For every homeless person around the country the circumstances are different for each individual. Not all homeless people are homeless because they are unable to support themselves. I was eleven years old when I first noticed this mystery and fairly scary looking man cleaning the street. He is known as Bones on Rice Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the place he knows as home. Ever since the Vietnam War ended Bones has been living out on the concrete jungle of Rice Street. Unlike most homeless people, Bones choose his fate under the eye of the sky. Bones hauls his belonging up and down Rice Street with his two wheelbarrows. Also, he is accompanied by his dogs who stand guard by his personal belongings while he is away. This old warhorse is not your typical homeless man. For an example, Bones contributes to the Rice Street Community by keeping the street clean; also, during the winter time he shovels the sidewalks. Five years ago is when Bones no longer remained a mystery, but a lesson into the hall of learning. The majority of our society has the same analytical thought upon homeless people. For instance, the ones who are always in the crowded places in a city asking for someone's spare change. One day while I was working at a neiborhood establishment on Rice Street, I watched Bones with a plastic bag in his hand tread through the front door. He went straight up to a man sitting at the bar and handed him the bag. Apparently he has known this man for sometime now. I soon discovered that Bones bought the man a baseball glove from a local neighborhood store. The baseball glove had to at least cost eighty dollars. I was bewildered by this benevolent behavior coming from a homeless man. Through friends of the family of Bones, I was enlightened of his reason why he choose the streets. Unfortunately, from the abhorrent conditions of the Vietnam War, and the despicable attitude that the United States government had towards the Veterans of Vietnam after the war. Consequently through his perverse decisions Bones made his home town from a familiar place to an unfamiliar place. This decision made by Bones in my opinion serves a loyal, passionate, selfless, stouthearted, and solicitude purpose for his fellow brothers and sisters who served in the Vietnam War. Therefore, I see it as though Bones turned urban Rice Street into a small rural village in his home community, living anciently in an ever progressing world, and voluntarily took refuge under sky roof. My lesson learned is that Bones is not really homeless but has a home bigger than what most will have in a life time combined together.
God Bless Bones ! And may his legacy live forever and always be remembered.
