Homeless Man interview-Maurice

all right maurice maurice oh where'd you grow up where are you from originally i'm from grandview missouri that's near kansas city i think right yes it is it's the suburb of kansas city and tell me about how you grew up you had mom and dad i had a mom and dad my grandpa passed away my grandma my step-grandma passed away we grew up in a house in missouri it was green and white had a garage was a three-bedroom house it had a master bedroom had an upstairs had a basement how would you describe your childhood um i grew up on the farm landscaping goes back to squash what kind of kid were you in high school i graduated in 1973 from ruskin high school in kansas city missouri and your childhood no nothing crazy going on nope pretty solid midwestern pretty solid yeah and after after school you went where go to college college college took accounting class the the college is now in phoenix arizona goes back to book evening what kind what kind of work have you done in your life mostly landscape [Music] goes back to a dead bush you have you been married before only once and i haven't even married her dear kids one she lives in moore park her name's melinda she has a band classical rock band going on and you uh you've been living here on skid row for how long i've been on skid row for about five months you've been homeless for how long a couple of years how'd you end up homeless um camera above my girlfriend's room put me on the street what did the camera show camera shows that i keep going to a room and doing what i guess having sex if you want to say that there's nothing wrong with that but no there's not but what got you kicked out or whatever i smacked her in the head because she wouldn't cut her hair they put a restraining order on me her mom died the woman that put the restraint on me died that left her alone she does drugs she does cocaine she does marijuana i do marijuana had a marijuana card the cops took that do you do any of any of the other drugs that are out here no i don't do coke i don't do uh i just do marijuana cigarettes and marijuana that's all i do i don't even drink beer no welcome no alcohol have you been on uh any psych meds before uh yes i have halidol and epicot what are those for uh schizophrenia are you taking those currently no i'm not are you better when you do take them no i'm not can i ask you to look at camera there you go um what uh what is the difference between maurice on the psych meds and maurice off the psychonauts maurice off the psych meds knows how to work a job maurice on the psych meds doesn't know how to work a job marisa on the psych meds takes social security marissa on jobs takes food stamps lost two food stamp cards already would you like to go back to uh the uh park at echo park and start over with a bar of soap direct start with echo park and start over with a bar of soap in a bathroom how do you support yourself living on the street panhandle panhandle you get enough money to eat uh yes i do and you'll eat where you go to the missions to eat or you go to the summer i go to the mission to eat when i can [Music] do you talk to your family do you have any contact with anyone uh no i haven't i need to write a letter and i haven't done that it starts with a black pencil and an eraser starts with construction it starts with a caterpillar starts with a forklift especially a forklift you've been uh the psych meds that you were prescribed those you were taking since what age when did you start taking them when did i start taking them 1996. how old are you now 66. you're 66. born june 2nd 1955 goes back to world war ii goes back to when hiroshima got bombed not quite you're a little bit short of that yeah i know i am what uh what was the best time of your life it goes back to the japanese when they bombed us in world war one two or world war ii goes back to world war one i don't know what happened to world war one but it goes back to world war one what what goes back to world war one everything what's your favorite memory in your life my favorite memory of my life is music baptist music about this hymn though i grew up baptist it goes back to the complete jewish bible by david h stern sir ever heard of david h turn no david h turns over there in israel israel's still got a war going on between the palestinians and the israelites it goes back to a jewish flag they're not flying a jewish flag anywhere around here anything else you'd like to know do you have any friends on the street uh yes i do several starts with ten dollars i gave somebody ten dollars the other day that was homeless and you stay in a tent or you just you just swing it i just wing it right now on the street homeless with cardboard no tent picking up cigarette butts what's the best thing you found searching around garbage and trash uh food starts with peanuts started with peanut butter starts with peanut butter and jelly what would you describe a good day in your life now what what constitutes a good day finding something to eat what's a bad day bad days nothing to eat yeah how often are you hungry uh quite a bit all right you won't be hungry today how about my swollen feet would you like to test those yeah why are your feet so swollen from walking so much is that right from just from walking your feet gets home just from walking what'd you say is the most important thing you've learned in your life how to work for a chemical plant called r d chemical is that where you worked in kansas city that's why i was working in kansas city why are you wearing the uh the coat and the internet because i worked for rd chemical still i'm still trying to get another job with them so hanging out by the greyhound station parking lot yes sir is that gonna i'm not sure they're gonna drive by and hire you it goes back to collecting trash goes back to cleaning up the streets of vale what do you think l.a needs to do about their skid row situation homeless situation i think they need to do something more about it [Music] goes back to chase bank goes back to star wars goes back to redondo beach library you know where redondo beach library is that's where it starts goes back to redondo beach honda all right maurice thank you so much for coming in to talk with me no problem you have a good day sir you too thank you you

Channel: Soft White Underbelly

Views: 157,265

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Id: 8WY1J47-jMg

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021