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The unknown levels of kindness that people have in their hearts and souls at times is beyond explanation.
The year was…
I was a young boy, fourteen years of age at the time.
I had been on my own living on the streets for nearly two years now.
It was the ending of the longest and coldest winter we’ve had in many years.
I thought it would never come to it’s end.
At one point during that winter I thought it was all coming to an early end though.
An early end…
One night I was caught in a snow storm and was forced to to find a place to sleep in an alley.
As I was falling to sleep that evening I remember thinking to myself…
“What a sad way for my life to end like this”.
“To be frozen to death.”
I had no identification on me.
There would be no clue as to who I was.
No knowledge of where I came from or how I got there.
Who would they notify of my tragic passing?
Who would identify my body?
There would be no tears shed for me.
No hearts aching with grief.
No moments of reflection of my life now passed.
Just another nameless body found dead in an alley.
A life taken away much too early.
There would be no name written on my tomb stone.
No date of my birth.
Only a dash followed by the year of my death.
Those were the thoughts that I was thinking that night as I fell asleep.
But I did wake up the next morning.
As I opened my eyes slowly I could see that I was covered with snow.
My body was aching with pain from the cold.
I knew I wasn’t at home in a nice warm bed waking up on a Sunday morning ready to go fishing with my dad.
No.
I was far from that.
There was no one there to comfort me saying…
“That was just a bad dream honey.”
“Everything’s all right now.”
“are here.”
“You’ll be safe now.”
“Everything’s all right.”
Yeah right!
Nothing was all right!
I was in an alley cold and covered with snow.
Barely able to move.
My only thought at that moment was…
I made it through the night!
When I was in that alley I curled myself up between two trash cans.
Using them as shields to block the falling snow from covering my body.
There were several people who walked by me that night.
As they were passing me they looked my way.
Not intentionally.
It was as if a force of Nature was driving them to look in my direction.
They saw me there.
I know they saw me.
I know because I saw the moment when they realized that someone was there between those two trash cans.
The moment they looked away.
Avoiding any eye contact with me.
One person did look at me though.
He looked directly into my eyes as he walked pass me.
I was taken aback at first to see someone looking right at me…especially directly into my eyes.
We were both aware of the contact.
His eyes were dark.
There was no light of human compassion within his eyes.
Only a fleeting moment of recognition.
Then just as quick as he saw me…he looked away and kept walking not missing a step.
By doing so he was able to excuse himself from any responsibility he might have felt obligated to perform.
It left me with an unsettling eerie feeling.
The people that evening all walked by me using the alley way as a short cut to their destinations.
Not expecting to be dragged into one of life’s problems.
What they wanted was a quick way to get to where they were going.
Not wanting to see anything but a wonderful out come to what ever it was they were thinking as they were passing me.
Instead what they saw was…
They didn’t care though.
I wasn’t their concern.
I was just a small young boy huddled up between trashcans in an alley during a snow storm.
Something you see everyday…right?
When you’re…
…and you watch people walking right past you.
You know they see you.
They know you’re there.
Yet most people won’t give you a simple look of…
A look to communicate that they at least saw you.
Even if it’s a look of rejection they are giving you.
Instead you just get the ‘Look Away’.
It rips your soul apart because not all people are out to…
“Get something from you.”
There are innocent victims caught up in the mix also.
Especially the young.
They are being judged by the same standards as if they were one of the “Takers”.
Some people honestly have no control over the situation they find themselves in.
Some times it takes a while to get yourself back on track.
Or to have things start going your way to help with your recovery.
If a person is down on their luck and trying to improve…you couldn’t ask for anything more of them.
You give them a little something and you move along on your way.
It makes you feel good because you know you helped someone who…
…really trying to improve or change their life.
It’s the ones that never try to improve their situation.
The ones who let the worst that life has to offer become their way of life.
You see the same person day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.
You know they aren’t trying to change their life.
You’ve seen them forever standing on the same corners begging for money.
