By TANYA EISERER / Abilene Reporter-NewsThe Bubble Man: He lives in a cardboard box, but he's not your typical transient.
By TANYA EISERER / Abilene Reporter-News
Photo by Gerald Ewing
Phil Bray, an itinerant toy inventor known as the "Bubble Man," calls his life just one long picnic.
Bray, 48, who lives in a cardboard box near a local discount store, does not fit the typical homeless person stereotype. He's not an alcoholic, nor does he seem to be mentally ill.
"Abraham Lincoln was wandering for a while and so was Bob Dylan," he said, explaining his lifestyle. "Jesus was another one, too. Persistence is really the No. 1 key."
Bray, who hitchhiked from San Antonio, landed in Abilene about three weeks ago and stayed at the Salvation Army for two days. He didn't like it.
"It's like wallowing into a swamp of negativity," he said of the other transients at the Salvation Army.
He promptly found a cardboard box that he made into his home.
"I'm camping," Bray said. "Cardboard boxes are just homeless camouflage. If you see a tent, it would strike you as being out of place, and you might want to check it out."
His current home is "prime property," he quipped. "Beautiful. Near schools. Convenient to shopping. The real estate agent didn't tell me about the mosquitoes, however."
Unlike other homeless people, Bray bathes regularly and doesn't allow his personal hygiene to deteriorate. He also avoids other transients, he said.
"I'm not typical of homeless people at all," Bray said. "I've never met any of them that suffered from too much education."
A wanderer
After graduating from a South African university with a degree in chemistry, Bray lived in England for several years before coming to the United States to work.
"I grew up in a big white house with about 12 rooms, a swimming pool and servants. But I don't care," he said.
Before taking to the road in the late 1980s after a divorce, he lived the high life, working in an oil refinery in Los Angeles.
"At the time, I lived in a nice apartment at Manhattan Beach. I had my nice new Firebird and a wife," he said.
But he shucked it all to try to make a go as an inventor, Bray said.
"A lot of people who live in a house would love to have the strength and health I've got," he said. "Most of them are making themselves sick by working too much."
Since hitting the road, he has traveled the country hawking his homemade bubble toy, giving demonstrations and explaining the scientific principles involved in bubble-making.
Speaking with the lilting accent of his native South Africa, Bray demonstrates how to make a swirling bubble inside a bubble known as the tornado bubble. He also performs what he calls "the incredible square bubble" and various other tricks.
"Most of the stuff I come up with is kind of useless, but it's pretty,"
he said.