Street Sage Roger Lavallee

If you're downtown on a Monday you'll see Roger Lavallee. He's the 64 year old tall thin man wearing a blue backpack and carrying hand held barbells. Maybe like most of us you've seen him for years. I think Roger is an inspiring man. I call him the street sage. His words speak for themselves.

People know me as the barbell guy because I'm always carrying these when I'm out walking. People think I live in Woonsocket but I live in Manville, in Lincoln and I walk to work on the bike path every day even on my day off. I walk three and a half miles each way, seven miles a day, along with 8 hours on my feet. If I miss a day of exercise, I don't worry about it. I just begin again the next day. I strive for practice not perfection.

There's a man who buys me new sneakers because he sees me walking every day. There are people I've never met who stop and give me a lift. I accept, not wanting to hurt their feelings and give my feet a rest.

I gave up drinking because I'm an alcoholic. I gave up smoking which was the hardest thing I've ever done. I did it cold turkey. Then I cut back on coffee from 25 cups a day to 2-3 cups a day. I was drinking coffee to replace the drink.

I've been to the white house many times when Jimmy Carter was President. I was in the military and he was my boss. This was before terrorism when I could walk right in, in my military uniform. I've seen the blue room the green room, the red room but not the yellow room. May 21 is my 35 year anniversary of working as a prep-cook at Chelo's. My benefits are grandfathered in. People hired today don't get what I have. Next year I'll retire.

Everything I do, I do it to the extreme. But we change as we get older. I used to make fun of my mother drinking tea before bed. Guess what? Now I drink tea before bed. If she could see me now, she'd say I told you so. I wake up at 2:30 every morning but I am asleep at 8:30 every night.

The most important thing is to be kind to everyone.