PBS Short Film Festival

I was born in Memphis, Tennessee I come to Los Angeles in 1965 looking for something better than Memphis.

Arkansas, Mississippi, and my home.

Memphis, Tennessee, I didn't like what I saw.

That's the reason why I winded up here, 'cause all that old Yes'm and You know what I'm saying?

You had to bow down.

I ain't lived nowhere but Hollywood.

I never live downtown, or no South Central.

Hollywood.

I winded up on the street half of the time, and off and on.

You understand, but , I had addiction problems.

In the 70s and 80s, pretty much everybody was into some type of drug or another.

And I flew around and fell into it.

Rock cocaine.

And I left from rock cocaine to alcohol.

That was a addiction that was worser than the cocaine.

That stuff held me for quite a while until I decided this enough is enough.

My life ain't always been homeless.

You understand?

I used to own a house up in Silver Lake Hills, all the way to the south overlooking the city.

And from there, up in Laurel Canyon on Beach Knoll I owned a house.

I wasn't renting it, I owned it.

But they took everything from me.

The government.

For, what they said, income tax evasion.

And sent me to Terminal Island for four years.

And when I come out of there, I come out of there with nothing.

I'd get me a grocery cart and go recycling up in the hills.

You understand?

Now, I'd make 100 dollars a day with a grocery cart, and then I'd panhandle on the side of the freeway.

That's how I survived.

All the elderly people that you see on the street homeless, they ain't always been homeless.

You understand?

A whole lot of those people owned houses, but the taxes and stuff keep going up.

Every 8 or 9 months, they going up on the rent, but they income ain't going up.

So, ain't no place for them but the sidewalks -- the streets as y'all call them.

People be talking 'bout they trying to help.

They not trying to help.

The politicians ain't doing nothing for them.

They the forgotten ones.

People ride by them every day.

And see them on the street pushing grocery carts and with all their little belongings in it.

But they tell you about the homeless, they ain't tell you about the ones that's dying on the sidewalk.

Alright, well, I'm busy right now.

Okay.

Later.

A whole lot of them people out there got kids, and they kids done forgot about them.

That's.

But.

Yeah, I got one back there in Arkansas.

You understand?

I ain't saw him in, I ain't saw him in years.

I didn't even much have a ID.

I had forgotten my Social Security number and all that.

And, once I got that, then that's when I got to walking.

And trying to get me apartment.

Cause, God, God knows I wanted to be back into society.

Yeah.

You understand?

I wanted to be somebody.

Let me back where I can take and stick a key in the door and unlock it and walk in and sit down and relax and watch TV.

Look at me.

I got a microwave, a color TV.

If I want to listen to some music, listen to me some music, sit back and relax.

I ain't got to be out there nerves all rattled, no more.

I'm set for life with this until I die.