MEMOIR OF A HOMELESS BOY Everything we owned fit in a suitcase. Sometimes we slept on the side of the road. Sometimes we begged for food. This is the true story about me and my family during the Great Depression and the years following. At the age of five, I hadn't yet realized how Mom and Dad were struggling to keep the family together. My mother died when I was seven. Dad and I were living in a car when I was put into a boy's detention center because I didn't have a home. At nine I was placed in an orphanage. After Dad died I was adopted in Arizona. I was twelve. Then again, at age sixteen I had Nowhere to Call Home.About the Author: Elvin Rasberry Nowak was born in Eight Mile, Alabama - just outside Mobile, in 1932. He was the youngest child in the family. His parents had more children than Elvin met, some passed away at birth, others left home when he was too young to remember much about them. He and his two sisters grew up together living in ramshackle conditions when they weren't living out of a car. After his mother passed and his father was unable to care for him properly, Elvin spent some time living at the Wilmer Hall orphanage in Mobile. Wilmer Hall is still in operation today. Elvin has many fond memories of the children he lived with and has included some photos of them in his book. After Elvin's father passed away he was adopted by the Nowak family. He lived with the Nowaks for about four years before a falling out left him homeless and fending for himself once again. As a young man, Elvin served in both the US Airforce and the Army. He was a soldier in the Korean war. Elvin married his wife Shirley after his discharge from the Army and they had a son named Bill in 1962. Elvin and Shirley have lived a happy family life raising their son in Phoenix, Arizona. They still reside there today. Bill and his wife, Donna, live in Spokane, Washington. Bill and Donna do not have any children.