HUFFINGTON
11.11.12
NO WAY OUT
money in the mid-1980s. Then he
jumped to driving a truck and he
earned more. By the early-1990s,
he was earning about $40,000 a
year, he says, running a distribution route for a local bakery.
“I loved that job,” he says. “I’d
wake up and spring out of bed like
I was going to a party.”
He moved into a duplex apartment with wall-to-wall carpeting
and a balcony — “a small bachelor’s luxurious pad,” he says. He
bought a motorcycle.
But when he came back from a
vacation, the boss confronted him
with complaints that out-of-date
product had been landing on customer’s shelves. It cost him his job.
“Ever since then, it’s been
rough,” he says. “All downhill
since then.”
Desperate for something to pay
the bills, he took what was available — a job as a maintenance
technician at a motel for $9 an
hour. Then he got a job as a driver
at a recycling company, where he
made $10.25 an hour. But he lost
that position after kidney surgery
laid him up for several weeks, he
says. His next job, at a building
materials supply operation, paid
Stinson
is still
struggling
against
numerous
odds to
secure a job.