"Up from here" Chapter 9: St. Patrick's Day
It was a little after 4:00 AM in the morning, is when I disembarked off of the Amtrak train in Chico, California. It was early St. Patrick's Day. I had just arrived into a University town. The University students were in the party mode and as carefree and happy go lucky as they could be. However, for me, I was homeless and in need of finding shelter. I had paid for a one-way ticket to nowhere. I was in no mood for a party nor was I in the partying mood. How I ended up here was not by choice. Carrying all I had left in the world with the exception of a few things of personal value locked away in a storage unit. I began to walk away from the train depot. However, the problem was, I had no idea which direction to go. I had never been here before and I didn't know which way was up or down. Even which way was north, south, east or west. It was dark out still and if you get right down to it I was totally lost.
I was tired and needed to sleep. Where was I going to sleep? I needed to find somewhere to sleep. I was now homeless and this was my first early morning experience. I needed to think? I had no idea which way to go? All I knew, is I had to walk somewhere to find a place to lay my head. But where was the question? I kept walking up the 5th street away from the depot. I knew it had to take me somewhere. Then a thought came to me "why not head towards Chico State University." Whichever direction that was? I still had no idea? All I did know is I had to go somewhere. Again I kept walking until I came to what seemed like the main street. On the way, I noticed University students galore. In their fraternity houses, up and down the streets. In front of nightclubs and bars celebrating the holiday. Even some were standing in line waiting for the bars to open up so they could start their drinking episodes of merrymaking.
The further I walked, the more tired I would become. I knew I could not stop. I had to keep pushing onward. I ended up going in circles. I came across many places I could have slept. However, I didn't feel convertible doing it. There were trails or paths along the Chico State University campus I could have tried but now it was getting light. Before it became light I stopped at this mini-market to get directions to the Social Services Department. As that is where I needed to begin my journey. I needed to apply for services to help me in my situation. I also needed to find the Mental Health Department as well. They both ended up being in opposite directions. I headed for the Social Services Department first, as it was the most important on the list. Off I went carrying a blue backpack and a very stuffed black briefcase. I walked and I walked and I walked. As I was strolling down the street in what I hoped was the right way and direction. This young woman came from behind me on a bicycle. She came from behind me and liked to scare me out of my wits. What wits I had left. I was still jumpy from the mental condition I was suffering with at the time. I ask her if I was headed the right way. She told me which way to turn a few miles up.
Unfortunately, I missed the turn-off and ended up walking about 10 miles out of the way. That's the truth of the matter. I ended up on the other side of the overpass from where I was supposed to be. In fact, I had been so close one time the building could have jumped out an attacked me. I had even been so close to stop by another mini market to use the restroom. Where I felt as embarrassed as hell. I had no choice I had to go to the restroom. Later on, I ended up on the side of the expressway. I was getting hungry now so I stopped at one of those fast food joints where they serve breakfast in the mornings. I ordered something to eat with what little money I had left in my pocket. I again used the restroom except for this time I changed the T-shirt I was wearing at the time. I changed into a green T-shirt, after all, it was St. Patrick's Day. I finished up eating and left on my way again. Going outside I saw a Fire station maybe they could give me directions? They are known for helping people. I did not want to ask for directions to the Social Services department from where I ate breakfast. It would have been too embarrassing to contend with. I thought, “Hey I will ask a fireman which way to go from here.” Sure enough, I did. The one fireman I spoke with pointed across the expressway and said, “It over by the skating rink.” “Ah! There it is,” I said to myself.
At this point I was really tired and just about exhausted. I did not think I could go on much further. I had no choice I had to keep going onward. I finally reached the Social Services office and proceeded to go on inside. It was a nice building compared to Shasta County. Even the clerks were nicer it seemed. I stepped into line and filed out whatever papers were necessary. Along with other documents to suffice what was needed to apply in Butte County for services. The gentleman I spoke with after I was called up to his window. He seemed to enjoy his job very much. He directed me to the nearest shelters, food give away and used clothing for the needy such as myself. This Social Services office was much different than Shasta County where my open file was. I was transferring the case and relocating to Butte County because I did not want to be homeless in Redding, California.
