A Quarter for a Casket

-

    While I was waiting for a cab yesterday outside a local Walmart, a short guy wearing a light blue t shirt & a Royals' hoodie approached me from my right. He said something to me but I couldn't understand it. As he got closer, he asked again and this time I could hear that he was requesting 25¢ to help pay for his daughter's casket. He said she died on Sunday from Covid. I have lived in the city awhile. Being asked for money is a given. One time, a guy asked me for 25¢ to ride the bus. At the time, bus fare was $1.50. I guess when you ask people for money you probably play the long odds and ask everyone who goes by for a quarter. Eventually, you will probably have money for bus fare and, maybe, even for a casket.  I doubted the veracity of his tale but I gave him 75¢ because that was how many quarters I had. After that happened, I began to wonder if I have some bullseye on my person and it is only visible to certain people because the "quarter for a casket episode" came fresh on the heels of another request.

     On Tuesday evening, I went up to my local dive bar to have a glass of Prosecco and watch the American League Wildcard Game between Boston & the Yankees. It was a beautiful night & the bartender had the door to the outside open. I was sitting at the bar immediately to the left of anyone who came in the door. I had 2 glasses of Prosecco and the score was 4-1 Boston when I decided to pay up & head home. As I was paying the bartender in cash, a short man in a beige short-sleeved button-down came in and said, "Oh wow do you have WiFi?". The bartender and I were both there but it was kind of an open-air question. It was directed at no one in particular. The bartender said yes. "You have WiFi" he repeated to himself. "Yeah but you have to buy a drink to use it", the bartender said. "Okay, I will have a bottle of your cheapest beer", he said.

     That should have been my tip-off. The bartender came back with a bottle of some beer. I don't drink beer but I know the cheap beer at that bar is $3. The bartender put the bottle on the bar in front of the guy, popped the top off with a bottle opener and walked back towards the other end of the bar. As he did so, I saw the guy get out a billfold. It could have been his. It could have been one he found on the street. He made a production it seemed to me of looking through it. I could see all this going on in my peripheral vision. I was headed out of the bar but I was watching some more of the baseball game. Then, he asked me if I had $2. I could see where this was heading.  I rebel internally against a Republican upbringing that says never give people money when they beg for it. My 1st response, at least inside my head, is always "No" but really who am I to judge anyone? Maybe, that guy did need to buy a casket & I will buy people food if they ask but beer is not an essential so I said "No" and headed out the door. I have felt guilty ever since. Maybe, that guy needed a beer that night. Maybe, whoever he was, he was having a rough life. I wish I could go back and buy him that beer. All I can do is buy a beer for the next person who asks, and in this part of town, that's a given.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simon

-
Image
I found out yesterday that I will be saying goodbye to a good friend sooner than I would ever have imagined.  I thought we would be together until he was an old cat and I was an old woman. I have promised him that I will work with him as long as the medicine and home care are helping him enjoy his life. And, that when he is ready or it is simply his time or a little bit of both, I will not let him suffer.
Read more

Baseball and #QAL

-
      I have come to understand that I can only really rely on two things to always be there for me. Notice, I said things. There have really only been two people I could always count on: my parents. Regardless of where I was either physically or mentally, they always listened unconditionally. It is from them that I learned how powerful unconditional love really is. My mother is gone from this world now but I know that, if I called my Dad up, he would be glad to hear from me. He always tells me that I am doing a "good job". Even at age almost 56, that means a lot.      There are, however, two things I can count on to keep me company: one has been around for over a hundred years while the other not nearly so long. That doesn't, however, negate its effectiveness. Tonight, I am listening to a Queen and Adam Lambert (QAL) concert from New York City.  I could be watching the live video but that doesn't work so well with my other summer vice, baseball. I ca...
Read more

No Hawks Today

-
 It's a lot nicer outside today than it was yesterday or the day before so Yoshi & I went for a walk around the block. I looked up into many trees but saw no hawks. I would have been okay with a far-off sighting of a Red-tailed Hawk but I, specifically, looked in tall, barren trees close to the sidewalk for Cooper's Hawks perching in wait. We went by the yard where, several years ago, I saw what I thought was a Peregrine Falcon dive bomb an unlucky robin to the ground. It seemed to look me in the eye before it lifted off with the robin still trapped in its talons. In retrospect and after a couple more years of observing hawks in this neighborhood, I realize that was a Cooper's Hawk. The thing with hindsight in life and urban bird-watching is that time can refine your perception of an event. Yoshi and I headed home. On the corner of 37th and Southwest Trafficway, I saw two small pigeon feathers. They looked scrawny and one was lying on top of the other one in roughly the...
Read more