STEVE’S STILL AROUND…DOWN BUT NOT OUT…YET
The story of Stephen Douglas Nelson, born December 7, 1950, is one of many sides, and ultimately, if he’d ever been arrested and sent to jail, the home he lived in might still be in his family. Strange as it seems, police and locals alike were sympathetic to Steve and his beleaguered brother Stanley.
The way it played out is a disaster in a way and a blessing in another.
For many years Steve was a fixture around Bel Air…I used to give him coats, clothing, shoes…and sometimes food…he lost it all, and now is on the street, temporarily staying in a motel room on Route 40…west of Aberdeen, that’s where I tracked him down recently. Sad and a shame, the parents’ house on Atwood road was left to his brother, Stanley Nelson…so Steve would ‘always have a home’…but Steve let some bad types stay in the Atwood road house, neighbors complained, finally the Feds came in, raided it, and took the house…now Stanley is left without his rightful inheritance… the United States Marshal Service sold the property for $80,000 to a Bel Air insurance agent on April 28, 2003. Stanley could never afford to buy the house back in today’s market, not that he would if he could.
Steve allowed locals to squat at his home, a befriending gesture that attracted con-men and criminals and transients. With that going on, neighborhood kids tormented Steve to the point, drunk and wild, he would verbally attack the ‘attackers’ and when police were called it was Steve who was arrested.
Whether it was a planned ‘set up’ by police, whereby a man with a long list of arrests for drugs and robbery wound up at 16 South Atwood in 2001, or just happen-stance, Steve Nelson’s life was about to change forever, and his parents’ wishes that he never have to leave his home were smashed.
I witnessed the on-going battle and knew it was headed for more trouble. I wouldn’t want folks that Steve allowed living there, living next to me. Kids and grown-ups can be cruel, and often pick on folks like Steve.
There would be Steve sitting on the front stoop of his home, with the woven-reed Christmas decorations of reindeer all smashed apart, in disarray. “Why don’t they leave me alone, I don’t start this stuff, they do,” he said.
Unfortunately, he is generous to the people he should trust the least. They see his soft side, and they milk him for it. He never learned from his mistakes.
From time to time as I noticed the ‘off center folks’ of Bel Air, Steve would be hitch-hiking along Route 22 heading to the community college. No matter what the season there he’d be ‘thumbing’ with his big wool coat, and long, tattered scarf, beard blowing in the breeze.
He was harmless for sure…a loud mouth at times, belligerent at times, needing a bath lots of times, needy at times, broke most of the time…and always wanting a sip of scotch whiskey.
I took him food and loaned him money. And know what?…He would re-pay me most of the time. He would stake out the little studio I had at 30 East Pennsylvania Avenue early in the day. When I’d pull in there he’d be on the front steps. Or I’d slip into MaMa Nick’s on Main street at the end of a darkroom day and there’s Steve at the bar calling out for another ‘Natty Boh.”
Steve would ‘just be’ around town. There were many who came off as too good to speak to him, or acknowledge his presence…I can only ask them what’s the harm in speaking to anyone, regardless of their station in life or manner in which they present themselves?
Bel Air’s current chief of police is two years younger than Steve, and grew up knowing of Steve very well. “He was into music like a couple other of my pals, but he was always off center, he played music and was in a band,” the chief noted. “I honestly question the claim that he had an I.Q. of 183, he just didn’t seem that smart to me.”, states Chief Leo F. Matrangola.
“After his mother died, Steve became a total nuisance. Between January, 2000 and August, 2001 there were 75 police responses to his house. Everything from dog fighting, gun fire, disorderly persons, drug dealing, medical assistance. I told Steve this had to stop; it was affecting the entire neighborhood. There were many warnings, and finally, our department issued a ‘zero tolerance’ policy.”
“Steve would let anyone with drugs use his home, and one of them was a police informant, and when we learned of drugs being brought to the house, Judge Angela Eaves signed a search warrant and we carried out a raid which led to his arrest and others. The house was forfeited to the Federal Government, and on June 5, 2002, the U.S. court noted the owner did not file a claim on the property, he defaulted.”
