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Signed, Sealed, Delivered
An enigmatic and close-knit community, the "Post Office Kids"
are often misunderstood and shunned. Here is one kid's story.
Meet Erin Casey. If one were to
pass her on the corner, she
might seem to be just another
loitering kid, some angsty troublemaker
dressed all in black.
This 16-year-old used to go to Chapel
Hill High School until she dropped out.
Now she works so she can pay rent to
her mother and buy her own food.
With her hair
dyed black, multi
ple piercings and
black fishnet
Story by Joanna K. Pearson
stockings, Casey has the gutsy fashion
sense of someone who hangs out at by
the Franklin Street post office often.
She looks like the quintessential “Post
Office Kid.”
“Some people don’t like me, and they
don’t know' why,” Casey said. “They see
me wearing ripped up jeans and spikes
around my neck, and they don’t know
why. They never talk to me.”
Like Hector’s or Sutton’s Drug Store,
Casey and the rest of the kids who hang
out on the steps of the Franklin Street
post office are a sort of institution in
Chapel Hill.
Drawu to the Street Scene Teen
Center, they form a close and support
ive community, yet one that is shrouded
in mystery to the
general public.
Many in the
University commu
nity have their out)
opinions as to who
these kids are or
what they are like.
.-Some say they’re
just disenchanted
rich kids, and oth
ers just assume that
they’re searching
for a place to stay.
■w- Fund
Each semester, The Daily Tar Heel
grants one student the Joanna Howell
Fund Award to explore an issue in
depth. The award honors the memory
of DTH staffer Joanna Howell, one of
five students killed in the Phi Gamma
Delta fraternity fire in May 1996.
But no matter what the opinion,
many agree that these kids are part of a
thriving subculture that they've created.
Why I Live at the P.O.
Any Friday night, Franklin Street is
alive with college students, adults and,
of course, the Post Office Kids.
At 10 p.m. this particular night, a
large crowd has already gathered on the
steps of the post office.
A petite redheaded girl wearing a yel
low lace shawl quoted Samuel Beckett
and said she wanted to “be happy”
when she grew up.
A 16-year-old boy wearing a white T
shirt with dark circles under his eyes
stood by a doorway. The teenage boy is
in drug rehab and has dropped out of
high school, saying that he’s had trouble
with the police in the past. He talked
about his band, Rectal Projectile.
New people arrived, but the crowd
waxed and w'aned as some people made
their way into the Street Scene Teen
Center, located beneath the post office.
Discussion ranged from the new
Madonna song to the fine line between
feminists and femi-Nazis. “I’m not a
feminist, I’m an equalist,” one girl
declared. “Males are dumb,” another
added, “But so are most people.”
Although some kids said they were
not particularly fond of the area high
schools, a dark-haired girl named
Elizabeth said she liked high school bet
ter here in Chapel Hill than at her for
mer, more rural high school.
“One day I wore black lipstick, and
some kids started saying I was a witch,”
she said. “Yeah, a lot of people are like
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SPECIAL TOTH I', DTH TARA ITROHIT
Erin Casey, 16, is a "Post Office Kid." A recovered alcoholic,
Casey now writes poetry and plans to get her G.E.D.
‘The goths - they’re going to blow up
the school,”’ her friend added.
Though these girls come here almost
everyday, they don’t necessarily consid
er themselves part of the Post Office
Kids. “Yeah, I’m a drifter,” Elizabeth
said. “It makes you lonely.”
Street Scene
These kids
often find them
selves drifting into
Street Scene Teen
Center, tucked underneath the post
office.
The center, founded by town officials
and local merchants, was constructed as
a haven for teenagers who, in a college
town, often find themselves at a loss for
something to do.
According to Street Scene Director
Carol Walboum, though, this comer has
always been “the place to hang out.”
“Over the last 30 to 35 years, there
has always been a teen center,” she said.
“But 15 years ago it died, and lots of kids
were just hanging out downtown.
Merchants and parents came together to
form Street Scene.”
