Month: May 2018

FATHER RUBY
Honolulu, Hawaii
1985

In my seven years living homeless on the island of Oahu, this was the only church that I knew of that offered coffee and donuts before its service. The Episcopal diocese church. Another anomaly was that the service was held early, 8am each Sunday, which is much earlier than most churches. It was held at a magnificent stone cathedral with ceilings so high and walls so thick that it reminded me of a castle, only in miniature. The beautiful cathedral was surrounded by lovely statues flanking great metal doors that opened wide to greet the parishioners. But that was not where the service with the coffee and donuts was held; that was not where Father Ruby preached. He gave his sermon in a small wing of the complex, off to the far right. It was no less beautiful than the rest of the cathedral, and…

2002
I simply cannot recall what road we were on, except that we were trying to get from California to Arizona – I think. There are some experiences that are so affecting, so harsh, that time and space fade away. This was one of those experiences, though you might be surprised at how slight it may seem at first. I hurts my soul to this day.
Two friends, a lovely couple, my dog and me. Hitchhiking is all the horrible things that you think it is, but it is also a ride when you are in need. So we were nothing but grateful when a man in a pickup truck offered a lift for a good hundred miles. Since I had my dog, GG with me I sat in the bed of the truck with her. It was cold, very cold, and if you have ever ridden in a pickup…

Roswell, New Mexico, 1980
South of the town of Roswell is the old Air Force base. It was a huge military complex, bigger that the town itself, and though the base was closed, the place still served Roswell with an excellent International class airport. In addition to this, many of the buildings were re purposed; the Eastern New Mexico University had a sizable branch here, as well as a Job Corps Center. I was part of this Job Corps Center, and in fact was in the first group of young people to arrive when it opened in 1979. Every few days a bus load of kids would come, until finally we had 500 altogether, but that took some time. For a while it seemed as though we had the whole abandoned military base to ourselves, and abandoned was the word for what we found.
Technically we were trespassing, but there…