Staple Design Alright, how you doing today, first of all? John John Axle Foley. Staple Design Ok. How old are you? John Be 50 in May. Staple Design Alright, where are you from? John Massachusetts. Staple Design How long have you been homeless for man? John 12 years. Staple Design I'm sorry to hear that man. How'd it happen? John Just lost control of my lifestyle, you know? Totally lost control of
my lifestyle. Heroin and um, heroin was basically the downfall. Staple Design What's the worst thing that's happened to you since you've been out
here? John Aah, I've been lit on fire three times. Staple Design I'm sorry to hear that man. John Three times I've been lit on fire, you know what I mean? Staple Design What's the best thing? John I've met some decent people. I've met some very nice people. Staple Design How do you get by from day to day, how do you survive? John I've been in many, many different types of ah, hospitals, detoxes.
Right now I'm at the Bellevue Shelter, first time in my life. I've been
there a month. Staple Design Where do you see yourself five years from now? John Five years from now? I haven't been looking ahead that far...Five
years from now I do not want to be around here, you know? Five years from
now I wanna go back west to Colorado, where I ski. I've skied all over the
world. Staple Design Where'd you ski? John Aspen, Steambowl [?], Bracken Ridge [?], every year in New England.
I was brought up with skis in New England. I went to one of the best prep
schools in New England, St John's Prep, and I got rejected at MIT and ah... Staple Design For what? John Engineering. And what I did was I went there nights, and I was in
WPI which is comparable with MIT, the same [unclear]. This was back in '69,
and I'll be 50, May 27th, I was born in '51. Staple Design How much money do you use to get by on a daily basis, like how much
money do you get? John The amount of money I get ranges between 30 and 50 dollars a day. Staple Design What do you do with the money when you get it? John Getting high, lately I've been cuttin back on that. And, you know,
trying to reunite myself with my family.
Staple Design Where are they? John They're around, Eastern coast, Atlantic City, and Massachusetts. I
grew up in Massachusetts. I grew up before I moved to a city environment. I
grew up on a lake, you know? My sister's married to a black guy, and she's a
registered nurse. They're my closest relatives. They're down outside of
Atlantic City. She's a year younger than me, you know, and he does very well
for himself, he's a straight shooter. I'm welcome down there anytime I want,
but I'm stuck in this Methadone program, which keeps me here. I'm trying to
break loose from that. Staple Design What's your favorite movie man? John I don't know many movies! Movies! Oh my god. One favorite movie, I
don't know... Staple Design Your favorite book if you don't know that. John You know, I like, oh my god, movies are the greatest escapes. One of
my favorite movies was, you now, I like the Man with the Golden Arm. Staple Design Is that James Bond? John The Man with the Golden Arm is Frank Sinatra. My favorite book was,
I don't know, Catcher in the Rye, I guess. I don't know. Staple Design You doing ok? John Yeah, yeah. I haven't been reading anything that's been worth really
been reading, lately. See I was into numbers growing up. My natural was,
everybody's given a natural subject, mine was math, you know what I'm
saying. The cube root of 27 is three. That's it. Three times three is nine,
times three is 27. Math was my insight. Sociology and shit like that, I had
a hard time with, you know? Staple Design What do you think about New York man? John I like New York. Staple Design What do you do for fun out here? John I...ah...go from...I like the different types of people. All different
types of people is my thing. Different races. Staple Design What do you think about Nazi, I mean Giuliani? John Nazi, I don't know much about Nazis... Staple Design What do you think about Giuliani? John Well, I wasn't really into him, but ah Giuliani is, I think, too
pro-cop. Pro-cop, way, way, way, way, too pro-police. I think he took the
city back myself. You know? You gotta have been in prisons like I have...you
know? Here's a guy who went to one of the best prep schools on the globe,
you know what I'm sayin? Staple Design How long were you in prison for? John Well, I did 19 months upstate, and I've been in Riker's Island maybe
15 times. Staple Design For doing what? John All possessions you know? All possessions, you know? All possessions
of heroin, you know? But, you know, here's a guy who went to one of the best
prep schools around, you know? 173 of us graduated out of 175. Two didn't go
to college, and, you know...I went to college but I didn't graduate, you know.
I went, but I didn't graduate. Julius Irving was going to UMASS when I was,
right around the time I was in highschool, I guess. I guess so, I think so,
yeah he was in UMASS. I didn't choose to go to UMASS and be up to my
standard. Staple Design You have any kids? John I have a daughter, yeah, I have a daughter, that I lived with. I
lived with an escort, one of these high-class hookers. Staple Design You lived with her? John Yeah, maybe for about five, six, or seven years. On the Upper East
Side. She claimed the child was mine, and I brought it into my mother's
house. And my sister being a nurse and all that, I wanted a blood test, a
head test, a this test, a that test. She refused it, you know? So, um, that
was 6, or 7 years ago and we've been battling back and forth. Staple Design Do you believe in God man? John Yeah I believe in God, I went to a Catholic school, where religion
was a major subject. It was just like math. If you flunked religion, you
would not graduate, you did not pass. That's how strict it was. You had to
wear a sports coat and tie. There were two black guys in the high school,
yeah, two in the whole school, you know? They were well off, they were very
well off. You know, we had a swimming pool, we had our own baseball field,
football field, I mean our school was state of the art. It was given by a
guy who had graduated. They built it in '63, and I graduated in '69, you
know. It's St. John's Prep in [unclear], Massachusetts. Staple Design If you could be anywhere, where would it be? John Aspen, Colorado. Staple Design For the skiing? John Not only for the skiing, but for the other seasons, too, are great.
And the people are great, and it's easy to get a job there. You know, it's
so easy to get a job there, very easy. Staple Design Easier than here? John Yeah! They'll fix you up man. To serve these ah...Aspen is one of the
fifth or sixth richest communities on the globe. We're talking Ford lives
there, and DeNiro lives there, and these guys. And ah the problem is help,
getting help. They actually had to build a build a Church camp [?] for
dishwashers, and all different types of...you know, that run the ski lifts and
everything like this, you know? The Mexicans come often., big, big money
from Mexico. And they've never been on skis in their lives, you know? And
one thing I knew how to ski, you know?
JOHN AXLE FOLEY