I found Clayton Holmes even though he’s still searching for himself.

I read the Jeff Pearlman’s article concerning Holmes on the ESPN website, like many people did in the Florence community. While I was impressed with the story, I wasn’t impressed by the author. I too went to look for Clayton Holmes, I camped out in front of his house for hours, and while I did see trash on the ground and in the neighbors’ yards. I didn’t see condoms, Budweiser bottles, or McDonald’s garbage littering the street. But I did see people more than willing to talk to me and willing to lend a hand. Clayton Holmes didn’t own a phone until a couple of days ago. So it made him a tough man to find. So I beat the street, I stopped off at the Piggly Wiggly and asked a bag boy if he had seen Clayton, then I talked to a gas station cashier, a man on a bike, and a guy named Fernando who wanted ten bucks upfront. I didn’t bother to pay him, but every where I went everyone was more than willing to try to point me in the right direction. After half the day of hitting the pavement, I ended up in front of a white house with an old pressed board crossing fence, surrounding a front porch that the screens had been ripped out of. Wood covered the windows as if the resident was ready for a category three hurricane. I rang the door bell and a full grown boxer awoke from her nap, but she didn’t bark. I waited to see if the downtrodden Super Bowl Champion would try to sneak a peak through the blinds that were missing blades and dangled diagonally in the window that a board had fallen out of. But no luck, I walked behind the house, and saw an electrical cord stemming out from the back door of the house, which ran to a fairly new double wide trailer. I knocked but no luck. I tried the double wide, no luck. So I left a note on the blue mini-van parked in the muddy drive way. I figured all hope was lost. But as I started to leave, neighbors came up to me. One man with a no trespassing sign glaring off the tree in the front of his yard told me, he would pass along a message to Clayton. Then a man sitting on the porch came up to me and pulled something shiny, black and metallic from his coat pocket, but it turned out to be binoculars. I asked him if he was looking for Clayton as well. He Said “Na Squirrels, I’ve got me some store rice and an onion, squirrel makes a good lunch.” I told him, I’ll have to try it. I grew up with my dad always telling me you should at least taste something once before making a determination.

That short couple of hours I took the time to look for Clayton Holmes summed up how I felt about Pearlman’s assessment of Florence. You have to experience something before you bash it. The lack of luck I was getting in my quest could be the same experience all the residents on Prout Drive received during majority of their lives. Or maybe they are just happy in life. See the difference between myself and the other guy is I listened to my interview subject. Yes, I did get a hold of Clayton that night with a phone call, we met the next day, and though he made some poor choices in life, he is an incredible guy. Who believes he’s en route to happiness once again. Holmes whole message about telling his life story to the nation was for people to be positive, to your kids, to your family, friends, and who ever you come across. As Clayton Holmes puts it,” positive encouragement breeds positive situations and better people and better surroundings.” Not bad for a guy supposedly lost it all, huh Jeff!

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