Chris Pruett and James Bignall

[00:01] CHRIS PRUETT: Hi, my name is Chris Pruett I'm 61. Today's date is November 23, 2019. I'm here at the fledge, Lansing, Michigan, with Storycorps and my good friend James Bignall

[00:16] JAMES BIGNALL: I'm James Bignall I'm 56. It's 1120 319. I'm at the fledge in Lansing, Michigan, with my good friend Chris Pruett otherwise known as the happiest homeless person. So I'm James Bignall. I'm at the fledge in Lansing. The fledges, well, they describe themselves as a radically inclusive organization that works to help people pursue happiness in whatever way that may be for them personally, I guess I came here a year ago after getting out of a relationship for 30 years in a 26 year marriage, and out of a house that I was in for 20 years that I didn't expect to leave. And I was looking for some studio space to do my artwork in. I was in transition, and I met Jerry, the proprietor of the fledge, and he allowed me to spend time in here in the chapel of this, what I would call a greek revival church. And it was really what I needed at the time. And while doing this every day, I was coming in at about eight in the morning. I met who is now my friend Chris Pruett six foot six or so.

[02:03] CHRIS PRUETT: Person who is known, told me I lost it. I'm six'five.

[02:07] JAMES BIGNALL: Oh, you're six'five now?

[02:08] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah.

[02:09] JAMES BIGNALL: But Chris is also known as the happiest homeless person. He is a homeless advocate, having been homeless himself for six years, I guess.

[02:23] CHRIS PRUETT: Was it close to seven? Yeah, well, I've been housed two and a half years now, but it was 2010 when I was on the streets. Well, when I first got homeless.

[02:35] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. And that's a long time to be homeless, at least from my perspective, never really having been homeless. But I was drawn to you when I first met you because of, really your passion for humanity as much as anything, I would say.

[02:55] CHRIS PRUETT: Some people say I'm too abrupt about it, but a lot of the services that help the homeless, they were never homeless. So I am a little bit abrupt about it sometimes, but it's just to motivate people to help others.

[03:12] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah.

[03:13] CHRIS PRUETT: And let me help you help them.

[03:17] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. So you think that. You say the services, you think that society or government or I, I guess whoever that might be, they don't have an understanding of homelessness. And the people who are homeless.

[03:37] CHRIS PRUETT: All the societal ills, people don't really, they always want to ask, why are you homeless? Why is there homelessness? It's just how you learned society, what society taught you, what you took from it. And being sugar induced in society, alcohol, drugs, it's a world of escapism and over excess. And just to bring basic things to homeless people is part of the mission of a happiest homeless person. I was born myself in Highland Park, Detroit, in 58. And then when I got homeless, homeless and seeing the guys with their signs and just, you know, a basic sharpie message on it about God bless and homeless hungry, and I said, I'm going to make my signs huge and big and address societal issues and put a little religion into it. Sometimes just fun. But it was to show people on the streets something different about a homeless person, that we have talents, we have compassion, we have a heart, we have love to give, too, you know, to push that through to society as a homeless person is a tough job. You don't believe it.

[05:07] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, I understand that. We've spent a lot of time on my front porch, and that seems to be a common topic as people who become homeless feeling really invisible by society.

[05:23] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah. And that's why I started making big, huge signs, lots of colors. And I also wore a box on my head with a smiley face on it. I made people look, you know, be standing on it. When I first started and had my sign, I was using different color sharpies, but just spelling out a message. But then it evolved into pictures of flowers and hearts and big, huge smiley faces on it to motivate people to. I found out right away, well, to look at me, the invisible part, I said, I'll make them look at me. And I designed my first box head and made 23 of them over three and a half years. And my signs, I made over 250 in three and a half years.

[06:16] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. And I think, you know, a six foot six person standing out with signs in a big box on their head with a smiley face on it, it's hard not to see.

