Page 28 - October 2019
P. 28
FIELD NOTES
Haunted Places
James Wantz, DTM
I don’t like haunted houses. Never did. People attitude. This prison was made from the original
dress up as ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. They try prison mold. (I’m sure the shower room has mold
to scare the stuffing out of other people who pay over 100 years old. . . creepy). The cell blocks
for it (I used to have a really nice pair of pants are 5 tiers high. The cells are so small you can’t
but. . . I don’t scare well). Neither do I like horror spread your arms out. Broken windows outside
movies. But this is an October article, and I am the cells allow cold air and wildlife in and out
contractually obligated to work a Halloween (darn birds don’t know they are in prison but
theme into my column (it’s in the fine print—the love the free crumbs from caged men—I fed
really fine print—double, double toil and trouble). many with small bits of bread. . . the birds, that
That said, I went to a haunted house last is). Oh, the memories!
night—the Oregon State Penitentiary. Yep, Well, I’ve gone back three months in a row
prison! That place is haunting. . . even more to visit the Capital Toastmasters club (I’m also a
so because I was there as a “guest of the state” member but I can leave at night! Yippee!). Ever
20 years ago. OSP is where I started my time gone back where you were 20 years ago and
in the Oregon prison system. (Holy freakin’ marveled at the changes? Well, not this place. It’s
prisons, Batman!!) That place is right out of a the same—like being stuck in a time loop. Or,
mad director’s idea of a “dark looming structure more appropriately, a dinosaur stuck in amber
with a haunting ambiance”—perfect for a slasher (lots of amber). Ghosts and the incarcerated
movie (coincidentally, there are slashers locked commingle in the passageways. Gloom lurks in
up there. . . so it would be like bringing coal to the corners. And you wouldn’t be surprised to
Newcastle). see Freddy Kruger walking the yard. (He lived
The prison was originally built in the 1800s down the tier from me. . . I swear!)
and has been kept running by the blood, sweat, The club, however, is alive and well! It has
and tears of those incarcerated there. Literally, been my goal for the last 7 years to go back inside
blood, sweat, and tears—I lost my big toenail to the walls to visit a Toastmasters club. In 2008,
a small pair of workboots (did not know they I began my Toastmasters journey at a different
were carnivorous) on my first job in the kitchen. prison. That choice changed the course of my
If you’ve seen one of the old-style prison movies life. It was Tabula Rasa Toastmasters (tabula
then you’ve seen OSP: concrete, steel, and rasa means ‘blank slate’ in Latin). I liked the
28 ONE COMMUNITY
