'Scratch Beginnings' author visits Cario

Adam Shepard lived his American Dream, eking his way out of homelessness in Charleston, and sold his story "Scratch Beginnings" to a major publisher, but he still wears clothing from his Rivers Avenue Goodwill shopping trips.

He wore a suit coat from one of those ensembles when he spoke before a group of Cario Middle School students last week.

Jessica Johnson/The Post and Courier

Adam Shepard (right), signs a copy of “Scratch Beginnings” for Lindsay Halewood (left foreground) as students Savanna Trinkle, Rachel Maggy and Madison Headrick, and eighth-grade science teacher David Plaistowe (far right), wait their turn.

Shepard came to Cario to meet eighth-grader Lindsay Halewood. He arrived in his 1988 GMC Sierra pickup truck, the one he drove away in when he left Charleston in May 2007.

Lindsay had read his story and had been so touched by it that she contacted him via e-mail and he agreed to meet students.

Her interest in the story had spread at the school, leading about 50 other students to agree to read Shepard's novel and write an essay to attend the author's talk.

Shepard said he wrote the book as a challenge to Barbara Ehrenreich's books, including "Nickel and Dimed," that Shepard said showed how low-wage workers couldn't get ahead. He wanted to show that they could.

Shepard, then 23, arrived by train in North Charleston in July 2006 with just $25. He walked down Rivers Avenue to Reynolds Avenue before taking a bus to Crisis Ministries.

His goal was to get a job, find a place to live and save $2,500 in a year. That meant passing on items like new clothes. He eventually found work and a place of his own.

Lindsay said she especially appreciated the local connections she found in the story.

"Cool, I know where that is," she said she thought as she read.

Some names of people and places, such as the moving company Shepard eventually worked for, were changed in the story.

Jessica Johnson/The Post and Courier

Shepard spoke to Cario Middle School students who read his book on his experience going from being homeless in Charleston to finding a job.

Shepard spoke a little about his story and then took questions from students. One of the hardest came first. Eighth-grader John Zeringue wanted to know if Shepard felt bad taking the place and services that a real homeless person would.

He said he quickly learned that there was always room for one more on the floor of Crisis Ministries.

"In the shelter, I wasn't taking anything away from anybody," Shepard said.

But he said he sometimes felt bad about lying about his past, telling people he met that he came from a crack-addicted mom and an alcoholic father.

In reality, Shepard was raised by two loving parents and has a college degree. But he never used any of their financial resources, his college education or credit history to find jobs or places to live.

Shepard left 10 months into his experiment because his mother became ill. He had an apartment and $5,300 saved and, of course, his black pickup, which at the time started with a turn of a screwdriver.

In their essays, students urged him to try the experiment in a new city. Shepard told students that he wasn't planning on doing it again.

"This was my one experience," Shepard said.

He told students that he would pass his truck along to fellow mover Derrick Hale, whom Shepard called the hero of his story.

Shepard said he would leave Charleston by train on his trip home to Raleigh. These days he's driving a $250 Plymouth Sundance.

Shepard said he's living the American Dream, and told the students it's up to them to live their own.

"In the end, the American Dream is alive or dead because of you," Shepard said.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921.