11/18/2003

**Getting to the Liquor Store Before it Closes**

Mike Wilson, known as Army Mike, grabs some cash from the belongings he sleeps on to make a last minute beer run. I met up with him on the way home from my digital darkroom class tonight. "The liquor store is going to close in 15 minutes," said Army Mike. I walked part of the way to the liquor store with him til I got to my bus stop. He always likes to make a dramatic exit. He took-off running backward down the sidewalk yelling good-byes and see-you-laters. When he swung around to start his full trot, I had to yell "Look out," as he almost ran into a street sign.


[Army Mike enlisted in 1976 with no diploma. Not long after his enlistment as a radioman he returned to his hometown of Danville, Va. He had a job washing dishes at a Holiday Inn. Some people there didn't like him. They poured bleach in the dish water. This irritated Mike's hands to the point of infection. When he asked for workmen's compensation he said they told him, "Prove it happened at work." His sister, Gwen kicked him out of their house in late 2001. Mike has been living on the streets of D.C. since.]