This building had most of the services under one roof, such as Unemployment Services, Job search, and a few others, which I cannot recall. I was given an appointment for the next day. In the meantime, I needed food and shelter. I took the gentleman's handout he gave me and headed towards the Salvation Army. Which happened to be close to Chico State University. It was now about 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon and the Salvation Army food give away was not open until 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon. I was tired and all I could think of was to get some sleep. I remember seeing a little park right close to Chico State University. I thought to myself, "If I walk there I can surely take a nap".
That is exactly what I did. I took a nap in the little park. It was still a long walk to the Bidwell Park and I did not want to spend what little funds I had on a bus ride to the park. Here I was again walking. I arrived at the park and found a nice tree to lie under and take a snooze for a while. This park was located right in the middle of downtown Chico, California. It was one square block either way. In the middle of this park was a bandstand area. The sidewalks chis-crossed and met in the center at the bandstand stage area. It was a very nice park. So off to sleep I went for the time being, as far away from my worries as I could go. I woke up a while later and I was hungry. The thought of going to get some food was on my mind. It was close to 3:00 p.m. now. I gathered my things and headed to the Salvation Army for food. I arrived there after a bit of a walk back towards the direction of the Social Services Department.
I went inside and signed up for a lunch pack, enough for a day or two if you used it wisely. Some of the stuff inside the plastic bag was not worth eating. However, if you were hungry enough you would eat as much of it as possible in order to survive. Which, I ate as much as I could to fill my stomach. Next, I needed to get a shower and sign up for shelter. I headed towards the shelter listed on the sheet of paper I had been given by the gentleman from the Social Services Department. Off again I went. As I arrived where showers were available I was too late. I was out of luck and had to wait until tomorrow. All right, so what is next? This is where I needed to sign up for shelter too. I was told to wait for the shelter bus it would be along soon to take everyone to the shelter for the evening around 4:30 PM.
This photo of Bidwell Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Oh yeah! It can be really bad at times. I spent almost two months with an organization that through the churches set up a homeless program. When I first arrived and signed up for the program from March 17 St. Patrick's Day the day I got there off the Amtrak train from Redding, California in the early morning hours until Easter Sunday when they close the shelters.
The homeless program started on Christmas Eve. I wasn't there then thank God. I went to Chico, California because I did not want to be seen homeless in Redding, California where I lived and where people knew me. I had too much pride to ask my friends for help or burden them where I lived and had worked for years. So I felt it was best to leave Redding, California and at the same time I could research my legal case in the Chico State University library. Which, I did every day when I didn't have other personal business to take care of while I was there.
During the time I was in Chico, California the homeless would go from church to church. The shelters were set up at different churches at different times. The non-dominations churches that housed the homeless from Christmas Eve until Easter Sunday for two weeks sometimes only a week at a time at some churches before everyone was moved to another church.
I spent one week at one church, and then we had to move on to the next church. Two weeks at the next one, then the last one for two weeks more. A bus provided by the City of Chico, California would pick us all up in the evenings in downtown Chico, California at the motel and transport us to the shelter. In the mornings the bus provided by the City of Chico, California would again pick us up at the shelter and take us to breakfast at the Jesus Center food give away Monday through Friday. In the evenings we could eat dinner there then take the City of Chico bus provided for the homeless going to the shelters during the week. The Jesus Center at the time was a few blocks from Chico State.
On Saturday and Sunday in this one park the college students set up lunches veggie style. (With signs reading "NO Bombs, feed the homeless!") Then on Sunday mornings, a church made us a special breakfast and the Salvation Army served a great dinner on Sunday evenings. Even the shelters had dinner most of the time and plenty of coffee and tea to drink. We did not go hungry and starve to death. The rest of the time I spent homeless and slept in a run-down old house in an attic with the rats for two weeks. The rest of the times I slept under a bridge for a few days and finally spent the remainder of the time sleeping in the Bidwell Park on top of picnic tables, three different ones. No, it was not fun but I did meet some friends along the way. I was still able to eat at least at the Jesus Center food give away.
This photo of Bidwell Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor
We took showers at this motel set up for us to get showers Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday we were out of luck. When the shelters closed I would sneak into the men's gym at Chico University and take a shower now and then to get clean. I would go when no one was using the showers. And no it was not any fun it was very embarrassing. The Jesus Center at the time was a few blocks from Chico State.
