Straight Life - Art Pepper [164]
When I got the job I had to get up at the 4:30 unlock; the only people in the South Block that were unlocked at that time were the kitchen people. I didn't live in their section. This time the bureacracy worked to my advantage. They moved me to the North Block, a semihonor block, though I wasn't eligible yet: I didn't have enough time clean with no beefs.
In the South Block you were locked up from 4 P.M. on, period, but in the North Block, after supper, at different times, they'd have unlocks and you could go down and take a shower. This meant a totally different life from the one I'd been leading. I'd spend less time in my cell, and I'd be able to go to movies in the evenings instead of only on the weekends-when I'd be able to borrow a horn and play.
I'd wake up at 4:30, wash my face with freezing cold water, throw my clothes on, and then they would rack the gate. I'd go to the mess hall and eat at the early line. Then I'd go through the gate, and it would be dark, pitch-black out, and I'd walk all alone through this prison. There'd be no one there but the guards; at different points you could see them flapping their hands together, huddled around these little towers, where they'd have a stove, and you could see the steam coming out of their mouths. I'd walk to the between-gates. I'd go through a little passageway and there would be Fourposts, the police shack, to my right; to my left was the clothing room and the gym. Further on there were the chapels: a Catholic chapel and a Protestant chapel right next to each other. They were very pretty; they had built them new. At that time they didn't recognize the Muslim religion, but any other faith could take a room and have their little services. I think they had AA meetings in the chapels, too. In Fort Worth and in Terminal Island I had gone to AA meetings and I'd even sung in the church choirs, but in San Quentin you were locked up so much you only had time for a few activities. I worked ten hours a day during the week, so my weekends were spent playing music, reading, and trying to get loaded.
I'd walk to the gate. The guy would open it and say hello. I'd go into a place and sit, and then they'd open another gate for me. They'd pull my card. It was really elaborate. Then I'd be outside the inner prison. In front of me was the gun tower. And then there was another gate and a machine that checked to see if you had any metal on you. There was another gate, the firehouse, the officer's club, some of the guard's homes, a library for the guards, and then the final gate. Beyond that there's a parklike area for the guards' families and the warden's home, a big place. To my left was a large building where the free people worked.
The paymaster's office was just a cement building set on the outside of the South Block. It was right next to the walkway going into the gas chamber. I'd walk to the door all alone. I was the first one there. It would be foggy, and the fog horns would be going. I'd open the place and put the lights on and go to my desk. The paymaster's office had a dual purpose: we kept the hours for all the people that worked in the prison and all the state employees and we doubled as a cleaner and laundry service for the guards and the free personnel. I'd start work at 5:30, and people coming to work would bring their clothes in. I had a little book. I'd go to the counter and write up a ticket, whatever it was, two pants, one jacket, and charge them so many ducats. They bought books and used ducats so the convicts wouldn't deal in money.
The guy I worked for, I'll call him Mr. Williams. He was