Lawrence Howard:
CLASS OF 1971
South River High SchoolClass of 1971
South river, NJ
Farmington High SchoolClass of 1971
Farmington, MI
East Middle SchoolClass of 1967
Farmington, MI
Lawrence's Story
Life
Well, I was born in Detroit and grew up in Milford and Farmington. I moved to New Jersey in 1966 when my Dad was transfered to the New York region of Detroit Diesel Allison. I attended South River High School with a bunch of people I didnt know very well. I never acclimated well there and left NJ for good in 1975 when I joined the Army. I was medically retired from the Army in 1978 when it was found that I had Hodgkins Disease. I was cured, obviously. I was listed as cured by the VA in 1983.
I moved to California in '78 with some Army buds and settled in the LA area. It was pretty cool. I was able to go back to working and I floated around different jobs. Bought a Harley and continued to live my life-long lifestyle as a biker. Had a blast riding around SoCal and partying with people, riding up to the desert hot springs, partying naked while making a ton of money as an outlaw auto recycler when I felt like it. My business partner and I drove around neighborhoods in my pickup and bought junk cars from people. We then took those cars to Novak's American Metals in Ontario and sold them for scrap. We took whatever we could off the cars, first, and sold that. All tolled, if we paid $50 for a car, we usually made $400 per car by the time we were done with it. We usually junked about 5-6 cars a week, on average. I had at least $400 or more in my pocket at any given time, and this was in the early 80's.
I attended college for awhile, at Chaffey College in Alta Loma and Antelope Valley College in Lancaster.
I had a drug/alcohol problem and put myself into an institution for that kind of thing. I'm now clean and sober.
I got married in 1988 and was married for 15 years.
I was a Letter Carrier for 13 years and served as Chief Shop Steward for the Letter Carriers Union for 7 of those years in Palmdale, California. Lancaster, where I live today, and Palmdale are next door to each other. Palmdale is where the Space Shuttle and all kinds of other military aircraft are built. The area is also used by movie makers as backdrops for literally hundreds of movies. Several movie actors live around here as well.
I suffered a major heart attack in September of '02 and had to retire from the USPS early on disability.
I'm now in a long term relationship with my girlfriend Anne and we talk from time to time about tying the knot. As divorcees, we want to make sure that this time we do it right. Anne is a wonderful gal, but I think that any woman who can put up with me is someone pretty special. Anne, however, rises above them all and I consider myself blessed to have her in my life.
I went out and bought another Harley in '00 and rode with my good bud from work and his friends until his death on New Years Day of '02. I needed to replace him somehow. I got to know some guys who are members of the Hessians Motorcycle Club and became a Prospect. Six months later I was patched out and ride with them today. I currently serve as Chapter Secretary/Treasurer and also serve as the political information officer. Being a member of an outlaw MC has its ups and downs, and that mostly stems from media bias, Hollywood B movies and law enforcement propaganda. Outlaws have had to change with the times and were out to prove to everyone that were all about riding and having fun these days.
I've been an outlaw all of my life, but I'm not ashamed of anything I've done. I've managed to stay out of jail, keep a clean record, and live my life the best way I know how. I'd like to think I've contributed and that people have benefited from knowing me. I do what I think is right and thats the way its always gonna be. The one thing I refuse to do is walk in lock step with the hypocricies of modern day society and become one of societies slaves.
I wish anyone who may read my bio well. I hope you've had a fulfilling and rewarding life since high school. And I hope that you continue to be richly rewarded in whatever you choose to do.
School
Life at SRHS, for me, wasn't the kind of high school existance that one would look back upon with joyful memory. I consider that to be my fault up to a point. I could have very easily fallen into the groove but I chose not to. The fact that I was suddenly uprooted from my life in Michigan to go to what to me was a foreign land full of strange people, at age 13, didn't bode well.
I think the person who made a lot of differenc...Expand for more
e to me there was Mr. Swenson. He was a person I think I am better off for having known.
I do remember fondly the way that Richie Zaber and I messed with Mr. Sivess and Big Al. That was fun.
Other than that, dealing with the unbridaled arrogance of the holier-than-thou collegiate crowd and just the awful place high school can be anyway, my life at SRHS was unremarkable, and it was a great day when it ended. I'm sure that nobody notices my absense at reunions, so all is well.
You know, writing this stuff is kinda therapeutic!
College
I attended Chaffee College in Alta Loma and Antelope Valley College in Lancaster. My main focus was completeing the general educational requirements for an AA, and I concentrated on English, Writing, Law, and Physical Science. I took an Ethics course that was completely bizarre; there were no right answers, only directions to take issues, and this went against my absolute thinking processes. The class was really an excercise that I benefited from, but I barely passed the class. Otherwise, I was usually on the Deans List. Quite a departure from high school, where I barely squeaked by. The difference was that I wanted to be there. I'd like to go back someday if the opportunity presents itself.
Workplace
Since I left SRHS, I've been a chemical batcher, soldier, chemical batcher again (this time in California), outlaw auto-recycler, truck driver, heavy equipment operator and letter carrier. I spent 13 years working at the PO in Palmdale.
It was rewarding in the fact that the pay and benefits were excellent, and it was a curse in the fact that it was the only employment, that I ever had, that try's to fire people as soon as they hire them. My 10 point Veterans Preference is essentially what got me on and my tenacity is what kept me there. Dealing with Postal Management was sometimes a never ending struggle, or it was peace in the valley. The job, itself, was easy but it also could get very monotonous.
I became Chief Shop Steward for the carriers union basically when I was drafted into the position one night at a union meeting. I told them OK, but don't give me any crap if I screw up. My grievance win/loss record was 4 to 1, which is pretty good at the office level. However, all I got from the rank and file was crap, no matter what. They basically wanted me to pull rabbits out of a hat all of the time, without issueing me a rabbit or a hat. It was those people who finally drove me away from that job. Then they all couldn't understand why I quit. You would have had to have been there.
Since I had my second heart attack, I've had to retire. The money now really isnt all that bad, but I'd still like to be making at least what I did before. I make side income doing oddball stuff, which is kind of a luxury actually. And I'm busy as an officer in the Hessians and with my family, so life is good.
Military
My time in the Army was interesting. I was working at a place in East Brunswick called Kem Manufacturing as a product batcher when this recruiter calls me up one day. Looking to get out of New Jersey, I jumped on it.
I took Basic at Ft. Dix, NJ in the summer of 1975. Since I had prior experience in the field that I went in for, I did not go to AIT. I was assigned to B Co. 9th Signal Battalion at Ft. Lewis, Washington.
What made my Army life so interesting, for me anyway, was the fact that it was the first time, in my life, that I just blew everything off and struck out on my own. The irony is that I joined the military, an organization that is regimented by its nature.
But being stationed in the Pacific Northwest was not only cool but it put me that much closer to my real goal, California.
Unfortunatley, the Army is where I got into the use of illegal drugs in a major way. I even sold black hashish imported from Germany to make extra money, and I'm thankful that I was never busted doing that. That was an incredibly stupid thing to do, but that was then.
One day, nearing the end of my first enlistment, I had to take a physical. They found a massive cancer mass in my chest cavity that they called Stage IIIA Hodgkins Disease. After 6 pretty intense months of things like open chest surgery, radiation and what not, I was put on the Disability Retired list with a 100% rating from the Presidio of San Francisco, and collect E-4 retired pay and benefits to this day. I was retired in October 1978.
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