Additional information
by William J. Pardue (Author), Patrick J. Pardue (Author)
My story is a true life drama set in the remote east Texas woods in 1971. The main characters are ten emotionally disturbed delinquent teenage boys from the Southside of Chicago. The boys had been rejected from Chicago and Illinois juvenile facilities and from the boys ranch in Austin Texas. As a final effort to save these boys from themselves they became part of an outrageous plan to send them into the woods without running water, electricity, shelter, telephones, television, doctors and police. In that remote location together with two counselors they were to learn to live in society by first learning to live within a tribe. The counselors responsibility was to keep everyone alive first and to bring them together as a tribal unit second.
It was 1971 and Richard Nixon was president, the Vietnam War had been dragging on for 10 years and racial tension had been boiling over for that same decade. I had just graduated from college and was off to my first job. It had been described by the social worker who hired me as a "camping experience" with mountain climbing, white water rafting, and wilderness living. It sounded perfect. In reality the job was the doorway to the epic battle between good and evil, trust and love versus hate and violence. Charlie and the other counselors hopefully brought love and trust to the camp and the boys brought a lifetime of hate, violence and distrust to the camp. The story deals with that day to day battle between these human emotions.
