This is Jack Briggs, and I am homeless. (1 Viewer)

[Neil Middlemiss]

I don't know you, Jack, but I'll do what I can too. We're all family at HTF!

 

[Tina_H_V]

Yes, it has been years since I last saw your name here at HTF, Jack. I am so sorry to hear of your recent troubles. What you say is chock full of poignancy. It all helps to put things into proper perspective regarding what is truly important in life. I will continue to monitor this post as time goes on and life goes by. Hang on in there, Jack. I, as a native Californian, am with and pulling for you all the way.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It's only a matter of time now, folks.

And then let the floodgates open!

 

[DavidJ]

I've been following this thread since the beginning when we were unsure if the initial posts were genuine. Now that we know it is indeed you, Jack, my heart goes out to you. I am sorry that you have had to deal with such hardships and I look forward to being able to offer some modicum of help through this online community that is the Home Theater Forum. I have also found this thread to be enlightening and sobering. Be thankful for the blessing you have and be willing to share this blessings with others.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Jack, you have always been one of my favorite posters here and I find your current situation gut wrenching. I don't know if you are afraid to fly, but I have a free ticket for Southwest Airlines that you could use to fly back east. Just PM me if interested.

 

[Jack Briggs]

David, I am most, most thankful. You cannot know how much. (I am trying to avoid saying "all of you" as much as possible, and, also I need to make a correction to my previous post: I lived with my late sister here in Los Angeles for a year and three months -- rather than the other way around -- and I have no idea how I managed to typo the word "bite" into "bight." Go figure. Such is how my mind is working presently ...)

A dear friend here has run a test on my Paypal account and it appears to work! Too, given the paltry but round and even sum I deposited into my checking account, I should have no problem being able to tell how much Paypal temporarily deposits and then log on to the site to verify it. Then we are off and running.

Also, as I said to that HTF pal, I so look forward to the (I hope) near future and being able to start a new thread here in After Hours titled "Greetings From Nashville."

Part of me winces when I think of leaving Los Angeles. It has been my home for close to three decades. The state is so beautiful, but, and I know I am repeating myself here, if one has no money (or too little), he or she can be eaten up pretty fast. Yet, there is much to like and love in the state of my birth, and getting to know it again, I am sure, will present some challenges. To wit: In all the fourteen years I lived in Nashville (my first nineteen years were in Memphis), the city's population held to a constant four-hundred and fifty-thousand to just under a half-million. In the twenty-seven years since, its population now is in excess of six-hundred thousand.

Those who live in large cities might think that a trifle. Change, though, comes with those numbers. So, what I am saying is, I am aware that the town will be different. On the other hand, I will see things with which I am more than familiar. For one: Directly across from the street where the Greyhound station is (on Eighth Avenue) is my longtime place of work, the very place that gave me my professional start as a writer and an editor. Some of the people I remember so well still work there. So, then, guess where one of my first places to visit is.

Another, more trivial thing: As a long-time California resident I have come to develop a healthy fear of earthquakes. Though I am very much a science and technology devotee, earthquakes make me superstitious (if you have ever experienced one, you'd know why). So one thing I can say that I am looking forward to is being able to relax a bit about tremors. Rather, I prefer violent, exciting weather. It was in Nashville that I saw my first tornado. The idea of thunder and lightning excites me, in fact.

Whoa. I am out of "breath" from typing this. Still dazed. And amazed.

You give me hope, Home Theater Forum. I hope to be worthy of your love and help. I cannot thank you enough.

With "all my lovin',"

Jack Briggs

 

[Jack Briggs]

Michael, and I have just seen your post, which came in just as I was hitting "send" on my most recent. Give me a little time, and I will contact you tomorrow or on Tuesday. Thank you so much, kind sir. You, like all people here, amaze me. JB

 

[Mike Frezon]

Official Announcement!

We've finally got things all worked out. I have "christened" the account with a transfer to be sure we are up and running.

=====================================

Anyone who wants to donate to help Jack with his bus ticket to Nashville can do so by making a deposit into his account at PayPal.

Please use the following e-mail: [email protected]

I feel compelled to add that we are sending money to our friend as a good-faith gesture. The HTF is not profiting from this is any way. We have simply helped Jack set up a PayPal account so that anyone who wishes to help out a "friend-in-need" can do so. Thanks!