“Honestly, Stanley pointed out he worked for the Federal Government and did not have the money to mount a claim and buy the house back, so it went to auction,” Chief Matrangola said.
This is meant for those among us who knew Steve, and haven’t seen him in a long while. He’s in a bad way now, and most of it is by his own hand. This is not meant for pity, just a means of keeping up with a town character that hasn’t died and gotten their little mention in a sparse obit.
We are not safer or better off with Steve gone from his parents’ home on Atwood road…some would disagree with that ’…in the long run some folks among us treat the less fortunate, ill-fitting, misfits with disdain. This is just the way small town America operates. To the many that have a curiosity of Steve, these words are the best way to convey what’s up with him.
Steve is an Eagle Scout…and at one time had it together…He’ll turn 59 on December 7th. His future is uncertain. Some folks who knew Steve when he attended Harford Community College and when he lived at 16 South Atwood Road in Howard Park have commented on him.
His older brother Stanley refers to him as ‘Steven’ and when Steve signs his name, it’s all one word, “stephenelson”. “When he was 7 years old my parents, Stanley and Ertie Walls Nelson, gave him a ukulele for Christmas. He hit a couple bad notes, and took it outside where we were shoveling snow, and smashed it to bits.”
In the tenth grade Steve was sent to the Maryland Training School for Boys because of truancy. While there he learned to box. He served his time and in 1970 his mom bought him a VW beetle. Soon after, he was involved in a serious accident, hitting a tree, totaling the VW and landing in the hospital in a coma for 22 days, according to Stanley.
“After the recovery from the wreck is when the drugs started, the paranoid-schizophrenia and poly-substance abuse. Steven was going to the college, had over 60 credits in sociology. Then dad died in 1988, and mom in 1991 Their will stated a ‘life time living right for Steven to stay in our home, until he died. It was to be my inheritance for taking care of him,” Stanley remembers.
“From 1979 to 1991 Steven stayed out of trouble and did pretty good all around. Then he started letting people live in the house, He was a soft-touch for anyone needing a place to stay. I honestly believe one of the people who stayed there was set up by the police to inform and deal from the house, and ultimately that led to the charges that took the house by the feds on March 20, 2002, and put Steve on the street,” according to Stanley.
August 1, 2009, Steve was discharged from the program at Key Point for ‘repeated aggressive behavior towards clients and staff.’ As Stanley is sifting through the vast paper work dealing with his younger brother, I notice a framed certificate over his desk, commemorating ’30 Years of Service’ to the Federal Government for his work as a systems engineer at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
He leans back and sighs…”there’s just no understanding what I can do anymore for Steve, but I’ll try the best I can.”
Chief Matrangola is sympathetic as well, “Steve put people in fear, because of his abnormal behavior, irrational personal behavior, unsanitary conditions of the house, criminal elements hanging out there constantly, just how much could the neighborhood take, after all the warnings something final had to be done. Steve never sold drugs, I know this, and if he had and he had been sent to jail for it, the house might still be in the Nelson family,” according to Matrangola. “It is unusual the way it turned out, but he didn’t help matters any.”
“I remember Steve. I used to talk to him when I was like 16-17…but it was hard, because I think so many people my age back then, used to torment him. 20 years later, when I was coaching wrestling at BA, I used to invite to matches, get him in free and hook him up with concession stand food.”
Keith “Watty” Watson
“Very very interesting. He could be intimidating. I remember his large scarves and picking him up hitchhiking.”
Bob Chance, Environmentalist
“Poor buggar.”
Dave Hanson
“About 35 years ago I picked him up hitch hiking out at the college, he was totally stoned, and told me he was Led Zeppelin’s manager, and he was dead serious, so I acted like that was great and it must feel good to be famous!”
Bubbins Stearns, Bel Air
”Personally I didn’t know him….. Danny lived next door in Howard Park, and someone wrote F*** YOU in huge paint on the side of the house facing Danny’s (Sullivan)….. I just remember what an eyesore that house was when he lived there. (turns out vandals wrote the graffiti on the house)
“Rick Cotton always said when he would see him Steve would do this thing w/his hand & arm and say “tube steak”….and then laugh out loud.”….