[06:27] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah, the box really worked well. You know, people, you can see them craning their necks to see, you know, around stuff. What's this coming? And when I got to them, and then they. My sign says, happiest homeless person says, and you could tell people's eyes when they're reading something or how long they read it. And it was usually by the time they got to that second word, homeless, and they were looking away at gum on the ground or whatever, you know. And, uh. But I got their attention and they, and they saw all of us. And my awareness that I try to.

[07:07] JAMES BIGNALL: Project your, uh, your signs are can be, are pretty fantastic. I mean, from my perspective, I. That's one of the things I really appreciated about you was your art. And when I. When I first met you, I think at the fledge where we are now, you had dozens and dozens of them. And.

[07:26] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah, Jerry, you let me. When I first met him in late summer of 18, and first it was about doing stuff with punk music and punk posters. And my little brother died six and a half years ago, and he had collected all this music stuff. So somebody had told me about the fledge, and I came, and it just quickly evolved into a sign show. I had 96 signs hanging around the whole place. It was filled up. Some people came. I send my signs also to a fellow down at Southern Methodist University. He does homeless seminars and exhibits around.

[08:09] JAMES BIGNALL: The country, and he's collected, what, 80 of your signs?

[08:12] CHRIS PRUETT: 80 of my signs, yep. And he had sentence thumb drive with all those signs on it. So I showed those on a video, and then everybody was looking at the signs I had hanging. And then I came out and talked for an hour and answered people's questions.

[08:27] JAMES BIGNALL: And stuff about, can you describe one of these signs or tell me what some of them would say?

[08:34] CHRIS PRUETT: They varied all over the place. You know, if I was out on the street and somebody said something to me stupid or something inspiring, I turn it into a sign. And when you're. When I be out. And I'd go out to Michigan State University for, like, homecoming or the welcome back week, and there's lots of shenanigans going on with the students, and they have the horses out, and every police agency you can think of in the state. So to address that. Cause I use that, this analogy of my sign, because homeless people get in trouble a lot for drinking. But you go out to Michigan State University, and everybody's drinking on the streets. So this one sign I made, and it addresses all the construction and these buildings being built, and there's always bars in them and liquor stores being added. So the sign I made, it painted the cardboard red, and I put blue lights, like, on it, blue marker. But it said beer, wine, liquor, booze. The city needs it for revenues, cameras, cops, and horses, too. The all CNI is watching you, writing tickets, going to court. To them, it's just a sport. So across the country and around the nation, they're waiting to bring you to the station. And down at the bottom, I left a big white spot, and it says, sign below if you're not going to jail tonight. And, you know, I got some people sign it, but it was mainly just to be out there and put it in the law enforcement's face, you know, I'm here, this is what's really happening, and you can't arrest me for it.

[10:28] JAMES BIGNALL: Sure.

[10:29] CHRIS PRUETT: But that's just how I did my signs, to get in people's face. I thought I would make bank compared to the other guys with their just little cardboard with sharpies. It actually worked in the opposite way, that people didn't want to see a big, huge homeless sign like this with a guy with a box on his head trying to get them to let me help them help other people.

[10:55] JAMES BIGNALL: But that didn't really deter you from.

[10:57] CHRIS PRUETT: Oh, no. Yeah, that's what made me happy, because I know just by doing that, that I have a bigger heart and more compassion and a lot, a lot of people out there on the streets.

[11:11] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. Talking about some of the people who you've met who are homeless and some of your homeless friends. Last summer, we were riding around one day and you recognized, you saw all of the homeless people that I didn't see, frankly. And it really struck me that maybe I wouldn't have recognized them as homeless. But you just, it seemed like every time we turned a corner, you were yelling out the window and waving at people and calling them by name. And there were your friends, and they. It was obvious, you know, by the smiles I was seeing that they had a lot of respect for you. At least there was a friendship there. And I was wondering, can you tell me about some of the people you've met? And.

[12:11] CHRIS PRUETT: Well, you know, there's that old song that says the streets have no names. Yeah, well, they do. Those names are Joe, Gary, Sarah, Mary, Ria, you know, and, um. It's kind of hard.

