It occurred to me the other day while on my way to work that I should probably write about the things I see around me in my day-to-day business. I decided while getting off the train that the first interesting thing I saw, I would write about. Unfortunately, the first thing I saw was a homeless man.
For the past two years, every morning I pass by a guy sitting outside the train station I exit. He sits right outside the two doors that enter and exit. He sits on a plastic milk crate and tells everyone entering the train, “Hi, how are you this morning?” Most people either ignore him or smile at him with that, “I have to force this smile because I really don’t want to smile at this guy” smile. Over time, some people have gotten to know him and talk to him a little. They even give him some change or a cigarette. I would never give a homeless person money as I believe from past experience, they will use it for booze or something other than food. But, people give what they wish out of the kindness of their hearts.
This homeless gentleman doesn’t harm anyone and most people don’t seem to mind him being there. He is in a small class that I call the “happy homeless.” The kind that people can seem to deal with. He isn’t offensive. Doesn’t smell bad. Doesn’t take up three seats while sleeping in a train car during rush hour etc. There are the “unhappy homeless” that I’d like to talk a little about if I may. I’ll begin by telling you a couple of experiences that I have had with the unhappy homeless.
I had taken a promotion at my job, but had to work the night shift. I was going to eat lunch with my buddy Joe. We were in lower Manhattan and at that time of night, not much was open to get something to eat. We found this 24 hour place that served everything. We went to the counter and ordered something. I wasn’t all that hungry, so I ordered a donut and a coffee. The guy behind the counter gave me the donut and went to prepare my coffee. I put the donut down on the table we chose to sit at and went back to the counter for my coffee. My buddy had his tray ready with his food and I got my coffee and we turned to go to the table.
As we walked to the table we both stopped in our tracks. Seems there was a homeless guy eating my donut! My buddy told me to break the guys fingers because the guy had some nerve to eat my donut. “Yeah Joe, I’ll go take care of this guy right now!” I told him. I walked over to the table and the guy looked at me with a bit of fear in his eyes and donut all over his face from trying to scoff it down quickly. I looked him square in the eyes and said, “Sir, would you like coffee with that donut?” He shook his head yes in happiness and I can only imagine, relief.
I put the coffee down on the table next to the donut wrapper and told him to enjoy. I walked back to the counter as my buddy said, “What the f*ck are you doing man?” I told the counter guy that I wanted a large ham and cheese sandwich with everything on it. My buddy said, “You know Bobby, that dirty bastard had no right to just eat your donut!” To which I replied, “No Joe, I have no right to watch this guy go hungry!” Joe cursed as he walked out of the place. I took the sandwich and brought it over to the guy and asked him if he wanted anything else. The guy shook his head no and appeared to say thank you with his eyes. Maybe he couldn’t talk, I don’t know, but I understood anyway.
I finally caught up to my buddy and told him how fortunate he was and that it would never kill him to feed someone who was hungry He gave me the usual non-sense about how homeless smelled bla bla bla. I just remember thinking how much this world needs to change.
I used to ride the same train route a few years ago that had this young guy limping from car to car and asking people for money. He had a foot that was turned sideways and would drag it along as he begged for money from passengers. If someone didn’t give him money he would look at him or her as though they were shit. He never asked me if I had money though. I guess the reason was because I had a look on my face like I was going to kick the shit out of him. Kind of a nasty frown with a really hard stare! Why? Let me explain.
I had seen this same guy one day in the neighborhood walking around just as well as anyone else. This was after I had seen him with his “Hurt leg” routine on the trains. Faking bastard! Also, one day while he was asking people for money, one guy had told him that he didn’t have any money on him. The faker argued with the passenger for a while, believe that? Then the faker limped away cursing the passenger. The doors opened and the faker turned around and spit on the passengers back. You can’t make this stuff up!
There is any number of reliable homeless organizations that we can donate to. Or, even feed the unfortunate when we come across them. I would hope that we all do our part if we can.
There are more experiences and stories about homeless in NYC. Maybe I’ll touch on them again in the future. For now though…
Peace!