After the homeless shelters closed down on Easter Sunday from there is when I had to sleep in Bid-Well Park on a park bench or on the ground, or under bridges and even once in an abandoned old fraternity house. In the attic with all the rats crawling around and if you did not burn a candle they would crawl all over you. I lived like that for a couple of weeks.
On Mother’s day I called my Mom Collect to see if it would be ok to come up and visit her in Redding? She said, “yes” and I caught the next bus for Redding at noon. I never did return to Chico as I continued to stay with my Mom in Redding, California.
Homeless Image and Stereotypes:
Grubby faced straggly beard and wild, unkempt hair. Drug addicts; alcoholics swilling methylated spirits encased in a brown paper bag and schizophrenics murmuring away to themselves or causing a scene in the streets. An old lady in a woolen hat struggling to push a shopping cart, complete with plastic carrier bags stuffed with useless junk.
Dirty, smelly, sub-human individuals. The dregs of society. Worthless bums too lazy to get a job. Passed out drunk on park benches or in urine-soaked bus shelters. Sat, cap in hand, begging in the high streets and shopping malls. Nothing more than an extension of all the other dirt and litter that ’something should be done about.’ You can almost picture the middle-class mother grabbing the curious young boy by the arm whilst telling him he should keep away from ‘people like that’.
Nothing useful to contribute to society.
How do we know that? Whilst some of these stereotypical images may be valid in some instances, this says little or nothing about what contribution this person may have had in the past or what they could be capable of contributing in the future. There is no way of knowing, just by looking at them, what their background is or what brought about their demise. Kurt Cobain was well known for sleeping rough and associating with the homeless. You simply cannot know what talent or value lies behind the grubby facade.
I myself come from a middle-class background, am of reasonable intelligence, with a decent level of education. I had worked all my life, was happily married and owned my own home. I have never been a drug addict nor an alcoholic. The epitome of respectability, yet through circumstances largely beyond my control, I became homeless. There but for the grace of God.
We are all guilty, myself included, of these stereotypical associations whether they be valid or otherwise. Therefore, I am placing great importance on maintaining hygiene and attention to my appearance. I do not wish to be the one mothers tell their children to keep away from. If I allow my standards to slip in this respect I am likely to be consigned to a perennial nightmare.
Most of all, I am very aware that as soon as I start to look like a homeless person, I can expect to be treated like one.
Homeless Image and Stereotypes
Famous people who were homeless:
Every day, we walk past people in the streets without having the slightest clue that they are homeless because they do not fit the stereotypical image. Even of those that do fit the common-held image, you simply cannot tell by looking at them what past contribution to society they may have made or what contribution they may be capable of producing in the future. You never know what value or talent could be concealed behind the grubby faced facade. The following persons have all experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Some only briefly and some for many years. Some have risen to fame from poverty while others have declined from wealth to destitution. Some possess extreme intelligence, others artistic talent but all have made a positive contribution.
This compilation is by no means exhaustive.
John Drew Barrymore
Actor; father of actress Drew Barrymore spent many years living on the streets and in shelters, becoming more and more reclusive and eventually disappearing into the wilderness maintaining very little contact with friends and family.
Halle Berry
In an interview with the magazine, US Weekly, Berry stated that she had stayed in a shelter for a time.
Jim Carrey
Actor, writer, producer, and comedian lived out of a VW van in various locations across Canada with older brother John Carrey, older sister Rita Carrey, and parents Percy Carrey and Kathleen Carrey. Also camped in a tent with his family in the backyard of the home of his older married sister, Patricia.
Charlie Chaplin
Oscar-winning actor, writer, director, and producer; British-born author; knighted. Lived on the streets of London during his childhood after his father died and his mother, Hannah suffered a mental breakdown. After Hannah Chaplin was again admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum, her son was left in the workhouse at Lambeth in south London, moving after several weeks to the Central London District School for paupers in Hanwell. Chaplin’s early years of desperate poverty were a great influence on his characters. Themes in his films in later years would re-visit the scenes of his childhood deprivation in Lambeth.