And we’ve all thought this before…
“Get some”…
“You’re a bunch of”…
And you know in your heart of hearts that the person you’re looking at doesn’t care.
…are around every corner for them.
Organizations constantly offering their services.
Religious, community, political groups…all offering their assistance.
Offering a straight path for them to follow to achieve success.
Yet they push back on that pathway.
They refuse to except those opportunities.
Refusing to take that first step necessary to get off the path they are on.
That first step: Admitting that they need help.
But they refuse.
They don’t need or want anybody’s help.
They would rather take their chances on the thin, narrow path that they are on now.
Being on the streets everyday and begging for money this is their life.
And it’s a much better life style than going to work to earn it.
But they want that money.
They need that money.
They have to have that money for two things.
To get high and drunk.
Sounds cruel I know.
I also know that it’s true.
I’ve been there.
I’ve been with them.
I’ve had my hand out.
And I took everything I was given.
I’ve joined the boys on the corners taking shifts taking money from good people with good intentions.
After hours of ‘Begging’ for money it’s time to pool it all together.
“Let’s see…we’ve got enough to buy a fifth of booze and a couple bags of scag.”…or heroin as it’s called these days.
If there was any extra cash, maybe pick up some food also.
Then it’s off to pass out in the most comfortable place you can find before you do pass out.
That’s the goal you try to achieve.
Every day.
Day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.
I’ve done it.
Believe me it’s not a…
…life style.
But it’s the life style they’ve chosen.
It’s what they’ve excepted as their lot in life.
And they will claim…
“I don’t need a stupid job.”
“I don’t need a house to live in.”
“I don’t need all that responsibility crap society forces onto you.”
“Everything I need is out here on the streets and most of it’s.”
“FREE”
“Besides…I’m not the only one that’s out here.”
“There’s other people in the same boat as I’m in.”
“We all pull together and we get along just fine.”
“We’re all one big family pulling together as one.”
“So I’m not alone.”
“And we don’t need any of you’s either.”
“I don’t need nothing from nobody.”
“Yeah…that’s right.”
“And I don’t need you either”
“By the way”…
“Do you have any change you can spare?”
They may think that they are not…
But they are.
Just because someone is standing next to you doesn’t mean they are with you.
That same person you feel is with you, helping you, supporting you.
At night they got their hands in your pockets stealing anything you have.
You are alone.
You make that decision every day when you get up and continue this type of existence.
You now wake in the morning and greet your new list of priorities in life…
Join the boys on the corner
Beg for money
Pool your money together
Get high and drunk.
You think you are a part of a caring group of fellow sufferers.
That they would stand and fight with you against any foe.
These guys are you’re Comrades!
You’re best buds.
One for all and all for…
Sure…Let me set you straight here.
These ‘Comrades’ would leave you for dead and take everything you had with them in a heart beat if it came down to that.
So yes…”You are alone”.
I know because I was alone with them.
I lived this lifestyle for over four months with a Crew of guys in Ohio.
I met them on a street corner by accident.
I was pan handling for money myself.
They liked me.
They offered me to come join their “Crew”.
It would be a lot easier working as a group and pooling our resources together it was suggested.
It made a lot of sense to me.
What can I say.
I had just turned fourteen.
What did I know?
Besides…it was better than being all alone…right?
Boy these guys weren’t stupid.
They used me.
They used me a lot.
People felt a lot more sympathetic and comfortable giving their…
…to a young boy asking for a hand out.
Rather than to a person who seems like they could care less about themselves, about you or about society it’s self.
The guys, six of them, had a make-shift camp they threw together in a patch of woods that was near the uptown area.
It was easy to slip in and out without being seen.
There was an easy access way to the camp from the highway.
They had blue plastic tarps draped over limbs from the surrounding trees and tied down with rope.
Make-shift tents if you will.
Easily packed up and ready to move to your next Homestead.
Under the coverings were all their worldly possessions.
Cardboard boxes and blankets for bedding.
Black trash bags as storage for their goodies.
No lights or camp fires…just a place of refuge.
