Page 10
Spilyay Tyrnoo, Wgi-m Springs, Oregon
June 21, 2 0 0 7
W illiams: That first one was just my whole downfall’
(Continued from page 1)
It was during his childhood
that Williams first discovered
what would lead him down a
dark path: alcohol.
Williams began to experiment
with alcohol as early as age six.
“Right from the get-go I was
an alcoholic,” he said.
was
already liking the taste o f the
whiskey and the wine.”
W hen he finally en tered
school, Williams said, “It was
hard for me to mix with kids
here.” ,
Standing in the com er be
came as customary to Williams
during his boarding school years
as waxing floors and polishing
shoes as punishment.
“That did help me, though,
to learn to kind o f get along with
people, to have a voice and
opinions,” Williams said. “The
horses and cows wouldn’t an
swer me back, so the other opin
ions o f people were starting to
help.” .
Around the same time that
Williams took up the sport o f
baseball (he dreamt o f playing
for the Dodgers), he suffered
another devastating loss when
his horse died.
I t was, Williams explained,
just another period o f dealing
with his relationship with God,,
“H e took my life away from
me right there again. That was
my horse. Without that horse I
became nothing,” Williams ex
plained.
Still, his parents served as
motivation to him at an early age
and throughout his childhood,
“My father was one o f my
greatest inspirations,” Williams
explained. With his father’s help,
Williams became an able, handy
man and learned as much as he
could.
O f his mother, W illiams said,
¡“She, was really my inspiration
to learn more.” Though she only
had a third grade education,
Williams said, “She had to be at
least six to seven times smarter
than I was.”. .
Williams has stories o f sitting
on rubber mats during lightning
storms while in a lookout tower
with his father, watching his fa
ther pinpoint forest fires for
awaiting crews.
H e once fantasized o f fol
lowing. in his father’s footsteps
and pored over pamphlets about
firefighting and logging.
Williams even sought out
training in the field and began
to learn how to fly planes. Even
tually, the hold that alcohol took
over his life overran everything
else— until now.
Years of bitterness
Cigarettes and alcohol be
came a normal fixture in his life
when those around him began
drinking regularly, Williams said.
According to Williams,,. “It
was just something everybody
else was doing. I t probably
looked cool to me.”
His older brothers also turned
to alcohol and quickly became
entangled with the law.
W h en W illiam s saw his
brother being taken away by the
police, he said, “That’s when I
. started running into trouble.”
“If it wasn’t a hatred o f cops
it was just a mistrust,” Williams
added. “Those were my really
bitter years, watching them take
my brothers away.”
Years later Williams found
him self averaging 40 miles o f
walking per day while searching
for cans to cash in for the de
posit in order to buy more alco
hol.
“I would just walk and walk
and walk for that extra mile. I f
I didn’t have enough cans I
would walk another five or ten
miles for enough to get it,” he
said.
Williams explained, “My body
needed that alcohol. In my mind
I knew I wanted it. My body
needed it to keep on function
ing and keep on going.”
He camped by the river with
others who ch o se the same
lifestyle, Williams said. But it was
not a pleasant way to live.
“There were many times I sat
along that river and thought there stuck in a cattle guard,”
about jumping in,” Williams said. he said. “Someone finally found
B u t because he knew how to me and took me to the hospi
swim, he knew his instincts tal” .
would kick in and he would just
Even that experience didn’t
swim back out.
frighten him away from alcohol.
It once came to that— Will For a brief time, he said, it only
iams fell in, but swam to the made him more careful.
shore. Once he returned to his
camp and got into dry clothes, Stayed by the river
¡As for his children, Williams
Williams turned right back to
alcohol.
said, alcohol definitely affected
“I didn’t think nothing about his relationship with them.
freezing, I went back to my
“I always tried to make it to
drinking” Williams said. “It's just their graduations and all their
so powerful and addictive that Christmas programs,” he said.
there is nothing else more im “T he alcohol was in the way.”
portant, not even the life itself.?
It didn’t take much alcohol
“It was always the only thing either, he added.
on my mind, as soon as I woke
r “A* times it wouldn’t even
up— how am I going to get my take m ore than two or three
drinks and I would be in the
next one?”
A t th a t p o in t, W illiam s ^blackout stage,” W illiams said.;.;
cam ped by the river w ith a
A fter awhile, Williams de
group o f elders. Since they were cided it would be best just to
unable to walk, Williams would stay out o f the lives o f those
begin walking during early morn around him.
ing until he had enough cans to,
“That’s why I chose to stay
cash in.
alopg the river,” Williams ex
. “Much o f that time I was not plained. O ften he would just
allowed in the store,” Williams start walking, som etim es to
said. ,‘T had to wait for some states as far as South Dakota—
“Just to see what’s over that next
body to take the cans in.”
N o matter the cost, Williams mountaih or that next river,”
always kept drinking— even Williams said.
though it meant risking his life
But always, he added, “Deep
in my mind I knew I just had to
even more.
.
A t one point, Williams said, quit”
D rinking kept him frequently
he turned to trash bags fo r
warmth while he slept. W hen in trouble with the law as well.
som eo ne to o k his cam ping Throughout his life, Williams has
equipment, he had to crawl in been to prison six times.
side large trash bags during the - “I don’t blame the law for
night :>
sending me to all o f my alcohol
“That was not fun,” he said. programs,” Williams said. “But
“It was survival, actually, but it; when I was court ordered that
was just kind o f more o f a slow put me on a defense.”"'
death more than anything else.”
“I couldn’t wait for that door
But death wasn’t something to open,” he added.