Carol Sheetz, Aldino
“Over the years of working in Bel Air each day, I would see Steve sitting alone in the Pizza shop that used to be the Bata Shoe store.
Most everyone who walked passed him gave him wide clearance, going out of their way to keep their distance. I would stop and sit for a minute or two just to see how he was doing, an odd sight to some I am sure with my ever present neck tie and Steve dressed in a somewhat different style.
When Steve left Bel Air I kept that piece that appeared in the Aegis that was entitled: Character Leaves Bel Air. (Not positive of the exact title) In any event his story should be told because few (very few) really knew him.”
C. J. S. (John Sullivan, Bel Air)
“I knew Steve when he was STEVE. He was like the rest of us, just growing up. I didn’t run in the same circles, but i knew him. He lived around the corner from us. It was sad, after time, to see how he had such a tough life.
It could have happened to any of us. But for the grace of God, go I. As the years went by you would see Steve “one of the Bel Air icons.” We called him the Mayor of Bel Air.
There were times when I’d see Steve hitch hiking. Always stopped and picked him up. He’d always have a strange tale to tell, but you knew it was ok. It was Steve.
He’d hold down the corner of Atwood and Boulton Street and you’d see all the riff raff and think why? But as you’d watch this, and interact with Steve, there was just never a bad bone in his body. Never any malice. Just wanted a friend! It was sad to see how the system just ground him up. Sad we have to live in such a world.
Can’t we all just be friends? I think that was what Steve tried to show us all in his own little way. The same thing we try to show our children. To make the world a better place!”
chd (Christopher Holbrook Daiger, Bel Air)
“I have many memories of Steve; we always considered each other friends. When my sons were small we would sometimes go to fortunato’s for pizza, we would often run into Steve there. , He would sit with us and share our pizza .Our friend Joe has a line—‘aint no guarantees’ — so goes the life of Steve, we can only be grateful for our blessings and help others when we can. He who stands on tiptoes is not steady – lao tze”
As ever the most venerable John “Rooster” Adams, York, Pennsylvania
“Don’t forget to include the “Maggie Mae” connection….as far as recollections I do remember you loaning $5 at a time and he would be waiting for you a couple of weeks later at the studio door wanting to borrow another $5…but you would remind him that he still owed you from the last time and, as I recall, sure enough a few days later he would come up with $2 or $3 to repay you…and in a couple of weeks the cycle would begin again.
Didn’t he also often times offer you a drink of whatever booze he had at the time when you would stop and see him outside of his house…or maybe you used to give a blast off of the canteen of scotch and water…maybe both.”
Davey “Bahl” Hanson, Bel Air
The “Maggie Mae” connection Davey mentions was a statement Steve used to make that he, “Bel Air’s own Steve Nelson” actually wrote the song for Rod Stewart. The song is a huge piece of music and I guess Steve used the line to wow the gals early on. “Steven actually dated a girl by the name of Maggie Mae, and all the stuff in the song was about the two of them,” recalls Stanley. “At the time Steve was playing bass in a rock band called Blues British, with Dale Patton, John Fitzgerald and a couple other guys. He was playing with all older guys. They played a lot in Baltimore, could have gone big time, but it just fell by the wayside.” Stanley said.
I tried to nail Steve down one day to confirm if in fact he actually wrote ‘Maggie Mae’. He said he’d forgotten he’d written it. Just another mystery in the puzzle that is Steven Nelson.
I find myself in awe that Steve has survived all these years. Having been away from Bel Air since ’93, except for the occasional visit, I still remember him standing on Route 1 thumbing a ride from either Atwood Road or in front of the old Texaco at the corner of 1 and Bond. I picked him up a few times, but didn’t make a habit of it. He had quite a knack for delving into a conversation that could end up in any of a million scenarios.
Yes, I heard the “Maggie Mae” story directly from his lips on several occasions, too. I believe it was one of those situations when a (probable) lie turned into a truth through relentless repetition.