It wasn’t much of a camp site believe me.
It had all the amenities you’d be looking for if you were looking for this type of life style though.
A toilet was all around you.
Just not to close to the camp please.
No need to put the trash cans on the curb for pick up.
Trash was everywhere..
There was a McDonald’s and Wendy’s a short walk away.
McDonald’s for washing up and coffee in the mornings and begging for money in the parking lot by the Drive-Thru.
Wendy’s for smuggling out as much of the free salad bar as you can in napkins hidden in your cloths.
They let me set up housing with them.
I was given some blue plastic tarp, a blanket and access to all the cardboard and black plastic bags I wanted.
At first it wasn’t too bad.
A lot of stories and hanging around and B-S-ING all day long.
But it was begging for money mostly.
With me doing most of the begging.
I didn’t mind it though.
It kept me away for The Crew during the day because I’d be working the corners.
The rest of the times I was the “gofer” for anything they wanted.
I didn’t mind that either.
It gave me a chance to explore the area I was in.
They were usually too drunk or stoned to function.
So it was me who did the runs to the stores for cigarettes and necessities.
But I always returned back to the camp and never crossed the guys with their change or supplies.
I soon started to realize the unstable situation I was in.
Their drinking always led to arguments between themselves.
Fights would start and end.
Friends for a minute…then ready to kill each other the next.
At times they would bring their drunken stupor or drugged up personalities onto the streets.
My job was to bring them back to the Camp and put them to bed before the cops came.
Yes staying here with these guys was getting risky…
But I had no where else to go at this time.
At least here I wasn’t alone…physically that is.
I felt that if something was to go wrong…they would protect me.
I’m glad the opportunity never came about to find out if that would be true.
The last day that I was with The Crew.
I woke up that morning to the sound of screaming and yelling.
Five of the men were beating up the sixth member of their Crew.
Accusing him of holding out on them.
Saying he kept some of the money we had made the day before.
They were beating him badly.
They wouldn’t…
Even when he didn’t respond to their punches and kicks.
They only hit and kicked him harder.
His face was covered with blood.
I could smell the blood from where I was laying.
I was so scared.
I had never seen a man being beaten by a mob.
It still haunts me to this day when I recall what I had seen.
While they were beating him I saw my chance to slip away.
I snuck into the woods and ran back out onto the highway.
Never to return.
I never returned to that type of living again either.
I stayed by myself after that.
It was a lot easier watching my own back than to trust others.
I’m amazed that I made it out of the woods alive.
So here I was on my own once again.
I was lucky the winter had ended and…
…was now in the air.
Weeks had passed since my departure from the woods.
I was enjoying my new found freedom from The Crew and the warmth that came with the changing of the season.
I was starting to get tired of my endless traveling that was leading me to no where.
I had no money or a place to stay.
Lucky for me after wandering around several States for a few months…
By accident I ended up in a small town in the State of Massachusetts.
The town looked like a Norman Rockwell painting.
Walking around uptown for the first time was so memorable.
An overwhelming feeling of belonging came over me.
As I walked I began absorbing everything I could of the Towns charm and beauty.
I could tell that proud people lived here.
Everything was immaculate…in a natural may.
I could feel that the people here cared about their Community and each other.
At one point several tears fell from my eyes.
I was thinking about how wonderful it would have been to have lived here growing up.
To have been surrounded with such values.
Maybe things would have turned out different for me if I had lived here.
I didn’t live here though nor did things turn out different for me.
But here I was now and who knows what the future could have in store for me.
I made up my mind that I would hang out here for a while.
At least until I got myself together a bit.
I wanted to stay someplace for a while and rest my weary bones.
My young body was so worn and tired.
The streets were hard and cruel to me over these past few months.
I needed money, a place to rest and food.
For these type of things there was only one way to get them.
I needed ‘Steady’ money coming in.
Money that I couldn’t depend on getting continuously from just pan handling.
There was only one option left for me.
I needed to find some…
I needed to see what kind of…
…were around in the area I was in.
