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Prunty: Abuddii
By AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
"Bad Days Happen To Everyone" is an illustrated
story written by 11-year-old Eric Pruntv. who savs the ti
tie applies to himself as well.
Eric, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Prunty of 1536
Benbow St., will be honored Saturday morning at the
Young Authors Festival Day at Sawtooth Center by the
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County * of International
Reading Association for his writing.
Reasoning that sooner or later everyone will have "one
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"Anyone.**
You might guess that his day is going to be a bad one
when he begins his award-winning story with how h<
mistakes his morning cereal for his wash cloth and buries
his head in the bowl, and the story goes on.
"Really,'* he says, "sometimes my days are just like
that."
But Eric is also a success story to the delight of hi:
parents, who gloat on their son's talents not only as ar
accomplished young writer, but also as an observant ar
tist who attempts to capture anything he sees on paper.
"We're very proud of Eric," says his mother, Con
stance. "He started off making D's and F's. So we sa
him down and talked with him.
"He told us he had to make an adjustment and, o
course, going to the fifth grade is an adjustment," sh<
says. "Now he's bringing home A's and B's."
Like any other typical youth, Eric gets into mischief
Two broken legs
By ROBIN ADAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Robert Eller got interested in handicapped sports afte
he was in an accident which broke both his legs. He the
had to find some way of participating in the sports he er
joyed so much.
After a little time, Eller's legs healed, but the desire h
had to help permanently disabled people find a way pai
ticipate in sports stayed.
Today, Eller, who is the recreation supervisor of hat
dicapped programs for the City of Winston-Salem, hs
been selected as a member of the coaching staff of tl
United States Amputee Team, which will represent tl
United States at the 1984 International Games for tl
Disabled this summer.
"I really don't know why I was selected," Eller say
"There were a lot of people they could have selected wh
have a lot more experience and who have won nation
championships. I have never won a national champioi
ship.
"Maybe one of the reasons they chose me is because i
the coach of the Smokers (the local wheelchair basketba
team) I have one of the three best amputee players in tl
nation," he says.
But Eller's modest explanation doesn't tell the who
story. - ____
Eller first got involved with the Smokers in 1978 wh<
he was asked to drive them to a game in Laurinburg.
"I saw how totally disorganized they were," Eller say
"Some went in (the game) when they wanted to and can
out when they wanted to. There was no organizatio
One of the players asked me if 1 would help them out ai
I said OK and started trying to organize them."
That first year, the Smokers won five games and lc
11, but that didn't dampen Eller's spirit. Instead,
spent the summer tying to plan strategy for the next yes
My trip to jail m
By ROBIN ADAMS
"Good"afternoon and welcome to tfieTiTe"groups
said inmate D.
"We are not here to scare you," the 25-year-olc
convicted murderer continued, "but we just wan
you to know what it's like being in prison."
r 1 1. 1 _ 1 c: _.l
several wccrs ago, 1, aiung wun nvc umcr pic
teenage girls, was sentenced to five hours in th<
Women's Correctional Institute in Raleigh.
Unlike my grade-school companions, I had com
mitted no known crime, gone before no judge or jur
or even been arrested. I was there for the experience
My traveling companions consisted of a 13-year
old black girl who stole, among other things, a hair
curling kit from the neighborhood grocery store; ;
14-year-old white girl who assaulted a fifth-grade stu
dent; a 15-year-old white girl who stole $400 in mer
chandise from Hanes Mall; a 14-year-old pregnan
white girl with multiple charges of breaking ani
entering; and a 17-year-old white girl who was cor
victed of driving while impaired.
Once we completed the trip from Winston-Saler
to the women's prison in Raleigh, a barrage of fence
topped with bobbed wire awaited us.
The Wait
We were held up at the gate while Richard Martir
coordinator of the Work and Earn it Program, spor
sored by the Forsyth Court Volunteers, signed us ir
It was almost as if the extended wait is someho'
planned, for the wait only made me and the othei
?
ciMagazii
ig writer at age 1!
and on the top of his lisras far as entertainers are co
cerned is Michael Jackson.
"I'm an average student," says Eric, pulling up h
white sweat socks and shrugging off a joke about the
being like the famed singer's. "Sometimes 1 get into tro
ble and get my name on the board because I like to talk
' lot."
I
For someone his age, Eric shows a lot of compassu
for others and sets his sights high on solving some of tl
world's problems that have yet to be conquered. "I'm
not sure what I want to be," he says. "I might
In vent?ef^ ?-? ?- -
-* **
; I Young & Gifted
I
"I'd like to invent a way to stop tornadoes," says Er
s who was disturbed by the recent tragedy in the easte
1 part of the state, "or find a cure for cancer."
Eric, who attends L.A. Cook Elementary, says he e
joys soccer and basketball. He is a member of the t
Wildcats, a local soccer team sponsored by the E;
t Winston Noon Optimist Club. During the summer, Er
whose parents say is an excellent swimmer, frequents t
f Patterson Avenue YMCA pool.
e "I might go to college," says Eric, "if there's enou
money to go."
