tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post7225841726422022396..comments2024-03-27T11:18:59.924+00:00Comments on Sun Dried Sparrows: HomeChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-58104801262679846732012-11-13T18:18:50.779+00:002012-11-13T18:18:50.779+00:00Oh, that is a startling - and saddening - statisti...Oh, that is a startling - and saddening - statistic :-(Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-64463486297211223272012-11-12T14:34:43.885+00:002012-11-12T14:34:43.885+00:00Where I work is right adjacent to one of the large...Where I work is right adjacent to one of the large terminus rail stations. Therefore a haven for homeless folks, i.e. lot of people walking through, shops to get stuff etc. and a small park/gardens where they can gather/sleep. I've only been working here since July and twice to my knowledge someone has been found dead there in the morning - it is a startling statistic that!Furtheronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11903753972242964410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-54801180284825757212012-11-09T10:41:33.383+00:002012-11-09T10:41:33.383+00:00I haven't read the book but I do remember hear...I haven't read the book but I do remember hearing about that guy, and Cambridge is a very familiar place to me, so perhaps I should check it out (if I can bear to...!)<br /><br />(I'll have to try and make my next post a bit lighter too!)Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-31332305111637390092012-11-09T10:36:23.476+00:002012-11-09T10:36:23.476+00:00That must have been quite an experience to witness...That must have been quite an experience to witness the lives of those people at such close hand, perhaps it's something we could all do with a little taste of just to help us understand?!<br />Yeah I think you're right about the young men who don't get much help. I really hope that guy gets back on track. I wanted to ask him about his situation... but I didn't. Maybe he wouldn't have told me anyway.<br />Thanks for saying that about speaking to him as one human to another; it's made me feel even more resolute to be better at doing that in future too.Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-63771836861161635962012-11-09T07:17:58.629+00:002012-11-09T07:17:58.629+00:00Have you read 'Stuart: A Life Backwards', ...Have you read 'Stuart: A Life Backwards', the story of a homeless young chap from Cambridge? Heartbreaking. You've left us with some food for thought with this post, C.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-84783650743673815092012-11-08T17:40:51.487+00:002012-11-08T17:40:51.487+00:00The streets certainly throw up some priceless char...The streets certainly throw up some priceless characters... Your guy down at the river reminded me of a man I met last year who hangs around in a library every day (I think he does have a home but nothing else, so it's somewhere for him to go free of charge) He told me all about the highly important speeches he has to write for the prime minister. Yes, of course he does. The permanent fixture of a plastic carrier bag and his excessive body odour were a dead giveaway....but he was harmless enough.<br /><br />"Missing gold tooth".... :-D<br /><br />Yes it's cold here in winter, and London can be an unfriendly place.<br /><br /><br />Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-36133929718148113792012-11-08T17:21:39.488+00:002012-11-08T17:21:39.488+00:00Your pet hate makes perfect sense to me too. Yes,...Your pet hate makes perfect sense to me too. Yes, imagine if employers vetted your spending... aarggghh! <br />Plus I feel sure if I was cold and homeless and desperate enough to have to beg for money, no doubt abused and scorned by passers by at the same time, I'd very quickly want to drown myself in a bottle of something nicely numbing...Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-46209300627735298822012-11-08T17:15:34.299+00:002012-11-08T17:15:34.299+00:00Indeed... I know if I stopped to help every single...Indeed... I know if I stopped to help every single one (and every single worthy cause in the world!) I'd never cope... I think we have to put on a tough facade sometimes for that reason but, as you say, every now and then someone breaks through it. It's quite strange really how that one boy had such a big effect on me, but he certainly gave me some perspective!Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423624920558505937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-72199364205322514112012-11-08T14:57:25.888+00:002012-11-08T14:57:25.888+00:00Most of my experiences with the homeless have been...Most of my experiences with the homeless have been of a more comical nature. There are visible hard cases in New Orleans and Memphis...in Jackson you never really see the heart breakers (the families in shelters or abandoned houses). Mostly what you run into is the same handful of people who, for the last ten years, have been trying to collect enough money for a bus ticket to Baton Rouge or Houston...where evidently they all have at least one cousin.<br /><br />It's mostly warm down here so the weather, at least, is less of an issue than some places. There was one fella who lived down at the river...he spent most of his days in the Waffle House on High St. He claimed to have been a professor at Vanderbilt until his brother and group of faculty members conspired to have him committed. He use to collect the tobacco out of cigarette butts and roll it into cigarettes...with whatever paper he to hand.<br /><br />My favorite though is Tony in Memphis...Mole on right cheek, missing gold tooth. <br /><br />Missing gold tooth...hahahahah<br /><br />Evidently he was a fixture in Memphis...he was telling me all about how much money the city wasted on "rerectricity" to run the street car up and down the mall...when he stopped, stepped out into the street to flag down a city bus. He bummed a dollar off the driver...flagged down a city bus and found a dollar to hold. HA!<br /><br />I do remember seeing the homeless in London...looked like a much tougher row to hoe. Kings Cross was good for that. They are now in my thoughts...especially as it gets colder.e.f. bartlamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05940814285264472785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-47408623372094449832012-11-08T08:54:23.276+00:002012-11-08T08:54:23.276+00:00Like everyone I guess I also pass by far too often...Like everyone I guess I also pass by far too often, living in a small town it's easy sometimes to see the same old faces and sometimes blank them. One local homeless guy who I always used to give cigs to moved into the small flat behind me...he set it on fire within a few days...sometimes it's easy to forget the problems they have with life in general.<br /><br />And just one pet hate...the people who say 'they'll only spend it on drugs / booze / insert vice of their choice..' - So bloody what ? does their employer vet their spending before paying them their wages or pension ? God knows if they did I'd never have made much money in my life.... These people are adults for god sakes, let them choose !<br /><br />Sorry - rant over.Bel Mondohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06614801876100974056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6075393268513251879.post-62770230731198065282012-11-08T07:25:22.378+00:002012-11-08T07:25:22.378+00:00It's too easy to see 'the homeless' as...It's too easy to see 'the homeless' as some great sludge-coloured amorphous mass, isn't it? And yet behind every one of them will be a back-story with at least one chapter you'd never want to imagine, let alone experience. I'm as guilty as anyone else of turning a blind eye more often than I should, because I'm in a hurry or in a bad mood or just can't be bothered rummaging in my bag for my purse. But you're so right that every now and the, one of the human faces emerges from the mass and brings you up short. Kolley Kibberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07055145770836351738noreply@blogger.com