Nashville, down on 2nd Avenue, had lots of them. There was this old guy with his dog outside of Wendy’s we always offered to buy food for. Sometimes he’d take it and the dog always got 1/2 of whatever he had.
We usually offer to buy food or whatever; try not to give out cash.
While I’ve never gotten a “real” miracle ticket (many times I’ve miraculously found tickets for very sold out shows at face value or less, I’ve never gotten a free ticket), I’ve given away lots of miracles to others, and I agree with you that there is no better feeling than seeing the givee’s eyes light up when you hand it to them and wish them a good show. God, I miss those days!!!
Free beer is ALWAYS a good thing. - Falcon
While I’ve never gotten a “real” miracle ticket (many times I’ve miraculously found tickets for very sold out shows at face value or less, I’ve never gotten a free ticket), I’ve given away lots of miracles to others, and I agree with you that there is no better feeling than seeing the givee’s eyes light up when you hand it to them and wish them a good show. God, I miss those days!!!
Free beer is ALWAYS a good thing. - Falcon
My husband used to lead an “interesting” life, and when we get approached (which is rare) he asks their story. If it’s bullshit, he says “nope, sorry” and walks away. If he believes them, he’ll cough cash. He’s very streetwise, and has heard it all.
Just last week we were downtown at a cash machine that is located in a shared vestibule of a department store/credit union. It was about 10pm. There was a decently dressed lady in the vestibule and I saw them talking. A few minutes later as he exited, I saw him looking through her bag. Straaaaange…Then he comes out and tells me that she works at the department store and got stiffed on her ride. She offered him $30 to drive her home out in east Bumfuck. (Of course he refused the money)
I agreed that it was OK, and she got in the truck. It was about -10 outside, so she was damned glad not to have to walk at all. Had she caught a bus, she would have had to walk about 10 miles (she lived pretty far out). She was a charming lady, we enjoyed her company, and I like to think that someday she’ll be in a position to return the favor to someone.
I know we’re in an unusual position, since we don’t get many beggers at all here, but I like to think that it’s worth it for me to spend the buck and maybe help someone out.
(Don’t flame me for that, I’m not saying YOU should do the same. It’s just what works for us)
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity
There is one street guy in all of Calgary that I will give money to. He scrupulously cleans one of the underpasses (or whatever the plural of underpass is? :)) that I go through everyday to work. It is close to some of the downtown bars and really gets full of wrappers (from those disgusting hotdogs everyone seems to buy outside of bars when they’re loaded) and other garbage.
Guess I kinda feel like he is a least working a little bit for the money. He actually does a really good job.
I live in Nashville, and last year a guy with a beat-up car pulled up outside of my parish and asked for gas money. He offered to leave his driver’s license, etc and said he’d be back in 20 minutes after he got the gas and went to get his cash. I gave the guy $5 and told him not to bother coming back, to donate it to a church somewhere, or help someone else sometime. I left a few minutes later and passed the car at a gas station. It was worth the $5 to me to help someone else. I selfish got that much pleasure out of it.
I can’t afford to do stuff like that often, but I carry dog food in my car for strays, and help when I can.
StG
I panhandled once. My college choir was doing a tour of England, Scotland, and Wales, and our last night in London a friend and I set off on our own to see what we could see. We walked for hours and hours, there’s no telling how far, and got ourselves pretty far off the beaten track. We spotted a tube station close to midnight and headed in. Just inside we encountered a guy with a guitar and a couple of friends, and struck up a conversation. It came out that she was a soprano and I an alto, so we were persuaded to sing a few numbers in hopes of increasing their takings. In the 10 or so minutes we were there, they took about 15 pounds. We collected our fair share and were off.
Our choirmistress was horrified when we got back and told her of our ‘adventure’, but she was glad to know some of her group could think on their feet.
The Canadian national newspaper the Globe and Mail just did a week long piece on panhandlers. One of their reporters hit the street with nothing in his pockets and learned the art of begging. It was great article. I vaguely recall some of the facts. I think the reporter managed to panhandle $85 by 10 AM one day. He figures a lot of street beggers make $200 a day with a good location. Canadians throw one and two dollar coins a lot.
In Toronto, there is so much free food all the street people can’t eat it. He tells of breakfasting on scrambled eggs and sausage and about bums complaining about the coffee. The jingling car keys and cell phones at the free soup kitchens was an interesting observation, as was the professional team of beggers with a manager working a subway station.
If you search globeandmail on the internet you might be able to bag this article. They change the internet articles regularly so go fast if this interests you.
“When the lamb is lost on the mountain it cry. Sometime come the mother, sometime the wolf.” - Cormac McCarthy
Huh. Well, I’ve never panhandled, but when I lived in Israel, I was a street musician. I couldn’t work legally anyway, and if I got an under-the-table job, I would have maybe gotten about $3/hr. I made about $8/hr as a street musician, and it was on my own terms. I only did it for a few hours a week, but it paid for my groceries and some used books in English, and that was nice.
