Mr. Craigett didn’t have any transportation. Someone would drive to his house about once a month, we assumed it was family or friends bringing him some food and supplies. He had a mailbox on the main road, and he would walk from his house about once a week, climb over the metal gate which was across the BLM Road, get his mail, climb back over the gate, and walk home. We told him on numerous occasions that the gate was not locked, he could just open it and walk through instead of climbing over, but for some reason he just kept climbing over it.

Mr. Craigett didn’t have a shower and he would occasionally take a “spit bath” using water in his pan in the house on his shelf with a wash rag. He would always wear two pairs of long underwear. He would buy a new pair once every six months and he would put that pair on next to his skin. The outer pair he would throw away and the old pair that had been next to his skin became the new outer pair. You could smell Mr. Craigett a long-time before you saw him. I remember thinking that it was kind of a cool smell, a tough man smell.

One time Mr. Craigett came to our house and asked if someone could please drive him to the hospital in town. He always carried an old army surplus 38 caliber pistol in his belt. While climbing over the gate the pistol went off and shot him in the butt. The bullet evidently went all the way through and didn’t hit any bone or anything vital but he was bleeding pretty good, but the two pairs of long underwear seemed to be acting as a good bandage. Mom took him to the hospital and then took him back to his house when they were done with him at the hospital. We all were anxious to hear how he was doing and we were waiting for Mom to give us the full story. She said his wound was going to be fine, but that on the 13-mile drive to the emergency room he kept fussing about his underwear, he was very angry that he had shot a hole through both pairs! Mom said that while she was waiting for him she went to a store and bought him a new pair of long underwear. He was very appreciative.

He did start opening the gate after that instead of climbing over.