the homeless

Today I saw a guy clutching a nice piece of cardboard that was carefully written upon with lettering that was consistently sized and spelled correctly. I gave him a dollar.

About 13 or 14 years back, I had some time to burn on the 4th of July. So I made up a sign. In smaller print on the edges of the sign I mentioned that I was NOT a Vietnam vet. I was employed currently and not looking to do any work that day. I had a home. And my health was good. In bold letters, centrally placed I put "NEED MONEY FOR BEER". I staked myself out on the Orem Center street exit of I-15 about a hundred feet from a guy that had his sign.......but really did need money for beer.

The most common thing was people would drive by without even looking at me. For hell's sake I'm holding a boldly lettered sign and waving. Feel free to draw any conclusions you wish.

The second most common response was rolling down the window and screaming things such as "Get a job you lazy bum!" I would point to the part of my sign that mentioned my employment status. It dind't seem to matter to them.

The third most common response was people dangling money outside of their windows. I would thank them naturally, but refused. I did request that they not give it to the guy downstream from me however.

Speaking of the guy downstream, he came up to me after about twenty minutes and told me to leave. I gently told him to go f**k himself and continued.

Over the course of two hours, I had tourist types take pictures with me. About three or four asked, "Aren't you my pharmacist?". And eventually the UHP did show up. The officer took my driver's license and issued a stern warning to me about how I was tresspassing (not true by the way), and didn't have the right to panhandle (also not true if I am not impeding traffic nor being aggressive) and how I was in a whole lot of trouble.

I suppose he ran my name for outstanding warrants or whatever the 'po-po' do. By the time he came back my name had changed to Mr. Loertscher. He asked if I was really a pharmacist and what I was doing. I explained how I had a few hours to burn before my mother-in-law's Fourth of July party and (since my sister-in-law was single) invited him to come. He had just started his shift and was working until after 10 pm so he declined.

And then I left.