Main Street in Durham is on the Bull City Connector line, a free bus that runs from Golden Belt on the east side to the VA hospital on the west. So I meet a lot of veterans downtown as they wait for the bus to take them to their doctor’s appointments. Some of the veterans are not only homeless but physically sick, such as Reggie Best, whom I interviewed earlier this year. Others have mental issues, including PTSD.
Yesterday I saw a man at the bus stop through my office window, which is about 15 feet away. He had been talking to himself and passersby. Then he settled on the bench and took his shoes off. He told me he was a veteran, had just come back from the VA and that he had no job. While he liked his boots, they were a bit too tight and made his feet hurt, he said.
I asked his permission to photograph them. His two stocking feet, his two boots and his two bags of belongings.