This didn’t happen to me, but my mom’s coworker told this story. There was a homeless guy in her neighborhood, and she would always pass him, and want to give something but she never did (she’s kinda shy). So one day, she worked up the nerve, and offered to buy him breakfast. His response? “Thanks, but I only drink coffee in the morning.” So beggars can be choosers!
~Harborina
“This is my sandbox. I’m not allowed to go in the deep end. That’s where I saw the leprechauns.”
When I used to deliver papers at night, I would go to a closed up gas station and fold them there and then go on my route. Once I was approached by a Black guy in part of a military uniform, who was very polite, very military in attitude, had dog tags and asked me if he could borrow some money because he had run out of gas and was due back at base the next day. I loaned him 10, gave him my mailing address and he thanked me and walked off – in the wrong direction from where he said his car was. He corrected and, laughing to himself for ‘forgetting’ where he had parked, walked off. It dawned on me later that I had been scammed.
Several years later, while working for a trucking company, I was parked under a tree in a semi-deserted part of town, when a Black guy walked up in a military uniform again and asked for some money – which I denied. I watched him walk off in my rearview mirror and saw him fish a bike out of the tall weeds a short distance away and ride away. A cool scam for the unsuspecting.
In several of my jobs where I’ve been in public I’ve been hit up for ‘gas money,’ ‘sandwich money,’ ‘spare change,’ and a couple of times, was given not so veiled threats to produce some cash and denied them all. I have given money out to those in need, but I find them in alleyways or picking up cigarette butts from the street to smoke and they don’t ask for money.
What? Me worry?’
A couple of years ago a local news station “staked out” a man who was begging money at a freeway exit.
After the grubby-looking individual was done for the day, they followed him to a residential street. He went over to a late-model SUV and changed out of his “homeless” costume and put on presentable clothing, then got into the SUV and drove away.
Jake said:
That’s pretty much gone these days - it was one of the first “quality of life” issues Mayor Rudy took on.
Lots more panhandlers hang around Grand Central, Penn Station and the Port Authority bus terminal. I remember very well sitting on a MetroNorth train in Grand Central one evening, a little before the departure time, when a young woman came on board. She had been horribly beaten up (yes, the injuries were real), and said she’d been mugged, did anyone have the fare so that she could get home to White Plains? I’m not certain that she got much from people that night, but I saw her a few more times after that - same kind of beaten up appearance, same story. Eventually the conductors would keep her from getting on the rain in the first place. I always wondered what sort of life she had, to be reduced to begging under those circumstances.
On a lighter note, one of the more creative panhandlers I ever met on the subway walked into the car with a violin, screeched his way through a rendition of what was supposed to be “New York, New York” and asked for donations to prevent future musical miscarriages. Most everyone laughed, and not a few forked over some money.
My friend James, after fleeing from his psychotic (no joke) parents, ran out of money and was forced to beg. He says it was the worst 24 hours of his life. He doesn’t ignore panhandlers anymore.
a cool thing you can do is fill up a crown royal bag with metal washers and when a bum comes up to you and asks for money, jingle the bag in front of him and say hey its your lucky day! and then dump all the washers on the ground and point at him and laugh HAHAHAHA stupid bum!
I appreciate honesty. Once when I lived in New Orleans I was approached by someone. He walked up and said “I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a wino.” I gave him a couple of bucks.
What a HUGE scam!! They are just prostitutes and you don’t even get a reach-around!
I have seen them get picked up usually around 6 pm in a beat up ol’ van or station wagon. They even work shifts! I have seen them conferring behind some hedges or some signage for businesses and then the 2nd shift guy will head for the intersection.
What I’d like to know is who is putting them up to this? The Mafia? What is the guy who stands on the corner percentage take?
Yeah, yeah, I know not everyone is is part of this scam, but how do you know? After seeing what I’ve seen, I never give them a second glance. It makes my blood boil to see people being duped like this!
“Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”
E A Poe
When I have the unfourtune of walking around manhattan, which I do quite often since I have quite a few clients there. I am sometimes approached by a bum (not a homeless person, a bum you got it they are bums not homeless, now lets all say it together ‘bums’, good). They all ask for money, not food, but some say it is to buy food. If the bum is quite and not in a place he shouldn’t be, I might give some to him/her. If the bum is in a place that he shouldn't be i.e. subway (which is illeagle) I don't give them the time of day. If the bum says that he needs to eat, I offer to go to the nearest store that has food, and buy him a sandwicch or something - I was never taken up on this offer but have gotten comments like ‘hey, man, don’t do it this way’ which tells me exactly what they want to do with it.
also on the news maby 10 yrs ago I remember that a panhandler can make $8/hr of corse tax free, now maby it’s up to $10-$12, what incentive is that to get a min wage job. That said, I am not for raising the min wage, but I think people can give more responciblly