Transcript of a conversation with Patrick about teaching and being a night watchman. It was very noisy in the restaurant.

Patrick: That was in Eau Gallie. [Florida]

John: Eau Gallie? Ok.

Patrick: Yeah, after that job, my mother in Winter Park had a neighbor who was the assistant principal of a Junior High school in Orlando, Florida. So she talked to him, and he arranged for me to get a job in Orlando teaching school – that’s my last teaching job in Florida.

John: But then you taught later in New York. But then you got fired from that one because of the …

Patrick: Yeah I got fired a lot of times. I tried to make a list of all the times I’ve been fired from. Very interesting. A night detective job …

John: Really? Was it really a night watchman kind of thing?

Patrick: Yep. I had my uniform, Laverty Detective. and I had my … that thing with the keys?

John: Oh yeah. Mhmm.

Patrick: Time clock. And it was in a university on Long Island, the name of which for the life of me I cannot remember. Which was housed in a French chateau that had been brought stone by stone from France, and put back together on Long Island, complete with the gardens.

John: Wow.

Patrick: So I was a night watchman there. And after I would do my rounds, which I would do running. I would go back to the president of the university where they had an electric typewriter, and I worked on a story called “Night Time” about a policeman that was chasing people through time and space. Now it’s been done in movies and stuff.

John: Of course.

Patrick: But at that time… not.

John: Yeah.

Patrick: The night that I finished it I fell asleep on a leather couch in the principal’s office …

John: Oh no!

Patrick: And I was fired. Had to turn in my badge and everything. And also one of the jobs that I had the first weeks, was protecting little chips. There was a chip factory. I had no idea what these things were, but they looked beautiful, very curved lines, everything so beautiful. Nice. You know? There used to be some on the floor and then I’d pick them up because they looked so great. I didn’t realize they were worth a fortune!

John: ha ha yeah.

Patrick: But I didn’t get fired for stealing chips.

John: Why did they fire you?

Patrick: I fell asleep in the president’s office of the university.

John: Oh yeah, but the chips?

Patrick: The chips? No, that was just one of the jobs I had.

John: Oh that was just one of the jobs you had. Not that you got fired from.

Patrick: No. Laverty Detective had several jobs and one of them had to do with checking that factory out. Until I ended up at the cushy job of a university. And in Orlando, just before I left you guys, I lost a job in the high school….

John: For lending a short story?

Patrick: Yeah. And, they never gave that back to me. I’d love to read that now.