I was also going to Norman's house very often as there was a lot of planning in progress, for both scouts and his project for attaining his Eagle rank. During the course of this planning, Norm said his uncle agreed to order real KKK items for him and Norm asked if I wanted any. He was picking up the real cards so I looked at the list and found it horribly expensive for the little that you got.

I decided to purchase a small packet of their literature, as I knew what they were all about, but wanted to find out what they said they were about. It dawned on me that Norm was serious about this.

I said, "I didn't think you were serious about them, I guess that you'll be joining them."

"No, I can't. I'm not allowed."

"Well that will be changing soon, you'll be over 18 and you won't have to listen to your parents."

"No, Mike. You don't understand. I am Catholic and the Klan hates me as much as black people. In fact, I am considered a white nigger."

It blew my mind, "God damn it Norm! Then why do you play with all of this ... Oh, never mind!" Norm just busted out laughing, and I came to the conclusion it was just to mess with us.

Despite this Tom (Sawyer-like) foolery, Norm was very serious in all other respects. As the Senior Patrol Leader of the Troop, I was putting in over twenty hours each week in planning and coming up with ideas for scouts, Norm was spending many more hours.

In addition, unlike myself, who said FU to merit badge advancement. Norm was going crazy and devoting a tremendous amount of time towards advancement and many of his merit badges weren't easy. Norm got caught by a neighbor to an abandoned Nike Missile base that Norm entered and explored. With his car blocked in by the neighbor who took the information to give to the FBI, bull shitted his way out of trouble by identifying himself as a boy scout working on aviation merit badge.

He so charmed the bases, next door neighbor, he had him helping him retrieve the documents that were left behind. Nothing was classified, but it was the greatest collection of aviation material that I have ever seen. Norm decided to pursue that merit badge, which would propel his interest right into academia and NASA.

In my opinion, he deserved the rank of Eagle and it was time for him to do his eagle project and he planned a humdinger of a project, far exceeding the requirements time demand. The National Aquarium in Baltimore was nearing its completion and was preparing to open shortly in August of 1981. Norman stated his need for a project and asked if the Aquarium had any ideas for a capacity that they could operate in.

They did, while they had a volunteer program, the Aquarium wanted a special group to assist security in three areas: 1) The seal tank that was located outside. 2) The open areas on the walkway above the dolphin pool. 3) The open area above the Coral Reef before it went into the spiral walkway that showed off its depths.

Before it opened, we met with the directors of the aquarium who were Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. After the meeting concluded and we shook hands, Mrs. Taylor took us out to an area on the mezzanine overlooking the dolphins. It was not only awe inspiring, it had an element of sanctity that was bolstered by Mrs. Taylor lifting her arm in a wave and saying, "Gentlemen, welcome to my house."

I went home and told my dad about this and his exact words were, "I know the Taylors', they are a very black and aristocratic family. Mike, don't get on their bad side." For whatever reason, that really scared me.

Because I was Norman's number two in command of his project, he apprised me of much of the project, but apparently not all. With the seal tank, it was basically stopping people from throwing things in the tank from above. This was a public space and we were to give two warnings before notifying security. The area above the dolphin tank was easy, keep people from sitting on the railings or running. Items that fell headed towards the skimmer or could be picked up by the divers.

The coral reef was my heart-breaker. For whatever reason it had bad karma, I was forever pulling baby pacifiers and people hats out of the tank using a net. The hard part was they had a problem of the pan fish flopping in the intake vents. It took only a short time to before we all realized with the fish this happened to, they would never recover.

After less than a week, the divers asked us not to put them back in, but to put them into a bucket of water, just inside of the stairwell. What really hurt me about this was, there always seemed to be a child who asked me if the fish would be alright. I could only lie, as I told them that he is headed for the fish hospital to get better so he could soon join his friends.

The aquarium wasn't happy as this was a design flaw in the system and they truly loved and appreciated the fish that they cared for. But there was also a financial consideration; most of those pan fish were valued between $500.00 and $2,000.00. This was temporary concern as a design fix was immediately in the works. While it wounded the aquariums pride, it bolstered my appreciation of the scope involved in such massive endeavors.

