Ginger,
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Here is my story…
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My father was very abusive towards me back in those days(he is an old mellow
man now, but back then he was 240lb and nothing but muscles). Him and I
would lock horns regularly which usually ended with me in some sort of pain
and him standing over me. In early December, on a Friday morning, in 1981,
about 3 weeks after my 17th birthday my car wouldn’t start (old pinto / bad
starter). I was upset cause it was payday, I had a date that evening, and
now my car was dead and I couldn’t make it to work to collect my check.
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My father came in and was upset about something and started taking it out on
me. First it was just harsh questions, which then turned to yelling and
shortly after the pushing and shoving started. I truly wasn’t in the mood
for this and just started fighting back more than I had ever done
previously. I actually whacked him with a couple of good blows (something he
had never really seen from me before). The man was massive and quickly
overpowered me, tied me to a kitchen chair with a 50’ orange ext cord and
called my mother at work. “Get home, your son has become uncontrollable, we
are taking him to that place” was all I heard. I remember being placed in the
back of my mom’s pacer, chair and all and driven from our home on Longboat
Key to Cattleman Road.
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After I was taken inside I was quickly separated from my parents and placed
in a room with two other kids about my same age. They placed a piece of paper
in front of me and told me I wasn’t leaving this room until I signed the
paper. I said I wasn’t signing anything and I wanted to see my parents. I
was then informed my parents didn’t want to see me, that I was a druggie and
the only way I was getting out of this room was to sign the paper. I again
refused to sign anything also stating I was no druggie. This became somewhat
of an argument between the three of us and at that point I realized these
two idiots had their minds set and nothing I said or did was going to make a
bit of difference.
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I decided to play along rather than resist and I would look for an
opportunity later to ditch this whole scene, so I signed the paper. I no
sooner put the pen down and I was ask to stand up and remove all my clothing
with which I complied. They went through everything and threw it back at me
telling to get dressed. Once dressed my belt loop was snatched up quicker
than a bum finding a quarter and when I asked what was that for I was told I
could not be trusted and every place I went someone would be hanging on to
me. I said I was not going to resist but that didn’t seem to hold much
weight with them. I was ushered out into the group and sat down on front row
just completely bewildered at how the day had went. I didn’t talk, I didn’t
think, I was truly scared out of my wits and resorted to simply observing
what was going on around me.
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I have a great photographic memory of most my entire short stay at Sarasota
Straight, Inc.
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I remember most of the staff and the 7th steppers. I remember the one kid I
stayed with who’s name was Rick and his father owned a car dealership in
Bradenton. That was the first house I escaped from. Almost 30 days after my
initial entry I decided these people were NUTS and I had to break away any
way I could. Rick was not the kid over me. The kid over me was some other
kid I cant remember his name but he went back home on the weekends so that
left only Rick to watch over me. One night I tried to wake Rick up cause I
had to defecate so badly it hurt. I shook him repeatedly and all he did was
sit up once and tell me that wasn’t allowed in group and went back to sleep.
I ended up having to relieve myself in a trashcan which I face a terrible
wrath for in the morning.
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What I realized was after school and straight this kid was zonked. And he
kept the key to the room safety pinned to the inside of his underwear. In
his room was also a door that went directly outside with the same key
controlling both door bolt locks. So I waited another week for Friday night
to roll around again. I was shortly over my 30-day mark and again it was
only Rick and another 1st phaser in the room that night. I snuck over to
Rick, lifted his underwear, unpinned the key and I was out the door. I ran
like a pack of dogs were on my trail. I hid in bushes when cars would pass.
I traveled all the back roads out to Longboat Key and back to my friends.
When I saw them they were all freaked out about my disappearance for the
last month. They also told me people had already been around looking for me
and I’d better hide myself immediately so I went to a fort in the woods we
had built. I still remember the sounds of a group of people coming up the
path towards the fort and me taking off running with them close behind me. I
went far back up under the palmetto bushes trying to hide myself when one of
my friends called out my name. I didn’t answer at first cause I didn’t know
if my friends were helping them look for me. So I stayed silent and watched
them all walk pass and saw it was just my friends looking for me. I came out
of the bushes and they were like freaked out at the way I was acting. After
I told them what I just been through their jaws were all lying on the floor.
