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©
 BRUCE
HALE -- This Is Your Life!Song written by Joan Healy Gertrude Stein said, "A rose is a rose is a rose!" But poor Gertrude had never met Bellflower Bruce. A rose from Bruce is a special flower. This gentleman we how as Bruce was born in York, a tiny town on the extreme southern tip of Maine, which, even now has only 16,000 inhabitants. He went to a one-room schoolhouse which taught grades 1 through 9, and had only 13 student. He was fortunate enough to have a retired Harvard professor teaching him through seventh grade. Regarding his schooling, Bruce says, "I graduated in the top 30 of my class of 31." After high school, he attended Northeastern University in Boston. When General Electric offered students a  program
combining work and school, he jumped at the chance, and attended the
University of New Hampshire in Durham. On February 7, 1959, in a blinding snowstorm, with a mere $35 in his pocket, Bruce stood on a street corner and hitched a ride west,.heading for California. His first ride lasted as far as Decatur, Illinois, where he had a room at the YMCA, for $2 a night. He hit the road again, all his earthly possessions in a small suitcase with a sign on it proclaiming, ''California or Bust." He was picked up by two girls, who drove him to Tucson. Continuing on his journey through California, he was picked up by a State Highway Patrolman, who, after checking him out at the station to make sure he wasn't an escaped axe-murderer, compassionately offered to drive him to the scenic part of downtown Los Angeles, affectionately known as Skid Row, where he dropped Bruce at the Greyhound Bus Station. Bruce went to the coffee shop across the street, and began searching the want ads for a job. Having no money for housing, our resourceful Bruce built his own castle, in a blind alley behind the coffee shop, using boxes of wood and filling in with cardboard. He showered with a garden hose, also in the alley. When asked if he wasn't cold, since it was February, he said it felt like a tropical paradise after the 10" weather in snow-bound Boston. He immediately found work, and walked seven miles each.... >>> Booklet This text will
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