Korea to America

Up until the age of three, he was living in South Korea. He was then adopted by an American family that lived in a small town called Lebanon, Missouri. The town had about 8,000 residents living there when he first arrived. “They were Mormons and they were strict,” he said in describing the family that adopted him.

The 47 year old man told me that he lived in Lebanon up until his 18th birthday, when he was kicked out of the home. “I never graduated,” he told me when talking about high school.

Today, he lives on the streets of Nashville collecting aluminum cans for cash. He makes about .44-cents per pound, which is enough for food to eat. He is currently living on the covered sidewalk of a closed down business.

Wrong Bus Stop

"I got off at the wrong stop," he told me. "I was trying to get off in Chattanooga, but I got off the bus in Nashville by accident," he explained. I told him that Chattanooga was only about an hour or so away. He then pointed at his shoes, "Not in these."

Change needed

Sitting on a bucket with his hat in his lap, passerby's stopped and gave him their loose change.

He is originally from Galveston, Texas, but moved to Nashville about two weeks ago in search of work. “I lived through hurricane’s there,” he told me. So far, he has found a two day job doing construction clean-up, but needs something more long term. Not to worry, his eyes are open.

“Do you like Nashville,” I asked. He smiled and responded, “I love it here.”

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.” - Henry David Thoreau

It is about the music

His name is Terry Johnson and he's from Memphis, Tennessee. When asked why he ended up in Nashville, “To become an entertainer,” he told me. “I’m a song writer and musician,” he said with a smile and a tip of his cap.

Terry, like many of the people who call the streets of Nashville home, has dreams and sees himself as being bigger than the alleys he sleeps in.

“I’ve been told I look like Tim McGraw and I’ve also been told I look like Dwight Yoakam,” he said as I was walking away.

French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician Albert Schweitzer once stated, “There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”

Well, the music I agree with. The cats? Oh well.

The mind is a palace

Homeless in Nashville, Tennessee

"You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.” ― Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes (1930-2009)

Paper's to be sold today

He sells papers in downtown Nashville and makes enough to afford a place to stay. He is well organized and determined to live a better life.

"I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time." - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Heroin

He was sitting on a discarded Pepsi crate behind a gas station in downtown Nashville smoking a Pall Mall Cigarette and drinking a Bud Ice tall boy.

“I was clean for 22 months,” he told me while looking to the side as if he were afraid he would disappoint me. “I lost it though, lost my job and lost my truck that I worked for,” he said after telling me that he was addicted to heroin. As for a place to live, he lost that too because he was living with his sponsor who couldn’t risk his sobriety.

He told me that he overdosed on heroin one month ago and literally died. He was later revived after being transported to the hospital and given a second chance at this thing we call life.

Former CBS Reporter Dan Rather once did heroin for a story. He later stated, “I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly.” 

The Music Maker

Todd Willard writes music and lives on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. He told me the song he is working on now is titled, “My Old Friend.”

Todd’s home is a park bench on Music Row, across the street from a recording studio where he recorded his song, thanks to the help of a friend in the business.

“They hit me over the head and I don’t remember much else,” he told me when describing a recent attack that he was the victim of.

He pulled his hair back after removing his cap, “See right here, that is where they busted my head open – I was lucky to live through it,” he told me while describing what occurred.

They never caught the person or persons who jumped Todd, but he survived and I bet a new song is in there somewhere.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” ― Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Poems of Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Only One Eye

He told me that he was originally from Chicago, but came to Nashville for a job and never had the means to leave after losing the employment. His long stay started over ten years ago.

“Nashville’s a rough place,” he told me while describing a robbery that occurred in downtown Nashville. “They jumped me,” he said with an irritating look on his face.

As we talked more he pointed to his empty eye socket, “I lost my eye last year. It started out as an infection and when I went to the hospital they gave me eye drops and then sent me on my way. It turned out to be a staph infection and by the time I returned to the hospital a second time, the pain was unbearable. So, I lost my eye.”

His goal is to someday return to Chicago to be with his son and grandchild. “My son looks and talks just like me,” he said with a laugh. “He’s a carbon copy of me,” he suggested.

Carded for alcohol

The sun beats down on his leathery face as he keeps his hands in his pockets to keep his jeans in place while he walks slightly hunched. It is clear to see that he walks with pain in every step as if the soles of his feet are raw. His hair is gray and wiry and when he talks he keeps one eye slightly clinched.

His meals sometimes come from trashcans in downtown Nashville on a Friday night. Tourist are quick to throw away a half-eaten sandwich, which becomes his dinner at times.

“The government passed that law so they card ya’ up until you're 105 years old now,” he told me. I laughed and responded, “Well, you don’t look anywhere close to 105.” He shook his head and said, “But, I can’t buy a drink cause I don’t have ID.”

“My life was a wandering; I never had a homeland. It was a matter of being constantly tossed about, without rest; nowhere and never did I find a home.” - Jan Amos Komenský, a Czech philosopher (1592-6170)

Dogs and Homeless

“Dogs don’t rationalize. They don’t hold anything against a person. They don’t see the outside of a human but the inside of a human.” — Cesar Millan (dog trainer)

From the Vietnam War to America

He escaped Vietnam as the war came to a close in 1975 with the help of a CBS News Chief Correspondent named Brian Ellis. 58 year old Liu Khai Trac remembers the exact date he left, even though he was only 17 at the time. Lou, as he is called by friends told me, “I think it was March 27th that I left Vietnam as a refugee.”

