"Tommy sat on the cold metal bench outside a little coffee shop in downtown McKinney. His raspy muffled voice crooned a soft country song, while aged yet agile fingers strummed across the well worn strings of a blue acoustic guitar. Salt and pepper hair brushed across a ruddy bearded face as a crisp north wind kicked up. Tommy reached over to secure the two wrinkled dollar bills flapping inside the open guitar case. He carefully tucked the ends of the bills under the small stack of prized CDs bearing his image and that of Mable, his faithful companion of thirty-seven years" "Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" soulfully echoed across the Square and Tommy's foot tapped along with each rhythmic beat. I dragged a wooden chair across the brick sidewalk, and then parked myself a couple feet away from the real-life Texas troubadour. I enjoyed each rendition of old familiar tunes, as well as the original compositions inspired by nearly forty years of life on the road". "Tommy, would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself, " I asked when he took his first cigarette break. "Where are you from?"....... .http://www.ntxe-news.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=50&num=79465
Everyone has their own life story. This would make a lovely book. What a good story, a bit sad for Tommy lost his parents so young. He looks happy and healthy. Thank God he met up with kindly people, for he seems to be a Senior Citizen already. You know I hope he finds out about FoodStamps so he won't starve. Many places have low income housing too. When you get old you got to have a home and food. Any thrift store has good clothes that I sometime visit for clothes. Library has internet computer that a library card gives entrance to. I hope Tommy finds these information. Going to the library, I sometimes meet pitiful homeless people they too have their story. The change to welfare has made many homeless.