Marjorie Bard, Ph.D. LinkedIn Profile Updated

MARJORIE BARD, Ph.D.'s LINKEDIN PROFILE: 2015

MY STALKER, MATTHEW BERDYCK -- AND HIS ROOMMATE, GOOGLE PROGRAMMER ALEX -- HAVE MALICIOUSLY DELETED MY USUAL GOOGLE LISTING FOR MY REGULAR LinkedIn Professional Profile, Updated for 2015. Photos are in the original Profile, which is right where it should be -- on LinkedIn! You can also type Marjorie Bard, Ph.D. LinkedIn Profile into Google Search and the ENTIRE PROFILE will appear. This "substitute" is due to Berdyck's Internet Abuse

Marjorie Bard, Ph.D. : LinkedIn PROFILE       500+

CEO Women Organized Against Homelessness 501(c)3; Author; Filmmaker; Survivor: DV/Stalker

Saint Michaels, Maryland

Human Resources

	current experience 1.    The Undetectable Homeless,  2.    Eco-Logical Self-Sufficiency Living,  3.    Women Organized Against Homelessness
Previous	1.     Bard Productions (A Collection); 2.     UCLA
Education	1.   University of California, Los Angeles

 

Summary

Extensive personal, fieldwork, and academic experience has provided intimate knowledge of domestic abuse, homelessness, and a vicious stalker. The undetectable homeless live anonymously and by self-sufficiency. They live in/out of RVs, vans, trucks, boats, etc. -- an alternative lifestyle from traditional housing, but is a "nest" which is theirs for living anywhere.

Experience

Those who lose jobs and homes often choose to live an alternative lifestyle by living full-time in RVs, converted vans, trucks, station wagons, SUVs, and rehabbed boats/barges/tugboats. They create their own businesses and become self-sufficient. WOAH assists the undetectable homeless to find strategies for remaining anonymous while increasing survival tactics whether rural or urban, "off of the grid," or by disability. Most vehicle full-timers remain in the area in which they have been living or travel for employment or private purposes. Some use alternative housing for months and others for years as they become familiar with a routine or circuit (e.g., flea markets, antiques shows, and craft faires) and like the freedom that would not be available if the government became in charge of their lives.

Self- Sufficiency Eco-Village Creator

Eco-Logical Self-Sufficiency Lifestyle

Sadly, I have to report that my 1st self-sufficiency community has been dismantled due to the threats of a consistent cyberbully/stalker/criminal. He brags he found the small farming community, told a county government agency to look into the property owner's taxes, rights to allow others to utilize land that had not been in farming production, and my association with the establishment of the community. The property owner panicked and told the small group to leave. The last I heard, members were packing-up and getting ready to return to full-time vehicle living "on the road."

Naturally, they didn't know the circumstances of why they were told to leave immediately, so the community members had no one to blame but me, and I've only heard from two who wanted to know why I did this unthinkable deed. I hope to hear from them all so I can explain about the bully/stalker and the threats that led to their fate.

This atrocious use of the internet and active stalking to harm innocent people has led to my own direction re writing and crime victim advocacy. I am now part of a team of professional PIs. Mainly, I am doing legal research and investigating bullying/stalking/terrorizing activities. I am already writing a new book on adults who ruin others' lives by these methods. I welcome any personal stories to add. I have never used any real names or actual locations in my books and films...unless a waiver has been signed by the interviewee.

Personal Experience, Fieldwork, and Academe

Women Organized Against Homelessness

Dedicated to assisting the UNdetectable homeless who live in urban/suburban areas out of clean/uncluttered vehicles, or in isolated rural areas, many in rehabbed boats. They are self-sufficient individuals who create their own businesses and currently are forming tiny communities for growing organic foods for themselves and commerce, raising chickens and other animals for eggs and wool/hair (clothing and woven items), and assisting others to become self-sufficient. There is no need for any stable homeless person to be completely dependent on the government for subsistence or turn to "mission" areas in cities for a life that was never appropriate for them as previous home owners/renters and community activists. Many of my interviewees were "housewives" who experienced domestic abuse and escaped to safety but had no money of their own. I have helped to find small old RVs for them, and they have used their homemaking skills to become chefs, party planners/caterers, child care professionals, artists, home cleaners, school teacher aides, house repairwomen, diner workers who eventually become part owners, etc. Some rural women who have lost everything have become self-sufficient by creating businesses related to hunting -- cleaning skins for sale and creating homemade clothing from skins.

I created three tiny new Green self-sufficiency farming villages in the Northeast. (I receive NO money from the members/communities.) A cyber-and physically-active villain acted to destroy one. It was succeeding as an eco-village for the stable homeless. I fear for the others. 

My stalker is more aggressive than ever with diminishing self-control, using the internet to tell outrageous lies (libel) and seeking to destroy my life to prove I am the "fraud" he says I am. He insists I do not exist -- and then insists I do but have stolen the EIN# of someone else's nonprofit org and am soliciting money for myself. The FBI-ic3 has a file on him.

Rural and Urban Health Care: A Disturbing Difference.