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About 4 days on Saturday I knew my mom would be home and Dad would be
working so I snuck back up to my house and scoped out the driveway carefully
looking for anything amiss. I entered the house and found my mother alone.
We had a long talk that day. I told her about the horrors of the place and
she humored me at first but by the middle she was trying to convince me to
go back. At the end though I thought for sure I had won her over cause she
stated she would convince my father to give me a second chance. My father
came home and everything seem to be ok. I went to sleep that night thinking
the nightmare was finally over.
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My father woke me up the next morning and informed me that breakfast was
ready (unusual around my house) but didn’t think much of it. I sat down in
the dining room and started to eat a donut. Shortly after the donut hit my
teeth I heard the front doorbell ring. We had a Great Dane at the time and I
heard dad putting her in a room. I knew something was up cause you only had
to put her in a room when people showed up that she didn’t know. Into the
dining room they walked immediately surrounding me and removing all possible
weapons from my reach. I started pleading with my parents “no no no no no NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO” as I was dragged from my dining table by 4 7th steppers
and place in the back seat of a car.
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It’s a long, long ride in the car from the middle of Longboat Key to
Cattleman road and the whole while I have these 4 intimidators working on me
relentlessly for the entire trip. I was questioned, I was insulted, I was
verbally abused and I was truly scared out of my mind. On January 10th, 1982
my childhood officially ended in the back seat of a car.
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This turned into the mother of all nightmares. Here I was, out, free and
suddenly on a Sunday morning I’m riding in a car with 4 nut cases on my way
back to nut house destined to become one of them. I said as little as
possible, looking forward counting the stop lights till we reached
Cattleman. By the way, I never use the term straight any more, its always
forward.
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When I arrived back at the zoo I was greeted with cheers of my escape. Well
at least that’s what I imagined in my mind, in reality I was place in front
of the group for about an hour and everyone in the place had their chance to
tell me what they thought, none of it was cheering though. It was more along
the lines of what a loser I was and how they were going to get me. I think
it was Chris (staff, the tall guy with glasses) that came out and confronted
me directly, stating he didn’t have time right now but I would feel his
wrath, in so many words or less. I wanted to jump him right then and there.
I should have but I maintained a humble appearance and just answered yes sir,
no sir.
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I saw Rick and he gave me a look I’ll never forget. He must have paid dearly
for letting a 1st phaser escape. I think he was even dropped back to 2nd
phase because of it. I was placed in a completely different host house (much
securer than the one I was in before) out in The Meadows. This place was
Fort Knox compared to Rick’s house. We entered through a 4-car garage having
to wait till the door closed. There were double sets of doors to get
outside, every window had a lock on it to keep it from opening and every
door in the place needed a key including the bathroom. This lady had gone
all out to secure her home to deal with the “druggies”. We had a total of 6
kids staying at this house. 3 4th phasers, and 3 1st phasers. They all told
me over and over how I would never break out of “this” house.
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4 days after my 2nd kidnapping I decided I was getting out of this place
once and for all or I was going to die trying. I position my sleeping area
on the floor close to the door. I had to rush through everything to
accomplish this in order to be the first to lay down my sleeping bag and
immediately I pretended to fall asleep. I lay there waiting for the lights
to go out. After what seems like an eternity everyone was sound asleep. I
took a wire bound notebook and pulled the wire out and tried to use that to
open the door by sliding the wire around the latch and pulling it back. It
was totally impossible in the pitch-black room. I made my way over to the
window and tried to open it, it only went up two inches and I tried to force
it but it made a noise and I thought it would break before opening so I
abandon the idea.
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Again the kid had the key pinned on the inside of his underwear but I was
leery because I didn’t really know how well he slept. I made my way over to
him stepping over kids sleeping on the floor, I reached down and grabbed the
stretch band of his underwear. Immediately the kid sat up in bed and I
froze. He looked around for a second and then laid his head back down. I was
truly amazed he didn’t notice me standing over him. I just stood right there
frozen in my tracks for what had to be at least 30 minutes before attempting
to try again. This time I was successful and freedom was only a short
distance away.
