David & Laine (SF)

Backstory:
David and Laine were in some ways the first people I interviewed for my "Homeless on Haight" book project. They didn't make the book sadly, because I hadn't formulated the way I asked questions yet... I didn't know what I was doing. Their hilarious sign "too ugly to prostitute" made it impossible for me to resist chatting to them though. Turns out their photo would be the one I picked for the front of the book, and months later, June 14, I would suddenly see them again after their travels, sitting in the same spot with exactly he same sign!

Here's what I wrote down from their interview.

About:

Met:
19 years ago through a friend and quickly fell in love.

Childhoods:
There is no record of David’s birth. He was raised in government facilities in California, Montana, Oregon, Wisconsin and a little bit of the east coast. It was a rough childhood that he doesn't like to talk about. Laine describes her childhood as pretty typical. A wonderful sister and a stay at home mum. Her father was quite brilliant, a president of engineering at a big company but when he died things went poorly. Her mother lives in Brazil.

Lifestyle:
David says meeting his beautiful wife was a pivotal moment in his life, and that her positivity turned him from a lost soul into a good person. David and Laine identify now as proud “hobos”, they travel often and get odd jobs where they can. They’ve always owned a car, but just recently their car was taken away from them - not helped by David making fun of a police officer for having “Lesley” as a last name. David has a sense of humor about everything, but not all police have the same humor. They both focus on the positive and they have been almost inseparable since they were married.

Family:
David and Laine have several kids, the older ones in Brazil and the youngest just five.

Aspirations:
David and Laine have a lovely dream to buy a school bus and travel around America, feeding people as they go. Cheese burgers and spaghetti! Their first attempt to feed people David was arrested for seven days for being drunk near a vehicle, even though apparently it wasn’t his vehicle and he didn’t even have the keys on him. They have also saved enough money for a tiny bit of land in New Mexico that they would love to build on to put a roof over their heads, and act as a home base. Thanks to their happy approachable smiles, they are able to get odd jobs and save when they can. You’ll rarely meet two happier people so full of life and humor. David, and avid fan of the Grateful Dead, said that if I was to write about them I should finish with:

“You can either be gratefully alive or gratefully dead... either way you must always be grateful”.