During the war, Lou remembers being scared. He said to me on Wednesday, “At one time I recall that the bomb shell was so heavy we had to hide under a bunk bed.” He then talked about seeing a U.S. tank heading down one of the roads in front of his house, “I saw a military tank supplied by the US – they was running on the street – now tanks don’t usually run in the city, but that’s how severe inside the city – and then bomb shell I heard.”

I asked, “Did you like the U.S. Troops?” He smiled and laughed… “As for the American Troops, I thought they were good – They good guy – and especially - they give us a little pack of cigarettes to smoke, a dollar for a soda – they was friendly to us and we was friendly to them.”

Today, Lou is homeless in Murfreesboro, TN.

Wisdom: You Know Nothing

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates, Greek Philosopher (469/470-399 BCE)

A Mix of Scottish and Indian Music

Arvel Bird is his name and he comes to get down with his mixture of Scottish and Indian heritage. He calls himself a “Celtic Indian.”

Notice the Scottish plaid hanging from his waist?

While on stage, he performs by switching between a traditional Indian flute and then playing the fiddle in a fashion that would make Charlie Daniels proud.

The diversity within his performance is quite fascinating, and enjoyable to listen to.

Arvel has a background for music. When he was younger, he attended Arizona State University on a music scholarship. He later went to Champagne/ Urbana, IL studying classical violin. His teacher was Hungarian violinist Paul Rolland, who is quite famous in the music world.

Before making Nashville his home, he actually toured with the original Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell for seven years, starting in 1986. Once in Nashville, he toured with Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Ray Price, Louise Mandrell, and Clay Walker.

It is a Circle

Black Elk Oglala, Sioux Holy Man (1863-1950) once stated: 

"You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."

Indian Pow Wow

Stated by an Indian named Red Cloud (Makhpiya-luta) in April of 1870:

"In 1868, men came out and brought papers. We could not read them and they did not tell us truly what was in them. We thought the treaty was to remove the forts and for us to cease from fighting. But they wanted to send us traders on the Missouri, but we wanted traders where we were. When I reached Washington, the Great Father explained to me that the interpreters had deceived me. All I want is right and just."

Indians in Tennessee

The 35th annual Indian Pow Wow and Fall Festival took place on the edge of Rutherford, Wilson and Davidson Counties in Long Hunter State Park this past weekend (10/14 - 10/16/16).

The event allowed for participants to explore their Native American Heritage while taking in the sites, colors and foods.

The event is attended every October by Indians of different Nations all working together to educate the public on their culture.

Approximately 19,500 Indians call Tennessee home.

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." - Ancient Indian Proverb

A question I have been asked a lot is, “Where do you find such interesting people?” My answer is simple, “I stumble across them by accident.”

Jim is originally from New York, but at a young age enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Later, he moved to Virginia where he became an investigator for the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Corrections. Jim told me that it was interesting, to say the least. He then added, “It taught me one thing, they’d have to kill me before they lock me up.”

Prior to moving to Tennessee, he resided on the north slope of Pikes Peak in Divide, Colorado. There, he lived on a 10,800 foot mountain in a log cabin. In looking back to his log cabin, he told me you could see for miles. With a smile he said, “You could see Oklahoma from up there.”

"There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period." - Ted Nugent

Hippie Sleep in Tennessee

I love the way that sunlight falls between the trees at places like Hippie Hill in Tennessee. The freedom to nap through the afternoon is equally beautiful.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -Abraham Lincoln

A life of crime and time in the pen

I guess you could say the tattoos were a gift from the penitentiary. His arms were laced in human skulls, evil faces and more.

Eddie Estepp has had a long life of crime, “I’ve done over 30-years of my life in the penitentiary,” he told me. But many would question, what started him off on the wrong foot?

Estepp told me, “My mother and father was drinkers, there was always alcohol involved in our lives. There were six boys and two girls, all six of my brothers has been to the penitentiary – I got two in the penitentiary now in the state of West Virginia.” Like his brothers, he too spent time behind bars for theft, felony assault, evading police, receiving stolen property, grand larceny and even “Riot in the 1st Degree.”

Alcohol was part of the problem. He said, “Alcohol was my drug of choice.”

Now that Estepp is out of the pen he has changed his way of thinking. While standing outside on a beautiful fall day in Tennessee he said, “You know, I always thought a good looking truck, a good looking woman and a bottle of liquor was a man’s way – well a man’s way is working and keeping a roof over his kids head, and paying his debt to society, being a part of the community and helping others.”

Today, Estepp is clean and sober, “God’s turned my life around. I no longer steal, I no longer drink, I’ve been clean for six months now going on seven. Like I told ya, I just got out of the penitentiary and I’ll never touch another drink of alcohol, never.”

I asked, “What would you say to someone wanting to put the bottle down?” He looked to the side and then said, “Find that higher power because nobody can quit alone, you need that higher power. Jesus Christ was mine.”

American poet Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) knew alcohol well and often wrote about the issues that surrounded the drink involving fictional characters that came to life page after page. In a 1978 novel called Women, Bukowski wrote, “I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone. On the other hand, when I got drunk I screamed, went crazy, got all out of hand. One kind of behavior didn't fit the other. I didn't care.”