A Review of Jerry Pat Bolton's autobiography, Misdemeanors & Felonies: A Memoir
Jerry Pat Bolton's autobiography, Misdemeanors & Felonies, is, in his own words, "an apology," to his three children, Paula, Patricia and Nicholas. Jerry feels at this stage of his life that he owes it to them to explain why he wasn't there when they were growing up. The good news is that they are in touch with him and the discovery and healing has begun. This book is helping make that happen.
Jerry grew up in Taylor, Arkansas, thinking that he was the son of Sam and Orean Bolton. But there were signs, early on, that he didn't belong, and he knew it. Jerry was a rambunctious young man, more interested in exploring his environment and getting into occasional trouble at school and elsewhere. His mother was a strict disciplinarian and gave him tough love in the form of brutal beatings. This made him ashamed when he had to go to school with cuts and bruises and try to explain them to his classmates. Jerry's father, a soft spoken, hard-working man, never stepped in and always allowed his mother to run everything.
There were innuendos and whispers that Jerry picked up on as he was growing up, but none of his extended family or anyone else in that little town told him why things just weren't right. Finally, when Jerry was 16 and starting to be attracted to girls, the family made a run to Shreveport and came back with a little brother. Jerry put two and two together and determined that he, too, was adopted. Through friends, he had already started down the path towards deviant, destructive behavior. Hanging with bad boys, drinking beer, and sometimes, hooking up with bad girls.
To escape his situation, Bolton took to reading off by himself. Even did a little writing with encouragement at school. But he didn't do well in school, and after a fight with the superintendent of his high school, Jerry left and never looked back at education again. Instead, Jerry enlisted in the Air Force. Like many servicemen, he quickly found that to get away from the boredom of menial military jobs the best thing to do was spend his money for pleasure. Stationed in El Paso, he got his pleasure in Juarez in spades, practically living there until he ran afoul of the Mexican police. Transferred to Cheyenne, Jerry continued to find pleasure in loose women and dangerous activity, but eventually soured on the military and got himself dishonorably discharged.
Back in Taylor with no prospects, he immediately became infatuated with a young blonde named Marionette, and married her on a whim. That marriage only lasted a short while, but his first child, Paula, was born without him having an opportunity to be with her. Desperate for money, he stole a check out of a neighbor's mailbox and was soon on his way to federal prison.
While in prison, Jerry was attracted to printing and the Linotype machine. He became quite proficient with the Linotype, but not with his life. As soon as he was paroled, back in Taylor, he grew bored and skipped town and parole. He ended up in California, finding that women would take him in and that he could hitchhike and make money doing both from others generosity. Hence, his life of wandering expanded. Always returning to Taylor for reasons he didn't quite understand.
While skipping parole back in California again, he met Nanette and once again, got married. They had a baby girl, Patricia, that Jerry loved. But he found himself back in prison again for breaking parole. His in-laws, fortunately, got his parole transferred to New York City and Jerry was finally able to serve out his parole with a job in a print shop on Long Island. But Jerry Bolton couldn't stay in one place very long. So soon, he and Nanette were back in California where things deteriorated and she left him for good.
Jerry spent the next few years in the company of older women where he used them for money and they used him for sex. He found himself experiencing most of the drugs of the era, drinking and smoking and always spending every dime he ever got. That is, until he met Dorothy. She was retired military and there was something about her that settled him down. Computers were taking over Linotype typesetting, and Jerry could no longer find work there. Fortunately, he got jobs on ships and oil rigs cooking that paid well until both he and his wife, suffering from emphysema, had to quit work.
But Jerry's love of books, and his love of writing, continued. As a result, he has written many short stories, several novels, and finds that writing poetry is very good therapy. While he never reconnected with his first two wives, Bolton went searching on the Internet and found that not only Paula and Patricia were looking for him, but that he had a son, Nicholas, who Nanette was pregnant with when she left him.
If you like a story of how one person, living a destructive life in a way that, seemed surely would end very soon, with confrontations that, only by luck did Jerry Pat Bolton escape, then you'll find this story of redemption intriguing and very well written. While not for the squeamish or judgmental, I highly recommend Misdemeanors & Felonies for its life lessons.
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