Rural and Urban Health Care

Discussion is needed regarding rural vs. urban health care. Rural health is under scrutiny as Family Practice physicians cannot provide the necessary care which leads, especially in elders and the disabled, to depression, suicide, and early (unnecessary) deaths. State Medical Boards often refuse to sanction rural M.D.s when abuse is reported since fewer physicians desire to remain permanently in isolated rural areas. State politicians ignore complaints, stating that it is always some other elected or appointed official's duty. There is little published about this topic, and as rural sprawl increases, statistics show that more serious illnesses and deaths occur in rural areas than urban ones from lack of M.D. specialties available. While HealthCare Centers may be established, there may be no accountability for quality care for all.

 

Legal, Acacemic, Health, & Stalker Research

Researcher At Large

Credentials: B.A., B.S., M.A., M.A., Ph.D. (UCLA), and post graduate work. Research-accomplished in law, grant-writing, org. management, healthcare/disabilities; stalking/crime victim advocacy.

I am a professional interviewer, writer, magazine publisher/editor, and copywriter.

 

Books, Docs, & Screenplays

Bard Productions (A Collection)

BOOKS: I am probably best known as the founder of Women Organized Against Homelessness: a nonprofit 501(c)3, with books and e-docs regarding domestic abuse and the undetectable homeless. Shadow Women: Homeless Women's Survival Stories (Sheed&Ward,1990) became a film. Organizational and Community Responses to Domestic Abuse and Homelessness (Garland, 1994) points to public responses. The Effects of Self and Multiple-Audience Feedback on Victim-Plaintiff Narrative Performance as Courtroom Testimony (Nos Colimus, 1995) focuses on legal analyses. I write cultural mystery novels for "pleasure," under a pen name. Also, three children's mystery stories/books were written/published when I was homeless in the '70s, sold on a card table in front of grocery stores. 

DOCs: I have filmed at least 6 feature length documentaries: a cross-country trip (from West Coast to East Coast) searching for abandoned and dying small towns to recast for homeless people; 3 docs of interviews with the undetectable homeless in many states over 38 years; town council meetings in several states in which councils and residents disagreed, e.g., "changing the town's focus to tourism by paving over sensitive parts of a harbor for a parking lot"; historic villages based on self-sufficiency; and ecological destruction of areas for housing developments. I have also filmed documentaries which are in UCLA Archives: the Santa Monica Public Workshops for restoring the Pier and carousel, and tiny towns I intended to buy for creating artists' and writers' communities for homeless professionals. I created and filmed museum exhibits of ethnic origins.

SCREENPLAYS: I have been writing screenplays for many years, been ghostwriter for others' stories, and have used my own plots and characters for movies and TV series "in season" and pilots.

Publications

A Stalker's Dialogue and Diary

(Working Title: Editing. Contract signed)

Description: The "voices" of the stalker-in-dialogue, the stalker's inner thoughts and diary, victims' responses, a narrator, and laws defined. Some foreign words/phrases are included. My publisher's editor and I are trying to decide how all of the voices will be utilized in print -- such as fonts, italics, bold, underlined, etc.

 

The Boondocker Gourmand (Gourmet Recipes for Full-Time Homeless RV/Vehicle Dwellers.)

 

Description; The undetectable homeless who travel full-time; find free places to park, rest, and cook. This book is a collection of 40 years of personal experience cooking methods and the recipes of other "gourmet chefs." (A limited edition published by FoodieFredOnWheels)

 

Domestic Abuse and the Homeless Woman: Paradigms in Personal Narratives for Organizational Strategists and Community Planners

 U.M.I. Ann Arbor, MI

publication date 1988

Shadow Women: Homeless Women's Survival Stories

Sheed & Ward Publishing Co.

publication date1990

Organizational and Community Responses to Domestic Abuse and Homelessness

Garland Publishing Co.

publication date1994

The Effects of Self and Multiple-Audience Feedback on Victim-Plaintiff Narrative Performance as Courtroom Testimony.

Nos Colimus Publishing Co.

publication date1995

Description: Analyses of courtroom performances and testimonies (for attorneys, jury selection, and storytelling performance experts)

The New American Nomads: When your Home May Not Be a House and Diverse Employment Feeds One Enterprise.

The Working Title. Editing and adding updated material. Contract signed.

 publication date 2015

DescriptionThe new nomadic lifestyle due to the need for income security and the freedom to choose multiple employment opportunities. A discussion of the differentiation between Nomads,Travelers, Gypsies, and Hobos as noted in history and modern day economics.

 

Small Towns, Family Farms, and the Environment: How to Foil the Spoilers (Partnering Landowners, the Unemployed and Homeless for Eco-logical Sustainability)

The Working Title. Adding updated material. Contract signed.

publication date2015

Description: A plan to utilize partnerships which have not been used successfully to increase affordable housing and self-and-co op employment while decreasing developers' use of land for building housing communities which are not affordable. A discussion of "Smart Growth" which never reached its potential and the path to foiling the spoilers.

 

A Coin on the Bugeye

Limited edition published by a Chesapeake Bay enthusiast

publication date2013

DescriptionA modern 10-year-old St. Michaels, MD boy has an "adventure" with an 1800s Oyster Boat lad. A Fantasy based on the lives of watermen on the Chesapeake Bay, based on historical fact (towns and the first oystering boat, the Bugeye.)

"Cultural Mystery Novels." Under a pen name.

I have written cultural mystery novels since 1967 under a pen name. My newest one is ready to be published -- but I keep adding new material based on the culture's newly-discovered traditions/history.

