strangness in the Arizona desert.

[vash]

i just got back home. we found a remote spot to camp. i kept hearing kid voices and laughing. dogs barking. i finally poked about, and found a family camped out. my buddies dad is pretty approachable, and eventually the other "dad" of the camping family came over for a chat. turns out this family is from the Dallas area. he got laid off, lost everything, and is living in the desert. no water. he drives his relatively decent honda accord around. they live in two tents. i see the campfire till 7pm, and they go to bed. if you have kids, dont you have to have running water and heat? i mean it is cold out there. i was in a pop up camper trailer, and i would wake up to my face hole in my sleeping bag lined with thick ice from my breathing. toothpaste frozen solid. my friend's dad left early and slipped a $100 into a tent flap. they guy came over to say thanks.. he was sawing firewood with a hand saw. i helped out with our chainsaw.

my brother noted the plates and wants to run it..just in case the kids are kidnapped or something...if you lost a job, why camp out where you can never find another one? shelters? i dont get it. school?

weird.

[pwd72s]

Not weird as much as a sign of the times. Sad times for many.

[M.D. Holloway]

Grapes of Wrath

[lowyder993s]

A nat'l report a few years ago about families staying in Nat'l parks...moving every few weeks. Sad...hope they get back on their collective feet. I like your bro's spidey sense...there have been a couple of reports of sex offenders w/ their victims in campgrounds IIRC.

[cstreit]

Wow that's rough.

...and yet there are people that refuse to work because Welfare pays so good... ...and here is this guy living in tents with his kids. He probably deserves help more than many.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

Grapes of Wrath

Last name Joad?

[cl8ton]

That is pretty dam sad to hear! Their kids do not need this.

Coming home from work, at my usual hwy exit, there are always a few beggars with the sign and story at the stop light.

I have always wondered how somebody gets to this?
Do you give up on everything and proclaim your a victim and at what point?

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Last name Joad?

Springsteen and RATM recorded "The Ghost of Tom Joad", both are excellent. btw

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by cl8ton

Springsteen recorded "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

Choked me up the first time I heard it, chokes me up to this day.

. . . and since I recently finished reading "The Road", this terrible story of squatters in the Arizona Desert just makes me wonder WTF is going on out there, and what are we in for?

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by cl8ton

That is pretty dam sad to hear! Their kids do not need this.

Coming home from work, at my usual hwy exit, there are always a few beggars with the sign and story at the stop light.

I have always wondered how somebody gets to this?
Do you give up on everything and proclaim your a victim and at what point?


Springsteen and RATM recorded "The Ghost of Tom Joad", both are excellent. btw

Run a Google search on Canada's "Shakey Lady"
Some of them beggars make some serious scratch.

[Gogar]

Screw "The Grapes of Wrath." What about "The Hills Have Eyes"?

[dd74]

Common thing in L.A. I see people living in/out of RVs and panel vans virtually everywhere in the city.

[vash]

tags came back to a lady. probably the wife. so sad.

[ckissick]

There used to be Hoovervilles. Will the next settlements be called Bushvilles or Obamavilles?

[vash]

AZ sheriffs are going to poke about.

[vash]

sheriff says everything is legit. kids are not kidnapped. MIL vouched. family relocated to a hotel with some AZ rescue program. dad, about to start work. he is a teacher.

things are looking up.

[tabs]

The only question that remains is how many of U BOYZ are gona be livin in a van or desert in the next 15 years? U might as well get down on your knees and pray to God, "For the grace of God there go I..."

[john70t]

'Come on neocon Pelicans, where's the spirit?
Arrest those squatters and vagrants. They can't keep up with the times and should die(kids too).

[Dueller]

It amazes me how close to the edge so many people are. Not just the obvious poor, but middle class families struggling to stay afloat. Only a layoff away from losing everything and being rendered homeless. Many are too proud to accept welfare or don't know what is available or by virtue of a quagmire of qualifying regulations can't get help and just give up and fend for themselves any way they can.

I have a friend that I cannot locate. He was in the wholesale car business. In the matter of a month or two as a result of notes being called, he was rendered penniless and out of business. His cell phone has been cut off, no one has seen him, not even his family...he has literally dropped off the face of the earth. Last I heard he was living in a borrowed tent camper but no one can find him. He's truly a good guy and has many friends who would be glad to help him get back on his feet but he is too proud to ask for help nor would he accept it unsolicited.

[Crowbob]

More typical liberal snarkiness posing as wit, eh John? Better prepare yourself for a LOT more of this homelessness. In the meantime, you might try new, less obvious expressions of hatred and ignorance.

[Talewinds]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

More typical liberal snarkiness posing as wit, eh John? Better prepare yourself for a LOT more of this homelessness. In the meantime, you might try new, less obvious expressions of hatred and ignorance.

What baffles me is, well, when did those characteristics get assigned to conservatives???