Listen to the winds...

He spent 8 years in the U.S. Army and served during the Iraq conflict. He is originally from Dyersburg, TN, but decided to move to Memphis where he was homeless for quite some time while searching for his life, who he was and who he is...

He is now in his own place and doing much better today. He is also looking into his past... He is part Indian and wants to learn more about his family heritage.

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows." ~Native American proverb

He plays the French Harp

Rick is from Syracuse N.Y., but later moved to Kentucky for the local university in Richmond where he says he taught up until computers were brought in as teaching devices.

“How old do you think I am,” he asked me. I did not know where to start guessing, which he could obviously tell as he blurted out, “71, No one believes me.”

He told me about his love for music and said, “I play the French Harp.” Surprised I asked, “You have a harp… Like a giant gold leafed harp?” He smiled and laughed… “They call the harmonica the French Harp. It is a name that dates well before your time.”

“How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” ― Jane Swan, former Professor of History at West Chester University in Pennsylvania (1925-2010)

Anything helps

He was sitting outside of a church in Mexico City with his hat extended seeking help.

Living on the sidewalk

He was in his sleeping bag on the sidewalk and could not tell me his full name or age. He seemed to not be able to comprehend much, but appeared to be sober.

“Some people think mental illness is a matter of mood, a matter of personality. They think depression is simply a form of being sad, that OCD is a form of being uptight. They think the soul is sick, not the body. It is, they believe, something that you have some choice over. I know how wrong this is.” ― David Levithan, Every Day

He has style

While he lives on the streets of Tennessee, style is not beneath him. He looks like someone one might spot playing a bass in a jazz club or perhaps a guitar in a blues band.

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." - Maya Angelou

Hard Work in the Mississippi Delta

Hard work at a small used tire shop in the Mississippi Delta. 

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." - Vince Lombardi

He was a track runner in the 1970's

Mr. Richard Townsend lives in a small house that was once where slaves called home in the Delta of the Mississippi. The home is approximately 15 feet long and 8 feet wide. It consists of two small rooms with a toilet and kitchenette that was added years and years after slaves, then sharecroppers made the house their residence.

Mr. Townsend who was born in Mississippi, later moved to California. While on the west coast and in his early twenties, he was known for running trackfrom 1976 to 1979. He ran for the Santa Monica Track Club. The track club in California received worldwide recognition in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s after setting numerous world and national records.

I was able to track down information that showed his name on an April 1977 schedule to run in event #33 during the Drake Relays. Townsend ran the 440 yard relay in heat number one. His relay team made the run in 41.34 seconds, placing second in their event.

Today, Richard Townsend pays $125 per month to rent the small home that he has lived in for about 15 years. The area in which he lives is surrounded by drug dealers who harass him on a daily basis and even throw bricks at his house. He told me that people make and sell meth and crack in the neighborhood and drink non-stop. Townsend told me, “As for me, I only drink coffee and juice.”

While talking to Townsend, I witnessed the harassment first hand. Mr. Townsend told the subject who walked up to his house to leave and said to him, “He’s interviewing me, you need to get outta’ here.” The man continued to harass Mr. Townsend until we were finished talking.

Townsend has numerous “No Trespassing” signs posted on nearly every side of the small house. He even has a gate across his front steps so people cannot enter his home. The two do little to keep people away.

As for why he moved back to Mississippi… It was to be with his mother who was near death. She passed away shortly after his arrival and is buried in a cemetery about a mile from his home.

As I left I could see that he was tearing up. I think he enjoyed reminiscing about his mother and his track days. He seemed to be a very kind, open and thankful man.

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Once a Train Hopper

His friends call him “Bald Head” and that was how he introduced himself to me. He told me that he made his way to Nashville several years ago by way of a boxcar. He once jumped onto moving trains to get him from point A to point B.

After I offered him some new clothes he said to me, “I take my weekly shower tomorrow, so now I’ll have something clean to wear!” As he picked out a couple of shirts he said, “Let me hop in the back of your truck, I’ll show you where lots of homeless are.”

Once he got in the truck bed we started to drive towards the J.C. Napier Housing Complex and he told me to stop for a homeless man he saw walking past the Greyhound Bus Station. Mr. Bald Head told me he wanted to give the man a shirt, but warned the individual not to be greedy because there were others that he wanted to help. The man carefully picked out one shirt and then asked Bald Head if he had any change. Bald Head pulled out his only dollar and handed it to the man.

We later arrived at his chosen destination and were met by about 10 to 15 homeless gentleman in front of a closed down business on Lafayette Street. His friends were almost cheering for him when he got out of the truck and handed them new shirts and bags of toiletries.

The J.C. Napier Housing Complex and the area around Lafayette Street is somewhat forgotten by many. I won’t say forgotten by all as I know some groups help out the less fortunate in that area, but others avoid it due to the high and somewhat uncontrollable crime that has occurred in that area over the past 15 years.

A recent Nashville crime map shows that in the past seven days, a total of 50 thefts, robberies, assaults, burglaries, vandalism’s or arrests have occurred within a one mile radius of the J.C. Napier Housing Complex.