Robert Humphries, executive direc
tor of the Chapel Hill Downtown
Commission, said
the Downtown
Association, the
precursor to the
Downtown
Commission, decid
ed that rather than
run the Post Office
Kids off they need
ed a place to call
their own - hence,
Street Scene.
“Sure, we get
complaints from
time to time when the kids are misbe
having or whatever,” Humphries said.
“But while these kids may be scary-look
ing, not your average-looking Gap kid,
they are really all good kids.”
Inside, Street Scene is like a large,
dim, unfinished basement. There are big
couches, a low stage and a pool table. In
a darkened back room there is a televi
sion, an ancient-looking computer and
some sleeping kids. Bright murals are
painted on the walls.
The center is part of the Chapel Hill
Parks and Recreation Department and
includes both an adult board and a teen
board. The adult board handles finan
cial matters, but it is the teens who have
the autonomy in running the center,
Walboum said.
Casey corroborated this claim, saying
the adults who worked there were also
friends with the teens. “(The center’s)
really great. The best thing about it is
there is no pressure.” she said.
On weekend nights, Street Scene is a
venue for local talents who haven’t quite
made it to the level of performing at
Cat’s Cradle. “Music really draws
them,” Walboum said.
This “them” is not limited to teens.
Walboum said some people who hang
out beside the post office were as old as
27. Most 16-, 17- and 18-year-old Post
Office Kids are able to move from out
side to inside the center as they like, but
once patrons turn 19, they are relegated
to staying outside.
This “them” is also not a homoge
nous mix of backgrounds. “If you see
kids on the corner, you are seeing a
cross-section of ethnic and economic
Joanna Howell Fund
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DTH'GREG WOLF
Robert Eubanks, 18, a recent graduate from military school, plays video games at Street Scene Teen Center on Monday. Located beneath the
Franklin Street post office, Street Scene draws a large crowd of area teenagers, some of which are commonly referred to as "the Post Office Kids."
strata,” Walboum said. “Some are from
wealthy families, some have dropped
out of high school and a few don’t have
a home. Asian, Hispanic, African-
American- it’s also a racial mix.”
Walboum said the one characteristic
that united the kids was their sense of
independence. “With this indepen
dence, be it positive or negative, often
comes a certain type of dress,” she said.
Casey said local officials were meet
ing the needs of local teens by sponsor
ing Street Scene. Casey said she had
worked through a lot of her problems
thanks to her friends at the post office,
whom she sees as a support network.
“My mom wanted me to go to the
psychiatrist, but I told her I have friends
who will listen to me because they care
and not because I’m paying them.”
Casey said she’s out by the post office
almost everyday. “I know about every
person there,” Casey said. “And if not,
I at least know who they are.”
Nearby businesses also seemed
pleased that Street Scene offered teens a
place to go. When asked if the crowd
outside the post office detracted from
business, Hector’s Manager Jose
Constino said, “Not really. Not at all.”
The Homelessness Question
Walboum said she W'as also aw'are of
the w'hispered speculations of teen
homelessness with these kids.
She served on the special social ser
vice task force that investigated teen
homelessness in 1999.
The task force found that specula
tions of 10 to 30 homeless teens roaming
the streets of Chapel Hill were
“overblow'n” and that a teen drop-in
shelter was not needed in the area.
Walbourn estimates that only 1 to 3
percent of these youth do not have a
home. The larger problem, she said, was
that some chose to leave their homes for
an extended period of time, either
crashing at the homes of friends or in
abandoned buildings called “squats.”
“There is a problem here, but it is not
extensive,” she said. “The problem is
more leaving home than absolute home
lessness. Most of these teens have cho
sen this life on the road.”
Walbourn said community members
were working to find these kids tempo
rary housing and said a plan for a Youth
Commission to address such problems
was also under way.
Bui Casey said she believed that teen
homelessness was a problem that the
town should address more directly. She
said she speculated that there w'ere at
least 15 homeless teens in Chapel Hill.
“Most have been living on the streets
for awhile, and most left home- by
choice because the streets were a better
alternative than home,” she said.
