A Grateful Life: The life story of a husband, father, and taco loving dead head

Having just missed his parents wedding by weeks, Tom Powell Jr was about to start off life at a serious disadvantage. The unwanted byproduct of a one-night stand, he began life in an untenable position that only became worse. After overcoming child abuse at the hands of his mother, becoming a child of divorce, and eventually dropping out of high school, Tom began to learn his own way through life while living on the road. First while working for a carnival, and then following The Grateful Dead, he would eventually spend four years of his life living in a tent while hitchhiking across the country in an attempt to find his way in the world. He would eventually be forced from the nomadic lifestyle by the death of the leader of The Grateful dead, Jerry Garcia, which led him into the waiting arms of the landscape industry, and his eventually wife, Renee. After over two decades in his chosen field, and just when life seemed to be going smoothly, he would face another challenge...taking care of his father in the last years of his life. From an inauspicious beginning, to a life on the road, he would eventually overcome it all to find success and an early retirement at the age of forty-five. He now finds himself re-inventing who he is as he enters his middle age years, waiting to see what path he is led down next. ‘ This book is his life’s story. It will make you laugh at times, and at times it will turn your stomach. Parts of this book will remind you of your own family, while harkening you back to the old neighborhood and those times when family would always gather together every weekend. So, sit back and enjoy the rather odd life of one aging hippie. Peace. Love. Tacos.