 

[Dave Upton]

Excellent news. Let the donations commence.

 

[Cinescott]

Contributed. Best of luck to you, Jack.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Done and done! Best of luck now and in the future - I look forward to your future "Greetings from Nashville" post and will stick around here too

 

[Dheiner]

Just to ensure that there is no misunderstanding here: I do not wish that Jack limit himself in how he uses the funds I sent.

In other words, Jack, if you find another way to travel, or receive "more than needed for the fare", if you use it to feel better, I'll be happy to have helped.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What Dheiner said!

 

[Persianimmortal]

As a relatively recent member, I've never interacted with you on the forum Jack. But it pains me to see an intelligent and articulate person such as yourself down on his luck, so I've made a small contribution. All the best to you.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Glad to see people helping out. Thumbs Up to everyone.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Good luck to you, Jack!

 

[BrianW]

Drat. Now I have to get an account with my sworn enemy for life, PayPal.

 

[schan1269]

Drat. Now I have to get an account with my sworn enemy for life, PayPal.

No BoA. branch close?

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I merged the accounts so the initial posts from Jack in this thread show up from his original account.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Speechless.

I had to type that word three times to get it right. Add to it stunned, dazed, numbed. The only reason I cannot say "floored" is that I am still sitting in this chair. Delirious, for sure. Seriously, let me think for a moment here.

The first thing I normally do when I log on to the library's computers is to head to my e-mail account. Imagine, then, my reaction to what I saw there less than twenty minutes ago. With my heart pounding noticeably (and folks who remember me here know that I use language very precisely, stating exactly what I think is necessary and accurate -- so my heart was pounding), I went directly to my Paypal account. As I type this, a bit more steadily now, I still am in a state of disbelief.

That you care as much as you do -- and I know that money talks, as is said here in the U.S. of A. -- still boggles my mind. And that I love you, all of you (there I go, saying "all of you" again), is something that, frustratingly, can only be typed. Words, then, are all that I have at this moment to convey to you, the people of Home Theater Forum. As a result, my plans are being accelerated, changed. The schedule, shall we say (my hands are slightly steadier at present), has been bumped up a bit by your obvious care and feelings and, yes, love.

I will be able to return to Nashville much sooner than when my plans first formed. And it looks like I can do it next month. All I need to do (and the word "need" here is questionable) is to receive another "general relief" payment -- but, even then, who knows?

Your help has given me a new lease. So let me tell you some things I have been reluctant to before. See, as it became increasingly apparent that I would not be able to avoid homelessness, I even entertained ending it all. Yes, that is right: the big no-no. Offing myself. That is how desperate I had become. I had pulled out two jugs of Lysol in my last two days in my apartment. The thinking was that that was better than what lay ahead. I looked at those containers of "lethal if swallowed" cleanser. The image seared into my mind; I still see it now.

But I am not suicidal. I could not do it.

That first week spending my nights in a homeless shelter in South Central jolted me to a new kind of reality. Though not a reality I could ever choose, I plowed through it. As I said in an earlier post, one sees different kinds of people in this awful state of homelessness. From the truly (or, seemingly) hopeless in rags who talk to themselves to those who are better dressed and look as though they were just laid off that afternoon, it is the reality of homelessness itself that keeps banging on one's head, as in -- as in that this shelter is the only thing remotely approaching anything you could call a home.

I am going to receive my permanent bank card some time this week; I gave Bank of America the shelter address as the place to send it to. And one of the shelter staff told me that was okay, that it would be given to me once received. Then, after my next general relief payment comes my way, at the first of the month (April), I will take my three bags of hastily packed necessities and take a bus to the Greyhound station, purchase my ticket, and head back to Tennessee. It all is possible because of what -- here goes -- all of you have done.

Somehow I hope to demonstrate how much Home Theater Forum, which is the easiest way to speak of the people here collectively, means to me. My presence here will not again be diminished. And, when I am able to, my help will be offered to others here.

I have typed quite a bit here. My head, though, still is numbed by this.

How in any way can I say any more clearly how much you all mean to me? How?

I will keep everyone up to date. I will come to this thread every time I log on. I need to sit still a moment, to meditate. "thank you" is too little to say. Please give me some time.

Most humbly, your friend,

Jack Briggs