[12:27] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah.

[12:28] CHRIS PRUETT: You want to. I want to embrace them and love them and. But I also know the ones that are just out there trying to kill themselves. There's people dying, there's people being killed. There's people going to jail all the time. I wonder where Johnny is. See something? Oh, he's in jail. But the dying thing and the compassion of society, it's incredible that what goes on does go on as far as demeaning people and keeping them down. And programs, there needs to be specialized programs to help people. They can't read, some can't read, some can't write. What does that say about today's society that rather than help these people and bring services to them because they don't have bus passes, they don't get around, there's people that have never even been out of lansing. I'd like to take a trip to Lake Michigan with a bunch of people sometime. But people are people. You know, it's just because this homeless person is a jerk doesn't mean all homeless people are a jerk. Just cause Larry Nassar did what he did doesn't mean all people in his position are doing that. But it gives a bad light on things, and we're just our society, what we learned, you know, addiction, alcoholism.

[13:49] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. I think that society has its scapegoats, too. And, you know, it's often they vilify people who are already marginalized.

[14:01] CHRIS PRUETT: If society doesn't like homeless people so much, and it been around for a couple thousand years now. A few thousand, some people say millions of years, but why haven't they done something about it? Why isn't. Why is there still homeless? Because people need people to look down on to feel better about themselves. That's what it's about, I think.

[14:22] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. So you, you do outreaches?

[14:29] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah. The happiest homeless person, when I started making my signs, it was about, you know, yeah, I need some money, you know, to get by, pack of smokes, maybe get a cheeseburger, ice cream every now and then. Beer, you know. Sure, I'm an addict alcoholic, but quelling that down now, you know, getting old and gotta live. Mandy, keep doing that stuff. You don't live. So I've tackled that pretty much. I don't get drunk, I don't get high, you know, illicit drugs. Anyway, there's one special one, but I found out right away, making my signs, if I asked to bring to me things to give to others, because I'm going to the shelters and the drop ins and on the street and Cadda and the parks, and found out that people would bring stuff more than if I was just asking it for myself. And been doing that six years now. Meals in the parks, giveaways. Right now, the main, current one is that it goes to the Lansing outreach run by city rescue mission. And this is where happiest homeless person was born, the previous owner of Lansing city outreach. But the mission runs it now. And tonight will be week 34 of bringing a special sack. I call them happy sacks of just junk food. And tonight we'll have 50 beefy Frito burritos from Taco Bell to give. And I got lots of coats and blankets, and it's been a six year journey, and just keep doing it. One activity will burn out, and I think it's something else to do, you know, to bring special things to the homeless, like cheeseburgers and stuff. Cheeseburger equals love.

[16:25] JAMES BIGNALL: You had a sign that said that, didn't you?

[16:27] CHRIS PRUETT: A big, huge heart on it, and love and cars be stopped. And when they're ready to go, I would flip the flap up, and it said, cheeseburger equals love. So the outreach. Outreach. At the outreach, I call it. And then spent 23 weeks getting cheeseburgers from them. Yeah, you and I, lots of money, and they wouldn't even give me a couple little kids toys once. So now Burger King's out, and I tried. I'm trying to get local businesses, and one lady's been given pasties, but her business downtown is failing. She's gonna close, and her heart and society isn't letting her heart do its job.

[17:07] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. So you and I will be doing that tonight, right?

[17:11] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah. Got a lot of stuff upstairs that Jerry wants out of here, and I've.

[17:16] JAMES BIGNALL: Helped you with quite a few of those and helped you get resources and some money for it. And it's pretty moving when you are standing there handing out sandwiches and food to 60 people and just.

[17:39] CHRIS PRUETT: It's a humbling experience.

[17:40] JAMES BIGNALL: It is very humbling.

[17:42] CHRIS PRUETT: People always say, you must feel so good after you do that.

[17:45] JAMES BIGNALL: But, yeah, I don't feel good. I feel very sad at times.

