Funny conversation this morning.

fastx19

Administrator
Moderator
So it is early in the morning and I am walking out to my Fiat 500 which is parked on the street. As I am getting in, one of the locals who seem to be residentialually challenged tells me:

"Hey, that is cool man, but you know the car I wish they would bring back? The Fiat X1/9 man. When it first came out it had the best weight distribution of any car at the time..."

Not quite what I thought the conversation would be, as it is usually the "can you spare a dime" story instead.

Had a nice conversation with him for about five minutes and he went on his way.

Great way to start a morning and reminds me to stop judging books by their covers.

Hope everyone has a great start to their day as well.
 
Unfortunately I'm currently living in a city with one of the highest levels of homeless people. Every intersection has several of them looking for handouts. And as you say, it is surprising when you are waiting at a red light and one of them gives you the "thumbs up" or expresses a liking for your ride rather than ask you for money. Same thing at the gas station. Normally they approach you for help while you are trapped waiting for your tank to fill. But once in awhile one will want to ask about my car instead.

Off topic, but I never understand why homeless people live in a horrible climate like here in one of the hottest deserts in the world. If you are without a job or home, then why not jump on the freight train and go live on the beautiful beaches in southern Calif (where oddly there are relatively few such people)? When I lived on the beach there was one homeless guy in the area. Rumors were he was a millionaire that could not cope with reality and chose to live under a bush instead. Naturally I don't believe such rumors, but it gives an idea how few homeless live there. Funny, people would give him their expensive dress suits and designer clothes to help him. Best dressed homeless man for sure.
 
Unfortunately I'm currently living in a city with one of the highest levels of homeless people. Every intersection has several of them looking for handouts. And as you say, it is surprising when you are waiting at a red light and one of them gives you the "thumbs up" or expresses a liking for your ride rather than ask you for money. Same thing at the gas station. Normally they approach you for help while you are trapped waiting for your tank to fill. But once in awhile one will want to ask about my car instead.

Off topic, but I never understand why homeless people live in a horrible climate like here in one of the hottest deserts in the world. If you are without a job or home, then why not jump on the freight train and go live on the beautiful beaches in southern Calif (where oddly there are relatively few such people)? When I lived on the beach there was one homeless guy in the area. Rumors were he was a millionaire that could not cope with reality and chose to live under a bush instead. Naturally I don't believe such rumors, but it gives an idea how few homeless live there. Funny, people would give him their expensive dress suits and designer clothes to help him. Best dressed homeless man for sure.
When I was a kid in NY, there was this beggar that would regularly appear in front of the Woolworth's. The rumor was that he was an eccentric millionaire. We never believed that for a minute until we saw a stretch limousine pull up and take him away.
 
When I was a kid in NY, there was this beggar that would regularly appear in front of the Woolworth's. The rumor was that he was an eccentric millionaire. We never believed that for a minute until we saw a stretch limousine pull up and take him away.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short Sherlockian story called, "The Man With The Twisted Lip". It is a similar story.
 
So it is early in the morning and I am walking out to my Fiat 500 which is parked on the street. As I am getting in, one of the locals who seem to be residentialually challenged tells me:

"Hey, that is cool man, but you know the car I wish they would bring back? The Fiat X1/9 man. When it first came out it had the best weight distribution of any car at the time..."

Not quite what I thought the conversation would be, as it is usually the "can you spare a dime" story instead.

Had a nice conversation with him for about five minutes and he went on his way.

Great way to start a morning and reminds me to stop judging books by their covers.

Hope everyone has a great start to their day as well.
Thanks for sharing this!
 
Unfortunately I'm currently living in a city with one of the highest levels of homeless people. Every intersection has several of them looking for handouts. And as you say, it is surprising when you are waiting at a red light and one of them gives you the "thumbs up" or expresses a liking for your ride rather than ask you for money. Same thing at the gas station. Normally they approach you for help while you are trapped waiting for your tank to fill. But once in awhile one will want to ask about my car instead.

On my recent trip to Orlando to see my daughter & family, I heard a new one. Guy came up to me while I was pumping gas & waved a torn serpentine belt in my face, asking for $40 or whatever I could contribute so he could buy one & get it back on the. car, which he claimed was on the side of the highway. I would think much of FL is worse than NV in terms of nasty, wet heat :D
 
A month ago I had just paid an installment on my Hill billy 401K and was walking out of the gas station/store that serves as a gathering place for locals and a guy I never met complemented me on my car.
Normally I am a bit of a misanthrope but the guy peaked my interest and looked ok so I stopped to talk to him.
Although he didn't know what kind of car is was he asked some good questions so I went back in to drink a soda and shoot the breeze.
It started out good but quickly started going off the rails with him getting agitated and going on about conspiracy theories.
Before I managed to gracefully extract myself from his presence he managed to hit me up for five bucks.
Later on I found out he had drifted into town about a year ago and managed to wrangle a night or two with different people before they realized he was a nut job and kicked him out.
I also heard he got kicked out of the city park a few times for sleeping there.
Got to hand it to the guy though as he was clean and didn't look like a bum.
Also gotta improve my antisocial skills.
 
