Chess at Hickey School

Sorry, no photos of chess here. Cameras are not allowed inside the premise for security reasons.

The Charles H. Hickey Jr. School is a "reform" school in Baltimore County. It is physically located right behind St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. The first time I went there I thought that I would have no problem, but the directions given by Mapquest did not make sense to me and I did get lost on the way. Finally I made my way to Club Hill Road and drove up and down the street. Eventually I saw a sign telling me to turn left off Club Hill Road onto Old Harford Road. The postal address is Club Hill Road, but the school is actually located on Old Harford Road.

I coached chess there during the summer of 2008. Would I do it again? NO. When first asked I was excited, especially since I remember the Gospel, "When I was in prison, you visited Me."

But dealing with some of the kids is impossible. If I had a ghetto background and could talk that trash, I might had been successful. Some of the kids there and the staff respected me, but there were always the loud mouth kids who would ruin things for everybody. Coaching chess there was just one horrible experience for me.

I mentioned on another page that a neighbor told me that I'm not accepted at my church. How wrong he was. Where I am really not accepted is in many black groups where conformity is stressed. Many of them are still mentally on the Plantation and they don't realize that Ileft the Plantation centuries ago.