Going Home

05/14/08 09:01:26 pm, by Michael Happy
Categories: Dobel Street

The monsters again

Robert is a U.S. Army veteran who wears his battle scars mostly on the inside.

People in the old neighborhood say he served in Vietnam, but he looks too young for that. He probably fought in George Bush Sr.’s war, helped chase Iraq’s vaunted Republican Guard out of Kuwait.

One thing is certain: Whatever war Robert fought in took its toll on him.

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He has wild eyes, shaggy red hair, admits to being bi-polar and talks at a rapid pace. One minute he quotes scripture, the next Shakespeare, then he just goes off on a nonsensical tangent.

Robert claims to have lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years, which means our paths likely crossed many years ago – perhaps on the baseball diamond at Fletcher Field or at the mom-and-pop store that used to operate on the corner of Gilbo and Almont. Maybe we rode in the same bike pack one sunny July afternoon on our way to the Baskin-Robbins on McNichols.

We did meet for sure this past January while I was taking pictures on Dobel. Robert popped out of the Eng’s former homestead to see what I was up to. We talked for a short while, and during our chat I mentioned the cleanup at Fletcher Field in September. As we parted ways, Robert hit me with this odd bit of prose:

“You keep it green; I’ll keep the monsters away.”

I ran into Robert again yesterday at Fletcher Field. Curious to find out why there was so much activity at the park before school recessed for the day, he took the short walk from Dobel, shook the hands of everyone in our little group when he arrived and then started talking – and talking and talking.

I don’t remember most of what he said, but he did make one profound statement that stuck with me. It had to do with zip codes, how close his Detroit zip code, 48234, was to mine in Grosse Pointe Woods, 48236.

“We’re right in your backyard,” Robert said. “It’s good that you’re trying to take care of your backyard.”

Robert went on to say that the people who operate the drug houses in 48234 get their feed money by stealing from 48236.

“You can’t run and hide,” Robert said. “Cleaning up the park is great, but you have to clean up the real mess or it’s going to get you wherever you go.”

Yes, the drug houses, the crime, the blight, the high unemployment, the crappy schools, the absentee parents, the neglected children – Robert’s monsters – the ones he told me he’d keep away.

An impossible task, even for a war veteran. Robert needs help, lots of it.

Right in your own backyard.

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