Brian Ellis Rules!
Tue May 06, 2008
Encounters with the Homeless
Upon moving to Tucson I quickly realized there's a lot more homeless people here than I'd seen in northern NJ, NYC, etc. I'd never really had any encounters with these folks up until last week when in the span of a day I had three separate run-ins...
Encounter 1: In the morning, about 4:45am, I'm heading out to my car to go to the gym. As you'd expect, it's still dark and I'm usually one of five people in town awake at this hour. It's normally quiet but I hear what sounds like trickling water. My first thought is, "oh cool, a neighbor put up a fountain." As I'm putting my bag in my car it gets louder and I can't quite figure out what it is. All of a sudden a crazy dude on a bike rides past me and yells out some sort of weird jibberish that I didn't understand. For a second I was startled and thought, "great, this is how it all ends." The good news is that aside from the jibberish nothing else really happened.
Encounter 2: Fast-forward to the evening, approximately 5:45pm. I'm home from work, lounging around getting ready to head to the local bar to meet up with some friends for happy hour. It's about a mile away so I decide to do the eco-friendly healthy thing and walk. About halfway there I see a homeless guy approaching. No big deal, he doesn't seem to be talking to any invisible characters or lashing out violently, no need to be alarmed. As he gets closer, he starts yelling at me in jibberish (imagine the Tazmanian Devil) and at the end of his rant I can decipher "cigarette" as he puts his index and middle fingers to his lips. I tell him I don't smoke, apologize, and keep walking. Phew, barely made it out of that one alive.
Encounter 3: Still walking to the bar, about 5 minutes after Encounter #2. I'm coming up behind a woman who's shuffling along wearing some tattered looking clothes. Again, I survey the scene and she doesn't appear to be twitching or lashing out, no need to worry. As I catch up to her and pass her, she hears me approach and turns to look at me. I smile and say hi to which she responds with some sort of greeting in jibberish. I couldn't quite make it out, but I'd surmise they have some sort of secret language established and I'm clearly not fluent.
- Brian @ 10:47 am - View Comments