Davida long time ago i was stuck in traffic outside of my apartment in maryland. a minor league baseball game had just let out. i watch a honda pull off the road into the median. i thought he was prob out of gas or having car trouble.
the guy strolled down the median to the light where he could cross, and then whipped around in his grungy clothes with a ‘anything helps God Bless!’ sign.
the guy had a nicer car than i did and he wanted me to give him money.
i quit giving money to beggars at that time. i still sometimes give a handful of change to a fireman or someone who is out collecting money for charity, but not to just some scrungy looking guy anymore.
but then someone in my english class told me a little tactic he had developed. he’d offer to buy them lunch.
no tricks. no bs. just point at the nearest fast food place and ask if they want a value meal. any value meal. no cash. no possibility of buying gas, drugs, smokes or hookers with whatever cash they rake in.
but food is food.
i’ve had no takers yet.
yeah dude I agree, I went up to this dude that had a will work for food sign… and I told him to hop in the back of my truck, and I’d pay him 20 bucks to pull weeds at my house and he refused…. fuckers!!!
Sometimes the saddest stories are the funniest: I’m use to seeing the same beggar guys on the drive home – maybe someone franchises the corners. At one intersection, I noticed a different person – a chick actually – which I don’t normally see. She had a different sign. She was at least offering a service. it said – “I give B____ J__s – $5.” I’m guessing the cops took care of her soon enough because I haven’t seen her since.
but you had to admire her pluck.
Hi there =) Thanks for dropping by…I definitely needed that day off!
My fiance always talks about the time he saw a bum eating a better sandwhich than his own and then the bum asked him for money. LoL.
We used to live in Belton Texas. There is a major intersection crossing I-35 and usually there are panhandlers at every corner. One had a “will work for food” sign. Since I was stopped at a lite, I told him I would take him to my home and feed him and let him mow the lawn. He replied to me bug off (a rather more vulgar term) that he could make much more than that in the time it would take to drive to my home feed him and return him to his post. A coulple of weeks later I saw him playing bingo at the local VFW. Dad
One day Mac Daddy C saw a guy in uniform walking on the Beltway. He pulled over. The guy was wearing SSG rank. Claimed he was from Ft. Campbell, had some sob story that at the time seemed plausible, needed to get to family, but got stranded, etc, etc, etc. Mac Daddy C gave him $120 to get him where he needed to go, out of the whole uniform solidarity thing. The guy gave a unit he belonged to and everything. Mac Daddy C went back, contacted Ft. Campbell, got the unit, no such SSG belonged there. He made a report, but it was just some perpetrator, who had a really good story, and got lucky. That is the last time Mac Daddy C gave to anyone.
I do the food idea as well. I don’t believe in money for the most part, but food is always something a person in need can really use.