Folks Of Interest Hot Rods and the homeless.

one of my adopted daughters used to hang out at a freeway off ramp with a sign asking for money. Yes, she was homeless, yes it was by her choice, and yes, the money she got went for heroin. Last I heard, she had cleaned herself up, but we don't have any kind of relationship at all. (long story).........

 

I have a hard time with the homeless thing. I am sympathetic towards those who are just truly in a hard spot, that I have no problem with. Portland though has a huge number of the other type of homeless-those there because they chose to be. These are the younger "homeless" kids that while perfectly able bodied and capable, choose to live on the streets and abuse drugs and alcohol, as a statement. It's incredibly annoying to be aggressively shaken down for cash and cussed at when you politely decline. And don't get me going about how every one of these gutter punk homeless kids seems to have at least one puppy with them at all times. Can't afford to feed themselves (by choice) and they need pets?

I own a bar in downtown Portland and in the summer my patrons can hardly go outside for a smoke without having some kind of unpleasant encounter with a street kid. Is this just a Portland thing?

Sorry for the tangent. Like I said, I am sympathetic in the cases where the people have actually fallen on hard times, and I do give them money when Im asked, because I can understand where they're coming from.

 

it's taken three months to get the interviews.... i'm a "burden on society" right now, too, since i'm on UI. we've been fortunate this winter not to be too stressed for heating bills, etc....

i had a long talk with myself about the type of work i do for a living.... and i'm not trying to be funny; i'm trying to show how serious i am about a quantum shift in my thinking. nobody wants a fifty year old grayhair these days.... and i'm not sure about working around snotnosed kids. we do what we have to, eventually; so if it's snotnosed kids, so be it.

 

Unfortunately we live in an "education over experience and skill" society.

What is it that you do by the way?

 

Wow, didn't expect the thread to go this far, but in these times, it does touch some people. I was just tossing out an observation, but as someone stated, there but for the grace of God go I. A lot of these guys are cast aways from bad economics through no fault of thier own. Who's to say what life will toss at me and I find myself in thier shoes. So, I do take the time to chat when I can. Maybe they were mechanics or assemblyline workers or maybe even former shop owners. They're usually thankful for the moment. And it's not because I feel sorry for them. It's because they're fellow human beings and deserve that little bit of respect.

As for you guys who say you're a burden.... when you were working you paid taxes and it went to UI, so you earned that and shouldn't feel bad about it.

 

I'm one car away from my wife making me homeless-----

 

Lol nice

 

bonez... those are some nice rides you guys have.

 

Amen to that Brotha!

 

They are homeless, not idiots. You may be surprised who is found out there, we would often find Vets who "needed to get away and get my head clear", we got them to VA facilities for basics and helped them to do what they wanted to do, not what everyone else wanted them to do. I won't give money as others say they do, but will buy a meal or two, get some groceries (no alcohol) and have been know to rent a motel room once or twice, espcially if kids involved.

 

I have had the same experience as you tfeverfred. In Daytona a couple of old guys hangin outside a convenience store told me "nice 33 chevy" . I usually get the "cool a-model" or "neat 32 ford". Rare enough that anyone can tell my junk is a chevy much less getting the year right. Crazy Eddie is a local that has excellent long term memory and knows everything about old cars. However, he has no short term memory. Sad but he is still a cool old dude to talk to. peace

 

I help when I can. If they are begging for money out of choice rather than out of necessity, it will come back to bite them one day in some form or another. I can survive without the few bucks, and god only knows what could happen in the future.

 

Around here there is so much help for people that many people drop out of the work force and become "homeless' as an early retirement option. I've had more than one employee do it. The charities put up with these fakers because they need to fill shelters to get grant money and keep their jobs. There's a whole false economy being built around the poor and "homeless". As a matter of fact I had a helper out today because he's applying for a low income (brand new townhouse) place. He makes $10 an hour and has refused to make the next step up. I told him that all he had to do was start his tool collection with one pair of Channel Locks and he'd get a dollar an hour raise. But he won't do it. He's not stupid. He just doesn't want any responsibility. Sooner or later he'll be full time homeless.

 

I absolutely agree! Been a paycheck away from homeless more than once in my life and actually lived in the back of my '70 340 Duster for a couple of weeks back in the late '70s. In between apartments and paychecks, all I could afford was gas to get to work and the cheapest food I could find at the store. Talk about a lesson in life!
About ten years ago I was working on a diesel generator in downtown San Francisco in a pretty rough area. There were several "shelters" made of scrap cardboard and plastic on the other side of the parking lot. When I started the generator up an old fella climbed out of one and asked me if it was a Detroit Diesel. When I said yes he said "Thought so, they have their own sound". We then had a cool conversation about the merits of 2 stroke versus 4 stroke diesels and he was quite knowledgeable.
Turned out he was a Nam vet who'd been a diesel mechanic in the Army. Life had temporarily gotten the best of him and he was homeless until he could get back on his feet, but he was determined to do it on his own. I have no doubt he did.

 

I am always curious to peoples stories and why and how they are in that spot in life.

We were out riding motorcycles, stopped at an art gallery, we were crossing the street as I was lighting a smoke, when we got to the other side, there was a fairly grubby homeless guy standing there.
He asked me if he could buy a smoke,holds out his hand with very little change in it.
I said,tell you what,I'll give you a smoke for every answer you tell me.
He looks kind of confused, kind of chuckles and say's ok.
I asked him what kind of work he did?
Construction
How long since he worked?
7 years
What caused him to stop working?
Back injury
How long had he been without a home?
5 years
Were his parents still alive?
He thought so, but he hadn't talked with them in many years,
and they live somewhere else.
Do you have any children?
Something changed in him, he thanked me for the smokes and turned and walked away.

