And So It Begins.......

Richard Kendrick Moon was born on March 13, 1950. He had a normal upbringing and was liked by everyone. One person on Facebook has described teenage Rich as, "having it all: looks, brains, athleticism, and popularity". Rich was well-liked by all and there wasn't anything about him that would cite trouble down the road or raise any red flags. My dad met Rich after high school, each were around 18 or 19 years old. They were working the same summer job unloading boxes for Williams Shoe Co. My dad described him as being "a nice, normal guy who did not stick out in the least". They parted ways when summer ended and my dad joined the Air Force. It wasn't until after he returned from Vietnam that he saw Rich again, only this time it was a much different version. Rich was not the same guy that my dad had remembered; his hair had grown long and scraggly. Rich's overall appearance would best be described as unkempt and this was not even 10 years after they had worked together as teenagers.  My dad became reacquainted with Rich as everyone else saw him now, endlessly walking around Portsmouth, always alone, always as if he were on a journey whose destination only he knew. While walking down the street is how you will usually see Rich occasionally he could be seen having emphatic conversations with no one but himself. Add up all of the evidence and you might jump to the conclusion that Rich Moon was simply an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. You know what they say about those who assume.... By the time I realized that Rich was a semi-permanent fixture on the streets of Portsmouth I thought that he was a homeless man who had nowhere to go. A while later I was told the urban legend about Rich that had spread through Portsmouth for years. Rich Moon was not a man suffering from mental illness, nor was he homeless. The story was that Rich had ingested an incredible amount of acid that he had on his person to avoid going to jail and it had forever altered his brain. What? That tale sounds like something you would hear in a health class to keep you scared straight from the dangers of illegal substances. But wait, it couldn't actually be true? Or could it.......