It’s that time of year again when VJJA members from around the Commonwealth and beyond make travel plans for the Annual Fall Institute held in one of Virginia’s major metropolitan areas. This year the Institute site is the Wyndham Roanoke Airport, which is not actually an airport at all but a hotel situated in close proximity to an airport. The last time VJJA convened in the Star City was 1998, at the very same hotel except then it was called the Roanoke Marriott.
This time of year always brings back memories for me; memories of Institutes Past. Cesare Pavese once wrote, “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” These are some of the moments I remember from the Institutes of the past 25 years.
My very first (VJOA) Institute was a Spring get-together held in March of 1982 at the Bonhomme Richard in Williamsburg. I clearly remember sitting in a training session on the first day of that conference when my boss, 15th District CSU Director Al Chaplin, appeared at the door and motioned for me to come into the hallway. “What are you doing in there?” he asked rather abruptly. “Isn’t this your first trip to Williamsburg? Get out and see the sights, boy!” So I did. Eleven years later, I found myself back in Williamsburg at another VJJA conference, this time at the Fort Magruder Inn. It was on November 9, 1993, and DYFS Director Charles Kehoe entered the opening session to announce that Al Chaplin had suddenly passed away that morning. In Al’s honor, I left the conference and spent the day at The Pottery.
The 1985 Institute held in March at Richmond’s Marriott Hotel is memorable to me because it is the only time I can recall the President’s Reception ever being shut down by hotel security. In all fairness, that action was not taken until the third time security asked us to keep the noise down. The truly memorable part came as the revelers were being marched out of the room single file with our heads down in shame and disappointment; except, of course, for one Claudia Pennick, the Institute’s Assertiveness Training Instructor. I was walking just behind Ms. Pennick when she stopped in the doorway and addressed one of the uniformed security staff nose-to-nose. “I’ll tell you one thing right now,” Ms. Pennick told the officer in a quiet yet stern voice. “I ain’t NEVER comin’ back to THIS hotel.” And she walked out. All I could do was smile sheepishly and follow her out the door.
I also vaguely remember the 1987 Institute at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. This was the Institute with the substance abuse theme when the Board used a donation from a prominent residential substance abuse program to buy liquor for the President’s Reception. It was shades of Iran-Contra. That was also the conference when my roommate and I “borrowed” an unopened half-gallon of Rebel Yell from the President’s Reception and carried it to several parties throughout the hotel. “We can’t let it go to waste,” my roommate said at the time. “There are sober children in India.”
The 1989 Institute was held in the Spring and was VJJA’s first at the Sheraton Park South in Richmond. I remember this conference because I really liked the hotel AND because one of the Keynote Speakers was Dr. Ben Bissell. What a funny guy! Even though I never heard Dr. Bissell speak before or since that time, I can still remember some of the funny stuff he said.
And speaking of funny stuff people say, one of my most memorable Institutes was one that I didn’t even register for. In 1992, the Annual Fall Institute fell smack dab in the middle of Virginia’s first week of deer season, so I had no intention of attending. However, Association President Dave Marsden had challenged me to a debate: “Be it resolved that the manufacture and sale of handguns shall be illegal in Virginia.” So I came out of the woods early and traveled to Richmond’s Sheraton Park South for an evening debate with Mr. Marsden. He argued for the resolution; I argued against it. I won the debate, of course, even though Dave has never conceded.
While I can’t remember much about the 1995 Institute, again held at the Sheraton Park South in Richmond, I do recall that being the time Richard Hagy visited Eddie Fowler at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital where Eddie was waiting on a donor heart for a transplant. Richard reported back to the membership at the Awards Luncheon that Eddie was in good spirits and was encouraging “everyone to drink a lot and drive real fast while they’re in Richmond; especially you big guys.” It was simultaneously one of the sickest and funniest things I’d ever heard. 1995 was also the year Dave Marsden received the Meritorious Service Award for Administration. At first, I thought I’d there must be some mistake; but when Dave bounced up to the podium to receive the award it was clear he indeed had been selected. I packed my bags and went home that afternoon.
The 1996 Institute at the Sheraton Inn in Charlottesville, too, is a bit of a blur; but I can distinctly remember watching Bob Truitt receive the Robert H. Sutton Humanitarian Award that year. I may even have said a few words at the Awards Luncheon about Mr. Truitt. If I did, and they were kind words, then I’m sure I meant whatever it was I might have said.
I know I didn’t attend the 1997 Institute at the Koger Center in Richmond because that was the year Bridges Radick Spiva first performed her backward somersault beer drinking trick. I would not witness that until a few years later after some said her dexterity had significantly declined. I’m fairly certain I was in Roanoke at the 1998 Institute because I received some type of award. I didn’t attend the 1999 Institute because I had no one to baby sit my children, the “demon spawns” as we call them around the house.
The 2000 Institute sticks out in my mind because that was the year Bill Weaver received his second Meritorious Service Award for Administration. I miss Bill, especially this time of year. It was also the year some disturbed individual interrupted the session on Ritual Crime and the Occult by shouting at the presenter. Did we ever find out who that dude was? Is he still a member?
While credit card receipts reflect my attendance at VJJA Institutes in 2001 through 2003, my next memorable moment did not take place until the 2004 Institute at the Williamsburg Hospitality House. This memory comes in the form of a senior moment as I was sitting in my room sipping bourbon with Rodney Hubbard, Dave Lively, and Chuck Watts. Rodney, Dave and I were recounting our colonoscopy experiences for Chuck who had scheduled his first of these procedures. Just down the hall from us laughter wafted and music blared from the President’s Reception. Suddenly, our room became silent. Rodney finally broke the silence: “There’s a party down the hall and we’re in here talking about our colonoscopies. What’s wrong with this picture?” We all nodded in agreement.
The next Institute (2005) found Rodney flat on his back in Intensive Care at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital waiting for a heart transplant. On the way to that Institute in Virginia Beach, Rod Jones and I stopped off to visit with Mr. Hubbard. The elderly volunteer at the ICU waiting room advised us in no uncertain terms that only immediate family members were allowed visitation in the ICU. (Editor’s Note: Mr. Jones and I are Caucasian; Mr. Hubbard is not.) “We’re his brothers,” Rod told the lady as we both smiled at her. She scurried off down the hall and was gone long enough to confirm Rodney’s racial identity. “You boys don’t fool me,” the old lady scowled at us upon her return. But we were able to visit Rodney anyway.
For me, no Institute yet has topped last year’s 40th Anniversary Celebration when Awards Chair Scott Warner duped me into presenting Dave Marsden with the Robert H. Sutton Humanitarian Award. I’ll never forget standing up in front of 500 people presenting that prestigious award while reading the presentation for the first time. It was like watching an automobile accident – horrifying, yet I could not turn away.
Through the misty mist of Institutes Past, these are some of the memories and moments which return to me each Autumn. I hope you can join your colleagues in Roanoke in November to create some memories of your own.
(Gary Conway is the Director of
the 25th District Court Service Unit with offices in Staunton,
Waynesboro, Lexington, Covington and Botetourt.)
DJJ Director Barry Green gives new meaning
to
Casual Fridays at Central Office.
