Tuesday, June 15, 2010

What Is This Called?



Now-a-days it is drop a quarter in the slot and can magnify views, so that the oil drilling islands or Queen Mary appear up close. What is this called? I tried all kinds of google searches to find name of viewer ~ and I should know what it is called.

It was 'round midnight, sitting on a bench near this Ocean Blvd. thingamajig when a group of teenage girls stopped to ask me for a quarter to use it. I smiled as I handed over a quarter ~ hey, I was the one should be asking for spare change!

Several thoughts came to mind that evening. One was they were out past Long Beach's curfew. I wondered how they could miss that I was a homeless person, with my large backpack, triple-layered dressed and alla dat. Many of my homeless peers asked other homeless for money ~ they had an attitude that what is yours is theirs and what is theirs is theirs. Bear often mentioned what I learned was true; the unspoken rule was what anyone had was to be shared with everyone ~ but the persons who held this rule were the ones who never shared when they had.

A quarter is not much; did the girls realize they were asking someone, who counted needed to pinch pennies, for money? They obviously had no issues with speaking to a street person.

1 comment:

alyceclover said...

friend said a viewer at the Empire State building is called a "quarter-fed viewer".

Took a rather long walk and decided not to climb stairs at 'Bird Cage' to see if the machines at that location have a name of them. Someday...