bad with him she coaxed
me back to use me again, and I let her! She was abusive and would scream at me in
a store if I didn't buy her something, scaring even the closest of people. I now look
back and can't figure why I put up with the abuse and lies. I want to burn out the
memory of those days, but they still haunt me. One day I finally did have it up to
my eyeballs with her and told her to hit the bricks. I stood my ground and wouldn't
let her back. I got on and during this time I ended up living in the garage I was
renting. I talked it over with Pat and although I didn't want go back to her she let
me move into the basement so I could be near. During the two years I was with the
bitch, I had quit my job at the print shop twice and now I needed work.
To make some money I was trying to sell some printing equipment I had bought in
Frankfort and talked to a guy who was running a small advertising imprint business
out of his home and he wanted to get into commercial printing. We talked and he
hired me to print for him. It worked out well, and I was there for about six months
when I had an idea. In the Detroit area there were weekly entertainment guides that
would tell you were to go for bands, concerts and other such entertainment and I
knew there was a good deal of things going on around St. Clair County. I sat down
and made up the first issue of "Around Town" an entertainment guide for the county.
I put it all together on my Amiga computer and printed up the first issue on the
printing press I had sold to the guy I was working for. He let me do it in exchange
for an ad for his business in my guide so it worked for both of us.
I took my guide out and showed
it around to lounges and my first customer was Rick McCaffery who owned a bowling
alley and nightclub. He took a full page ad and became my customer for the whole
four years the paper published. I started to pick up small ads from other places and
I was starting to make money. I finally quit my job at the imprint place and started
doing the guide full time. I bought back my printing press and worked out of the
basement and I had a few friends that I knew from the bars help me to deliver them
to restaurants, bars and other fun places.
It was a good time.
(To be coninued)
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