Feature Story Notes

Tim Joyner

1. In my younger years, especially preteen, we moved around a bunch, as my parents struggled to find work. We were living in different parts of the country, and I was kind of a shy kid. It was traumatic going to new schools over and over again, especially being a poor kid trying to make friends. I didn't have the nice clothes, or the fancy stuff, and I was underachieving academically.
2. We were very poor growing up, me and my two older brothers. It probably affected my brothers more than me. When they were teenagers, we were at our worst. I was a little younger at the time so it didn't affect me quite as badly, but we continued to be poor into my teenage years. It taught me how to take care of myself, be independent. I got my first job really early, when I was about ten years old, and I've been working ever since. At a fairly young age I was able to get a car, buy my own clothes, and I even got an apartment in my early teens.
3. I was the youngest, so I wound up wearing hand-me-downs from my two older brothers. A lot of my clothes were in pretty bad shape, which was embarrassing as a child. I would wear the same shirt, or pants, or shoes three to four times a week. It was embarrassing for me also as a teen to eat the school lunches that were basically for poor people. If they had fed you breakfast or lunch, everybody knew. I would get made fun of for those things, and it really made me dislike school in general.
4. Being poor made me be a lot more capable of coping with things. It hardened me in a lot of ways. I feel like I'm pretty tough. It forced me to become a man a lot earlier in life than my peers. I had more responsibilities. It made me be a lot stronger, and I've heard that from a lot of people. It teaches you to take care of yourself. You learn to be self-sufficient because you rely on yourself.
5. I knew a lot of kids who had more money than me, and it does stand out in mind as an adult. I'm sure I was very envious of the kids with money, but I did have a couple of friends who I have very fond memories of who were well off. They would share with me, let me borrow their clothes, and let me enjoy the things around them that I didn't have.
6. As a child and a young teen, I grew up in a part of Houston that was known for being very rough.
There was gang violence, drugs, transience, homelessness, and a lot of problems in the area. It was not even safe to walk to school. We would walk in large groups of people, just to keep our lunch money going to elementary school. In fact, there were train tracks right across the street from our house. We would hop the trains because it was a much safer route to get to school. When I moved to the country, it was just the exact opposite. It had lots of woods and lots of things to do. No gangs, no violence, no drugs. I made lots of friends, and learned about horses and animals. I learned to hunt, fish, hike, and camp. It was probably on of the best things that ever happened to me.
7. Looking back on what my parents went through and what they shielded me from, it's almost painful sometimes to think about what we put our parents through. I know now, as a parent, what it must have been like to not be able to put food on the table, and not having the resources to give us a Christmas or birthday present. But we had family, and we had love, and we always got by. We always ate something. We also had family that would try to help us out. It's hard to see some of the sacrifices they went through just to make some basic things happen.
8. My brothers and I got along pretty well in our teen years. As we got older, we drifted apart a little bit. I was rebellious,  and they were more responsible than me. I was definitely the one that got in more trouble. All in all we got along pretty well. We all looked after eachother. We all took up for eachother. We still love and help eachother out, so we're still very close today.
9. Moving out to the country was the single best thing that ever happened to me. I was on a dead end path in the situation I was in. It was a major life changing moment from day one. I made many friends and learned many, many things that I still use today.
10. My life motto, I would say, is very plain and simple. Never give up, and never give in. There's always hope. One of my employee's has a tattoo that says "This to shall pass." I firmly believe that you have to just do you're best, and never give up, and things will eventually go your way. I am a srong believer in karma, in doing good things, and having good things happen to you.
11. Like many people, I have many regrets. For bad things I did, or good things I didn't do. Of being afraid to show my true feelings because I was too shy. I wish I had treated my parents much, much better. I often feel myself needing to apologize for being so rebellious as a child.
12. Though I don't consider myself dumb, I did poor in school from very early on. I was very rebellious about school, and the school I was in wasn't very good. By the time I was in second grade, and had already moved schools several times, I was doing very poorly. This just sort of carried on into my teenage years. I didn't really start doing well until I left the public school system and went into a private school situation. There were more changes into my style of learning.
13. How I got into private school is kind of interesting. I was in eighth grade and I was struggling, about to fail. A very wealthy family in our small town was soliciting the school for some oppurtunities to sponsor students in a private Christian academy. Their good deed passed on to me. I didn't really understand the value of it at the time. But it was an oppurtunity for me, and the school brought my name to their attention. I checked out the school, and it seemed like it would be a good fit for me. The public school system had given up on me at that point, and I had given up on myself. While I didn't do amazingly well in the private school environment, I did much better. It was much more suited to my type of learning.
14. My social life was pretty good. I always remember having friends at all of my schools. I would get picked on by the more popular, or more wealthy kids because of the way I dressed. I always managed to have close friends. Whether we were having fun or getting in trouble, my friends were everything to me.
15. My mom became single as I was an infant and toddler, so I don't have a great deal of memories from it. I remember the struggle was very, very hard. We were very poor, and I would call it extreme poverty. We lived in a car for a few days. We drove across the country asking different family members for help. I remember seeing my mom cry because we didn't have enough food on the table. We once shared a hotdog as a family of four. I remember living in a trailer in Florida for a while. It was about the size of a bathroom.

(Only quotes used in story)

Susan 
1. While we were dating, Tim and I had got back from a river trip about two hours away from home. We had stopped at a gas station, and he was going to drive my friend and I home. He came out of the gas station with a crying woman and a baby, and he tells us we're driving them home. She only spoke a very small amount of English, and it turned out she had her husband with her too. We put them in the backseat, and my friend and I were very worried because it was almost a hitchhiking scenario. We did end up getting them home safely. For me, the story shows what I was in for in the rest of my life. When he walked into the gas station, he heard her crying on the phone, and he knows some Spanish. She was pleading with her mom about getting a ride home because their car had broke down and they didn't have any formula for the baby. Tim felt like he just had to help. He just said these people were in a bad situation and he had to help them. I think that sums up Tim's personality.
2. His strongest characteristics are that he is a very honest person, and he's a very forgiving person. He doesn't stay upset or angry with anyone for too long. He always manages to find the good in people.
Mandy1. One day, me and Maya were in the car with my dad. We were going to school, and we were driving through a neighborhood. As were were driving, he saw something on the road, so he stopped and got out of the car. He had found a wallet, and he couldn't find any sort of identification. He knocked on a few doors until he found the owner. He's honest, and he did the right thing.