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I grabbed my things and went into the bathroom and got dressed. I then tried
to get out of the house but the outside door locks were a different key and
all the windows had locks on them. I remembered a pair of pliers on a shelf
in the laundry room as we entered through the garage and I retrieved them. I
then went into a vacant bedroom, locked the door behind me and scooted the
bed up against the door. I then went to work twisting the window lock off
(took about 5 minutes) and once it fell to the floor I slid the window open
and off to freedom I went. I walked from Fruitville all the ways back out to
Longboat Key, sleeping in the woods on the way. I met up with my friends and
I lived in that fort in the woods for 6 months. My parents and 7th steppers
tried on several occasions to recapture me and all their attempts ended in
failure. The closest they ever came one night some people tried to snatch me
off a bicycle as I was riding down the road but I was able to out maneuver
them and took off through the yards. I lived in fear in those days. I was
scared at any moment someone was going to pop out of the woodwork and I
would be back in the nut house. Thankfully my TRUE friends did an excellent
job hiding me and I never had to deal with Straight, Inc again.
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You may remember me you may not. I think I remember you but I’m not very
good with names of people from there. Wasn’t like you could socialize. I don’t 
know how many manage to escape from 1st phase by I do believe it’s a very
short list.
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Straight marked the end of my family and a wonderful time in my life growing
up on Longboat Key. By fall of 82’ I was back with my parents and we all
moved from a beautiful house on Longboat Key to of all places a trailer
park. My mother and father soon divorced afterwards and neither wanted
anything to do with me since I reminded each of them of the other.
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I ended up joining the army in 83’ till 86’ and when I came home from the
service my father once again tried to play the domineering role with me one
day, except this time it was a much different outcome. This time I was no
longer the 17 year old kid but instead a trained combat solider and when he
tried to get physical with me I let him have it. I think it was the full
body slam I delivered but he eventual ran out (actually ran) of the room and
started calling 911. I left and limted contact with him until my wedding in
92’.
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Today I’m 38, I’ve been married for 10 years, have two boys of my own, a
successful career as a computer network engineer. I’ve actually worked for
the department of defense and held security clearances. I was a college
instructor in networking for a couple of semesters to replace a guy that
quit and was asked to teach again but declined because of the hours
involved. I live in Ft Lauderdale, my mother lives in Atlanta and my father
lives in Miami. We all speak and get along. I get along with my father as
long as we don’t have to spend a great deal of time together. I have
forgiven him for his mistakes in the past because after all, he is my father
and if it wasn’t for all the things he taught me about survival I would have
never made it through some of the shit in life I’ve had to endure.
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I’m an avid reader and writer about the topic. Some of my work has even been
published in USA Today. I despise the Semblers of the world and I hope like
one person said that they would have to endure all the feelings of all the
children they crushed. What a just reward for them I think. I have mixed
feelings about Straight itself. On one hand it is a disgrace and abuser of
children, on the other it truly taught me just how evil and sick the world
can be, something that I might never have learn had it never happened. It
has opened my eyes to the world of conspiracy in the United States and I believe
with all my heart and soul our government is under complete and utter
control by these people. They all manage to lead the good life at our
expense.
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I have no doubts that Betty has her own little pharmacy in her bathroom and
the only difference between her addictions and the addictions she is trying
to control is that hers come from a bought and paid for doctor. Its just a
shame we can’t throw money around like she does.
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But don’t let that misguide you. She has probably sat in her mansion and
huffed a cheech and chong joint all by her lonesome bogarting self.
It is amazing just how hypocritical these types of individuals can be.
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What is the MOST amazing thing about this woman is with all the sick,
homeless and poor men, women and children in this country she has chosen to
use her wealth and power to dictate how the rest of us should live…and she
calls it noble. HA.. why don’t they take some of that money they are
throwing at the Republican party and feed someone! I guess its ok to be a
starving, homeless person as long as you don’t take any drugs to forget
about your misery.
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The more I dig into this issue the scarier it gets. I think most of our
government has been corrupted by the drug war and I am beginning to doubt
there is a honest man left in the crowd. The Bush family is probably a
greater evil than bin laden or his terrorist network could ever be. You have
to remember it was George Senior who went on National Television holding a
bag of crack stating how he was going to make it worthless. Funny George it’s 
better quality and in better supply than its ever been and it’s 15 years
later. It’s all just a farce to steal our money! More people die from
cigarettes and alcohol then all of the other drugs combined.
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Anyways, I found your letter about Cattleman Road and it prompted me to
write and share with you my own experience. You are free to share it if you
like but please don’t use my name. I have clients and business people I
would rather them not know my life details.
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Sincerely,
Name Withheld
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