But I agree with others, Steve was totally harmless. Irritating to a large degree at times, but still harmless, nonetheless.
I wish him the best, and maybe, just maybe if he and Rod Stewart meet someday in the great afterlife, they can discuss that song from the early 70s….”Wake up, Maggie, I think I got something to say to you. …”
To say he was a “fixture” in Howard Park would be an understatement. It is a shame that his kindness was his weakness.
from what i can tell, ‘canicular summer of Steve’ might well be the ‘dog days of his life’…happening this year…last time i saw Steve i loaned him a fiver and he said ‘thanks…friend’…over the years folks took shots at him and played on his mind, which often times was addled already…but folks who pick on folks less fortunate will one day taste the fires of hell…and deservedly so.
he never meant no body harm…I agree with Dell…it was his kindness and openness that got him slammed
I worked at Coomes 7-11 for several years, and I’d cringe whenever Steve would come into the door. He’s buy a six pack of Red White & Blue or Milwaukee’s Best and head out the door. He frightened me because he was so unpredictable. I heard the “Maggie Mae” reference many times from him, and he’d curse Rod Stewart. Up until now, I thought he’d died. Thanks for the update.
Not only did Steve write Maggie Mae but “a hundred and thirty seven other hits of the seventies, eighties and nineties”. He also claimed to have been there when Jerry Garcia lost his finger, to have kissed Stevie Nicks and to have been slapped across the face by Elton John (the aforementioned Stevie Nicks intervened to keep it from devolving into an all out brawl). Talking to Steve was like reading the Enquirer. You knew it was mostly bull-but entertaining bull.
Saw Steve all the time when I lived in Bel Air. He is one of those people who should have been living in a structured environment, not by himself. He was, and probably still is, unable to really look after himself. It’s a shame family and society can’t do better.
I knew Steve well and even lived in the house for a short time. I can’t say that I was one of the undesirables, although most of the people that we ran with WERE. My boyfriend and I were homeless and we had nowhere to go and Steve let us stay there. I liked Steve but I imagine since I stayed there I know more than most anyone. I won’t slander him so I’ll leave it at that.
I feel bad for Steve and hope he gets it together. It’s also sad what happened to him but I’ve heard it was a setup to get rid of him. That’s exactly what happened.
As for the undesirables, I stay away from them all.
I Meant stay away from them all NOW. Had to learn the hard way.
i know Angie, that the writer of the story, Todd Holden, is pleased with the responses from folks like you…
Angie, Yes, you are right it was a set up.
Wow.. Steve Nelson. I always wondered what had happened to him. As a mail carrier, I always cringed when I had to deliver mail to his house. You never knew what each day would bring with Steve. Somedays he was a “good witch” and the next day he would be the “flying monkey”. I would always sneak up on his porch and quietly open his mailbox in hopes of making my delivery and retreating before he realized I was there. I remember his one neighbor telling me that he would always borrow money from them, but he would always pay them back. They would come home to find little piles of nickles and dimes stacked up at their door to repay his debt. I can still picture Steve with his plaid sofa cushion sitting on the front porch smoking a pipe, yelling or waving at the cars that drove by. He was and still is a Bel Air icon. I wish him well. Thanks for the article Todd.
I grew up with Steve in Bel Air. I was in elementary school with him, junior high and the first couple of years of high school (until Steve quit to pursue his life long devotion to drugs and music). I was in Boy Scouts with him (no, he did not make Eagle). Steve was a pretty normal kid until he got in with the wrong crowd around the age of 16. As a kid, he was a decent athlete who played many a flag football and pickup basketball games around Howard Park, Hall Street and Shamrock. Many of those people we knew back then have already passed on. It’s unfortunate that the life he chose messed him up so bad; he had a good heart and was very likeable. I used to loan him money and give him rides when I’d see him hitchhike around Bel Air. Sometimes we would talk about the old days when we were kids; Steve seemed to enjoy those memories.
To:JIM JAM Steve ,did make eagle, I know I was there.
