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14
January – March 2014
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
By Charleen Earley
charleenbearley@gmail.com
D
wight Thompson. If that’s
even his real name.
I interviewed him, but didn’t
get his story.
At least not a story an editor
would’ve expected from me, based
on the many questions I shot his
way.
I saw him – Dwight – a couple
weeks ago squatting on the dirt
road off Brentwood Blvd. border-
ing Brentwood and Oakley city
limits. He was slowly moving his
“camp” of at least a dozen plas-
tic bags containing who-knows-
what, a quarter of a block each
day. When I finally gathered up
enough courage to talk to him,
he seemed to have settled his
nomadic home at the corner of
Lone Tree Way and Brentwood
Blvd., covering himself with an
opened navy blue sleeping bag,
huddling over his belongings. I
noticed he had left a few bags be-
hind him several yards back, still
within his sight, as if he had every
intention of scooping them up to
add to his primary camp.
Before I drove over to him, I
had made him a ham sandwich
with mayo (mustard was hard-
ened from non-use in my fridge),
along with a bag of baked Gold-
fish crackers and a bottled water.
I never make sandwiches for my-
self, so I bought fixings to make
them, in preparation for this day.
I’d been planning this “interview”
for two weeks, ever since I first
laid eyes on him from my truck,
along with all the other rubber-
neckers asking the same questions
I’m sure.
Why was he homeless? Is he
hungry? Is he a drug-addict, an
alcoholic, a veteran? Is he cold,
sick, family-less, dangerous or
contagious? Is he a wounded soul
or an angel in disguise?
I parked my truck at Sam’s
Food Mart & Gas station across
the street from him, lunch bag in
hand, camera strapped over my
Looking at Homelessness Eye-to-Eye
Photos by Charleen Earley
Edited by Maria Tavares