Kelly Clarkson
Grammy Award-winning singer; American Idol television talent show 1st-season winner 2002. Lived out of a car and in a shelter, with her female roommate after a major structural fire forced them out of a 71-unit apartment building in West Hollywood, California in March 2002. In an interview with Inside Edition television news magazine, September 5, 2002, her roommate-fellow Texan, actress/singer Janet Harvick was quoted as saying, “It was really, really rough because we had just moved here, and we had just moved in the day of the fire. We knew nobody here—I mean nobody, so the night of the fire, the next day, and night, we stayed in our car. ”US Weekly magazine, September 23, 2002; print story: “‘My apartment [building] burned down; my car got towed twice,’ recalls Clarkson, who, with nowhere to go, lived in a homeless shelter for several days.”
Kurt Cobain
Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, musician; lead vocalist of the band “Nirvana” camped under a bridge in Aberdeen, Washington USA and slept in a cardboard box on the porch of a drummer friend; hallway floor of an apartment building, hospital waiting room and old couch in a garage. (source: book, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain, by Charles R. Cross, 2001).
Daniel Craig
Actor; James Bond in the 007 movies, is reported as having slept on a park bench in London while a struggling actor. (source: Daily Mail newspaper, October 14, 2005).
Bobby Driscoll
Oscar-winning actor (as a child star); the original voice of Walt Disney’s 1953 Peter Pan animated movie died alone and destitute of a heart attack at age 31. The body was discovered by boys playing in a vacant tenement building in New York City and was buried in an unmarked grave, unidentified until several months later.
George Eads
Actor; star of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation lived out of his car, in Los Angeles while a struggling actor.
Richard Fagan
American songwriter; wrote six number one hit songs. Albums featuring his songs have sold over 25 million copies. Became homeless twice in the 1970s after being discharged from military service in the Vietnam War.
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella spent years as a struggling, homeless teenager before she was discovered in a singing competition. In 1932, her mother died of a heart attack. She was taken in by her aunt, Virginia. Shortly afterward her sister’s guardian also died of a heart attack and Frances joined Ella at Virginia’s home in New York City.
Following these traumas, Fitzgerald’s grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. At one point, she worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. After getting into trouble with the police, she was taken into custody and sent to a reform school. Eventually, she escaped from the reformatory and became homeless.
Chris Gardner
Multimillionaire stockbroker (net worth $65 million (2006)); American author; the 2006 movie the Pursuit of Happiness starring Wil Smith was based on his life. He slept in subway stations, trains, bathrooms, church-run shelter with his son in California.
Kelsey Grammer
Emmy Award-winning actor; star of the television series Frasier camped out the back of a theater behind his motorcycle (source: Entertainment Tonight, December 12, 2001, celebrity ‘Rags to Riches’ story segment.)
Cary Grant
Oscar-winning actor slept rough on the streets of Southampton, England during a summer in his youth at the time of World War I. (source: book, Cary Grant: A Biography, by Marc Eliot, 2004, page 31: “Archie then volunteered for summer work as a messenger and golfer on the military docks, often sleeping in alleys at night if he didn’t make enough money to rent a cot in a flophouse.”).
Harry Houdini
Magician, escapologist, and actor; Hungarian-born American author slept rough and in temporary shelters; left home at age 12 in search of work and traveled for two years on his own, making his way from Wisconsin to Missouri and settling finally in New York City.
Djimon Hounsou
West African-born (Beninese) Oscar-nominated actor and model slept on the streets and in subways near the Eiffel Tower for two years beginning at age 13 before being discovered and offered modeling contract.
Eartha Kitt
She slept in subways and on the roofs of apartment buildings. “When I see the homeless now, I empathize,” she told Kaufman in the New York Times. “I know there but for the grace of God go I,” she continued.
David Letterman
Emmy Award-winning television writer, comedian, author and talk-show host of the television talk-show Late Show with David Letterman spent time living out of his Chevy pickup truck while struggling to establish his career.
Lil’ Kim
In an interview with USA Today Weekend, she was quoted as stating at 8, she and her mom left Kim’s abusive father. “There was a time when my mother and I were living out of the trunk of her car”. “We slept in the back seat.”
