Artrice Kilgore, Can Collector
You don't know Artrice Kilgore, and really, neither did I. I knew him only by sight, as an inexplicably cheerful canner who pushed a shopping cart around my neighborhood, making his living by digging through trash, in search of homeless gold--aluminum cans. I last saw him a couple weeks ago as I was walking up to buy beer at the convenience store we call Monster Mart. It was one of the first truly gorgeous spring days of the year, and I pulled out my green straw hat for the occasion. As I turned the corner at the end of my block, I saw a couple of men pushing a shopping cart, right down the middle of the road, headed in my direction. They were enjoying the day every bit as much as I, and I offered them a "howd'ya do" as we met each other. The man I now know as Artrice paused for a second, said "good afternoon," and added with genuine enthusiasm, "I like that hat!" I thanked him and we headed off in our opposite directions.
This morning, I went for coffee and grabbed today's paper. On the front page was a story that explained all the sirens I heard in my neighborhood last night. The driver of an SUV that police were attempting to pull over fled and tore through my neighborhood, trashing two other cars, someone's house, and at least one life, that of Artrice Kilgore, who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Another person, also a bystander, remains in critical condition. The driver, who had an outstanding warrant for selling drugs to an undercover officer, and was intoxicated last night, is in the county jail, and apparently unharmed by the chaos he caused.
Artrice, according to what little documentation I could find about him, lived most of his adult life on the street. It's a shame he had to die there.
Photographer Josh Ritchie captured this image of Artrice while documenting homelessness in Bloomington, IL.
UPDATE 4/16: Skully points us to a story in today's Pantagraph about Artrice.
Not the can man! Here's another nice story:
http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/041605/new_20050416028.shtml
Posted by: skully | 2005.04.16 at 07:52 AM