Projects

Cyberbullying/Stalking/Terrorizing Investigations

Due to the stalker/terrorist experience I have endured since May, 2013, I have written a new book about adult bullies who stalk by telephone, internet, emails, and in person -- and write their thoughts and deeds in blogs which are actually diaries of personal problems and intentions which may be publicly dangerous. My stalker began on LinkedIn with threats of "slit your throat" if I...

4 team members

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Marjorie Bard, Ph.D.

CEO Women Organized Against Homelessness 501c(3); Author; Filmmaker; Survivor: DV/Stalker

• 

The crew at Research & Private Investigations LLC

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An actress who wishes anonymity; she has a stalker

• 

Dr. Phillip J.

Multimedia Artist

I have been in juried art shows for 40 years.

Need abandoned and tiny dying towns for sale:
Contact Information: islandr@goeaston.net

I am Marjorie Bard CyberVictim of Matt Berdyck/Smith/Kane

MATT BERDYCK/SMITH/KANE/JONES HAS BLOGS IN WHICH HE HAS ADDED "NOT" BEFORE MY NAME! THAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE NASTY LENGTHS HE WILL GO TO TO DESTROY SOMEONE'S REPUTATION WITH VILE LIES.

 

MATT BELIEVES YOU WILL NOT NOTICE THE "NOT" AND BE TRAPPED BY HIS LIES IN HIS PERVERTED-STALKING BLOGS AGAINST ME. HE SELF-DESCRIBES AS MENTALLY ILL AND DISABLED SO YOU WILL FEEL SORRY FOR HIM.

 

DON'T.

HE CAN HIKE FOR MANY MILES CARRYING HEAVY BAGS WITH THE HANDS HE SAYS ARE CRIPPLED BY FIBROMYALGIA, AND RECEIVES SSD BECAUSE OF THIS DISABILITY. HE ROAMS THE COUNTRY WITH A CAMERA BUT HE IS NOT THE FAMOUS NATIONALLY-KNOWN FILMMAKER WHICH HE NOTES IN EVERY BLOG. HE MADE 3 YOU/TUBES WHICH DID NOT SELL, AND BLAMES ME FOR ALL OF HIS FAILURES IN HIS 37-YEAR LIFE. I HAVE ONLY HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF KNOWING HIM FOR 7 MONTHS, AND HE HAS BEEN TOUTING THESE "FILMS" FOR 2 YEARS! HE BEGGED LINKEDIN MEMBERS TO BUY THE TAPES AND SAID WE WERE SELFISH FOR NOT DOING SO, AND WAS FINALLY BANNED FROM 2 MAJOR GROUPS ON LINKEDIN. HE IS BACK WITH A PROFILE UNDER NEW FAKE NAMES, AND HAS RADICALLY CHANGED HIS PROFILE TO SOUND "NORMAL."

 

 

MATT HAS NEW STALKING VICTIMS, SO THERE ARE MORE BLOGS AGAINST PEOPLE WITH WHOM HE CAN'T GET ALONG. IT'S OBVIOUS THAT HE HATES PEOPLE AND BLOG-PRETENDS HE IS A "QUIET" MAN WHO BOTHERS NO ONE. A BIG SURPRISE TO HIS MANY INTERNET VICTIMS WHOM HE FEELS FREE TO LIBEL, BULLY, STALK, AND TERRORIZE WITH LIFE THREATS. HE CAN'T DECIDE IF I'M REAL OR A DEAD PERSON, SO YOU CAN READ FOR YOURSELF HOW "UNBALANCED" HE IS. (IF I DON'T EXIST, WHICH HE KEEPS SAYING, WHY CONTINUE TO HARASS AND STALK ME?)

 

MATT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH, SO IGNORE HIS DESPICABLE LIBEL; IT IS NOT SUBSTANTIATED BY ANY FACTS; HE MAKES UP UGLY STORIES ABOUT US WHICH ARE LIBEL: FELONIES. THE VULGAR COMMENTS

HE MAKES TO WOMEN, ESPECIALLY, SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED BY GOOGLE! THEIR CONTENT POLICY IS IGNORED BY GOOGLE STAFF!

 

REPORT MATT BERDYCK/SMITH/KANE FOR LIBELING INNOCENT VICTIMS. DO WE NEED A SUICIDE BEFORE SOMEONE PAYS ATTENTION? HE RUINS LIVES!

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Berdyck is Rage-Ranting Lies on Social Media 2015

MATTHEW BERDYCK/KANE IS RAGE-RANTING ON THE WEB, STALKING HIS VICTIMS WITH WARNINGS, THREATS TO THEIR LIVES, AND TELLING OUTRAGEOUS LIES!

Matt Berdyck/Kane/Matt Alan/MattFilms/Lisa Bailey has become more dangerous than ever in 2016.  He is rage-ranting on Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, Mashable, and Google with new lies and threats against me (and many other victims). He insists I am stalking him when everyone who has been following his ludicrous lies knows he began to stalk me in May, 2013 on LinkedIn. He was banned for threatening the lives of several members in 2 Groups on LinkedIn...and returned using fake names and several residential state locations. He has used Mountain View, CA "near Googleplex" as well as Los Angeles, CA, Wilsonville, OR, Ridgecrest, Lone Pine, Hinkley, and Barstow -- all in CA.  Currently, he says he has a Chantilly, VA address as well as stating he lives "in the heart of D.C" -- but no one other than Alex knows where he really is. His old Akron "friends" say he often lives in the basement of his mother's house in Kenmore, OH. He roams the country, changing addresses too often to be trusted or be served by a sheriff for libel, defamation of character, and other crimes, both misdemeanors and felonies. 

