SCRATCH BEGINNINGS: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream By: Adam Shepard

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb 24, 2009 -
SCRATCH BEGINNINGS: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream (Collins;  0061714364; $19.95; October 2008) is a spirited and inspiring memoir in which the author, in a sort of “anti-NICKEL AND DIMED” experiment to see if the American Dream is still viable, gets off a train in Charleston, SC, and spends 70 days in a homeless shelter, with the goal of having $2,500, a car, and a place to live by the end of a year.
SCRATCH BEGINNINGS is recent college graduate Adam Shepard’s personal response to famous works of investigative journalism like Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. Shepard-- who is the first to admit that he has advantages that many of the working poor do not--upon graduating from college, disillusioned with the apathy he saw all around him, decided to conduct his own social experiment. Starting truly from scratch in Charleston, South Carolina, with $25 and the clothes on his back, he lived in a homeless shelter while looking for work. His goal -- to save $2,500, buy a car, and to live in a furnished apartment within a year. Along the way, he runs into more challenges than he ever could have envisioned. Working for criminally low wages for the labor company “Easy Labor”, selling plasma, and sweet-talking his way into moving furniture for a moving company, Shepard befriends many men and women in similar financial predicaments, but with fewer options than he. Ultimately, Shepard is able to learn that the key to success is in his own mind and that only he has ability to change his life.
   Earnest, passionate, and hard-to-put-down, SCRATCH BEGINNINGS is a story that not only will inspire readers, but also remind them that success can come to anyone who is willing to work hard--and that America is still one of the most hopeful and inspiring countries in the world.
   In Shepard’s own words, “Mine is the story of rags-to-fancier-rags. I’m not an extraordinary person performing extraordinary feats. I don’t have some special talent that I can use to ‘wow’ prospective employers. I’m average. My story is very basic, simple. My story is about the attitude of success. My goal is to better my lot and to provide a stepping-stone over the next 365 days for everything else I want to accomplish in my life. I aim to find out if the American Dream is still alive, or if it has, in fact, been drowned out by the greed of the upper class coupled with the apathy of the lower class.”