As we left the Morgue, I told Mr. Wonderful he had outdone himself on finding the new “Most Unusual Date Site.” That I called the tour we were on “a date” was stretching the definition of the word but whenever we eat out, I call it a date. And a meal was included in the “LeeG.R.O.W.S (Government Resource and Orientation Workshop Series)” program we are signed up for. Last Thursday was the first of five Thursdays we will be in government buildings such as the Lee County Court House and County Justice Center or transported by bus to many sites in Lee County that provide services for residents. The five sessions are from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., a long day for the 30-some people, mostly seniors, who have the free time to spend on such a fact finding activity.
Mr. Wonderful and I are especially interested in seeing such facilities and have gone the past two years on Earth Day to the open house of the Resource Recovery Facility that handles solid waste, informally known as the garbage dump, which was holding the title of “Most Unusual Date Site” until Thursday. I see that a tour of the jail is on the agenda but I doubt it will be a contender in this positioning of most-unusual-sites. On a happier note, we will tour one of the Stadiums in this area that attracts sell-out crowds at baseball games. Nationally known professional teams winter here.
The Morgue was the fourth of five stops during the day and we found it to be a cool restful place to unwind after learning about “Reverse Osmosis” at the Water Treatment Plant, the purification of sewer water at the Waste Water Plant, and how well elections are now being run in Florida at the Elections Center where we were served a box lunch. Our final stop, after the Morgue, was one of the branch libraries. No surprises there because I go to the branch near us twice a week to maintain a good supply of DVDs for our evening movie viewing.
The people at the Morgue knew we were coming and had everything sanitized. We had been told they do not allow tours when they are doing autopsies or other work that would provide a full body display. We saw in a large refrigerated storage room one covered body scheduled for an autopsy and peeked in a smaller room where there were covered bodies with bare feet and toe tags visible. The enjoyment of this tour stop was provided by a young woman who showed us the physical layout and the Medical Examiner. Both obviously like their jobs a lot and gave enthusiastic, interesting presentations.
When one of our group asked the Medical Examiner what his most interesting case had been, he told u about a package bombing that killed the woman who had opened the package and seriously injured another woman. Bits of the package were retrieved from body parts so that the date and place of mailing was recovered along with a return address. The rejected boyfriend of the dead woman was found at the address and his yearbook photo was identified by the postal employee who accepted the package. Case solved! We moved on. The Morgue is an interesting place to visit but I wouldn’t want to be dead there.
My favorite experience of the day was listening to John, the forty-ish man who talked to us outside about bringing in silt-filled sewer water, removing the solids, and combining them with a liquid binder and organic material to make a wonderful compost. We could see a large trailer being filled slowly with the mixture from several tubes hovering over the trailer. John was so ecstatic about this product that brought in revenue that I was ready to buy a truckload even though I don’t own an inch of land and wouldn’t work it if I did own some. If John weren’t so enamored of cleaning up waste water, he could undoubtedly succeed as a salesman.
He was also excited about showing us two Ball Mason jars filled with a samples, one incoming dirty brown water and the other very clear water. The clear water also brings in revenue from nearby golf courses during the dry season. That there are no buyers in the rainy season and that beautiful clean water is pumped into a 3,500 foot well ending up in a salt water aquifer that re-pollutes it is such a devastating disappointment to John that I nearly wept.
As John talked, I listened to each word and each inflection, sinking into a state of ease and yearning. I wanted to go home with John so I could hear more of his wonderful accent and unusual-to-outsiders choice of words. My Serbian friend, Jasna, and I went together to the movie “October Sky” and Jasna loved listening to the mother in the film who had that same accent and distinctly different use of the English language. Jasna’s first languages were Serbo-Croatian and Polish. She has a PhD in linguists, so, like me is in love with verbal communication.
As fellow participants were walking back to the bus, I went up to John who was with two men about to ask questions and said, “I just have a quick question, John, Where are you from?”
He replied, “West Virginia! Beckley!”
I replied, “I knew it! I’m from Williamson!”
I didn’t linger to say, “Will you take me home with you?” My yearning to spend more time with him was palpable. As I was walking away, he said to the men next to him, “There goes my sister from West Virginia!” Indeed you can’t take the hills out of the girl.
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