First Draft

By: Maya Joyner
Period: 7

Tim Joyner 

On a sunny day, one might be walking past a little ice cream shop in the southwest of Austin and notice a gray haired man with a kind face. The man's name is Tim Joyner, and he has owned this little ice cream shop for almost ten years. Though Joyner's life may seem average, the story behind his life is anything but normal. 

Joyner is a hardworking man, who spent many years persevering to gain the quality of life he enjoys now. 

"In my younger years, especially preteen, we moved around a bunch, as my parents struggled to find work," Joyner said. "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."

Poverty was a struggle for Joyner throughout his early and teenage years. Even though being poor was an issue for him, in many ways it positively impacted his work ethic. 

"We were very poor growing up, me and my two older brothers," Joyner said. "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."

Joyner is a loving husband. He and his wife Susan Joyner recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

"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," Susan said. 

The struggles Tim endured as a child molded him into the adult he is today. 

"Being poor made me be a lot more capable of coping with things. It hardened me in a lot of ways," Tim said. "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 the same from others who were poor. It teaches you to take care of yourself. You learn to be self-sufficient because you rely on yourself." 

Tim own's Austin Scoops Ice Cream and Treatery. He enjoys being a business owner because it gives him flexible hours and more time with his family. He is a loving and supportive father to his daughters, Maya and Mandy Joyner. His youngest child, Mandy, tells a story about an event that shows Tim's ethics and honesty. 

"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," Mandy said. 

Tim spent a portion of his childhood raised by a single mother. 

"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," Tim said. "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." 

Tim is a very considerate person who makes it his mission to help others. While Susan and Tim were dating, he saw a married couple in need of assistance. He insisted on giving them a ride home because they were in a bad situation. Tim insisted on giving a ride home to a married couple in need of assistance. 

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 did end up getting them home safely," Susan said. "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 was meant to help them. I think that sums up Tim's personality." 

Moving from the city to the country had a remarkable impact on Tim growing up. 

 "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. We would walk in large groups of people, just to keep our lunch money going to elementary school," Tim said. "When I moved to the country, it was just the exact opposite. It had lots of woods and lots of things to do. I made lots of friends and learned about animals. I learned to hunt, fish, hike, and camp. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me."