[17:49] CHRIS PRUETT: That's exactly what I was going to say, because the sad thing is that you see these same faces over and over and over and over and over again. There's folks out there that I've known since 2010. What's happening? What are these agencies doing? They have their media image, and when I attack that on a level like that, I get a lot of flak on Facebook about it.

[18:12] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, you get a meeting with the mayor, too, apparently, don't you?

[18:14] CHRIS PRUETT: Yes, I did. That was an experience. I wanted to talk to them about a lot of issues, like the meals in the parks and the restrictions that they put on the groups.

[18:34] JAMES BIGNALL: What restrictions do they put on groups?

[18:37] CHRIS PRUETT: Just they can get the health department after him or the police come and, you know, just because there's people there giving stuff to a group of people that they don't like.

[18:47] JAMES BIGNALL: And is that the impression you get, that they don't really.

[18:52] CHRIS PRUETT: I think they're embarrassed. Think, like, government agencies, and I think they're embarrassed that they don't do it themselves. And then a group comes along, or even me, you know, most of these groups got thousands of followers, and I've got a handful. And I don't know. I think it boils down to. Yeah, like, a jealousy thing between city officials and folks just trying to help folks.

[19:23] JAMES BIGNALL: You think it, when they see volunteerism like that, do you think it sheds them in a bad light because they.

[19:31] CHRIS PRUETT: Aren'T addressing it, because they're just coming to break it up? And the people that are being served, they go to their camps and take their things and coerce them to come in out of the cold. And when they're not at their camp, they go back the next day and it's all gone.

[19:47] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. That's awful.

[19:51] CHRIS PRUETT: There's a lot of inequality when you're homeless.

[19:54] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, I bet. I would imagine as much as anyone or anywhere.

[19:59] CHRIS PRUETT: It reminds me of another one of my signs, and I had red wings. It says red wings. No, red. Oh, shoot. Now I lost.

[20:11] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, you know, I lost that.

[20:12] CHRIS PRUETT: A lot of comeback.

[20:14] JAMES BIGNALL: A lot of what we talk about is, you know, your feelings about society, and you know that what I see is the invisibility of the homeless. And I know that you. Do you write poetry?

[20:32] CHRIS PRUETT: Mm hmm.

[20:34] JAMES BIGNALL: Do you. Do you have any poetry with you today?

[20:37] CHRIS PRUETT: It's upstairs at my bag, but I think I can give a couple lines off one.

[20:42] JAMES BIGNALL: I'll tell you what. Can we take a break and grab one of your poems and have you read it?

[20:47] CHRIS PRUETT: Sure.

[20:51] JAMES BIGNALL: So, Chris, I was wondering if you could read one of your poems.

[20:56] CHRIS PRUETT: Sure. You know my poems. I did them on my signs, and those would be like four liners. But the real poems that got to the heart of the matter are a little longer, and I kept them in a notebook. This is one. What is wrong with me? My heart, they can't see. I feel like Medusa. Most of the time, they don't look at what good qualities are. Mine must be a cancerous, contagious piece of sh. In no small part of their life do I fit. Like a lake that's been drained dry. I must look like the exposed debris. Oh, my. Walking by, looking at the ground, my fists I want to pound. People keep showing their black hole heart, but in my happiness, they still play a part. I know who I am and who my friends are. I'll spread my love where I can and with God I'll go far. I never read it with a little choke in my throat before. Yeah, well, that time I did.

[22:00] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. I know that your faith is important to you.

[22:05] CHRIS PRUETT: In the past 20 years, it's become more important. When I was a kid and my mom and my dad left when I was, like, about four or five, and we never saw him again. But I remember seeing. We lived with grandma a lot, my mom's mom and I remember the classic Jesus picture up on the wall. So I knew who Jesus was and a little bit about God. But then when my mom got remarried, he took us to church, and I became a little more aware. But being a kid, and it was like being forced to do something I didn't want to do. But then now. And progress through life and addiction and alcoholism and failures with jobs and relationships, and. You gotta have something more, you know, you're never alone. You know, they say when you profess to believe in a higher power. Me, I'm Christian, and it's God. But I'm sure any other religions, there's parts of it that pertain to charity, and I think I got a little off track there.