Matt has stated on the Google+HelpForum (Nov. and Dec. 2014 or 15) that I will soon be taken off of the internet forever with the help of his computer programmer/engineer roommate, Alex Hwang(PikaPika), who has worked for Google and Facebook -- and all that will be known about me is whatever lies are in his latest WordPress blog/Google blogspot/Mashable/Twitter accounts. 

He is an expert in SEO, so he tries to be the first blog noted when his or anyone else's name is typed-in. There isn't one truth in any of his writings; his life events (bio) change and he doesn't remember what he has stated before. 

Matt is a master liar. EXAMPLES 1): I have been paid by Monsanto to "ruin his notability as a nationally-famous filmmaker." (He has accused many others of doing that as well.) 2): I have stolen the EIN# of someone else's nonprofit organization -- and am soliciting money for myself as an impersonator of the CEO of Women Organized Against Homelessness, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. 3): I am being monitored by the DOD, NSA, and FBI for being a Domestic Terrorist. He insists my emails emanate from GE in NY state (I live in MD) and then "bounce" to the DOD in OH, which he insists mean I am being monitored as a Domestic Terrorist. (He finally admitted in 2016 that HE falsified my IP and "header.") No apology, though! 

He nominated himself for Wikipedia as a "notable person" -- and was found to be using his own IP as middelamericanjames: a sockpuppet noted as such by Wikipedia. He was banned from ever applying for Wikipedia again for vandalism of their site and constant personal promotion. He cannot accept that he is not famous as a filmmaker, homeless advocate, or important environmentalist. 

Matt put ads in Craigslist to find any "dirt" about me. Since he couldn't find any, he makes up lies about me. Matt goes to online booksellers and reviews my books as "written by a psycho so don't buy her books." He mentions I am psychotic/insane as often as he can, and writes on every TOPIX forum he can find that he has exposed me as a fraud (for impersonation). He even says I have no academic background, have written no books or articles, and am really a rival filmmaker whom he has stalked for years. The "topper"? I am responsible for him not finding a missing woman in San Diego, CA -- because "I did it for spite." (The only reason he went to San Diego was to meet his idol, a heavy metal guitarist and the son-in-law of the missing woman. Now he says he "knows" Dave Mustaine -- although he only got through to the family on the telephone. Matt is consumed with being famous.)

Matt states he can prove I don't exist since he has called my town's officials, my neighbors, and police dept. and they don't know me. He says he lived in my area in 2008 and I can't live here since my town isn't where "it's supposed to be." But the OH and WV court records reveal he was busy living in their court and jail systems in 2008-2009 for harassment, stalking, and Family Violence! This is consistent with his lie about my "committing a crime in Salt Lake City and being in a UT court in 2014 for scamming people out of their money." He mixes up his victims! That woman is Jody W. who was a fan of Matt's and they had a "falling out." So, he can't decide if I'm alive or dead -- but he found a Glendale, CA lawyer to send me a Cease and Desist letter warning me never to respond to his lies or I will be taken to court for harassing him! He repeatedly contacts Google stating I am an impersonator -- and Google removes my blogs. However, recently Matt got into arguments with Google Help Community and the "moderators" decided to return a few of my long deleted blogs defending myself. This is one of them -- updated for 2016,

Matt needs monitoring by a system like Portage Path Mental Health Care in Akron, OH, where he was sentenced due to "menacing and threatening behavior" as well as numerous other criminal and Family Court charges and convictions in OH and WV.  He has become progressively worse since his last project failed, and states it is my fault for "personally gathering Castle Homes residents together to avoid showing support for his YouTube." It is of no importance to him that I have never been in OH -- or know anyone living there. 

ALL of MatthewBerdyck'a accusations/warnings/threats have been screencapped by his many victims for any trial. He can't deny his own words and ever-changing facial photos.

Matt has many victims in 2015 and 2016, including Erin Brockvich and Diane Dimond. He has warned a professor at UCSB that as Matt closes down his environmental org, he will "take the Bren School of Environmental Science down with him." Who knows what that means....

IF YOU HAVE BEEN STALKED BY MATTHEW ALAN BERDYCK, PLEASE CONTACT THE FBI-ic3 in Akron, OH. The "newest" agent on his case works there.

Google Allowing Cyber Criminals to Ruin Reputations!

GOOGLE ALLOWING CYBER CRIMINALS TO RUIN REPUTATIONS!

 

WHY IS GOOGLE NOT ENFORCING ITS OWN RULES OF RESPECTABLE BEHAVIOR?

 

TELL GOOGLE TO MAKE CYBER CRIMINALS UNWELCOME.  NOW GOOGLE IS ENCOURAGING STALKERS, BULLIES, AND LIARS!

 

THIS IS YOUR LIFE.  WHY LET GOOGLE RUIN IT?  THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST CYBERSTALKING, SO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO HAVE YOUR ANSWERS ON THE GOOGLE LISTINGS JUST AS THEY ALLOW THE CRIMINALS!

marjoriebard2012self-sufficiencyproject

“I’M SELF-SUFFICIENT NOW!”