There were a lot of manufacturing and paper product companies in the town.
Big huge factories…blocks long.
Railroad tracks running through them all for pickup and delivery of the products they made and received.
This usually meant that there would be a lot of unskilled labor jobs available.
GREAT!
Because that described exactly what I was.
“Unskilled” at everything.
I started going building to building asking if they were “Looking for help?”
It didn’t take long.
The fourth one was looking for a manual laborer.
All I had to do was fill out an application and be at least…
I had just turned fourteen and the only ID I had was a Social Security Card.
With that and a little fib about my age I should be able to land a job.
Not too much background checking was done back then.
Our society wasn’t that hooked up with communication as it is these days.
You could walk into a company and if they were hiring they would interview you right then.
And if they liked you…
They hired you on the spot.
No background checks.
Eye to eye contact.
Your word and…
…a hand shake.
So companies basically took your word on such matters and would hire you on their gut feeling about you.
Many a time I’ve heard…
“Can you start tomorrow morning?”
But the one I was asked this day is my favorite of all time when I was asked…
“Can you start right now?”
All I had to do was answer a few questions on their short, one sheet, one sided application form and sign my John Hancock.
Then state that I am sixteen years old and …
…I can start right now!
That was it.
I got the job.
Right on the spot.
I was then escorted to my newly found position in life.
Just like that.
I was now a…
FLOOR BOY!
My job was to keep the Lady’s on the floor happy.
Move their completed boxed work to shipping or storage.
Supply the girls with a new empty skid and supplies as needed.
It was a Carbon Paper Company I was working for.
They produced mountains of the stuff.
Thousands of rolls of it.
We used a lot of Carbon Copy Paper back in the day.
Haven’t you ever wondered how we made a copy of a document back in the Old Days?
I’m sure you were just wondering about that the other day.
I’m sure.
Well we didn’t have any fancy Copy machines or Printers back in the day.
That technology wasn’t here yet.
The times were tough I’m telling ya.
Unlike the ease of clicking the PRINT button on our computers of today.
We were using this new gadget they called the…
TYPEWRITER!
It’s a marvelous invention.
You no longer had to hand write a letter anymore.
Now you could TYPE it.
“Was there a Copy key available?” you might be asking.
NO!
The only association with the word Copy back then was when someone would say…
“I need a sheet of carbon Copy paper to make a Copy of a memo.”
When you needed an extra copy of what you were typing you had to get a sheet of ‘Carbon Copy Paper’.
You inserted a sheet of plain typing paper between the carbon sheet and it’s backing.
This will be your copy of the memo.
Then you placed another plain sheet of typing paper in front of the carbon paper.
This will be your original of the memo.
You then had to insert this collection of papers through the typewriter rollers.
It was easy to end up with misaligned sheets if you weren’t careful.
And don’t press to hard on the paper either.
You’ll leave smudges on the copy.
Then you have to wind the paper up to where you want to start typing.
Once again being mindful of the sheets being misaligned.
And there you have it.
You are ready to start typing.
Oh yeah…try not to make any typos either!
Because correcting them was another process you don’t even want to hear about.
At this point you’re ready now to make…
…copy of that memo your boss wants you to send out ten copies of in today’s mail.
Now there’s only nine more copies to make.
It was a lot of work…and talk about messy.
If you look at old pictures of offices you’ll notice they had a lot of secretaries working in them.
I bet you that most were there only to be making copies of important documents that needed copies made of.
Rumor has it that they are working on an Electric Typewriter.
Won’t that be something?
All these woman’s jobs were replaced with such innovative computer programs as Word For Windows.
Now one person can do the work of thousands and not even leave their desk.
I worked for three days straight when I was first hired.
The company was so behind on orders and shipping that my offering to help was seen as a blessing.
I worked the first shift and before it was over I asked if they wanted me to stay and help on the second shift.
An immediate “YES” was replied.
This went on shift after shift.
New Floor Bosses each shift.
I’d ask each one if they wanted me to stay and help out.