Casey said she had dated a few of
these homeless kids. She has slept on
the roofs of buildings with them and has
helped them rummage through trash
bins for food.
Ip;
“At work when
they tell me to
throw part of a
sandwich in the
trash, I’ll wrap it up
and take it to
them,” she said.
People under the
age of 18 are not
allowed in the
Inter-Faith Council
homeless shelter on
Columbia Street,
but even those who
are legally adults
prefer not to go
there, Casey said.
“They stay at
squats with people
they know and
trust,” Casey said.
“It’s better to be
able to go to sleep
knowing you’ll
wake up with
everything you had
the night before.”
DTH GREG WOLF
Kids drawn to Street Scene Teen Center on Franklin Street relax and watch television
in the lounge. The center serves as a social base for many teenagers in the area.
A Portrait of the Artist
Asa Young Post Office Kid
While Casey seems tough on the
issue of homelessness, she’s equally
streetwise. Behind the black clothes and
tough exterior, however, Casey is a
friend, a poet and a survivor.
She is an alumna of Alcoholics
Anonymous and survived molestation
in the 2nd grade. Today Casey is off of
all the drugs, including antidepressants,
and only drinks occasionally.
Despite her own struggles, it frus
trates Casey when people single her and
her friends out as troublemakers just
because of how' they look.
“Lots of people focus on the Post
Office Kids, saying ‘they do drugs,’ and
the truth is, no, they don’t,” she said.
As in any group of people, Casey
insisted, some drank, some smoked pot,
but there were also those that abstained
from these vices completely.
Casey has grown weary of the hier
archy of appearances. “So many people
are worried about fitting in socially that
they don’t worry about anything else at
school,” she explained.
This independent style that
Casey epitomizes has caused Post Office
Kids to stand out at their high schools,
but not as much as one would expect.
“Certainly they have a style that is
different,” said Chapel Hill High School
Assistant Principal John Birkholz. “So
visually there is a division, but socially
they interact and talk with everyone
else. There are some excellent students
out there (at the post office) with very
high academic achievement.”
Casey said the school environment
was more divisive. “I tried to fit in for so
long, and then I finally rebelled and
tried to do what everyone hated, but
now I’m at the point where I just act and
dress how' I want,” she said.
Of Casey’s friends at the post office,
she speculates that only about three or
four are seriously considering college. A
few are high school graduates, a few
have G.E.D.s and several are dropouts
like she is. Some of them are enrolled in
high school, but just don’t go.
Casey plans to eventually get her
G.E.D. But even while she is not in
school, she is still a creative thinker.
Casey said many people who hang out
at the post office tended to be especially
creative, whether it’s doing artwork on
leather or writing.
“I have journals and journals full of
poetry,” she explained. “I’d like to start
sending poems in to publishers.”
Casey’s dream is to work in a coffee
shop, live in her own apartment and
If ever your dreams Blessed are the people here
Haunt you like ghosts The ones outside
And fill your life with fright A life of fear
Just come to me
And speak your woes Wicked are the people here
For I've experience the night Who don’t enjoy
If ever your pain What things ate near
Takes over your joy
And makes you want to die Shallow are us people all
Just come to me Who stand
And express your hurt But watch the others fall
For 1 know what it’s like to ery
If ever you feel Stupid are us people all
there's no where to go Who are so large
And there are too many demands Yet think so small
Just come to me
And realize
There is someone who understands
Poems By Erin Casey
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
write in her spare time - or go into bodv
piercing in Vermont.
And so do these Post Office Kids
hold any sort of grudges towards UNC?
Not so, Casey said. “A couple of people
here want to go to UNC. Some don’t
like UNC students because they may
have met one or two they don’t like, but
I don’t like to lump people together like
that. Still, if someone glares, most of us
will glare back,” she said.
When asked what she perceived as
the greatest problem facing todav’s soci
ety, Casey didn’t respond with a typical
answer. “People don’t listen,” Casey
said. “People don’t pay attention
enough. So many things could be pre
vented if people paid attention to one
another.”
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