I inherited smart genes from both sides of my family and passed them down to my daughter, and she passed them on to her many children.

I devoured every book I could get my hands on as a young kid in the early fifties. My vocabulary grew with each word I conquered.

School was easy, I scored at the top of most tests I took. I created amazing computer systems in the seventies and eighties. Made an amazing amount of money, lived in great places, and lived a successful decadent life.

Then I crashed and burned in a field next to the apartment my boy lived at, in Kent, WA, South of Seattle. It was the early nineties and I had lost my apartment and stored the few things remaining in my life, a couple of boxes and my lifelong teddy bear, on Riley's mom's back porch.

I borrowed a friend's tent and moved into the middle of the dense field. I had nothing, I was flat broke, and all I had was a little radio to play music on. My smarts weren't doing me a fucking bit of good at the time, and I had bottomed out. All of the possessions of my past, were gone. Let that sink in...

I've owned amazing possessions through my well paid life. I once spent $300 for a record player needle cartridge in my sweet stereo system. I've owned and enjoyed so much stuff, can't complain, it was all good, and then it was gone.

I lived in that field for a while. My friends and neighbors from the apartment complex would bring me food. My big black buddy Roger would bring me coffee in the morning, then get me stoned.

I made my living by walking the Albertson's parking lot, looking for dropped coins on the ground.

But then, a song came over my little radio, called "Walking in Memphis" and I suddenly knew I was destined to land on a dead end street in Southern Tennessee! It changed my life, and I began creating a transition from homeless to here!