Williams found concerning. At
“It wasn’t the law, it was just
the time, he said, “I f I did not the obsession and the possession
wake up, at least I would be dy o f alcohol that just overruled,”
ing happy, having that alcohol.” he added.
One o fth e closest calls came
B u t it’s no t that W illiams
when Williams fell into a cattle never tried to stop drinking.
guard and became stuck. B e
“So many times I Sat along
cause freezing rain was pouring that river looking around and
down, he nearly died o f over wondering if I should go walk
up in the mountains and sit
exposure.
“I was freezing to death right dow n fo r a few days and
hol has done to me. There’s no
way I can reverse that. I will die
an alcoholic even though I do
not care for it no more or want
it no more. It’s still destroying
my life, and it will not stop de
stroying my life. All o f those
decisions I made were the wrong
ones. I ’m still lost in that bottle
and I c a n t open it. I ’m still suf
fering for what I ’ve done.”
“I don’t think I ’ll ever get
away from it. T h e long-term
effects— that will stay with me
the rest o f my life,” he added.
For now, Williams is content
to spend as much time as pos
sible with his “very beautiful
wife and grandchildren.” . ;
“That’s my highlight They’re
there with me and I ’m there for
them,” Williams said with a shy
smile.
According t p Williams, oth
straighten up,” he said.
Though he did just that on
several occasions, he was neve!
able to resist the temptation o f
alcohol. “I had no answer at all
except thaj I could not function
without it,” he explained.
Part o f the problem involved
being offered a drink.
Williams said it’s almost like
his body automatically took hold
o f the bottle being held out to
him. According to Williams, “To
stop the shakes I guess my body
just reacted and I just took it.”
After years o f sobriety, Will
iams is stjll realizing the havoc
that alcoholism caused in his life.
“I could be doing something
with my life now instead o f all
those years I spent wasted. That
alcohol just took away1 all o f
that,” he said ..
N ow that W illiams is ap
proaching retirement, he said,
he’s started to wonder about
how that will happen.
A cco rd in g to. W illiam s,
“Even nôw I have a rough time
trying to get over what the alco
ers often seek advice from him
about how to quit drinking.
“I tell them, ‘I can’t tell you.’
I made the wrong decision. I
tried to listen to other people.
That is up to the individual,” he
said.
After so many years o f drink
ing, W illiam s said, he o ften
thought, “Fifty years from now,
who is going to be buying me
that next drink?”
His past is something that still
haunts him today.
According to Williams, “ It
will never stop hounding me—
all the wrong decisions I made.”
“The worst one was to begin
in the first place. That first one
was just my whole downfall.”
Quality Automotive Service
Over 26
Years
Experience
Master ASE
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Technician
475-2412
85 SW 3rd Street (Located in the old Palmain Shop)
Jefferson County School District 509-J
J efferson C ounty
SCHOOL DISTRICT
509J
445 SE Buff St. _ Madras, OR 97741
Phone (541) 475-0339 _ Fax (541) 475-8279
Office of the Food Services Supervisor
M^mmSNQ CHILDREN TO MBBT THE WORLD
“U S D A and the State o f O regon is equal opportunity providers and employers”
Summer Food Service Program
School’s Out Let’s Eat!!!
Food Service Truck will come to a central
location in your neighbor hood, or to your local
participating school.
Site Name/Location
Address
Meal Times
Program Dates
Warm Springs Elementary
School Cafeteria
1114 Wasco Street
Warm Springs, OR 97761
8:00 - 8:30 Breakfast
11:30-12:15 Lunch
July 3 -J u ly 27,2007
CLOSED JULY 4‘2007
Greely Heights
intersection at Quail Trail
Quail Trail
Warm Springs, OR 97761
11:00-11:30 Lunch
June 18 - August 10,2007
CLOSED JULY 4,2007
West Hills
Neighborhood Play Area
West Hills Drive
Warm Springs, OR 97761
11:45-12:15 Lunch
June 18 - August 10,2007 5
CLOSED JULY 4, 2007
Upper Dry Creek
Tommy Street
Upper Dry Creek
Warm Springs, OR 97761
11:0 0 -1 1:3 0 Lunch
June 18 - August 10,2007
CLOSED JULY 4,2007
Simnyside
Intersection at View Street
Sunnyside Drive
Warm Springs, OR 97761
1 1:45-12:00 Lunch
June 18 - August 10,2007
CLOSED JULY 4.2007
Simnasho
Long House Parking Lot
Asnamash Loop .
Warm Springs, OR 97761
v 1 2 :3 0 -1 :00 Lunch
June 18 - August 10,2007
CLOSED JULY 4, 2007
Westside Elementary
School Cafeteria
410 SW 4th Street
Madras, OR 97741
1 :0 0 -1 :3 0 Lunch
, June 18 - August 10,2007
CLOSED JULY 4, 2007
4
Metofius Elementary School
Play Ground Area
420 Butte Ave
Metoiius, OR 97741
1 1:00-11:30 Lunch
June 1 8 - August 10, 2007
CLOSED JULY 4,2007
Jefferson County Middle
School/ Cafeteria
1180 SE City View S t
Madras, OR 97741
8:00 - 8:30 Breakfast
11:30-12:15 Lunch
July 3 -J u ly 31,2007
CLOSDED JULY 4, 2007
Madras High School
Cafeteria
390 SE 10th Street
Madras, OR 97741
8:00 - 8:30 Breakfast
1 1:30-12:15 Lunch
July 3 -J u ly 27,2007
CLOSED JULY 4,2007
Summer Food Service Program Rules:
1. All children on site 1-18 years eat at no charge.
4. No meals w ill be served to adults.
2. Adults are not allowed to eat off of child’s plate.
5. All meals must be eaten on site.
3. Meals will only be served during assigned meal times.