He was sitting on the middle bench adjacent to the parking meters at the Alamitos beach picnic table area taking advantage of a little bit of shade. I sat on the end bench where I spent many a pre-dawn morning shivering during my street living days to take advantage of the sun. As I walked to my bench I noticed his backpack but he did not look homeless. I was eating a sandwich and reading but could not help but overhear his conversation with a woman who questioned him about the meters.
"Today is my birthday," he told her. I wondered. Homeless would sit on those very benches specifically to speak to people who drove to the beach and parked in the lot. One guy kept a roll of quarters with him. When someone at a meter asked if anyone had change for a dollar, he would say "I only have three (or two) quarters" and most often the person would hand over the dollar and let him keep the change. A lot of trouble to pick up some spare change, I thought.
I likewise listened to homeless people tell the homed, "Today is my birthday," hoping they would be gifted without actually panhandling. Sometimes it actually was their birthday.
After the lady left the man yells over to me, "You can come sit here with me in the shade." I told him "Working on my suntan". He got up and came to my bench to talk for a moment because he could not hear what I said. He took an early retirement at age 62, he told me and has been homeless for three years. Hard for me to judge his height, I was sitting, but tall, slender, white-white hair under his cap and I truthfully told him he looked younger. He said he thought he looked "83". Hardly. His face was not wrinkled or weather beaten, appeared to be my age. Most men age faster than females, so I would have guessed him 55 to 60.
He did not say how or why he became homeless, hard to follow his conversation because he kept talking too other people; ogled a pretty, shapely bikini clad miss for instance. Told me his mother's birthday and father's also. Both deceased and they are on his mind. He told me he has $1.22 in his pocket and gets paid tomorrow: $949. I was also planning an early retirement at age 62, but my estimated retirement income would have been a bit more than that. I felt the man was trying to garner sympathy and some cash from me. If he had not returned to his spot in the shade I might have told him he has a better income than I do.
Three years ago today I already had my Greyhound bus ticket to head back to the streets of Long Beach ~ 14 day advance purchase discount. I do not remember meeting this guy in 2006. I mentioned the four cement picnic tables and benches that used to be there. "There would be 20 or 30 homeless people sitting on those benches in 2004, I told him. He said he knows, "I used to come down here to buy a nickle bag of pot." I can not say any of those regulars that hung in the area dealing drugs. There was a man that came to the beach every day selling pot to the homeless however.
Another homed guy would come most everyday, light a joint and share it with the homeless guys. And females if any were there. It amazed me that the guys did this. Careful, of course, to be on the lookout for cops or the beach patrol officers.
I would have liked to have talked to the gentleman a bit longer to find out his story ~ other than his depression over his parents deaths. After he went back to his bench a young man was standing close to my bench. He was obviously standing in even less shade from a small palm tree. That tree is new from the days when that bench was a regular spot for me.
Soon the young guy says, "It is really hot today." Then he sits down to talk to me. I was afraid of that. Sure enough he soon asked, "So do you live in Long Beach? Do you stay with your husband?" Why do I never remember to say "Yes." Well, I do know, that does not stop them, "What he does not know won't hurt him," they say.
The guy will turn 30 on July 23rd he told me. He also told me he just got out of jail after 5 years. I did not ask him what he went to jail for but he soon told me it was for sale and possession of marijuana. I wondered if there was more to it than that, seems an extreme punishment for a mild drug that is basically like alcohol was for older generations. He has never been homeless like so many others who ended up on the streets due to jail time.
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