Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2010
It’s Christmas Day and Cardboard John is under the Hamilton Street bridge with neighbors Carwash Jonnie and Speedy. A few blocks away is the prison. On a clear night the whooping and calling of the prisoners sounds like a pack of wild dogs. Directly above them is a rescue mission that serves the homeless. Cardboard John isn’t homeless - he’s been under that bridge for 14 years. He refuses to use a tent. While he dreams, the demons will come and steal it away from him.
Instead, Cardboard John sleeps in a large box made with scraps of plywood he found along the train tracks. He filled the inside with stuffed animals, blankets, sweat pants, and garbage bags full of dry leaves. It looks like an oversized coffin - but atleast its a warm one.
John believes in spiritual balance - he smokes Nat Shermans with the filters ripped off, he quit drinking on Christian holidays, and he keeps an autographed picture of Jesus in his right sock. He has a coffee table by the river, and uses barbed wire for a laundry line. All these things have positive and negative effects on the bridge’s soul.