The security department was an all black affair, and I enjoyed meeting all of them as they were very nice people. I loved the job I was doing and even felt that it would be one that was worth paying for. However, it would only take my third day of working there for me to be involved with a racial incident.

Her name was Westy. I felt, I accidentally backed into her breasts and brushed them with my body. Embarrassed, I apologized and she replied, "There's no need." She rubbed her breasts into me again and declared, "I want to love your white ass; it's mine."

The chase was on and I was running through the aquarium trying to escape her clutches, scared to death. I realized the futility of trying to hide as I had only access to only three stairwells, whereas she was able to go through the pump rooms, class rooms, and labs. The good thing was she would appear to come and go, only occasionally. Bad thing? I never knew when she would pop up again.

After three days, I was at wits end in dealing with this out of control, nymphomaniac black bitch. I tried diplomacy, bargaining, rationalization and well, straight talk and attempting to come to an agreement, but nothing but myself would satisfy her. Then the thought of, "Fight fire with fire," came into my mind.

The next time she rubbed me, I rubbed back and said the words, "Honey bear! I'm ready." The chase was on, but this time, I was chasing a terrified Westy. During this chase, which was now occurring on the walkway above the dolphin tank, I was excitedly relaying my ideas of how to satisfy her. But my problem was, I didn't have that access to the Aquarium that she did. She simply disappeared.

It wasn't long for me to get back to my station at the seal tank, when Mrs. Taylor walked up to me and said, "Mike, we need to talk. I don't know who this honey bear is of yours, but the visitors just wouldn't understand. Please keep you statements with "Honey Bear,' [she giggled] under wraps." I promised to do so.

But, the next time I was there, I had a problem to deal with above the seal tank and realized that Westy was trapped, as she was seated at a station where tickets are checked. After dealing with my problem, I went back to Westy and yelled, "My Honey Bear, I am ready and decided that you are the only one for me. I want to give you my virginity!' All I can say to myself was, "Poor Westy! Objective achieved..."

However, back down on the ground level of the seal tank, was Mrs. Talyor and she wasn't happy in the slightest. "Mike, I thought we had a conversation yesterday. I think you have things confused, The National Aquarium of Baltimore, is located on Light Street, not Baltimore Street. [Which is Baltimore's infamous block of strip joints.] If you and your Honey Bear have it that bad, go there and take a lunck. Understand? Don't make me talk to you again."

All I could say is, "Message received." I felt so bad that I came clean to Norman, be he was very forgiving and even formally introduced me to Westy. I was so happy that he wasn't mad at me for jeopardizing his Eagle project. Westy not only became a friend, but a blessing. When we passed stations, it was an honor to take a minute out and chat here and there. She exemplified what a real woman was to me.

Pretty much, things slipped back to a flow of normal life for a couple of weeks with me and I was very happy to be part of Norm's project and how wonderful was my, boring usual life. Half way through his project, came the day that would be known as, "The day the black people went crazy on me."

My first station was at the Dolphin area. I wasn't five minutes in to my shift when a black man yelled, "Hey!" When I looked, he looked at me dead in the eyes and spit on the carpet. I wondered what his problem was. That thought was interrupted with another black man walking up to me and yelling in my face, "I ought to beat the hell out of you, but you aren't worth jail boy!"

This black male aggressiveness was to be common stay, but my ire was increased as innumerable black women were saying things like, "It doesn't matter that you don't like us, we're Christian and will always love you ... I sorry that you feel this way ... " The most grating was, "I'll pray for your soul."

I became concerned when Westy walked by and said, "Boy, you're just going to get yourself killed." I asked her how and she replied, "You know." That response didn't help.

Just before lunch, I was at the seal tank outside when Mr. Taylor walked up to me and yelled, "There is something going on at this aquarium that I don't like. If I think you're responsible, I will have you removed from this property in hand cuffs!"

"Mr. Taylor, will you please tell me what's going on?"

