Part 5 - The Club

My final essay I care to share in this post thread of Essays is not about a person (although I met five additional interesting people on this walk), it is all about a place one of the other five i met tipped me off to. It was a place I named 'A TWO VIEW STUDIO WITH A STOOP', to do it justice, I wrote a poem about. Before i share it however, let me give you some background on this place.

Before, the City of Tacoma decided to clean up and reclaim the downtown area and Theatre District around Commerce and 9th, it was one overrun place. The homeless, street sugar and the basic street life common to any major to midsized blighted downtown area of a reasonably popular American City ruled the roast. This time period found the old guard homeless with prized and choice hangouts. Places like the old Bridge Clinic building on Market Street which I will write about one of these days and others like the small little covered back doorway where today the Light rail line comes to its end just feet away.

As Checo, my impromptu tour guide described it with deep passion and a certain excited nostalgia "It was ours for years. Only the birds shared that roost". To me looking at the place with 2008 eyes and having known a dive or two in my 40 years, it looked gray, a color that took in the rain with a sour mood. Checo went on to say to me..."Bennie bit it there, Chucky shaved his head for the first time since Nam right in there, with a bottle". I could see its strategic value. It deepened my sense of affection for the homeless. Sure, I remain detached in so many ways, acting just as an observer, but when a man of unknown experience tells you a story with that much nostalgia, it takes you back to the stories of Army's who invaded far away places. It gives provides you a third person witness to a battle that was waged on an urban battle field. These guys were fighting for their lives as they saw it. The livelihoods they new. It was a strategic effort with look outs and raids, with casualties and enemies, with profound sadness and a sense of victory when they succeeded in protecting their home out posts on the street.

The sense of the best history these people made was right there in front of me. For Checo, it was the best of times and the worst of times...


A TWO VIEW STUDIO WITH A STOOP by Rohn T. Amegatcher

A two view studio with a stoop.
A two step walk up open to the air.
Cardboard floors over plywood backer.
A planter, scalloped views at the top.
Stair stepped views at waist height.
For charm, please appreciate tubular handrail.

It rents out by the night
To the first come or the first to fight.
Its got sweet sounds of the light rail,
A freezer shelf but without the rack.
Your beer will stay cold thou, up against that wall.
We just call it pad the club
It even has its own stamp.

Vinnie and Jonny, Candice and Doris,
Four in the sack, til Mattie ratted us out.
5-0 , I know, I owe 'em my last dough.
They chased us out many times, but we came back.
Its still the site, It gets jumping way late at nite.
Believe me bro', the block still has flow.