One Man's Story

I'll See Your One Night, and Raise You

As David Briley, Buck Dozier, and Howard Gentry get ready to take the "urban plunge" (a night where people of privledge experience a little of what its like to be homeless), one candidate for At Large says he's been there, done that.

I have gone through this before already and remember it well. I was 18 years old in 1982 right out of high school and put out on the street. I would travel up and down the streets in downtown Knoxville during the 1982 World's Fair. I slept @ a Krystals, Continental Trailways bus station and even would sneak into the back of the carnival games at the fair and sleep on the stuffed animals. My food consisted of a spoon and jar a peanut butter. When I came back to Nashville, I was working at Steak & Ale in Rivergate. To save money for a place to live, I slept on the front sidewalk of the restaurant nights and get up early, enter with morning crew and bathe in the sink. So, you can see, even though I am not homeless now, I was and understand the meaning of wanting a home. If you think this would suffice for the night on the streets, I would be glad to talk to anyone about my ordeals. This would also include being beaten up by 2 men in Knoxville and robbed of my shoes, wallet and $0.01 I had to my name.

Who is the lucky (or unlucky) candidate? J. Gower Mills. Now a prison guard with a roof over his head, Mills experienced the "loneliness and hopelessness of being homeless and hungry" in ways no person can in one night.

Source: http://seanbraisted.blogspot.com/2007/06/ill-see-your-one-night-and-raise-you.html