(NEWS FROM A NEW SELF-SUFFICIENCY COMMUNITY)

2012

“Thank you, Hallie” for choosing Marjorie Bard as a Hero for her work with alleviating homelessness!  Hallie is a 5^th grader in the Thurston Elementary School in Springfield, OR.  Their class had a Hero Project, and Hallie created a “book,” a slide show, and a narration about me and my nonprofit org.  We now have an early starter for advocacy for human rights!  What a wonderful project for all classrooms!  (Her teacher, Sharon Orme, initially emailed me seeking “the” Marjorie Bard for a photo for the front of Hallie’s “book.”)

The title of this Cyberlog tells it all: the success of a small group of RV, van, truck, trailer, minivan, and SUV dwellers who have been living on “unused” land, collaborating on how to create innovative permanent new self-sufficiency communities.  (If that land becomes less attractive for their activities, there is no reason why they couldn’t eventually move to another location.) They spent the summer growing vegetables for their own consumption and some sales to a restaurant, obtaining donations of 2 long-haired goats, chickens and a rooster – and 2 promised alpacas.  The leftover eggs are sold, and no McNuggets will be made from Frumpy, Sally, RedGirl, Goldie, and Shrimp.  Herman, of course, knows how important he is, and even if it isn’t dawn, he struts around shrieking his success.  Co-op muscle work produced a chicken house and a shed for the goats. There is also a shed for tools and plans for a “multi-purpose” building.

I have two letters and many photos of some of their land, “doings,” and individual business products. My flash won’t turn off, so there are white spots on my photos of their photos!

I will begin to relate some of the community members’ personal stories about how they became the first self-sufficiency group that I helped to establish. They are the successful ones, but I did the negotiating for the land use that gave them a start and really chose the members whom I thought would work well together.  (That does not mean that other similar community members will be chosen by me; I just began the project with trust in those I came to know from past experience with them.  They live in RVs, trucks, a converted van, minivan, SUVs, and one man has a trailer that was donated a few years ago by an estate. There is a second community, and they are beginning to build their first buildings. The third is still establishing their “residential area” but has grown summer vegetables and has some fruit trees on the property. Two sent DVDs with photos and explanations, but are just “readables.”

Please remember that these personal stories are just part of usually long conversations.  The four elipses (….) means that I’ve left out information.  Also, sometimes I put the recorder in sight and ask if I can record, but sometimes I keep it “on” inside my open purse and ask at the end if I may keep the recorded material.  If anyone says, “No,” I erase it immediately so that they can see I did.  I do record all waivers as “assigning of rights.”  Another issue is one of grammar.  I have not attempted to duplicate dialects, and I have deleted the enormous amount of aaahs, hmmms, and umms so that the material is readable,  It is also painful to have to search through beginnings of sentences changed to another topic after a few words.  This does lead to what sounds too “perfect,” but something has to “go.”  I just try to make sense of what the person is saying by deleting hindrances.

MELINDA’S STORY:  I met her in 2001 at a flea-craft market near Ellsworth, ME.  She was selling amazing beach finds that she either embellished with artwork or are just natural life forms that have “fossilized” and are beautiful/unusual – like her seahorses 

SHELL-COVERED GLASS WITH SHELLS INSIDE

 

She was middle-aged, but she wouldn’t reveal her real age, which I believe is about 65ish now. I recorded her story (in 2003, when I last saw her) of how she became homeless:

“…I was working at [   ] when notice came down that there were going to be layoffs. It was a shock since we just had had a contract that would keep us in business for just that for at least 3 years.  A government contract for making a chip [   ]….We had other contracts too, and we all thought we had dream jobs.  Oh, not the fancy kinds, but a nice place to work with friendly people and I was the bookkeeper for the entire company.  I had been learning the new computer stuff and was beginning to transfer from paper to computer, so I don’t know if my job was bounced because I wasn’t an expert yet.  Most of the others were line jobs, and I never thought that I was going to be bumped.  A real shock….

“I’d been divorced for about 8 years and the lump sum I received had shrunk my bank account to $1500.  I needed that job and the retirement funds that would have added at least $800 a month to let me live in an apt. a few miles inland from here.  It wouldn’t have been a great retirement, but a steady income for an apt. for maybe $400 a month and then Social Security money when I hit 65 or so.  I wanted to work as long as I could, so maybe later….and all of my friends were there since I grew up in the next county….My husband was a drinking man and as he got older, he began to hit me for no reason that made any sense.  I never knew when it would happen again.  I guess I thought that it had to do with too  much drink, but I found out that he was sleeping around, and that surprised me since he certainly wasn’t a looker and he was always home for dinner.  His nights out were bowling with the guys and if I went out, I would see him at the alley.  I suppose it was something he did when I went for some weekends to my sister’s place to baby-sit for her twins.  But soon his hits were worse and one night I ended up in a hospital with a split lip and a bad cut on my arm from a fall onto broken glass....I filed for a divorce soon and got the alimony checks.  I think our minister made him do that.  He left town with some woman, and I didn’t even want to know who she was.  It didn’t make any difference to me.  He wasn’t a good man after he sent me to the hospital and I didn’t want any counseling or anything but a divorce.