He turned on me with the most anger that I ever witnessed and yelled, "That's not how we figure out what's going on!" All I knew was, I sure felt naked now.

After lunch, it was pretty much the same at the aquarium, but it took on further dramatic tones. I caught a boy jumping the rails that protect the center hole in the Coral Reef tanks, which was something that required a quirt and immediate response. When I told the boy to come to me, he did so shaking like a leaf. I corrected another boy, and I thought the mother would half kill him, "What are you doing getting people like him pissed off, all he needs is one excuse!"

I was glad that my days shift was winding down and I had about half an hour left, I was outside at the seal tank stopping several people from throwing objects into the tank from above. There was a group of black boys that refused to listen, so I went to the security office to notify them.

I was shocked at the response from the officer behind the desk, "Nope! You think you have a problem from one of my brothers, you deal with it." He then folded his arms and turned his back to me.

"Fine, I will!" I grabbed the megaphone and went topside, a man with a mission. I stood right behind the boy that was the ring leader and pointed it right to the back of his head. Just a puff on the microphone sent head penetrating feedback though his head. I took a step back and yelled, "You have been warned several times, now you will leave the area immediately!"

Just as the boys took off, there was apparently a security guard assigned to me, as they thought I was going to use the megaphone to bash the kids head in. He said, "Boy, you really don't like black people! Do you?"

I had enough of this crap and holding the megaphone like a gun, put it to his chest and pushed him to the railing, "Now, you tell me what's going on or I'll push you over the rail."

From his front shirt pocket, he pulled out a Ku Klux Klan card. That explained everything to me. I found that my Honey Bear was outside and I conned her out of her radio, explaining that she had a new one with special features. To her dropping jaw, I immediately got on and said, "This is an Aquarium wide security alert. The volunteer worker, Michael Kohlman is not a member of the Ku Klux Klan, he is a victim of a practical joke perpetrated by Norman ______!"

At my station, Westy came back, and was dangling her walkie-talkie from its antenna and said, "Norm says that he will have a very interesting response."

Norm got on and said, "Yes, it's true, they are my KKK cards, but Michael has their literature. How do you think that I got the cards?" Well, to me it was obvious that Norm left out a few of the details, like he was the one that ordered everything.

Several of the security guards lectured me about having such information, "... Now just look; the Klan are a very bad group of people and even if you purchase the literature, you are helping them out by spreading their hate ... But since you have it, could you give me a copy?" I agreed to bring the literature in with me the next day.

Norm wasn't going to be there until very late in the day, so I took the number 19 bus from Parkville, which dropped me off by the Inner Harbor. I was in the mood to do a social experiment, as I wondered what the response would be from average white people. I know that I approached at least 250 people, offering up my Kaln information. I could sum it up in a couple of phrases, "Go to hell asshole," or, "Fuck off." Not to mention the threats and insults, and while it was a harsh treatment, I felt refreshed about the attitude.

There were two takers, a young white adult with tattoos and a shaved head, who not only took the literature, he told me, "Yea, something has to be done with these niggers, they're out of control.

I thought to myself, "Yea, they should get rid of assholes like you!"

The other was my first black person; he had a shaved head and physique of a professional athlete. He said, "Hey, what cha handing out?"

"Ku Klux Klan literature."

"Hey, can I have one!" His blond, white girlfriend started cussing me out and physically beating on him. I never figured that the information would be good for causing an interracial fight between partners. I made it about fifteen feet away when I heard him yell, "God damn it woman! Get off of my case! Let, me have my say with that boy!"

He turned and approached me as if he was going to beat me up, but the dichotomy didn't make sense to me. As soon as we were face to face he said, "Quick, give me a copy. Could I have two?"

He stuck them up under his shirt like a kid hiding porn from his mother; he also apologized in a whisper, "I'm sorry, but I have to make this look good." At the top of his lungs he yelled, "You get my point boy!" Then he pushed me.

When I turned away from him, I was laughing like crazy at how he had to handle things.  An elderly black man asked me what that was all about and not wanting another interesting situation, I responded, "It was a practical joke."  I hit the aquarium and within ten minutes, all of the literature was passed out to the line of security guards, who saw me coming and were waiting.

