I can't open text files

As has been endlessly talked about (and documented), Lion does not provide Rosetta. PowerPC application support is at an end.

You need at least Office 2008 if you are going to run Lion. Otherwise your choices are to either downgrade back to your previous OS, or replace Office with something like OpenOffice/LibreOffice.

Lion does not support old PowerPC applications. Your version of Office, I'm guessing, is Office 2004, which is a set of PowerPC applications. You'll need to upgrade Office to version 2011. I'm guessing the app you're trying to open text files with is also incompatible. Use the copy of TextEdit that came with Lion, or update to a newer third-party editor.

The program I'm trying to use to open my text files is the standard Apple TextEdit that comes with the OS. Which is what the text files were created with in Snow Lep. Yet it still crashes.

Hmm, that's very odd. Did you by any chance transfer an older version of TextEdit over from your previous installation? Make sure that you're opening the copy that was installed with Lion. My version of TextEdit is 1.7, what does yours say?

As far as the office files go, yes, my copy of office is an old one.

Is there a free prgram I can use the would be compatible?

Several, yes. OpenOffice, NeoOffice or LibreOffice are all free alternatives, though none will be exactly equivalent to MS Office.