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MRT Photo by James Durbin
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Special to the Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - Six weeks ago, Ryan O'Neal, a 27-year-old laid-off automotive worker in Athens, Ga., waited all night in the cold outside the doors of a Georgia truck stop hoping to find someone willing to give him a ride.
It wasn't until almost 5 a.m. when O'Neal, cold, frustrated and close to giving up, convinced a truck driver headed west to take him along.
Coincidentally, O'Neal was headed to Midland-Odessa, and the trucker -- who was hauling a section of an oil rig -- also was headed here. Five states, 1,200 miles and 24 hours later, the trucker dropped him off at the Wal-Mart at the Rankin Highway and Interstate 20.
He tossed his possessions -- a suitcase, bedroll and a Bible -- into a shopping cart and walked into the store. O'Neal said he never felt any lower in his life than on that day: In a strange town, looking for work and homeless. One after another, he approached shoppers asking if they knew where he could find work. And one after another, no one could help him.
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