“The alimony checks kept coming, not that they were that much, but that and my job let me live a nice life.  Until the job disappeared and I couldn’t find another in any city that I knew.  There isn’t much around here anyway.  We’re in-between some poor towns and the expensive Bar Harbor people, and I didn’t have any confidence in moving to someplace like Bangor or Augusta.  I wasn’t used to that kind of big city.  I saw their rents, and I couldn’t afford them anyway.

“I had always been someone who loved to roam beaches for pretty shells, and I had a nice collection of them.  I kept finding these funny-looking glasses and jars with all of the shell barnacles around them and inside.  I took one to a church fair and sold it immediately for $10. I couldn’t believe that anyone would pay for it since they aren’t particularly pretty, just strange looking.  So, I went back to that beach often and found more like it.  I don’t know how they got there, but I started to go to better fairs and made money on those jars and some other barnacle things on glass.  People asked me where I found them, but I wouldn’t tell!  Now, since I have to make money from the fairs, I’m known as The Shell Glass Lady, and people ask for me.  I made up cards from old white cardboard boxes and started to give them out to show that I was a business.  I’ve never been so surprised since I was a kid winning a spelling bee contest!

 

“When I lost my job, I knew that I had to live somewhere and make money.  I just couldn’t stand the one room places that were cheaper, and I was talking to a neighbor who suggested that I might find a minivan that I could fit out to live in.  I’d never heard of such a thing, but I watched the newspaper ads and put up a notice on the store bulletin board, and I got some answers.  I found a good minivan and I traded my small Chevy for it since it only had 55 thousand miles on it  The minivan had room inside for a chair that I could sleep in, a makeshift potty, a big box for water jugs, and a table, garbage bin, bag holder, clothing bag, and a plastic carton to hold things. I used my rugs for a nice flooring.  I got a camping stove and a huge wash bowl, and I finally had the nerve to just move in and live there.  I didn’t think I’d be able to do it for long, but I kept going to fairs and got some better fittings, and I was happy.  Now I make enough from what I find on the beaches to keep me going.  I even got a business license since they are needed in Maine. I sell sometimes in shops, too.”

Melinda belongs to my first tiny community now and is working with a male member to build a large “shed” with a metal roof for herself instead of living out of the minivan.  She has added a line of items to her repertoire, including driftwood with little scenes of shell-piece figures.  Her line keeps growing, and she spends a lot of time roaming riverbanks, creekbeds, and streams for unusual stones, driftwood, and odd finds. The minivan is now business transportation to fairs and shops not close by.  She also shares an old station wagon with two other women that they bought at a home sale.  They pay for their own gas and share expenses for car repairs.  Melinda goes off for a couple of weeks after a storm, for that is the best time to find beach jetsom (she says).

PAUL’S STORY: I met Paul at an antiques show in a small city in NH in 2002.  I found him living in his RV when I was just walking in the parking lot and saw him come out with different clothing than an hour or so before at his booth.  We talked during a lull at the show, and I recorded his story.  He is now living in the tiny community, still attending small antiques shows (his collections of old advertising and watches), but is now making beautiful wooden boxes (for any purpose).  He spends the summertime planting most of the root vegetables and then the others do the weeding, watering, etc. as he leaves for his businesses. The women seem to prefer planting the vine vegetables from seedlings and all of the herbs. They have a summer stand at a farmer’s market for their leftovers.

 

“I never expected to become homeless because I’m educated and my siblings have careers which bring in enough money for their families.  My wife left me after we finished college to go to NY for a show business career, intending, she said, to return if it didn’t work out.  Well, it didn’t, but she asked for a divorce so she could marry “up.”  I was just fooling around with various jobs since my Philosophy degree didn’t mean anything in the job market….I inherited a lot of old watches from my dad, and I always had collected old advertising just because I liked it all….I began with one tiny antiques show and brought only the watches.  Well!  They all sold, and I figured that I could make more money doing shows than in some company, maybe publishing or even a newspaper.  I kept going to the shows and then I saw someone selling old advertising signs and he was making a boatload of money.  So, I hauled out the signs and thermometers and took only those to a show and made money from them….And then the upfront money became higher and I wasn’t making so much or even finding the merchandise I needed to keep up the stock.  The prices of old advertising went up so high that I couldn’t compete at auctions….It became a problem to pay for rent on my house, and I suddenly found myself owning a trailer that a church member donated to me in his will.  It seemed like Providence was taking care of me, and I just moved my belongings into the trailer and hitched it to my SUV.  I’ve been traveling through 4 or 5 states since then, selling whatever I find at auctions and flea markets….I have always loved gardening, but never had a place to really plant anything that I could eat and save money….I’ve spent a few years just barely making it.  I got depressed and feared that I would get worse.  I started to smoke, which was stupid since I couldn’t afford the ciggies, but I bummed them from everyone.  I would have been drinking, too, if I could have bummed that.

“I spent some time at a farm where I did the chores and planted some vegetables, and felt better about myself.  Here were important things that I was doing, and with my hands….I started using pieces of wood that had good grain and learned how to use the proper tools in the farm’s barn and sheds, and got pretty good at making boxes….I took some of the boxes to a craft market, and they all sold.  I made money.  I’ve been making boxes for sale for any show and now people ask for particular ones for their jewelry or photos, or whatever they need, like deeds and work papers.  I invent locks for them, too.  I’ve made some that are very large and some that are tiny.  Just any kind.  I can find the wood pieces at lumberyards and at junkyards where good wood is just thrown away.  I can take my trailer and fill the back of it with furniture that has wonderful grain and then saw off what I need and junk the rest.  I’ve even made my own teak table for my trailer, and I’m trying to find matching wood for a couple of chairs.