Harry Edmund Martinson
Nobel Prize-winning Swedish author (abandoned by his mother at an early age along with his sisters when his father died; later as an adult, he traveled for a time on a “homeless tramp” as a vagrant and vagabond, experiences that provided the basis for some of his writings). Martinson was born in Jämshög, in the Swedish county of Blekinge in south-eastern Sweden. Having lost both his parents at a young age, he was put into foster care. At the age of sixteen, Martinson ran away and enrolled on a ship where he spent the next years sailing around the world. A few years later, lung problems forced him to set ashore in Sweden. He proceeded to travel around Sweden without a steady employment, at times living as a vagabond on country roads. In the city of Malmö, he was arrested for vagrancy, at the age of 21.
Rose McGowan
Quoted in Interview Magazine in 1997: “I was homeless for a year. I teamed up with this other girl - I met her the first day I was on the streets - and we roamed all over Oregon and Washington.”
Jim Morrison
Singer, songwriter, and poet; lead singer and lyricist for the 1960s rock band The Doors; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (with The Doors), slept on rooftops, in cars and under the pier at Venice Beach, California and ‘couch surfed’ at friends apartments.
George Orwell
British author stayed in homeless shelters either to research material for his work or (likely) necessity.
Charles Sanders Peirce
Harvard University educated genius scientist, mathematician, logician, philosopher, and author; first psychologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Peirce spent much of his last two decades unable to afford heat in winter and subsisting on old bread kindly donated by the local baker. Peirce died destitute in Milford, Pennsylvania.
Sally Jesse Raphael
It is written in her biography, ‘An Unconventional Success’ that she lived in her car for a time. For a while, her financial situation was so dire that she was on food stamps.
Debbie Reynolds
Wrote about having to literally live in her Cadillac for a while after divorcing Harry Karl.
Harland ‘Colonel’ Sanders
Businessman; founder-spokesperson of the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurant chain. Became homeless at age 10 when his mother remarried and he left home due to altercations with his stepfather. As an adult he slept on the back seat of his car because he could not afford lodging as he traveled around the United States and Canada, sometimes with his wife Claudia, trying to sign up restaurants to use his special fried chicken recipe for a franchise licensing fee.
Tupac Shakur
Actor and rap music star. Impoverished throughout most of his childhood, with his mother and half-sister, he moved between homeless shelters and low-grade accommodations in New York City.
William Shatner
Emmy Award-winning actor, director, and best-selling Canadian-born American author. After the cancellation of the television series Star Trek, in which he starred, he traveled the east coast of the U.S. appearing in a play on the summer theater circuit and sleeping in a camper with his dog, a Doberman pinscher. “I now had three children and an ex-wife to support and I was just about broke,” he told the Daily Mail in May 2008. “I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell. It had a little stove, a toilet, and I’d drive from theater to theater. The only comfort came from my dog, who sat in the passenger seat and gave me perspective on everything.” (Details magazine, January 2008.) “I’d been a working actor for decades, I’d starred in three failed TV series [Star Trek the most recent], and I was a divorced father of three children living in the back of a truck.” (Up Until Now: The Autobiography, by William Shatner with David Fisher, 2008, page 159.) Also, earlier in his life, he hitchhiked across the U.S. with a male friend during a summer break after their freshman year in college. (From the same above autobiography, page 32) “We had no money, so we made signs reading ‘Two McGill Freshman Seeing the U.S.’ and hit the road. We spent three months living in cars and sleeping on the grass and on the beach.”
Martin Sheen
Emmy Award-winning actor, director, and producer; slept in New York City subway while a young struggling actor.
Marc Singer
British-born director, documentary filmmaker and former model slept in subway tunnels in New York City for two years while making a documentary on the city’s homeless.
Hillary Swank
In 1989, when she was 15, Swank and her mom packed up their Oldsmobile Delta 88 and, with just $75, headed to Los Angeles. They lived in the car until a friend [eventually] gave them a place to stay. Swank’s mom used a pay phone to book her daughter for auditions. (Readers Digest)
John Woo
Chinese-born film director (Mission Impossible 2, Broken Arrow, Windtalkers, etc.) Lived in a crude shelter having been made homeless for a year and losing everything at age seven, along with his family, after a major fire in Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1953 destroyed his home and those of 50,000 other residents.
Famous people who were homeless.
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