I told them I could use the money and it sure looked like they could use the help.
And again each time it was “YES”
None of them realizing the amount of shifts I had already worked.
They thought I had only worked the previous shift.
So working a double-shift was okay.
My job had me running all over the factory due to the duties I had to perform.
So no one really noticed that I never left work for those first three full days.
I was never in one place long enough for any one to keep track of me.
I managed to grab a few minutes of sleep here and there when I could.
Like I said I was all over the place getting supplies and delivering product to shipping.
During meal breaks I usually caught a few…
Someone was always there to wake me up if I overslept.
I’m sorry to admit this but I took food from the break room fridge that belonged to my fellow employees.
During the third shift only.
I would only take tiny little pieces of things.
Just enough to feel something in my stomach.
I could tell the items were left overs from the first and second shifts.
I’m happy to say that I never heard any one asking…
I will always be grateful for my fellow employees offerings of their food…even if they never knew they were offering it.
I had…
…to go after each shift during the daytime and the evenings were still a little cold from the passing winter.
Especially being this far up North.
It was a lot warmer and comfortable inside the factory than it was out on the streets.
So I just stayed in the factory and worked.
For three days I worked through all three shifts.
…of work.
During my time in between helping the ladies I started cleaning up the place.
Organizing things that had been sitting around for a long time.
Back orders.
Unknown orders.
Skids of mixed product.
Some damaged goods.
Piles of stuff everywhere.
The place was dirty.
Trash spewed here and there.
I couldn’t help myself.
I’m an Aquarian.
Supposedly we are considered to be the “dustpans of humanity”.
We clean up everyone’s messes.
And boy was this place a MESS.
The laddies I worked for.
They all worked on the smaller stuff.
Individual boxed 8.5 x 11 inch products.
Things for cash registers, adding machines and sales receipts.
The ladies and the foremen had been making a lot of comments to the ‘Big Boss’ about me.
Things like how I was doing such a great job.
And how I was doing things on my own and was improving the working area.
I was a natural.
The Floor Bosses let me go crazy straightening up the shipping and surrounding area.
Also helping fill all the back orders and such.
The ladies absolutely fell in love with me.
I was right there on the spot for them.
The Mother Hen of the lot didn’t like me at first.
She thought I was too young and scroungy to handle the heavy work.
It didn’t take me long to get her feathers smoothed out though.
She gave me her approval on the third day.
When they came to work in the morning of my third day…they were all greeted with a big surprise.
I had cleaned and straightened up all their workstations and the surrounding area.
The second and third shifts didn’t have any floor girls working during those hours.
So their stations were free of anyone working in them.
Not only did the Mother Hen accept me…
She allowed the rest of the hen house to cluck all over me as well.
They brought me food almost every day for lunch and stuff to take home after that day.
They were all now my new..
MOTHERS!
Things were starting to look up for me.
…the start of my fourth day of continuous work.
After about an hour into the beginning of first shift, I was called into the office.
The Big Boss wanted to speak with me.
This was not good I was thinking to myself as I was sitting in a chair in the outer office waiting to speak with him.
While I was waiting to be called in…
I fell asleep.
When I woke up…almost half an hour later…the boss was standing over me.
He was a big man.
He towered above me as he stood with both hands on his hips and a smile on his face.
“Glad you could join us.” were the first words he said.
He then said “Get up and come with me to my office.”
I thought for sure I would be fired.
He instructed me to sit down in the chair that was in front of his desk.
He wanted to know if I was okay.
He said I was sleeping so soundly they didn’t want to wake me up.
I told him that I was sorry that I had fallen asleep while waiting to see him.
I explained that I just closed my eyes for a second and dozed off.
All was fine now and I was ready to get back to work.
He sat there in his chair and just stared at me for a moment…then he smiled again.
He didn’t say a word.
He just sat there staring at me and smiling.
After a short while he began to speak again.
He told me that I was doing an extraordinary job and he thanked me for it.
The floor bosses couldn’t say enough good things about me.
