Customer Spotlight: Thomas Johnston

"My son is the one who introduced me to Meals on Wheels. I had nothing when I came here, no car, and I’ve had two cataract surgeries, so I really needed the assistance. It sure does eliminate a lot of individual cooking and preparation and it sort of fills a gap in my food process. Probably the variety too is quite important, and yesterday there was some pumpkin pie which I enjoyed. If I can’t eat all of one meal then there’s the next one I can look forward to. I was kidding to my son and daughter-in-law that I’ve gone back in time because now I’m on junior food!

This isn’t really a living room or dining room, it’s also a workshop, all kinds of those things. This is kind of a mess because I just moved here and I’m still unloading. I’ve got forty xerox type boxes in the basement I have to go through this weekend. I’ve lived in places like Michigan and the east coast and so each time I moved and sold my house some of the stuff came to my son here in Idaho. And so when I got here I had all that brought in.

I gave my deliverer an assignment: I need a literary agent or editor for a publisher. I’ve got two books that I’ve been writing. The first one I hope to find someone that could help me get them printed, a group of stories that reflect my adventures growing up in Idaho along the Black River and the canyons, power plants, dams, and mountains. Ranging from that to being an electrician on a snorkel submarine."

“How would you feel if someone put snow inside your underwear? Especially if you happened to be eleven year old boy and it was put there by, of all people, a girl. While you were wearing it! I learned the answer to that question on a snowy afternoon in December of 1939.”

-Thomas Johnston, Metro Meals on Wheels customer

Special thanks to the students at Boise State University for interviewing Thomas.