Sunday, February 13, 2005
My new friend Bum Larry
Hi! It's Sunday. I'm taking a "day off". Yesterday I did as much school work as I'ld done all week I think and today I devoted to going to church (yes, I'm "one of those"), getting a workout in, reading some outside interest books, and just a whole lot of relaxing. There's something great about waking up in the morning and saying "today I'm going to spend relaxing" - it renews you so you can carry on with new stamina.
Yesterday I got a really nice, big, expensive looking fruit basket from two of my aunts for valentine's day. I love fruit. It's vegetable's good tasting cousin.
Do any of you know that song Maybe She's an Angel by Tommy Shane Steiner? Friday night I had supper with a bum. I was downtown when this decrepit looking fellow asked me (after knocking on my car window) for "about half a quarter so he could get something to eat". I haven't really lived in a big city enough to have a formal policy about bums, but let's just say I have a pretty soft heart. Unfortunately for this guy I decided to lie to him and tell him I had no money, then I drove off and left him standing in the intersection. Less than one block down Regent street I decided I'ld been too harsh with my new transient friend. Perhaps he hadn't actually eaten yet that day. Perhaps he was too hammered to know if he had eaten or not. Perhaps this was my chance to meet a new person and learn something about life on the street.
I turned around and parked the car in a discrete location so he wouldn't see me sneaking up on him and then I found him bumming change from a bunch of college students at the bustop waiting for their ride home. I got him to come to Quizno's with me for a sub (because after all, toasted sandwiches really do taste great) and a coffee. He wouldn't tell me his name, and actually offered to forego the free sandwich in exchange for not telling me it, so I call him Bum Larry. Larry told me he was 52 years old and he had grown up in foster homes and that nobody ever really took a good liking to him and when he turned 18 it was pretty much like see you later sucker. He referred to his residence as "outside" and insisted that it wasn't a bad place and that he liked it. I got feeling like a big brave man so I demanded that he show me the contents of his backpack. My friend Bum Larry turned out to be the proud owner of:
1 Can of Beer
1 Miniature bottle of Rum
1 Book of Matches
1 Flashlight
1 Bottle of Coca-Cola
1 Jar of sauerkraut, referred to as his "grub" which he was proud enough of to open up and eat two finger fulls of in front of me.
After smelling Larry's sauerkraut I decided to try to give something to this person. I made a deal with him that if he stayed put for ten minutes and finished his sub I'ld go to the store and get him some more "grub" to put in his backpack. He agreed so I ran as fast as I could to Sobey's and got some subs from the Deli and a couple boxes of granola bars. When I returned Larry had vanished, and hadn't even finished his sub or wrapped it up for later.
I don't know if my hard questions like "So why are you downtown asking for money man?" and "Do you drink a lot?" offended Larry, or if he was embarrassed to need food from a snot nosed punk kid (after all, if you don't know me I am reasonably annoying to look at) or if he was too drunk or stoned or mentally handicapped (most likely a combination of numbers one and three, I would say) to remember that food was on it's way. I walked around down town for a half hour looking for him but I never found him.
Meeting Larry was an eye opener for me. There really are people living out there who don't own much more than what fits in a backpack. They probably suffer in deep ways that most of us will never know (When I asked Larry what he had done all day he said "Just being me. And sometimes I hate being me" and he meant it. I could tell.). I have no clue how to stop homelessness. I believe we will always have "haves" and "have nots". I'm not sure what makes you either, but I guess if I knew the list of instructions for changing a "have not" into a "have" I'ld be doing something to help other people find out.
I hope this is not the last time I get to meet a homeless person, it was an eyeopener.
Yesterday I got a really nice, big, expensive looking fruit basket from two of my aunts for valentine's day. I love fruit. It's vegetable's good tasting cousin.
Do any of you know that song Maybe She's an Angel by Tommy Shane Steiner? Friday night I had supper with a bum. I was downtown when this decrepit looking fellow asked me (after knocking on my car window) for "about half a quarter so he could get something to eat". I haven't really lived in a big city enough to have a formal policy about bums, but let's just say I have a pretty soft heart. Unfortunately for this guy I decided to lie to him and tell him I had no money, then I drove off and left him standing in the intersection. Less than one block down Regent street I decided I'ld been too harsh with my new transient friend. Perhaps he hadn't actually eaten yet that day. Perhaps he was too hammered to know if he had eaten or not. Perhaps this was my chance to meet a new person and learn something about life on the street.
I turned around and parked the car in a discrete location so he wouldn't see me sneaking up on him and then I found him bumming change from a bunch of college students at the bustop waiting for their ride home. I got him to come to Quizno's with me for a sub (because after all, toasted sandwiches really do taste great) and a coffee. He wouldn't tell me his name, and actually offered to forego the free sandwich in exchange for not telling me it, so I call him Bum Larry. Larry told me he was 52 years old and he had grown up in foster homes and that nobody ever really took a good liking to him and when he turned 18 it was pretty much like see you later sucker. He referred to his residence as "outside" and insisted that it wasn't a bad place and that he liked it. I got feeling like a big brave man so I demanded that he show me the contents of his backpack. My friend Bum Larry turned out to be the proud owner of:
1 Can of Beer
1 Miniature bottle of Rum
1 Book of Matches
1 Flashlight
1 Bottle of Coca-Cola
1 Jar of sauerkraut, referred to as his "grub" which he was proud enough of to open up and eat two finger fulls of in front of me.
After smelling Larry's sauerkraut I decided to try to give something to this person. I made a deal with him that if he stayed put for ten minutes and finished his sub I'ld go to the store and get him some more "grub" to put in his backpack. He agreed so I ran as fast as I could to Sobey's and got some subs from the Deli and a couple boxes of granola bars. When I returned Larry had vanished, and hadn't even finished his sub or wrapped it up for later.
I don't know if my hard questions like "So why are you downtown asking for money man?" and "Do you drink a lot?" offended Larry, or if he was embarrassed to need food from a snot nosed punk kid (after all, if you don't know me I am reasonably annoying to look at) or if he was too drunk or stoned or mentally handicapped (most likely a combination of numbers one and three, I would say) to remember that food was on it's way. I walked around down town for a half hour looking for him but I never found him.
Meeting Larry was an eye opener for me. There really are people living out there who don't own much more than what fits in a backpack. They probably suffer in deep ways that most of us will never know (When I asked Larry what he had done all day he said "Just being me. And sometimes I hate being me" and he meant it. I could tell.). I have no clue how to stop homelessness. I believe we will always have "haves" and "have nots". I'm not sure what makes you either, but I guess if I knew the list of instructions for changing a "have not" into a "have" I'ld be doing something to help other people find out.
I hope this is not the last time I get to meet a homeless person, it was an eyeopener.
# posted by Sam Arsenault @ 9:13 AM 
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