[23:19] JAMES BIGNALL: You're all right. So you have another poem?

[23:25] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah, I got another one. We break off into politics with this one.

[23:30] JAMES BIGNALL: What's it about?

[23:32] CHRIS PRUETT: Life is me, I guess, but I've never voted in my life. I've been registered a couple times. I don't know if I have, like, a metal block about it, because when I was a kid, four or five years old is when Kennedy was killed and his brother was killed. Martin Luther King was killed. I said, this is politics. Said, this is politics. I don't want any part of it. So. And people say that, right? You don't vote. You ain't gotta say, this is b's to me. Cause I'm still an american, and I still have opinions. And I've been led all my life to believe that my opinions are wrong, you know, being bullied in school. But the past few years, especially homelessness, has taught me quit being afraid of everything. Stand up. When I started making my signs, it was like I finally had a voice. Not everybody's reading it, but the ones that did, you know, got it. But politics. I have lived life from Dumpster to dumpster. My political representatives, legs, my dog can humpster. They neglect any race lists for fortunate folks at people's pursuit of happiness. They're always taking pokes, going on about their elitist lives. Unconcerned for me, all glory's rights. They have burned fancy dinners with lots of booze while sitting in office, taking away people's right to choose. Oh, it must be such a glorious life to be able to pass laws to provide a little more strife they're both set rules ordinances and laws are the children they bear I'm happy that in final judgment things will be made square. Take that.

[25:28] JAMES BIGNALL: That's heavy.

[25:30] CHRIS PRUETT: I got lots of poems.

[25:34] JAMES BIGNALL: So, you know, along those lines, I guess we've talked about some of the services that are available, you know, just warm places, public transportation. And I was wondering if you could talk about that a little bit as far as the treatment that you yourself had seen, you know, as a homeless person, you know, while trying to get some of these services or being involved. Cat or the buses, for instance.

[26:16] CHRIS PRUETT: Cadda. You know, there's a lot of folks hanging out there because they can be warm, and it's a focal point for social gathering, really. And if you're homeless, it's a spot. But the things that go on, you know, there's not always good things going on, and the security there knows who those people are. And there's special rules I can't go through there. Displaying a sign. I said, it's public property. They say, no, it's private property. And they took away my freedom of speech by not letting me be around there with a sign or anything. And they're flying the american flag outside.

[26:59] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah.

[27:00] CHRIS PRUETT: What's that about?

[27:01] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, I think you can fly an american flag on private property.

[27:05] CHRIS PRUETT: Yeah, I know, but the values on one side, they're saying, no, you don't have these, and then the flag's flying out there. It says, yes, I do have these rights. So it's a mixed message.

[27:19] JAMES BIGNALL: You talked about hospitals like treatment, that.

[27:23] CHRIS PRUETT: As far as, like, a warming station.

[27:25] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, no, as far as the treatment people get, if they have to go to an emergency room, if they're homeless.

[27:31] CHRIS PRUETT: Well, a few years ago, I was going to. They had a warming station there, and you can't take your shoes off. It's winter, your feet are wet, and it's a hospital. They should. If they're going to invite people in that need things, especially somewhere warm, they should have. They should be prepared to handle those health problems and the health concerns, and they don't. They stick you in this little cubicle, and you gotta be good. I try to go to the drink fountain. Where are you going? Get a drink of water. Do you have permission? I'm 56 years old. I'm 61 now, but this was five years ago. I'm 56 years old. I need permission to go to the drinking fountain. And they finally stopped. They don't have the warming station at the hospital anymore, so there needs to be other ways for people to survive. If you don't want them in a camp trying to stay warm, then provide something else. You know, there's the shelters and stuff around, but they're always full.

