Walter Scott III

I grew up in Pentwater a small tourist town on the Midwest shores of lake Michigan . I was next to the youngest child of a family of five . It was in a more innocent , and simple time of the 50's , and 60's ; much more different then today . In a town and time where people could leave their doors unlocked , and children could play free with now worries . The locals knew one another , and couldn't wait for summer to come and the excitement , and new faces it brought with it .

My family was special I thought ; due to the fact my grandfather Mr. Chan Sayers owned , and operated his a Sinclair gas station , that included a marina , grocery store , and laundry mat for the boaters . Yes at times it would make our family feel like town royalty to be the center of a special family operation ; where we all took a part in daily operations . I remember my first job was separating the pop bottles ; while the rest of the family did their respected chores , and my grandfather held the reins from the main hub of the gas station .

Yes life was grand growing up in such beautiful , rustic shore side community ; where the winters were isolated , sometimes hard , but with the summers came new excitement and sunny days . It was of course the time way before technology of today with computers ; a time when kids use to play outside and having an imagination was an everyday adventure . My imagination became extra important in my developing years to come ; due to the fact I became a target to bulling from my peers . You see I developed a lazy eye ; which became a perfect target for my classmates .

So growing up , and school became very hard on me ; between the everyday taunts at school , and the lack of friends I learned to depend on my imagination for survival . This is were my writing skills were developed in those isolated , and sometimes scary times . I use to spend hours alone in my bedroom listening to the latest hits on either the radio , or on my eldest sisters ( I had three , two older , then little sis , and a elder brother ) record player . I'd sing along at a very young age , and imagine being that performer ; sometimes even with the help of two of my sisters form an imaginary band and sing along .

I took it too a whole new level in my teens and began writing my own lyrics ; which seem to come easy to me with the practice writing poems in school years earlier .

I continued to write poems and songs through my youth creating an impressive collection of works ; even making a few failed attempts at submitting my songs to so called publishers of the time ( Scams ) . After graduation a gave up my writing a became a bit lost between young heartaches , and struggling with my self identity ; things took a toll on me . So my answer was to hitchhike across the country for a few years , a bit loss I might say ; to find myself while at the same time running from the hurt inside . Let's just say those years were easy ones , but were filled with adventure and a story to tell ; which brings me here to my first publication ( Hitchhiking With An Angel ) .

In this story it takes the reader on my last adventure in 1978 ; where I embark on my voyage from my home town in Michigan to the far west cost Washington State . This one of the very few times that I decided to hitchhike alone , and with no clear sane planning behind me . Little did I know at the time I was suffering from manic depression for a couple years prior , and this would be my last voyage till my big fall . While on this voyage hiking through the Cascade mountains I met up with a fellow hitchhiker ; that I would later come to believe was my guardian angel . He went by the name of Jeff Price and guided me home to Pentwater , and this story tells of that adventure .