And it seems that the girls on the floor all want to adopt me.
One even wanted her daughter to meet me.
He also told me that he had just been informed that I had been working for “three days straight”.
All three shifts each day and now I was starting the first shift of the fourth day.
I thought for sure…
…the other shoe’s about to drop for sure!
He knew the company was behind schedule on shipping and had heard that I single handily straightened up the shipping and storage areas.
So he let me slide on the working nine shifts straight with a “Well done.”
And a…
…I was never to do that again.
He then suggested that I “should go home and rest up and come back to work in the morning”.
I “deserved a day off”.
Yes I did deserve a day off.
The problem was that I didn’t have a “Home” to go too.
I was also tired and hungry and had no money.
Weak from lack of food, sleep and from not living a normal life.
I did the only thing a down and out fourteen year old boy could do.
I broke down and started tearing up.
I couldn’t stop it.
I had been hurting inside for so long that it felt good to let it out.
I told him that I didn’t have a place to stay and that I was living on the streets.
I was hoping I could survive until I received my first pay check.
So staying at work and working seemed the best option for me until I could afford to get a place to stay.
This man only looked at me for a moment.
Then he told me to fix myself up and go back onto the floor and continue working until he came for me.
I did what I was told.
Less than…
…minutes later my boss came over to where I was working.
He told me to stop what I was doing and come with him.
We proceeded to leave the building and go to his car.
He told me to get in.
We talked for a while as he was driving.
Just basic chit-chat.
How did I like working there, and about the good job I was doing and of course…the weather.
He never asked anything personal like “Why was I living on the streets?” or “Where did I come from?”
None of that.
We had only driven for several minutes when we pulled up in front of a large old brick building.
There was a sign hanging on the front of the building saying…
I was in total…
We went into the building. I was told to “Wait here.” as my boss went over to the check-in counter.
He started conversing with the desk clerk.
Apparently they were good friends.
They talked for a while.
I was then called over and was introduced as his…
“New employee that needed a place to stay.”
I was then asked to…
“Check In”
I was handed a pen to sign the register and a key to…
“MY ROOM”
I never had a “My Room” before.
And for sure I never had a “Key To My Room” before either.
The only other place I had ever been checked into before was…
The local Juvenile Shelter.
After checking-in my boss walked with me to my room.
As we walked he informed me that he had paid for the room for two weeks in advance at no charge to me.
I was to promise him though that I would come back to work and stay for a while.
At least until I got myself squared away.
I would still be getting my regular pay but now with a five cent an hour raise.
That was for the great work that I had done on my own initiative.
We arrived at the room and I opened the door with ‘my new key’ and we went in.
The room came complete with…
A bathroom with a toilet, a small tub, small sink, a medicine cabinet above the sink with mirror.
The toilet flushed using a pull chain that hung from the water tank that was directly above your head.
Hanging from the ceiling.
That was very interesting.
A fridge.
A small three burner gas stove with oven.
A sink with a small cabinet under it.
A small round eating table with two chairs in front of the only window in the joint with curtains, no blinds or screen.
A small couch.
An arm chair.
A coffee table.
Two lamps.
A big circle multi-colored rug.
Three pictures on the walls.
A five drawer dresser.
A twin-size bed.
A wooden dressing chair near the bed.
A night stand with a lamp and a wind up alarm clock.
I remember every detail of that room…even the smell of it.
The cost: $5.75 a week.
That’s right…$5.75 for a whole week.
And that included electricity, heat, running water and all the sunlight you could get through the one and only window.
I was sleeping any where I could at the time.
In the darkest corners of the night…so this was truly HEAVEN to me.
After we were in the room for awhile he told me something that I will never forget.
He told me that he also lived on the streets as a young man.
It was during the Depression.
His parents had to send him away.
They couldn’t afford to keep him at home with them.
They sent him to live with an Aunt, his fathers sister.
She was alone and he could help her in exchange for staying there with her.
There was no FREE RIDES back in those days.
He was sixteen when he ran away from her care.