Sorry, but I was running with Steve and the gang in the mid 60’s when he and I were both 15-16 years old. The Scouts do not give Eagle rank to a high school drop out whose main goal at the time was to play rock and roll and get high. Most Scouts attain Eagle at 17 or before the cutoff of 18 years of age because of the long and difficult requirements of the badge. By 16, Steve was along way from Scouting. Nevertheless Steve did enjoy Scouting during the time he was a member.
Steven was one of my closest friends in the late 60’s and the last time I saw him was a couple of years after his mom died. I attended her funeral and gave Steven a ride home afterwards on my motorcycle. I stayed with him awhile and we talked about how his mom used to make me hugh hamburgers when I would visit with Steven. So many things said about Steven are true but some are just not right. He did have a high i.q. and was evidenced in his writing as well as his grades from classes at HCC. Of course he dropped as many classes as he completed. Stanley tried numerous times to get Steven out of the house. Steven was with me at my house (the first placed I lived after leaving home) and did indeed write Maggie Mae. It was late September and at that time his girlfriend with him was Sunshine. After mailing the song out that night, after leaving, Steven had his accident in his fast back VW, not a Beetle. He had dropped off Sunshine. Steven was in a coma for weeks and when he came to I was the first person he recognized. The first thing he told me was that he had mailed the song and the next was that a cop had beat he up at the accident. Everyone who really knew Steven was aware of his dislike for some cops. He said this cop gave him alot of shit and he gave it right back. The cop beat him over the head with his night stick. I looked at the wrecked car and realized that his injuries were not congruent with the facts. Steven had mental disorders that were kept in check with meds after that, if he took them. After this accident? his focus was way off and only strong meds ,that left him drooling, seemed to work. Several of us tried to contact Rod but to no avail. We even took Steven to some of Rod’s concert with the hope STeven would try to go back stage and see him. I am glad I found some info here on Steven and since I have moved back to the area, will try to find my old friend and help him. I have so many stories of our adventures together. We often took acid together and Steven would take me to places of wonder and delight. There is no doubt of his genius and yet he was his own worst enemy. I love him for who he is.
I think you are still on one of your acid trips if you believe Steve Nelson wrote Maggie May. I simply can’t understand why “Rod” didn’t respond when you tried to contact him. Perhaps he was not in the place of wonder and delight.
Try to contact Rod and you will come up against the same brick wall…I was there when he wrote the song and so were several others…but it does not matter if you or any others believe it or not…what matters is that I know
I met Steve in the summer of ’73 at the Harford mall. We had just moved to Belair and I thought he was pretty cool because we could talk about music and guitars. He treated me to coffee many times in the Horn & Horn restaurant. I walked every street in Belair with him and have several pictures of him and myself and even one of his old girlfriend Sunshine. If anyone can find him, I’d be willing to send a little something to help him out. God Bless him, my prayers are with him, and like everyone has been saying -there wasn’t a bad bone in his body. I knew his mother, father, brother, uncle and nephew Stanley. We were great friends and always will be. I have many pictures from yesteryear that I’d love to share with everyone. I can be found on facebook- please send a friend request and I will answer. God Bless.
Steve lives in Aberdeen now. I saw him last week. He has a full beard and walks the streets with a cane.
Thanks for the article–have occasionally wondered what became of Steve, one of the lost kids. I knew Steve in the late 60’s when many of us had lost our way and had hoped to hear he had gotten back on track and it all turned out ok in the end. We once went to lunch together, (it was my impression that it was to be his treat) but unfortunately by the end of the meal it was revealed that he had absolutely no money, so he tried to escape without paying the bill. When caught outside the door, he charmed the restaurant owner into letting us go. He took the name and address of the restaurant and promised to mail them the money. I once visited his house and his mother told me she thought that his problems were all her fault because the psychologists said she had spoiled him. My heart went out to her then and go out to Steve now, wherever he may be.
I grew up in bel air and always remember seeing him around. I now see him where I live now in Aberdeen.now that I know his story I am going to stop and chat with him. SAd story.