There are so many of them here they have to get creative to compete for your hand-out. Some of the funny ones include standing on a corner with an empty gas gan and a nice pre-made sign saying "I ran out of gas on the freeway and need money to get more gas". Another says "Kick me in the nuts for $20". Or simply "Need a drink". Naturally lots of sad stories about losing their job, being a Vet, needing to pay for medical bills, etc. It goes on and on.
 
Unfortunately I'm currently living in a city with one of the highest levels of homeless people. Every intersection has several of them looking for handouts. And as you say, it is surprising when you are waiting at a red light and one of them gives you the "thumbs up" or expresses a liking for your ride rather than ask you for money. Same thing at the gas station. Normally they approach you for help while you are trapped waiting for your tank to fill. But once in awhile one will want to ask about my car instead.

Off topic, but I never understand why homeless people live in a horrible climate like here in one of the hottest deserts in the world. If you are without a job or home, then why not jump on the freight train and go live on the beautiful beaches in southern Calif (where oddly there are relatively few such people)? When I lived on the beach there was one homeless guy in the area. Rumors were he was a millionaire that could not cope with reality and chose to live under a bush instead. Naturally I don't believe such rumors, but it gives an idea how few homeless live there. Funny, people would give him their expensive dress suits and designer clothes to help him. Best dressed homeless man for sure.

L.A.'s homeless has surged in recent years, now numbering @ 58k. Downtown is full of their encampments, as are underpasses. Skyrocketing rents has forced people with jobs out of their homes. Easy to have happen - I lived in my car for a couple of years during the worst of the recession.
 
L.A.'s homeless has surged in recent years, now numbering @ 58k. Downtown is full of their encampments, as are underpasses. Skyrocketing rents has forced people with jobs out of their homes. Easy to have happen - I lived in my car for a couple of years during the worst of the recession.

Has been going on longer than you might think.

In the late 70's to mid 80's my wife's parents managed storage units in L.A area.
Her dad paid me gas money to come down with my car carrier and clean out storage units that had defaulted. Two or three a month.

There were a lot of people there renting units and living in their cars.
The common story was moved to L.A. for a good paying job but still couldn't afford rent on a decent apartment or was saving up for first and last.

I guess I have been lucky in the housing department.
Lived in Riverside Ca. in the 70's and paid $125 for a two bedroom and highest was $195 for a 4 bedroom 2 bath just before we bought out first house in 76.
I probably wouldn't make it in today's market.

In 74 I roofed for about a year laying tile roofs.
One tract I worked on there was a guy and his platinum blond bombshell wife living in a nice big house just below the new construction.
They had brand new matching Porsche Carrera's sitting in the driveway.
From my vantage point on the roof of the house above their's I could see through the back windows to the inside front of the house.
Other than a mattress on the bedroom floor there wasn't a stick of furniture in view and they had bed sheets hung up for curtains on the front windows.

Hey, they had a house...for a while at least.
 
They had brand new matching Porsche Carrera's sitting in the driveway.
From my vantage point on the roof of the house above their's I could see through the back windows to the inside front of the house.
Other than a mattress on the bedroom floor there wasn't a stick of furniture in view and they had bed sheets hung up for curtains on the front windows.

Hey, they had a house...for a while at least.


This reminds me me someone :D
 
Similar thing here with the storage units. However here they get the smallest unit (5' x 5') for around $20 a month. Pay 3 months in advance and get 3 months free. 9 months later the storage property owners are cutting off the lock (unpaid since the initial rental) to find a couple blankets, pile of food wrapper trash and countless bottles of urine and boxes of feces. At which point the prior renters have found another facility to start it again. Unfortunately (according what I read in the paper), this does not carry on for too long before their bodies are discovered in one of the storage units following an overdose. This also happens to be one of the largest meth lab areas in the country. What surprises me about this scenario is that they can collect enough money from panhandling to pay for $60 worth of rental in the first place. Not to mention sustaining a meth habit. I must be doing something wrong, I can't manage either. :(
 
This also happens to be one of the largest meth lab areas in the country. What surprises me about this scenario is that they can collect enough money from panhandling to pay for $60 worth of rental in the first place. Not to mention sustaining a meth habit. I must be doing something wrong, I can't manage either.

Don't worry, meth isn't all it's cracked up to be.:rolleyes:

I have a self storage property here in Ga. Nobody's living in them.
 
Dr. Jeff, they have moved to Cali as others have mentioned about So Cal but that is nothing compared to the Bay Area! 25% of all homeless in the good old USA live in Cali and another 20% in NY. But unlike NY and some other states Cali doesn't have any provision to find them housing so it has gotten really really bad here, especially in the Bay Area's sky high rents.

And the worst part is the trash they leave behind. I understand that half are crazy and many got screwed by the Great Recession but for gods sake just throw away the trash! Everywhere the homeless go is just a pile of trash. I would pay them if they would pick up the trash!
 
True about the mental illness rate among them. Not sure which came first, homelessness or mental issues. Either could lead to the other. But that is a major issue here too. And the system isn't equipped to handle it. The local hospitals receive them for emergency medical problems, hydrate and nourish them, then kick them out because there isn't room to hold them - despite their obvious mental state. But too often they are found dead shortly after being released, still wearing the hospital gown and ID tag.
 
Back
Top