[28:41] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, I've noticed. I've heard that and seen it.

[28:43] CHRIS PRUETT: And the way they're run, you know, strictly christian. You know, you got all kinds of people going there and you have to listen to a christian message to be able to get food in a bed.

[28:57] JAMES BIGNALL: So what do you think the answers are to some of these problems that we have with homelessness?

[29:04] CHRIS PRUETT: That's a far reaching question, but there's just more humanity, more basic things. I would like to have a rolling warming station, a big converted bus with stuff in it, and move around the city, bring people into it to get warm and have some hot cocoa. There's not much of that. You know, there is places, but this one runs it one way like Christian, and this one runs it like no values, you know, just come and do what you want as long as you're not on our property. And that enforces addiction and stuff. You know, they need to help people more.

[29:51] JAMES BIGNALL: So you think that addiction is at the root of a lot of homelessness?

[29:55] CHRIS PRUETT: Of course, yeah. Addiction to what, though? It's not just drugs and alcohol, it's porn and addiction to violence and exposing yourself when you gotta go to the bathroom. You know, I told the mayor, I said, I'd like to have all people that have a warrant for public urination, give them amnesty on that, exonerate them. Yeah. Just to give and have portage on somewhere people can use the bathroom. Indignity. It's small things, easy things.

[30:30] JAMES BIGNALL: You and I worked out a budget on a few portage ons. It's not that much money.

[30:36] CHRIS PRUETT: No. And what's the payoff? What costs less? Putting some porta johns out and keeping them decent or arresting people, bringing them to police action, bringing them to jail, transferring them out to county rehabs. And it just all. What? What would cost less?

[31:01] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. So, I don't know. Healing people, healing their addictions through humanity.

[31:10] CHRIS PRUETT: Making people feel they're worth something. Like the snack bags that I bring full of junk food. It's a little pricey, I guess. People bring it to me. I don't know what they cost, but just in one week, I got to have 500 different little snacks to put in 60 bags. And it shows people that they're worth at least that, you know, and a cheeseburger or a burrito.

[31:36] JAMES BIGNALL: And that's not, you know, that's not the only stuff you do. You gave me a call a few nights ago because you'd been out handing out candy to kids with a wagon on Halloween. And. Yeah. The bus wouldn't let you on the bus with your wagon.

[31:53] CHRIS PRUETT: No.

[31:53] JAMES BIGNALL: So, yeah, I ended up seeing you in the dark. Six foot six guy, holding up a big glowing orange hand with a wagon. But you'd been out for hours handing out candy to kids.

[32:08] CHRIS PRUETT: And just last night, silver bells to prepare. I had my stuff here at the fledge, took an hour and a half, 2 hours to get ready to go. And I left here at five and I pulled my wagon back here. It was a little after nine, but the kids thing, while I was homeless and doing things for homeless people, and I'm out wandering around and I, a certain part of town here, there was several murders, stabbing, and I was laying in my bed. This is where most of my ideas came from, laying in my bed in my camp, that things need to be done for kids too. And to change this societal view of homeless and less fortunate, it needs to start with children and breaking through those stigmas and stereotypes.

[32:52] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. And I know you put on kids events, you just had one of those week or so ago. And so I really see as, you know, an ambassador for homeless and tried.

[33:07] CHRIS PRUETT: To change the perceptions of homeless.

[33:09] JAMES BIGNALL: Exactly.

[33:11] CHRIS PRUETT: And the kids love it. I've had four kids events in the past two years and multiple, multiple homeless events. And if it wasn't for the donors, appreciating the way that I come through the ideas and the ways I think homeless people need these small basic things to survive. Sure, you know, you can give them all the warm clothes you want, all the food you want, but love needs to come in there. And the more love you give, then the more, more better results you'll have.

[33:49] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, yeah. So what? So what's next?

