- [Interviewer] Arthur, you're here in the Woods of Ithaca.
You call this home; tell me about it.
- Well, it's home because it has to be.
Yet sometimes it could be even worse
than caught between a rock and a hard plate.
'Cause when you had so much stolen from you in life,
you can only start over so many times.
And when the last time costs you
probably about 175,000 dollars between equipment
and people robbin' bank accounts,
but one rich son of a bitch at Letchworth Ranch
and gets in his mind he's supposed to be a Christian
but someone tryin' to make a buck on the side
to get Social Security to bust your ass over a couple bucks
and it escalates and the bad thing is
you run into people who are then unscrupulous and undecent
and unethical start stealing everything you got.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh, so due to some bad situations,
some bad people, you end up here.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Now, you told me you're a veteran.
And you did two tours... - Correct.
- [Interviewer] Two tours of Vietnam.
- Well I did one tour in 'Nam, but I'm saying
I did two enlistments.
- [Interviewer] Got it.
- I was in 'Nam from 70-71.
- [Interviewer] You shouldn't be out here.
- Well...
I'd own that being the hardships I've got to
deal with every day, no man, no woman, child, or even rat
should have to live this way.
Because everything I've got to do, I've got to cache.
You can't sit down like anybody else and go to your
kitchen and pour yourself a cup of coffee.
You got to cache it.
I put the sugar here, that I hide it away from the rats
over there, so even a cup of coffee takes you 45 minutes.
Because then you've got to get your camping stove out
and hook it up, hope you've got some gas, hope the wind
don't blow the damn thing out, heat some water to finally
get a cup of coffee.
Got all constant hardships like that.
If you don't get your laundry to put it in a bucket when
you're still trying to be conscious enough to do your
laundry, some of these other bums just take the shit
and just throw it out.
Oh, let me clarify now, there's two different kind of people
that have to live in these kind of woods.
That have to live in these woods.
There's those people who live in those camps you're gonna
see that are just rat traps.
Well, when he shoots my camp around, yeah, it looks
disorderly, but you'll see there's functions of where he's
starting to actually make a plot.
Me, Arthur.
And other people don't want to live that way, wouldn't
live that way.
'Cause they spend their money on drugs and booze.
And they'll never have any for that simple reason.
I have a plan, I'm going through all kinds of hardships
and about ready to give up, about ready to wish I had
a .44 Magnum, but...
Life don't afford me even that kind of damn break.
So I'm stuck out in these woods and I've been trying to
make a kitchen.
- [Interviewer] It's hard.
I just helped you with the cart.
- You ain't kidding.
And that's only one little thing.
- [Interviewer] And you're going off the road
and it sinks in the front and I had
to pull the front.
- And that's only one little thing.
Everything, everything that I do out here is the same
hardships.
- [Interviewer] And I couldn't imagine 'cause I only did it
one time and you do it
several times a day. - Every day. Right.
To get water, which you have to have, not just for drinking.
If you've got any sense, you still try to keep your clothes
clean.
And you still need water for cooking.
So at least every day, I gotta go down and get 15 gallons.
20 gallons of water a day.
Michael here has been helping me a heck of a lot.
I wish we could get that big pail, but a back bucket...
And if I had a bicycle, I'd probably got to Triam Park
and get a bath.
You know, a nice cool swim in God's creek.
But I can't even do that now.
Life don't even afford me that.
I'm stuck up here in the heat until the heat goes.
And then you freeze when winter comes in.
- [Interviewer] Well, I'm hoping you're gonna get out of
here before winter.
- Well, sir...
If the Lord be as it may, if the Lord sees it.
If not, I die here.
If I have to die here like the men, brave men that died
for their country or even the brave men that died
on the C.S.S. Hunley.
They died for a cause.
They were brave enough to do it, so if I have to die here
I die here.
- [Interviewer] Well, it's an honor to meet you.
- Well, it's an honor to meet you because you're doing
things to help people.
But please try and screen people.
If they're druggies, don't show no interest in education...
I mean that's how they can really clarify.
Because like Michael here, he sees the potential.
Because he says "Yeah, teach me German."
See, that's the difference.
A lot of these other people, they've been trying to get
some work for to cost me a company.
Maybe sometimes you can't pay a super amount of money, but
say to the person "Yeah, but you know what?
There's benefits.
I can teach you Italian or Spanish or German."
You know?
Have some initiative.
That to me is worth a heck of a lot more.
Anybody with common brains with you.
So if you're trying to help people, get the major thing
here.
You want to really screen 'em.
If they're druggies and alcoholics, only give 'em a minute
to crack to see if it's worth even helping.
- [Interviewer] Well, I believe everybody's worth helping.
I was one of them druggie alcoholics.
- Well, I can understand that, but you wouldn't do it now
would you?
- [Interviewer] Oh, I sure would.
- You sure would?
- [Interviewer] I believe everybody deserves grace.
But that's a different conversation.
Let's not go off on that.
If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- My mother and father and time.
- [Interviewer] Your mother and father and time.
- And time.
- [Interviewer] Wow.
I've never heard that one.
- Not money, time.
- [Interviewer] Well, Arthur, it was really
an honor to meet you.
- And my German Shepherd.
Send that over the wave, I need a female German Shepherd.
Young one, for a very cheap price.
- [Interviewer] Well, you have a marvelous day.
- Well, same to you, sir.
And God bless.