FROM THE ARCHIVES
Nord, California, 1978

An old man lives in the grain bin across the road. The owner of the property there ignores him. The bin is always surrounded by pigeons. I wonder if the old man feeds them? What does he eat? He gets up early in the morning and emerges from the bin with a gunny sack and spends the entire day walking for miles down one side of the railroad track and back up the other, gathering flotsam for his sack. He probably doesn't smell good. How does he live in the dark like that, in the bin? He walks and his back is straight and his stride determined and of course he's a little crazy. I asked Gary Corea, my neighbor, about him. Gary told me that the old man is well educated and says some surprising things. Gary said, "That ol' man don't do no one no harm. Stays the summer there every year. He's got the gentlest, kindest voice you ever heard, and he says the damnedest things."