I wish I didn't ask him that last question.

 

When i first started working for the my current job 6 years ago i drove a primered 81 el camino with a 406 to Washington DC and back to the Frederick area everyday. Just the trip cost me $20 a day and knowone understood my love for my old car and i didnt fit in with my coworkers or the people there except for one guy. It was an old homeless guy that bummed change out front and had a prepaid phone just to be able to talk to what family he had left out of town when he could get the money together. He would sleep on the bench out back where we parked because there was an electrical plug on the building and pan handled out front. In the cold times i would get two bowls of chili from the shop on the corner and sit with him and talk cars and all the snobs would pass by and stare but he was a good man that had been more places in his day with the military like Vietnam and allover Europe. He experienced many lives worth of advetures and i always treasure the time i spent with him. We all could be there tomorrow.

 

Of the homeless I've know personally and known well:

1. Talented hard working plumber. Gradually downsized living quarters in favor of more drink and less work. Last know address: Under a bridge in Daytona. Saw him at Bike Week some years back and he was too drunk to recognize me or anyone else.
2. Hard working helper. Got two DWIs in a week for a total of three. Lost license. Lost job. He found that begging at intersections was easier and more liesurely than work.
3. Talented plumber. Decided to play homeless as an early retirement plan. Drove my service truck to the shelter (Nice new hotel) for over a year. Refused overtime. Eventually he cut his own hours back until a take home truck wasn't practical for me to supply. Became full time homeless.
4. Talented plumber. Very smart. He was holding down a 40 hour week but living (sneaking in) in apartment boiler rooms (warm) because he'd drink his rent money. He was eventually beaten half to death by street punks and became brain damaged and really disabled.
5. Talented equipment operator. Didn't like responsibility. Didn't drink or do drugs but didn't like getting out of bed at a given time. Found the homeless life easier.
6. Semi homeless. Had an old skinny chevy van. Lived in it and made a few bucks here and there tuning CB radios during the CB craze.

 

It's a warning not to spend too much money on these cars!

 

Especially when yours doesn't have a roof to sleep under Groovy.

 

It's uncanny how interested the homeless are in hot rods. I always get at least a thumbs up if not a comment or question by the cats on the median slinging newspapers and pan handling. Once this old dude says "It's steel right"? I said yes Sir. Then he squints his eyes and nods his head in approval and says "Right On". I just about pissed laughing, I guess the old boy did not like fiberglass cars. Hilarious!

 

Yeah I bought my brother out of our parents home for 309,000 and gave him my grand mas DeSoto after I restored it when he showed interest. He spent every dime on eBay on MOPAR stuff and ended up jumping off a bridge broke - watch your people

 

Great story! Thanks for sharing that on here.

I had a run-in with the homeless last month in Oklahoma City. This black guy dressed in dirty stretched out clothes walked up to me at a gas pump and was asking for money but I gave him a hard time, pretending to not understand him (I'm deaf) but he persisted. He eventually won me over just being himself and was pretty cool and patient about my deafness. I even taught him a couple signs because he kept asking what the signs were for "Thank you." and "I like it!" when he noticed my OT daily driver ('07 Ford CVPI ex-cop car). I gave him a couple bucks but now that I look back on it, I wish I'd given him a bit more. Seemed like a nice guy that fell on hard times himself and the area he walked from didn't exactly look friendly.

Funny thing is every guy at that gas station were looking at him in a judgmental way. He was a pretty decent guy.

 

The homeless guys that live down the railroad tracks behind the shop are our night security. They keep out the other undesireable homeless guys and pick up a little. We help them out when we can, food, etc. they never ask us for anything.

 

Most are bullshitters with the gift of gab..........

 

Sounds like some of the HAMB. Or politicians. Or 'fake' pastors. Or sales reps. Ect.

 

Some of you fellas seem to get it, some of you just never will, and that's okay...

 

Interesting article in NYT today, about how more government help is going to the middle class than to the poor these days. Yeah there are scammers, always have been and always will be, but you can't toss the baby out with the bath water. lots of folks hurting nowdays. One local school in NH sends kids home with knapsacks of food on Friday after school to prevent kids from going hungry over the weekend. And how about those grunts coming out of Afghanistan this year? My grandson, two tours in the Helmud Valley, now will be discharged in May, to what future? Running on adrenalin over there, shooting and shot at, comes back to a no-job future? And they say there may be 100,000 troops downsized by Panetta soon, another wave of guys into the tight job market. I dunno, could be you or me, 'course at almost 70 I am too old to work anyplace but 7-11 backshift. All this thread does is to highlight the homeless are no different than the rest of us, the cosmic dice just rolled snake eyes on them.

 

Phil Ochs said it best:

Show me an alley, show me a train
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain

And I'll show you a young man
With so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I

trakrodstr

 

In talking with most of the homeless guys around here, Half are shithouse crazy, most will admit it, most just like to drink.....and will admit it. the others just like living however they want to, by their own rules. There is a HUGE homeless community near our shop, they wander through all day and are on the corners in front of the shop. Our guys will do odd jobs around, are willing to help and volunteer at the church nearby. the ones they keep out are the ones who are crazy and obnoxious.

 

Had a homeless guy who lived in a camper behind my hobby shop. We ended up becoming great friends. I trusted him enough to give him a key and he never stole a thing. He would just check up on the place and I gave him the key to sleep inside on my couch when it got to cold. Breeze, you were a great dude.