Please see page B5
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Olympic Coach
)St
he Robert Eller started out helping the Smokers
ir' selected as a coach of the Olympic amputee
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nervous. For the first time, the girls expressed som
Already inside ^.tfes~.i&E?! . dfictroaicali?
controlled door and waited just outside another one
j No turning back now.
t Once the prison lieutenant arrived, we began. Th
courtyard was full of women in varying shapes an
sizes. Most of them were black, and they appeared t
be having a good time. Radios blared tunes froi
Culture Club and Gladys Knight and the Pips.
This can't be all that bad, I thought to myself, an
I could sense that others felt the same way.
"The aim is to get them to realize that 1
don 7 want to be there, but I could see how
a could be there.
\m ? Richard Marti
lt
d Inside The Prison
IBut
once we took our first step inside the old brie
n building, my way of thinking changed,
is Women, dressed in different colored shirts, 1
signal what grade or type prisioner they were, s
around in a crowded room with signs above the
reading, "No talking. No visiting from side to sid
Absolutely no infractions of the rules."
1, We soon found out that they were new prisone
l- waiting to be checked in and issued a room. Well,
\. thought, it has to be this way in order to make it?fe
w like prison.
rs I was soon to find out that this is the way it is j
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Eric Prunty: From poor grades to A's and B's, th
cure for cancer, he says (photo by James Parker
tment as amputee C
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wheelchair basketball team part time. Now he's been
basketball team (photo by James Parker).
rs: An experience n
ie over. All inmates are assigned to a bunk and have to
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;. tage, the inmates only make from 40 cents to $1 per
day and the money has to be used to buy personal
ie items; they aren't furnished by the state. Going to
d school is no ballgame either because while in school,
o time for good behavior cannot be subtracted from
ti your sentence.
For the women who have committed some rirle in
d fraction, they are in what is known as lock-up, which
means they are locked in a single cell from 15-60
_ days, and only allowed to leave 15 minutes each day
r, to take a shower.
^ Inmate Close-ups
n After a brief tour of the prison grounds, we were
_ ushered into a small basement-floor room, where six
lifers (serving life sentences) were sitting in a semicircle.
:k The obvious leader bf the group, inmate D, said
she was entering her sixth year of a 25-year sentence,
to "One of the hardest things was learning to be
at without the little things that mean the most to me,"
m inmate D said. "No pets, no walks - that's what
e. hurts me."
Inmate A.. who also led the tour of the facilities
rs and who looked a little grandmotherish, said she also
, I missed the smaller things in life.
:el "I'm a lifer and my earliest parole date is 2002,"
said inmate A. "I have three children, two of them
all teen-age girls. One of them is fixing to graduate this
Section B
Thursday, May 3, 1984
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e young writer and artist's next move is finding a
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Apparently, his ha?d work paid off. Since then the
Smokers have won the regional championship for the last
three years and placed each year in the sectionals. This
year, Eller says he's going for the national championship.
"I consider it (coaching the Olympic team) to be the
top honor as far as coaching wheelchair basketball,"
Eller says. "I will have a chance to coach players I have
sat and watched in awe for a while. And besides, it will be
good to coach a team where we aren't living from hand to
mouth."
Living from hand to mouth is how Eller describes the
Smokers financial plight. Without a sponsor, the
Smokers and Eller use whatever imaginative means they
can devise to find ways to raise money. But oftentimes
they themselves have to bear the financial costs.
When asked if he and the amputee team were going for
the gold, Eller says, "Oh yeah.
"With the talent we have, if we perform up to par and
I do my job, we should win," he says.
After five years as the Smokers coach, you would think
that Eller is finally getting some of the glory that he
deserves, but not so. He says he accepted the offer
because of the Smokers.
"When most people think of amputee basketball, they
think of a bunch of cripples pushing chairs up and down
the courts scoring points when they can," Eller says.
"But amputee basketball is a highly competitive and
highly skilled sport.
"And 1 hope that my recognition will wake up the
stingy, uninterested and non-caring citizens of WinstonSalem
and give the Smokers the type of support a team of
their caliber should have," he says. "If that happens,
then that's better than the gold medal.
"I'm not saying that this is not an honor for me,
because it definitely is ... but it's also and opportunity for
the amputees of the United States to prove they are the
hect in thf? u/orlH '*
ot soon forgotten
year. And I can't be there for that. I miss that.
AnoHwy mm in
,'.Tm
Said inmate S: "Ya'll are reaiTy 1 uckyTcTGe"aft Te"fo*~~
come in and see how prison life really is. It hurts not
being able to see your family and children. When
ya'll came in, you could see some of the women in the
yard, with radios and dancing and acting like they
havin' a good time. But it's really no fun. It's just
something to make up for the loss they feel."
Intimate Conversations
The inmates continued with their speeches. One
inmate, who was new to the lifers program and had
only been in prison four months, started crying as she
was telling the young girls the experiences that landed
her in jail. When she started crying, some of the girls
in the group, including myself, got all choked-up and
the session was stalled for a minute until things got
under control.
"You can't run the games here you can run on the
street," said inmate D. "Saying it's a little rough (in
here) is the understatement of the year."
When it came time for the girls to explain to the inmates
why they were on parole, they barely spoke
above a whisper and with an air of "Well, what I did
is not as bad as what you did."
Inmate D could sense their cockiness and told them
that they sounded very much like a young version of
herself.
"I know some of the things you are doing because
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