Unlike many that I've interviewed, Will has experienced both prosperity and poverty. "I was married for twenty-four years. We had five children. I've always worked. Some of the jobs I've had [during my marriage] are working at a tire plant, making tires for Firestone in Des Moines, Iowa – where I'm from. I made really good money. I worked for T.D. Williamson here in Tulsa, welding. In the years I've lived in Tulsa [at a time where I wasn't homeless], I've helped build the Promenade Mall, the South Roads Mall, the third story on the Dillards out at Woodland Hills Mall. I worked in the state of Wyoming and managed a log home business, and unfortunately, because I fired a young man who didn't want to do his job, he went and talked to his father who was an outstanding attorney in the state of Wyoming. His father filed a lawsuit that was a defamation of character against the company and it was easier for them to get rid of me than to fight a lawsuit. I ended up being on the streets in Cheyenne the last month I was up there. I went from driving a $60,000 Dodge mega-cab 4x4 truck and having a nice home to live in – that were perks of managing the company – to going back on the streets and walking around with my bags, being embarassed, people knowing me in the Cheyenne area. I think if anything about... being homeless is the worst, it's the embarassment. I never once thought I would be in this situation."
Will doesn't feel that some who survive with the help of the Tulsa Day Center want to escape from their current homelessness, and that the Day Center is partially to blame for that. "If you've got that kind of situation where people are so freely given the easement of life, in a sense, a lot of them won't go out and find the work, whereas guys like me who want to work and want to get their butts out of this situation, in some ways, can't in the city of Tulsa.... Some people here [at the Day Center], a lot of them are very nice.... There's several people here... I guess you might call them 'holdovers' and they've never left because they don't know what to do in real life. They're stuck here in this environment. In some ways, you can tell who they are. I think the Day Center... tries to help people, but in some ways, I think they make it too easy for people to stay here. I'm not a guy who likes a lot of rules, but I'm starting to think that this system is wrong. Maybe they should change it and make things more limited, as far as like a timespan that people can stay here. People aren't leaving. When the economy gets better, I think a lot of people will leave. But the economy hasn't gotten better."
As Will reflects on his life, he reveals his belief that, some of his difficulties in finding a job, stem from the current economy. "Right now, I'm 59 years old. I'm a father of seven [with two children from a previous marriage], a grandfather, and a great-grandfather. I never once thought I would be in this kind of position in my life. I've owned four houses through the years – new homes. I've worked all my life. I've been married three times, but I've always bounced back. Now because of the way life is and how the economy is, we've sold so many of our jobs overseas that a lot of the work that people used to depend on and live by, you can't depend on it anymore. I'm a machine operator, a welder, and construction worker. A lot of [people without jobs] can't go back to this kind of stuff because there's just no jobs. When you've got that kind of environment... it just creates [homelessness]."
One particular experience has shaped Will's outlook on his own homelessness. "One of the most embarassing situations I've had since [I became homeless], when I was in the program over at Salvation Army to go and get drug tested – which I understood – but they would not allow us to leave our belongings over at the Salvation Army. We had to drag suitcases, plastic bags with clothes in them... to the rich side of town here in Tulsa. Kids in nice cars were going by and saying 'Look at the homeless! Look at the bums!' We're sitting here carrying what we own, unfortunately, and being forced to do that, and these people aren't used to seeing people in their neighborhood like that. It was truly one of the most embarassing things I've had to do in my life. In fifty-nine years, I've been through quite a bit, but that was a mind-shaker for me."
Right now, Will survives day to day, like every individual experiencing homelessness. He has a plan for his future, but he doesn't see a way out of his current situation. "My main concern is, with my age and stuff, I'm not a person that's going to be hireable. I've got things figured out that, when I turn seventy, the Marine Corp and the VA are going to give me money for retirement to live off of. I've held [money] back all these years, so I will be ok. But right now... I just have to live like this. When I came back [to Tulsa], I honestly thought I could stay with my kids, but it just didn't work out." Will did not elaborate on his relationship with his children.
He continues: "I'm gonna go back out [to the Day Center] in a minute and carry [my bags] to the shelter that I stay at here in Tulsa and wait to see if I even get a bed. I served my country three times in Vietnam. I did thirty-nine months in the Vietnam War and I have to live in a shelter. It just doesn't seem right. That's where I'm at right now. I've personally gone through my own hell dealing with this and I wouldn't wish this upon anybody. I really wouldn't."
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