A walk in the park
BY EVAN WILLIAMS ewilliams@florida-weekly.com
Joel "Wolfy" Wolfson arrived at the newly inscribed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Fort Myers last Sunday morning, on McGregor Boulevard. It was chilly, windy, grey and he had walked about two miles from home with his seven dogs bustling all around him.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO BY EVAN WILLIAMS Joel "Wolfy" Wolfson (with his seven dogs) at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Fort Myers.

"I'm just going to go over and pay my respects as usual and that'll be it," he said, voice echoing as he walked under the Midpoint Bridge and then across a crisp lawn, taking a moment to appreciate the pond filled with lilies.

Wolfson takes the dogs out every morning around 5 a.m., he said. "This gives me the patience to be with the kids all day."

Those are the high school age children he instructs at the Alternative Learning Center on Michigan Avenue. The kids generally have issues ranging from poverty to criminal records, Wolfson said, but he is tough and direct, his focus on his students success real.

"Anything to keep the kids in school," he said. "Anything. I'm talking anything imaginable. These kids can make it if they wanna bust their rear side."

Getting a paying job is the first step.

"The worst thing in the world is being broke," Wolfson said. "It's worse than anything. It's worse than cancer. It's worse than divorce. 'Cuz the bills keep comin', baby…and you can't do anything about anything. You're powerless. You're in shackles."

Wolfson is from Boston, Mass., he said, and learned a few things about being broke from his father, who used to say, "What good is it to be the richest guy in the graveyard?"

His father also used to say, "The dumbest woman is smarter than the smartest man." But that one was about love.

"I found that to be just as true as can be," he said. "(Many of my students) never had a guy love 'em or kiss 'em and not grab for their crotch…Love is not a hard penis."

Student's success doesn't always come easily.

"They are the ones that have to find success," Wolfson said. "It'd be the height of an ego to think that you are the one who makes the difference…Each one of these kids could write their own book."

Wolfson professes a love of, among other things, cursing. And hearing him do it is truly satisfying- but he was polite enough to ask permission first. He also loves his wife and family: seven children and twenty-six grandchildren. And he's lived in Fort Myers for about 20 years.

"I'm an old man," he said. "I'm lucky to have a job and I kind of cherish it."

On the walk back home the dogs romped and Wolfson breached a number of topics. For example, the state of the country and journalism (he has a masters in technical journalism from Iowa State University).

On the U.S.: "We're so far away from reality in America," he said. "The only time we get near to reality is in a recession. Of course, losing a job is like losing a piece of your body."

On Journalism: "All you've got is your notes. That's ALL you've got. That's all you're ever going to have."

The dogs dispersed around a bush.

"They love grass and weeds and stuff," Wolfson said. "Sometimes I think I'm walking cattle."

Coming down McGregor and nearing home, Wolfson, grey hood pulled over his head, began to jog.

Wolfson served in Vietnam in 1967-68 and left with two bronze stars. The memorial, which is modeled after the Washington D.C. original, honors 76 soldiers from Southwest Florida who died there.

"Please note the last paragraph on the center of the memorial," he said.

It reads, "Those brave Americans who are gone from this earth shall exist within the hearts and minds of the living, for all time."