[33:56] CHRIS PRUETT: Do you have what's next? I want to, there's entity here called leap. I forget what the initials are, but they have a hatching and you go and pitch a business, your business idea. My business idea would be got to get nonprofit, but I want to develop a video game where you have to help your homeless person get through life, get a house, get employed. Like one of the levels would be, oops, you didn't learn how not to get divorced. So just.

[34:33] JAMES BIGNALL: I didn't learn that either.

[34:34] CHRIS PRUETT: To go through that level, you gotta go to anger management classes. And this, you know, video games, they say that rock and roll and heavy metal and death metal causes people to commit suicide and go do school shootings. But if that perception is true, then the effects of having this homeless game where people are helping a homeless person instead of ignoring them and driving them down, it could change the whole perception of society towards homeless and towards domestic violence. Oops. Cops raided your camp. Go back to the beginning. DHS lost your paperwork. Go back to the beginning. All these life situations and, you know, even addiction, your homeless person relapsed. Go back to the beginning, and you got to send them back to counseling and blah, blah, blah, and then move on from that video game. Have a homeless clothing line. I would call myself an urban survivalist, so I want to do urban survivalist clothing line. And it would be clothes specially designed to help homeless people stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and action figures and children's books.

[35:52] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, that's really what I appreciate about you, is your passion and your imagination, too. It's very.

[36:03] CHRIS PRUETT: And see, with this interview and whoever's listening to this, a decade from now, a few decades from now, I hope that some of my ideas and some of the ways and it gets around like this, we're gonna do a waffle breakfast in the middle of December for the homeless, and somebody on Facebook in St. Louis said, hey, that's a great idea. I'm gonna do that here in St. Louis, too. So that's great. I hope it gets around, and I hope whoever listens to this in the future, that society is a better place than they are now. As far as treating each other equally and fairly, no matter what their skin color, creed or religion is. This is the only way that earth's going to survive, because all the stuff we do, humans, is destroying the earth and the environment. I just hope there's people around in 40 years to listen to this.

[36:57] JAMES BIGNALL: I agree. Well, it's admirable, you know, undoubtedly admirable.

[37:04] CHRIS PRUETT: What you're doing, you know, and part of it, too, is that putting it in people's face, me, especially when I was still homeless on the streets, if I can motivate this small number of people, just bring the stuff to people, what can you do? You know, what can you do? You got a good job, you know, carry around a pair of socks and give away.

[37:30] JAMES BIGNALL: Sure.

[37:34] CHRIS PRUETT: I guess I got some influence now. I don't know, but usually it's money. And where you are on the ladder of success.

[37:45] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, well, you're getting a lot of visibility, and I think it's deserving. And I, you know, I know they're. Everyone that meets you, admires you.

[37:59] CHRIS PRUETT: It's weird when we pull up the outreach and everybody. Chris, Chris.

[38:02] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah? You have fans all over the place.

[38:06] CHRIS PRUETT: Maybe I can get them to start saying, God. God.

[38:11] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah. That's another good hearing me say that. But no.

[38:17] CHRIS PRUETT: But part of the problem is, too, that I don't think religious groups get too involved in helping less fortunate yeah, there's some. But I've been calling out for six years for people to come to the little activities I do to maybe there's somebody that needs to be ministered to, you know, and I just want a pastor, have a rabbi there, too, you know, a muslim clergy, so people can.

[38:49] JAMES BIGNALL: Feel better, feel more connected.

[38:51] CHRIS PRUETT: You know, food is one thing, but, you know, that connection with their, whoever they choose to call God or Muhammad or whatever, they need support there. I have questionnaires. I asked my Facebook friends to send me questions they want to ask a homeless person. And on those questionnaires, a lot of them are calling out for God, calling out for more education, calling out for basic things like clothes and toothbrushes.

[39:25] JAMES BIGNALL: Well, it's been great talking with you here, Chris.

[39:29] CHRIS PRUETT: It's been good. Thank you, StoryCorps.

[39:32] JAMES BIGNALL: Yeah, thanks.

[39:32] CHRIS PRUETT: Storycorps.