Episode 53 of Street Dreams Herbie Visits Harold

Herbie Schultz experienced what could best be described as a long night of the soul. He was only able to sleep for a couple of hours and woke up in an agitated state. He arose from his well used mattress and began pacing around his small bedroom. Herbie had adorned his bedroom wall posters with his favourite rock bands like Metallica and Megadeth. He would have liked to have had a high school diploma hung on his wall instead. Herbie dropped out of high school halfway through grade ten. Herbie had just turned thirty-three and was starting to assess his progress, or lack of it, in life.

Herbie’s personal assessment did not paint a very, pretty picture and this was what was causing Herbie so much angst that he was unable to return to sleep.

Both of Herbie’s biological parents had passed away when a bridge had collapsed while they were driving over it. Herbie was only five years old when this happened. The next several years found Herbie living in a series of foster or group homes. As a result, Herbie was unable to grow up with any sense of consistency or safety. For him, the world was a very, dangerous place to be.

When Herbie was ten years old, he was very happy to find a foster care couple who wanted Herbie to live with them in a suburban area of Winnipeg. During the next five years Herbie had enjoyed the happiest days of his life. Both his foster parents Bill and Wendy Patterson were wonderful people and Herbie quickly became emotionally attached to both of them.

Herbie grew especially attached to Bill. Bill Patterson became the father that Herbie never really had. Bill had been retired for two years now and had run a group home for troubled youth for most of his working career. He was now very much enjoying his early years of retirement. Mr. Patterson was sixty-two years old and was still active and healthy for a man of his age. His latest physicals performed at his doctor’s office were mostly positive. Bill’s physician, Dr. Harrison, happily informed Bill that he was a healthy man for his age and could be expected to live a long life. Dr. Harrison had only one concern, morbid obesity. His patient was 6’3” tall and hit the scales at close to three hundred pounds. Bill stuck with a solid and regular exercise routine rarely missing a workout, but his physical workout routines could not make up for his terrible eating habits. He loved his pizzas, burgers, potato chips and other assorted goodies that contain too many calories, sugar and starch.

So far, his heavyset build had not caused Bill any discernible health problems as he was still a very physically active sixty-year-old man. He occasionally felt some arthritic pain in his knees, but this only occurred when Bill was overdoing his exercise routines.