You wanna hear some really sad, weird, depressing, happy, nostalgic stuff? I was talking with a partner, last night, down by the microwave, about 7 min. before we had to lockdown for a 9p.m count. I was sitting in an office chair, that has arms on it and some give in the frame, making it comfortable for sitting long periods of time, cause it has a nice smooth rock to it.
So as I'm sitting here, Chillaxing, my partner walks up and we get to building about the chair and how much we enjoy these chairs, in prison. These chairs are mainstays in all prisons across Ohio and they're very coveted by convicts and staff, alike! In some prisons, a convict can actually get in trouble for sitting in these chairs because staff are so adamant about making our lives as uncomfortable as possible. For them to see us enjoying a small creature comfort, such as, sitting in this particular chair, drives them mad with rage! That convict could suffer undue repercussions for incurring the wrath of said staff member, which could result in a trip to the Rules Infraction Board, after seeing the Sgt. for a reading of a ticket that would be labelled "Destruction of State Property!" Yeah sounds serious, huh!? That is how coveted these chairs are in prison.
Now as my partner and I were talking about this chair we began reminiscing about being in other prisons, and taking one of these chairs, when you're lucky enough to find a stray one, in the dorm to your cell, hopefully undetected, so you can keep it for awhile. Once you get it in your cell you'd dress it up by putting a towel over it covering the back and seat cushion! A.) For sanitation purposes, everyone sits in them and who knows if their hygiene was up to par. B.) To disguise it from the random C.O. or staff member who may pass by your cell and look in. We laughed about that part cause it's Universal Law, across the board, amongst us Convicts, as far as what to do once you're lucky enough to acquire one of these coveted prizes for your own.
Our conversation then turned into a major display of nostalgia over the immense pleasure we'd have every time we'd enter our cell, after acquiring our precious chair. Being able to come in, sit down, rock back resting our backs, butts and putting our feet up on our bed, while we watch t.v., listen to music or get into some nefarious activities, such as smoking a little marijuana or drinking some homemade hooch. :-) Which BTW is actually legal to do if you're a free person, come home, sit in your comfortable seat to have a drink and a smoke of some recreational reefer! But the peace we feel, for those few hours, is definitely worth the repercussions, for that rule infraction, to us! Especially while we give away decades of our life to the state as payback for a law we broke. Now being in this prison, where the cells are way too small for us to even think about bringing that precious, coveted prized chair, into our cell!
So when my partner walked up and noticed the look of enjoyment on my face as I sat rocking back and forth while listening to my music, that scene, made my partner and I have to actually spend 10 full minutes reminiscing about the times we had in our, separate but identical, experiences, that released enough endorphins in us, to emit a type of euphoric response, where we actually began flexing and somewhat dancing around during the conversation, about A CHAIR! Sad huh, what jail can reduce huge, strong, grown men too!? Thanks for listening.