“I may not be able to get a real job in a company or college, but I can make a living using my hands and imagination.”

Paul is living in the new community now, and is a valuable member who contributes his innate talents for his own businesses as well as helping with planting food and helping with building a barn for the expected donations of more animals. (A few locals do come regularly to help with building projects.)

MERRYLEE’S STORY:  I met her in 2000 while washing blouses in an expensive hotel’s Ladies Room.  She was already there, washing out her things, and it didn’t take long to establish a conversation and connection.  She said she was 59 and was waiting for her Social Security to kick in before she could upgrade her converted van.  We kept in touch each summer when I got to Maine, and I found her again in 2004, ready to give up and move to what she didn’t want: a senior housing high rise in a large city in which she would be trapped into one room with no ability to travel and sell her unusual weavings. They range from small wall hangings to pillow covers to large room dividers and small carpets.  I suggested that she contact the new little community and see if that might be for her.  She did move in, and she loves the added ability to grow food that is not polluted with pesticides.  Her zucchinis, yellow squash, and eggplants have become themes in her weaving patterns as well as her favorite colors of greens and yellows/oranges.

“I became a noviate when I was 18 after being in a Catholic school since childhood.  The church was my life for more than 10 years, but our convent didn’t want anything to do with the outside world.  I did….I used to make small blankets for the nuns, but my designs weren’t approved by the Mother Superior, and I felt that I had to use what God gave me as a gift….I left the convent with bad feelings all around, but I didn’t like being kept, uh, sort of a slave to what someone else decided…I was supposed to be obedient, but I just couldn’t when it came to art, and the first  year out of the convent was very confusing and hard for me to take in….I tried jobs in grocery stores and anything working behind a counter, and I was always sad.  Crying became a daily habit, and I wondered if I really did have the wrong habit.  (She smiled broadly at her pun.)

“I took a room with a gal who worked with disabled kids, and she asked if I would show them my weavings and macrame so that they could work with threads of wool that were donated by a mill….That arrangement didn’t work out because I didn’t like her constant references to religious issues, and I didn’t have any other place to live so cheaply….I was just praying in a local church for some way to have a place to live, and outside was a little festival held by a group of churches raising money for their food and clothing ban,  Some old hippies had driven up, and the noise from their big old van kind of shook me out of praying.  I went to see what was happening, and fell in love with the most outrageously decorated thing I’d ever seen.  I don’t know how old it was, but someone was a really good artist….I spent the rest of the day and evening with the girls, talking about how they traveled around and did all kinds of businesses out of what looked like an old school bus.  I suspected they might be gypsies, but they probably were just leftovers from the hippie days.

“I didn’t care.  What they were doing was what made them happy.  I asked if I could drive along with them and sell my artwork wherever they stopped.  My Mother Superior probably had a long distance heart attack from a chat with her Saints….A couple of months later, I was at a police auction looking for something I could drive on my own, and I found a nice van that no one else wanted.  It took my last dime, but I got it and started to outfit it at town dumps..

“As time went on, I met a widow who was getting rid of all of her things, and I got everything for practically nothing….I got into some good shows and made a bit of money.  I use good hotels for sitting all day in a lovely lobby, sipping coffee from a free pot in a corner, and then I wash my clothes a couple at a time, using the hand blower to dry them.  And here we are….”

GWEN’S STORY:  I met her in 2002 in a coffee shop near the MA/NH border.  She was raised in a very strict family with rules that “didn’t suit her.”  Her family wouldn’t allow her to pursue her hobby: raising bees for their honey and then making flavored honey.  She wanted an apiary, but no one wanted bees in the backyard. When she graduated high school, she found a “mentor” who did have an apiary, and she attended an ag Community College to learn beekeeping practices.  She is now a member of the community and is earning money by selling her handwritten book about beekeeping from an amateur’s POV – with photos and recipes.  She won 2^nd prize at a State Fair for her dessert recipe: Cinnamon Honey Nut Cake with Maple Syrup Swirl.  She hopes to buy a proper apiary in the very near future and make herself and the community prosper with her business. She is clearing ground away from the “housing” area for her future business.  Right now she is working with the goats and chickens.

