This afternoon I went to a nearby gas station to pick up lunch for the guy I was working with and me. Park the truck, get out and make my way towards the front door. There was a man sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against the building, who said something to me. The only part that I caught was the "sir" that he put on the end of his sentence. So I stopped and listened for him to say more, but he didn't, so I continued on inside. As I was gathering the subs and filling our drinks, I figured that he'd said, "On your way back out, could you please help me with your change, sir." To me, this means, "I'm too lazy to get a job; I want your money."* I contemplated telling the employees at the gas station that they had some dude outside begging for money, but I decided against it. Since the thought of the man, what he'd said and what would probably happen once I went back outside preoccupied my mind, I took more time at getting things together than I would have normally (which only consisted of filling 2 cups, putting lids on them, and grabbing 2 wrapped subs plus 1 mustard & 1 manonaise packet). Since I had this extra thought time, I decided that the man would probably say something to me on my way out.
From that point, things would proceed in one of two directions. 1) Me, being the emotionally sensitive and emotionally guided person that I am (sarcasm), decided that I'd inform him of all of the employment opportunities that surrounded us (construction is booming in the area) and that all he had to do was get a job and he wouldn't need to ask other people for money. 2) He would attempt to rob me or take some type of hostile action and I would wind up pointing a gun at his head and be delayed in getting back to work because I had to file a police report.
So, I pay for my goods (which is a story in and of itself) and I make my way out. Yep, he's still sitting there. Due to noise from the traffic, I couldn't exactly make out what he was saying, so I just kept on going, trying to avoid a potential conflict. As I set the two cups on the truck (a bag would have been nice for the subs), so I could dig out the keys, I thought to myself, "I hope he isn't standing behind me when I turn around." I turn. Thankfully, he wasn't on top of me, but he was on his way towards me. Looks like Option #2 is the way we're going. I unlock the truck and toss the subs inside, preparing to show him the business end of a Glock (totally legal maneuver, liberals). He stops just on my side of the front of my truck and while holding up his hands (but below his waist) says he isn't going to do anything to me or the truck (if he only knew). I give him a shrug and say, "Okay." He slowly approaches and proceeds to tell me that he is hungry and presents the change that people have given him. It totaled about 85 cents**, just from a quick glance. I don't recall the exact path that our conversation took, but I definitely did not start out on the friendly foot. I asked him why he didn't just get a job and pointed to one of the six or seven tower cranes that were in the immediate area. Since I still wasn't sure of his intentions, I sat down in the truck, with the door open (shorter reach for defensive action). He proceeded to tell me some things about him and how he'd gotten to where he is today. As things went on, I had an Armageddon going on on the inside of me debating if I should give him anything or not. Earlier, shortly after he'd approached me, I noticed a wristband that he had. It was green (olive) and said "Support Our Troops". This scored a few brownie points. As we continued to talk, I found out he had been in the Navy for 8 years. This sealed the deal for me***. He wasn't even looking at me at this moment. I told him, "I'll tell you what, I like your wrist band," and I reached into my pocket and pulled out whatever I grabbed. It was a 5 dollar bill. I said, "Here's five dollars." We probably stood there and talked for at least another five minutes. As we went on, he once again told me that he was in the Navy for eight years. In quite some time, I haven't seen someone's face light up as much as his did when I told him that I was an Army guy. We stood and talked some more, with probably another three, four or five handshakes. Then, we went our separate ways.
What impressed me about him was that, on my way out, he didn't just sit there and talk towards me. He got up. He made an effort. There was action on his part. I really don't know if everything he told me was true. Honestly, I don't really care because five bucks isn't going to make or break me. My last instruction to him was to spend it wisely. If he doesn't follow through, that's his problem. I just hope what I did say made an impact on him. The more I look back on it, the more I'm glad I did give him something. I guess I do still have a heart, afterall.
Crispy
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*In my area, there are people who ask for money and appear to be unemployed/homeless. A news channel did a story on one of them a few years back. He pulls in over $50,000 a year. He drives a Mercedes. These people are usually the ones that stand by main intersections with a cardboard sign that says, "Will work for food". If you take note, there is generally a fairly nice car parked less than 100 yards away on the side of the road. You put the pieces together.
**I was struck by how cheap people are. If you're going to "help" someone, help them.
***Several years ago, when I was doing gas piping, I went to a man's apartment, that was the size of a closet, to replace a water heater. As we were working, I noticed he had a lot of Vietnam era newspaper clippings collected in one area. As we eventually found out, he was a veteran. We also met the landlord who tried to tell his man that he had to pay for the water heater, which was by no means true. The landlord was some kind of sleeze-ball punk who I wanted to jack with my crescent wrench from the second I saw him. He was ripping off, to put it lightly, this veteran for this old, dirty "apartment", some would call it, that was less than ten feet wide and about twenty feet long. I would say that was the turning point for me when I
truly started to care about veterans. It was a crime that his veteran had to live in that place.
