By: Pauline Millard Every community has those characters that no one really knows much about, besides that they skulk around town and no one really talks to them.
In Allentown, Pennsylvania that character is Earl. He lives under a bridge under the Lehigh Parkway, bothering no one and mostly keeping to himself.
The Allentown Morning Call decided to go under the bridge and
see what Earl was all about. It turns out that at age 66, he's been homeless for more than 25 years. He also has 11 brothers and sisters and is the product of an alcoholic father and a cigar-smoking mother. His unstable homelife eventually led him into foster care, he dropped out of high school after the ninth grade and lost his last job as a janitor.
Knowing Earl's backstory is one facet, but the Morning Call took it a step further and tracked down a brother and a sister of Earl's, who tell similar stories of growing up in foster care and a bizarre home life.
The story had been on the site since September 2007 but I like the local angle of it and the use of video, especially with Earl's siblings. It's a sad story, but interesting to see how each of the siblings turned out despite their rocky upbringing.
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