They read it with apprehension and fear at first, and then would break out in a smile, next they started laughing. A couple of comments made back to me were, "Damn! I never figured they would be more scared of us, then we are of them."

Or, my favorite, "Well it's obvious to me that these people haven't been around black people. See here, they have us all rising up at the same time, taking over white America. You get three black men together to decide on a bar to go to, all were going to do is argue about it and settle on a six pack from a corner store, still arguing and never making the bar."

At lunch time, I was at the seal tank and Mr. Taylor came to greet me, He was very Billy Cosby like in demeanor. At least this time, he had a smile on his face, "Now Mike, you'd know that there would be hell to pay if I found people using my Aquarium for subversive purposes. Just imagine my surprise to discover that black people are sneaking in to the office to copy Ku Klux Clan information. You and Norm are too much." Norm's uncle wasn't too happy to find out about this one.

Norm got me another way, he knew about my family events that happened. It wasn't too long before, I mentioned that Baltimore's Mayor, William Donald Schaefer called the house. He had mom instantly upset and yelled over the phone at my father for a solid hour and a half.

Dad took that in stride, simply laying down the phone and typing another Letter To The Editor, stopping occasionally to see if Mayor was finished. After the Mayor calmed down, they spent a considerable time talking.

One day at the Aquarium, I heard Norm yell, "Mayor Schaefer! Do you know Lou Kohlman?" The Mayor spun around with an angry scowl on his face and said with a particular, guarded firmness, "Yes, I do? Why?" Norm pointed to me and said, "That's Lou's son!"

The Mayor immediately started running towards me and I took off with the Mayor in tow. He trapped me in a corner of the seal tank that he posed in, with a bathing suit when the Aquarium didn't open on time. He grabbed my hand and laughing, started shaking it.

He said, "You tell your daddy, you met me and we shook hands. Let him know, I don't appreciate him making my life interesting and I keep my eye on him." When I told my father, Dad laughed and said that he also suspects that he keeps an ear on him as well, lifting up the phone.

At the Inner Harbor, trouble without Norm had no problems finding me either. I was walking past one of the Harbor Place Pavilions and noticed these two huge older black men, the one slapped the other and pointed to me and said something. For whatever reason, they did look familiar to me. They both immediately got up and quickly approached me and said, "Are you Lou Kohlman's son?"

"Yes." The both grabbed me by the belt loop and under the arm, lifting me up like I was nothing and took off running. A police officer ran after us, and demanded the men let me go and explain to him what was going on. They identified themselves as guards at the Hickey School for Boys, who grabbed me because I was one of their troubled ones.

The officer wanted to know who I was, and one of the guards replied, "We can't tell you, because most likely, you'll just take out your gun and shoot him." The still suspicious officer, simply walked off, with one eye still turned to the situation. The guards released me and started laughing, they wanted to know how my dad was doing, so I answered. Then they said, "That was our way of having a little fun with you, let your dad know that we said, 'Hi'".

I did and Dad wanted to know, why they didn't lock me up at Hickey anyway. The interesting thing about the Hickey School for Boys is at that time, in the basement of the old school, they housed the snakes the Maryland Society of Herpetology had. After several months of trying, I got hold of them on a Sunday, but they told me that I was too young to visit as that would cause problems.

I relayed that to dad and he became suspicious over the reasoning and asked me where they were located. I told him, "Cub Hill Road and he told me they were located at Hickey. He talked to the scientists and convinced them to say, because he could get me in. Those were the guards at the gate for that day.

When dad brought me up, the guard asked dad if he was bringing another one in for them. Dad replied, "No that's my son. I bringing him here because this is the direction he is heading and figure we'll get a jump on it."

While the guards laughed, they still wanted to know the real reason and were amazed and expressed fear that they kept snakes in the school building. It amazed me that the guards only had to see me once to recognize me, but they preferred that answer to the truth. The grounds housed some of the most poisonous snakes in the world.

With Norm's Eagle Project, I never knew what was going to happen next to me. Even at my hands.