He said she was a cruel, bitter woman who treated him like dirt.
And here he was now the owner of his own Carbon Paper Company.
He told me he was impressed by my attitude.
I didn’t complain about my situation.
I sought work and gave my all without complaint.
He then did another amazing gesture.
He gave me a fifty dollar bill.
This was the largest domination of money that I had ever held in my hands.
I had never even seen a fifty dollar bill before.
He told me that I would still be getting paid for the work I had already done at the factory.
This money was to help me get back on my feet.
I was to get some food, some personal items: soap, toothpaste, tooth brush and some new clothes.
Then he said…
“I’m proud of you son”
…and shook my hand.
No one had ever told me they were…
…of me for anything.
And this was the first time that I had heard a man call me…
“Son”
My real father never did.
He never bothered to hang around long enough to see my birth.
He left my mother when he found out she was pregnant with me.
I never met him or even saw a picture of him.
My mother then married four other men after that.
None of them wanted to be ‘my father’ either.
Not one even bothered to try.
So the word…
“Son”
… was a word that I had never heard directed to me before.
The word had no meaning to me.
Until that moment.
A total stranger through his brief words of kindness made me feel I was a part of the Human Experience for the first time.
As he was leaving he told me not to come back to wok until Monday.
This was Thursday afternoon.
He then left.
I was left standing alone in the room.
I stood there looking around at the room.
I then looked down at the key that I was holding in my hand.
I broke down.
I began crying.
I cried and cried and cried.
My emotions were pouring out of me like a runaway train.
I couldn’t stop myself.
I laid down on the bed and I cried my self to sleep.
My last conscious thought was of the wonderful man that had shown me such kindness.
I felt as though I wasn’t alone in the world anymore.
That I now had a chance.
A chance to be something other than just a bum on the streets.
I slept for…
…hours straight through the rest of that day into the next morning.
When I woke up I felt like I was a new person.
A new life was ahead of me.
I had a job.
I had a place to stay.
And…I had a fifty dollar bill in my pocket.
That was like having a thousand dollars back then.
I went into the bathroom to clean up.
I threw some water on my face.
Still dripping with water I stared at myself in the mirror that was in front of me.
I looked so old…and I felt it also.
A lot had happened to me over these past few years.
It’s no wonder I was looking like an old man.
But hey…even an old man needs something to…
I needed food!
So it was off to do some eating and some shopping.
As I was locking the door to my room as I was leaving…
I stepped back and looked at the door.
I turned and looked at the hallway and at the door down the hall that led to the outside world.
I could not believe what had just happened to me.
I was so overcome with appreciation for the kindness that was shown to me I teared up again.
This was truly…
An act of kindness that was given to me.
No one had ever gone out of their way to help me like this before…never!
To this day I am still thankful from the bottom of my heart to the man who showed it to me.
True to my promise I purchased the items I was asked too.
I repaid my “two week” promise and I worked for the company for almost two more months over that.
My youth and my restlessness got the better of me and it was off to another adventure.
Off to another State.
Another City or Town.
But this State and this Town I will always remember.
I will always remember the kindness that not only my boss had shown me that day.
It was all the people that I met there.
The laddies that I worked with and the friends that I made.
…I met my boss was not only the ‘first time’ it was also the only time.
During the remainder of my time with the company…
I never saw or spoke with him again.
He just swooped into to my life one day and extended a helping hand and then vanished.
Since then I made a pledge to myself that…
…to be as kind as I can towards my fellow man.
Not to just offer physical help but emotional support and help as well.
And to always use the same dignity and compassion that was used and given to me.
Thank you Mr. D.
For visiting my Blog.
Please…
…my Website.
My Blog (where you are now) is where I share with you the stories of my ‘Personal Life’ and my experiences as a ‘Musician’.
My Website is where you will find the ‘Business’ aspects of my ‘Music Career’.
Questions concerning Pricing, Booking, What style music I play, Where I am currently performing can all be answered there.
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No matter where you go…
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