BILL’S STORY: (2000): Meeting Bill was rather weird.  He was lying on the grass at a highway Rest Area, picking long, rather “thick” grasses from the ground.  When he had a handful, he got up, bent them gently, tied them in bunches, and put them in a long Indian-style basket.  And then he returned to his position on the grass, reaching more deeply into the dirt for grasses that had dirt balls attached.  Several people watched for a while, and then moved on.  I was lazy that day and kept watching him.  When he finally had enough grasses, he took them to his small truck and put the basket inside.  He took out a half-finished small basket and proceeded to spray dried grasses, molded into curves, to complete it.  I’m not sure how he tied it off at the end, but he started on a separate handle.  He used them by “bunch,” not one at a time.  He squatted on the ground and just spent over an hour weaving in and out.  Since I couldn’t squat, I dragged a chair next to him and asked if I could watch him more closely.  He didn’t say anything, so I just sat down.  By then, his long black braid was falling onto his shoulder, revealing more than a hint that his heritage was Native American. It was late afternoon when he finally spoke.  “You want to know something.”  I was sort of tricked into asking why he was choosing a public area to pick grass.  He just looked at me for a bit and then said, “You’re from the government.  I know this is illegal, but I own this land.”  I wasn’t going to argue with him, so I just responded that I wasn’t from the government, but was curious why he thought he owned the Rest Area’s land.  He nodded and headed for his truck  He opened a box and showed me a much-used paper that was a copy of a land grant.  A long conversation later, I heard all about his great grandparents being thrown off of this land area.  He was certain that he still owned it.  We ended the day by having dinner at a truck stop, where a lot of people knew him.  He had been living at the truck stop and Rest Area for months. The Rest Area stayed open until very late at night, but the truck stop never closed.  I recorded his story in 2000, but the tape is now blank.  I think it sat in the heat too long or became wet during a sudden rainstorm when I had other tapes ruined.  I saw him on my way back and gave him my card.  He called some years later and I arranged for him to join the community.  He makes different kinds of baskets now, heavier, and with patterns, and sells them at places like Brimfield, MA and some local collectibles shows. He doesn’t talk much, but works anywhere when asked.  He prefers being alone yet likes being part of a group which appreciates Mother Nature.  I was told that he makes a wonderful cornbread that is “high and crusty.” (The group has made a solar oven.)

 

PHIL’S STORY: I met him in early 2003 near Fort Lee in NJ.  His pregnant wife was killed on 9/11 in the first Tower.  She was a stockbroker, and he a financial advisor for a bank in NJ.  When I first saw him, he was slumped over in a chair at a meeting of a few women who were also victims of 9/11.  I had introduced two to others (in early 2002) and they formed a grief group.  They still meet to compare how they are doing, and Phil had joined in 2003.  He had been more depressed than ever. One of the ladies was “watching over him” and introduced me as the one who established the initial group. I was reluctant to ask him for his story, but his female friend insisted that it was good for him to keep telling his story as catharsis.  He didn’t mind the open recorder.  This is what he said:

“I’ll never forget that day.  She left for work but never came home. I never even saw my baby – a boy.  I can’t even describe the horrors I felt; they aren’t normal, from pieces of people to crumbled buildings to the smell of fear that lasted for a month….I knew that she was gone when I heard the news.  It was her workplace….I don’t know how I got through the months afterward.  I sat a lot and just stared into space.  I couldn’t work.  I didn’t feel like eating.  I knew I didn’t want to stay in our condo….I saw a newspaper article about women making a group for people who wanted to be together, but I don’t join things. I didn’t want to talk about what I lost.  It was everything in my life….I went back to work but couldn’t concentrate. I made mistakes.  I was asked to resign.  I didn’t care….

“I looked through our closets and tried to put her clothes in boxes to take to the Red Cross.  I just left them outside, piles of boxes with all her stuff.  I put an ad in the local newspaper and sold just about everything in the condo.  I didn’t ever want to see any of it again.  But I kept the journal she was keeping about our future plans for us – the baby – and we two.  I began to write what happened to make an ending to our plans, but what came out was really a plan for what I would do from then on.  It became a short story and I keep it in my suitcase….I’ve been doing some traveling to find a new place to live.  I don’t want it to be anything like what we planned on….The ladies here have saved my life.  One worked in my bank, and she took me here.  She lost her husband, so she knew how I felt.  But she never got any money from the attack committee.  She and Roger never had gotten married.  They were widowed and didn’t need the piece of paper. I understood that.  But the committee didn’t and there are 4 women in the group who had the same thing happen to them….So, I’ve got some money, but what should I spend it on?  There isn’t anything I want that I can have anymore….

“You were talking about starting new communities for homeless people.  I’m homeless; I don’t call any place a home.  Is there something I can do that will make me forget what has happened?”

I didn’t know if I did the right thing by inviting him to join the (first) group.  Would he “bring everyone down”?  I talked it over with my best friend in the community and she said it would give him something to do and help others with their life problems, too.  So,  he was invited to visit and take a look to see if he liked the idea.  He did, and he stayed.  Phil bought a nice large RV (with his compensation money) and has moved it next to a pond where he is the financial “bookkeeper” for each person and one book for the group expenditures.  He sent a Christmas card to me last year, saying that he finally felt useful and liked the people there.  From what a female member says, he also “likes” one very pretty woman of about 49, and they play scrabble together a lot.  I think that he will stay with the group.  He never talks about 9/11, and no one asks.  He seems, according to the letters I received, to have also taken to caring for the animals and is awaiting the promised alpacas.  He has a book about raising them, and maybe this is a good way for him to have another family.

Well, that’s the latest news, and I’ll keep adding as I receive more letters and photos!  (I still work daily with the undetectable homeless who email, call, and sometimes stop by when passing near here.  More about them in the next Cyberlog.)

           

IF YOU KNOW ANY TRAVELERS WHO ARE LIVING THIS KIND OF LIFESTYLE,

DO EMAIL AND SHARE STORIES!  THERE WILL BE MANY MORE STORIES OF

 SURVIVING WHILE BEING THE UNDETECTABLE HOMELESS,