Shutout Of The Shelter/Old News To Me, Maybe New News To You, Key West Citizen Write Up

Last night was the second night that K.O.T.S. claimed to be full. The rules of K.O.T.S. is that you can't line up until 6:30 P.M. and you have to be there by 9:00 P.M. or you can't get in. The first night, they told me they were full @ about a quarter to 8, so I asked if I could use the microwave to heat up my Wonton soup which they allowed me to do. They will also let you take a shower but you have to leave after your business is finished. As I was heating my soup, Tom, one of the "monitors" gave me a bedroll and told me that bunk A6 was available in a sneaky kind of hush hush way and told me to go make my bunk up, so I did. I told him I needed to get my bag off of my bike as I didn't think I was going to be staying. I came back out from making my bunk to get my soup and he then told me that now would be a good time to go get my bag. I guess one of the other "monitors" was being an asshole or something. I don't know why one "monitor" would say they were full and another found an available bunk. I have no idea what kind of power trippin' drama is going on and I really don't give a shit. I just need a bunk and not to be told that they are full when they obviously were not. Full of shit is more like it. I know sometimes things change and can within minutes. Whatever. The next night, I got there at about 7:30 P.M. and they had the sign out front that reads, "KOTS IS FULL" with the gate closed. Instead of haggling and going through the same bullshit, I just turned around and went to my "secret sleeping spot" and crashed there.BTW it was a little chilly, 66 degrees is cold enough for me. Now I know what you're thinking. You know I am a mind reader. You're thinking, well, why don't you go to K.O.T.S. sooner, dumb ass? Am I right? I knew I was. Well, let me explain. First off, my other homeless compadres like to get to K.O.T.S. right at 6:30 P.M. some even try to get in there sooner and line up. I've done it before and it's not fun listening to the bullshit and the drunks especially if you're sober. I mean, if fuckin Led Zeppelin was playing a show, I would stand in line. But I have vowed, in my own stubborn way, not to stand in line to get into some shitty homeless shelter and listen to the drunken idiots, that band SUCKS, let me tell you!! You get the same vinyl green mat whether you're first in line or the last in line!! (R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio !_!) The same green one, funny enough, as you get in jail. I don't know what these, dare I call them "people", ANIMALS is more like it, are thinking. I rather walk right in, give them my name, they give me a bedroll and a bunk number and I go to sleep. I don't want to listen to the horseshit these people talk about or watch the stupid movie that people talk over anyway without any consideration. I know, I'm a needy, picky bitch that wants to have it his way AND eat his cake too. Actually it's pretty simple. I go to work,unlike some other lazy motherfuckin moochin motherfuckers I know, then after work, I like to drink a couple of beers, smoke a few cigarettes, listen to my tunes and relax. Now is that too much to ask for? I am not going to rush to get into a homeless shelter. If I don't get in, guess what?, I don't get in. Now, I have heard and don't know how much or how it is true but the wonderful people at K.O.T.S. SAY the cops can't "mess" with you if they are filled up. Which I interpret as, they can't arrest you for trespassing but everywhere EXCEPT for my "secret sleeping spot" has a NO TRESPASSING sign, so I don't know exactly how that works....O.K. enough of that,.. in front page news of the Key West Citizen there was a story about a man name Brady...uh,um a story about the Statue Of Liberty entitled, "Dancing For Liberty" about me working the corner as Lady Liberty about a year ago that we have dug up from the Key West Library archives to present to you in it's entirety as it was printed WAY back in March 0f 2012. There were no pictures taken for the article but I have had a few taken while working.

DANCING FOR LIBERTY


So there at Kennedy Drive

and the boulevard, on
the corner by the Circle
K, is what’s supposed to be the
Statue of Liberty holding a sign
that entices
you to file
your taxes

at the place
that shares

the name.



The people
dressed in
the Liberty
get-ups can
be seen not only here, but all
over the country as tax time
approaches, this being a franchise.



But the living statue at
Kennedy Drive is a special case
because it dances like a dervish
and spins the sign like a
majorette; because the person

inside the gown and beneath
the crown likes to do things
his way. This aspect of the
personality belonging to Kevin
Dale Sanders has been both a
boon and a bane so far as his
existence is concerned. And he
is loving the job.


“I get the strangest looks
and I got dogs barking at me,
but I like doing it this way
instead of just standing there
like a statue,” explains Kevin,
a Halloween baby born 42
years ago in Miami, son of a
man involved with greyhound

racing who died by the bullet

six months later and a mother

who is a registered nurse.



Kevin’s mom moved the family

to Marathon after the tragedy

and that is where Kevin grew
up.


He grew to be a drummer
and played with some local
bands, then moved out to
California where he has a

brother and got involved with
music in the San Francisco

Bay area, developing a strong

taste for glam rock. Music


also is involved with his local

street performance. Usually

he’s listening to ZZ Top or
Guns’n’Roses through headphones.


When he migrated to the
southern portion of the
Golden State and worked at
Tower Records, there was
a long period of living in a
Volkswagen van, but also
sleeping in the store’s back
doorway. Eventually he ended

up back in Marathon and
more recently in Key West.



Kevin has held a lot of day

jobs. One, in San Francisco,
got pulled out from under him
and a bunch of other people
when the messenger service

contracted with an outside

company. There was some taxi

driving in Marathon until the
company went under. His relationship


with alcohol, Kevin
acknowledges, has been more
of a problem than an enhancement,
but has never cost him
a job.



“I have never drank on the
job; never shown up drunk

on a job,” he maintains. In his
down time, however, the beer

gets in the way of productivity

and things that could perhaps

be done to change some of his
more recent circumstances.


“It makes me lazy,” he
admits.


Kevin hasn’t drummed for a
while but he’s been busy with
other things, like a blog that
includes a great deal of information

about his personal history.


“I’m homeless, not hopeless,”
he has written in the
blog, which can be found at
poeticdrummer.blogspot.com.
He’s been sleeping mostly at
the Keys Overnight Temporary

Shelter, or KOTS, and the
Statue of Liberty gig isn’t likely

to change that. It pays $8 an
hour and there is a $2 per hour

bonus if Kevin remains on the
job until April 15.


It would be an easy cheap
shot to rail about the irony
of a guy whose only green is
on his gown and headdress;
who can’t put enough dollars
together for a place to live,
portraying an international
symbol of the American
dream, the iconic welcomer
of the tired, poor, huddled
and tempest-tossed masses.


But Kevin doesn’t want to be
anyone’s poster child, and

he’s been really lucky and has
a lot to be thankful for.


While working he sees the
gulls wheeling, and when he
walks around or bicycles on
his off time he stops to marvel
at the mystery of the green
ocean waters and the sheer
beauty of his nearby environment.



The ability to do this, to
have this appreciation, he says,
is something no job or lack of
one can take away, so long as
he chooses to own it.


“I am a very blessed person,”
he says. “I’ve got the gift
of drums. I see things I wish
people could see. I see the
heron catching a fish. People
drive by so fast, a lot of those
guys don’t even appreciate it,
all in a hurry to get back to
work. I am one of the happiest
guys in the world you would
ever want to meet.”



Story By: jdesantis@keysnews.com



Printed March 5th, 2012 in the Key West Citizen

The only discrepancy of this article I found was that it states that my mother is a registered nurse and should have read, his mother WAS a registered nurse as she passed away from pancreatic cancer when I was 15 years old.