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Street people uro one thing to sur
viva. Not a blade, not a bottle, not a (is. It
cant be bought or bccd for. It rules
the alleys, the gutters, the trccL3 and
the "toed."
Hate is the lav of survival on the
streets. In every city. .Even Lincoln.
John Hack knows. Ha hated He
doesnt hate anymore, lie's Tcer.ce a
hobo, an "aristocrat 'cf the read." Ha
survives by experience, by reputation.
Bat the law of the street people Is hate.
Hate puts you on the read hate cf
society, hate cf every living thing on
earth," Pccwcs said. Street people get
no mercy for anything,- Pretty seen,
they wish to God they'd never been
bora."
rc-c.vce was born 23 years' cga. lib
mother put bin in the GIcr.v.-ocd State
horpital in Iowa when he wo3 3.
"They considered me mentally re
tarded," he sail
Peewee said he lived at the hospital
23 years. He spins gruesome tales of
forced sterilizations, rapes cf residents
and beatings. -
"We did the work; the (hospital) got
paid for it That the ballgome," he
said. ".If you didn't work, you got beat
"I had both arms broke, both anldcs,
all cf my .fegsra. One time, I stole
something. They bent my Cgcra book
to my vmzt and tied them there for
three days. '
"I survived by playing dumb," Pee
wee said. "I got to clean cdices because
they didnt think I could read. I could,
though, a little, .And tH the time I was .
; . Peaces raid hebrrn gg tkrc"h -the
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she was from Sious City.
A few years later, when he was out cf
the hospital, Fecwce sold he went to
Sioux City to find her.
"She didnt recognize me, but I knew
her from the picture," he said. "I walked
iiht up to her. She said she wanted
m for the night"
' Peewee said he "walked out" of the
herpital when he was 23. At 5-foot-2
and 120 pound?, and physical! dis
abled due to improperly healed bones,
he had a hard time Ending even man-
White working odd jobs all ever Iowa,
he fell in love with a woman named
ifaryJice.
hs was a weighting mstrcctor
at the YWCA when I met her," Peewee
soil "Che 'was 6-foct-6 and weighed
Pcewee said tlary Alice and he tra
vxled tcether four years. He supported
the two cf them mostly by "diving for
pearb" dichwaehinj.
Te never lied to each other cr
accused each other of anything. Thist
in each other was the one big thing we
had," Peewee said. "We didnt wait til
the lid blew c2f to talk."
During their fourth year together,
tiary.ftixe became pregnant The preg
nancy was difficult LiarVaAlice seemed
to get too big too soon, Peewee said, so
they went to a doctor.
"The doctor said the baby was get
ting so big it was tearing her womb,"
Peewee said. "He told me Mary .Alice
wasnt going to live through it isnleos
they destroyed the child."
llory .Alice told Peewee if the Lord
dMn't wer-i her to have the tab:',-lie
T.ca!nt have vc:i it to her. Pcrce
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