Desiree Sophie Lynn Standley Born November 24, 1982 |
Robby Auburn Standley Born May 31, 1994 |
I have had two children
born in Missoula, Montana. This fact alone gives me some
feeling
that it should be a home
of mine. That I should have some right to walk the streets as a man
that is good for the community.
A man that wants to produce and do good things for the city,
and try to do things that
help the youth in the city to make it a safer place where my daughter lives
Record will show that many
of the shows that I did in Missoula were in some way tied to trying to
help children and youth.
Some of what was mentioned above and some things no one knows that
I do as a man of letters
and a researcher and writer.
A few months before the birth
of my daughter, and the children feelings all around the hours I was
beginning to have many many
thoughts and feelings about my past work for children, and reading
more again about the state
and fate of children. After her birth on a cold November day in a982,
I
began to write a draft of
a work that I would title SOME
RAN EAST...SOME RAN WEST:
They
Are All Running Around in the Cuckoo's Nest. Doing the
research and realizing again
my work and concern for
so many millions of children suffer around America and the world I was
in the wild torn world of
the joy of a new baby daughter and the pain in my heart and gut from
seeing that in REALITY MILLIONS
OF CHILDREN WERE SUFFERING.
I was going crazy with all the realizations that was coming to me.
My wife went back to work
a week after Desiree was born. For the first year of her life
I was MR. MOM. I took care of
her all day while her mom worked, I got up with her at night cause
Kathy was too tired to get up
cause she was working full time. I had Dez potty trained, walking
and talking so early in her
life that was hard for all of us to believe...When she was asleep I
worked on Some Ran East...
wrote letter to legislators and sent many of them a copy of my work
to try and move them to
do something...the letter above and the following letter on the next
page will give some testament
to work I was doing in larger circles while I stayed around the nest
with my daughter and did
what I would around Missoula in ye ole business of music.
With me being Mr. Mom and Cathie making the minimum wage that was about
all Missoula
could offer a woman that was educated and a master photographer that
had worked for Ray
Manley in Tucson, Arizona who was one of the top nature photographers
in the world. So we
we were living hand to mouth. For me...a Okie/Texas cowboy that
had lived in Mexico and
Central and South America for the past seven years...Burrrrrrr.
Cold for month after month,
you drove on ice, walked on ice and just flat fall down on the ice.
I would just lay there and
laugh sometimes. Thinking of an old Jimmy Buffett line...."I
don't want to see it snow."
However, the cold offered me a life inside the warm apartment with my
new daughter and when
she was asleep I went to my books and writing on SOME RAN EAST...and
was trying to
dream up some ways to make money during a cold broke Missoula, Montana.
Hard nut to
crack. My minimum wage would not cover the daycare for our very
infant daughter. I
continued writing letters to member of the US Congress, State of Montana
and working with
the local folks...and doing the dark research on SOME RAN EAST...
My ex-wife and I are not getting along. She drinks a little much
I think, I know she works hard
and I think being a new mother at her age was not coming easy.
I was not able to really work
and in many ways neither one of us wanted to put Desiree in daycare...rock
and a hard place
and the marriage was going on the rocks. And, down the road and
looking back I think she
was having a affair with the man she would marry later down the road...meanwhile
while I
ride the road of divorce I am working with legislatures in Montana,
Texas and Washington, DC.
Representative Daniel Kemmis
Speaker of the House
Feb 16, 1983
Dear Mr. Standley:
Thank you for your recent letter and for the information
on your efforts on behalf of children. I appreciate
your evident concern for children and their problems
in our society.
I am enclosing a rough compilation of the status of
House and Senate bills relating to children introduced
so far this session...Thank you again for writing,
and please let me know your views on these or any
other legislative concerns.
Sincerely,
Daniel Kemmis
Speaker of the House
Like the movie "Lonesome Dove" which took place on the cattle trails
between Texas and
Montana, my life too was cutting a trail from Missoula to Austin, Texas.
While I tried to find
work and keep myself being a father, I continued to do work that had
become more and
more a passion in my heart and I could not keep from setting at the
desk and phone no matter
where my life might be at the time...
Austin, Texas 78711
March 28, 1983
Dear Mr. Standley,
I have received your letter of March 24 along with the attached materials
regarding
runaway children in Texas. I am aware you and Betty Button
have visited about
children's issues and our Senate Bill 771, relating to the establishment
of a Health
and Human Services Coordinating Council. I hope you will work
with us on this
and help secure the passage of the bill.
Several people have mentioned your good work to me and I look forward
to meeting
and working with you in the weeks ahead.
Assistant to Senator Chet Brooks
Chairman of the Human Resources Committee
