Second Street Blues

It was a sunny Monday afternoon, and I was strolling down Second Street in Memphis, Tennessee. I had just stopped at the Red Fish Gallery, and interviewed owner Buck Thomas, a successful painter and carpenter. “I’m as happy as I can be,” he told me. Couple blocks down, Court Square Park was filled with homeless people sitting around. I wanted to hear the thoughts of someone on other end of the spectrum of the same street. I met 35 year old Elmore Lewis in front of the Second Street Deli, when he asked me for a quarter.


Are you from Memphis?
Yes, grew up south of here. Smith Street, to be exact.

Are you looking for a job?
Well, I’m tryin’ to find work at the temporary service down the street, it’s called LSI. Haven’t heard back from them yet. In fact, yesterday, the FedEx Forum was giving out applications for all kinds of jobs. But they couldn’t contact me ‘cause I don’t got a home phone. You know, I’m homeless. I stay at the Memphis home mission over there sometimes.

What was your last job?
I was working a temporary job in a Nashville rescue mission. Good city, Nashville.

Why did you leave Nashville then?
My brother passed through there and brought me back here. I’m trying to get my disability now, you know.

Did you have a home before?
Yeah, I was living in the projects down on Sterling and Delaware. They tore it down many years ago.

Is that why you left?
Yeah, we had to leave. Later on, they rebuilt and renovated it though.

But you didn’t go back?
No, I didn’t. My family moved away, and I’ve been out here since.

Why didn’t you go with them?
To be honest with you, I was locked up. In jail. Served 13 years of a 15-year sentence and was let out on May 17th, 2007. Now I’m just trying to get back into society.

Would you mind telling me what you were locked up for?
Second-degree murder. I didn’t do it though, I took a charge for a friend. Some friend he was. Back then, everybody was scared of him, and I just ended up in jail for him.

What’s your ideal job right now?
I just really want to do cleaning.

What did you want to do when you were a kid?
Well, really I gotta tell you, [chuckles] what I wanted to do was… to be some kind of tutor. For little children, maybe Special Ed, people with disabilities and all that.

Do you still think you can accomplish that?
Yeah, I probably can. Once I get a job and get settled, maybe I could volunteer somewhere.

Anything you want to add?
Well, it’d be great if you could give me 2 or 3 dollars so I could buy a Happy Meal.