P.S., I've already voted.

Spent a lot of years living in begger craphole central just north of Hollywood blvd. the was a homeless guy with a broom who would meticulously sweep the sidewalk near ivar.
He never asked for money. But people would just shower him with cash. Everyone was just so in awe of a bum actually doing something to make the city nicer. Within a few hours he usually had enough for food and a bag of weed. It was the life he wanted.

Eventually he disappeared. Died or just moved, who knows. But what struck me is that none of the hundred other regular bums picked up the broom and took over the very lucrative job. Even two hours a day was too much for them.

My involvement is finished with that crowd, it was after dark, and they never got to the back of the car where the plate is. I'm in Alabama, and the plate was South Dakota, it would have stood out.

I see Army retired. Where did you end up?

Recently saw a woman trying a new angle with a "ugly, please help" sign. It was a multi-colored sign that she had put a lot of effort into. As I drew closer I realized it said hungry not ugly. I could do nothing about the ugly but gave her an apple for the other.

I usually have a small shopping bag of decent older clothes that I hand out when it starts to get colder. Havent had anyone ask or demand money in a long time.

I only support dogs.....it sorta weeds out the chafe a bit..... :D

Saw an above-the-elbow amputee in Berlin holding a sign that read: "I could use a hand". He got some of my money and I got a laugh.

_

I once offered a beggar on a street corner "looking for work" a full Thanksgiving style meal with leftovers if he would come help split some wood at home. He said he was just looking for handouts.

I was working in LA for,the week.

One evening I got lost,out for a drive.
I ran low on gas and pulled into a station to fill up.

I felt a little uncomfortable in the area I had stopped, and being Canadian I am not that street smart.

A 30ish guy comes up and offers to pump my gas for money.
I hesitated but then had a second thought, I'm making good money this week anted can afford to share the wealth. He was polite, started pumping my gas while I stood by, and quit of nowhere a stumbling drunk ******* comes out of the dark and first begs for money then tries to assault me.

My new friend put him down, apologized and wouldn't take payment.

I stuffed a 20 "tip" in his shirt pocket, and felt cheap at that.

Some people are decent but it's a bit rare.

Where was that or what part of the city?

My sister did some of her mandatory work during nursing school down on Skid Row. I would never go down there but have driven through it. She was young, in college and we were all very concern about here safety down there. Its full of some roughest folks around. She told us that there are these people who live on the street that would walk her and her friends to and from their cars protecting the girls because they knew the girls were there to help them. She got to know them and notice many of them have mental health issues. Thanks goodness nothing ever happened to them for the whole semester they were down there. It makes me feel good that there are still good people around no matter how down in the ditch they are.

I honestly don't know where I was. I thought I was near the airport but I could have been anywhere. I was glad to find the freeway

It was some years ago

Ok, not a nice area at all. Glad you escape all right. If this was 25 -30 years ago, that would have been bad

Early 1990s

I went home during lunch to pick something up. Stopped at the gas station up the street from my house and a guy in a ratty van walks up with a 2 gallon gas tank and tells me about how he just finished a job but does not have enough gas to get home, all I need is 2 gallons...... So I put 2 gallons in his gas can and go on my way. About 30 minutes later I am on my way back to work and ratty van guy is still at it getting more gas from another sucker. Well at the time fuel was about $4 a gallon, so in an hour he probably filled up his car for free. Pissed me off. Kinda had to laugh though, who wants to pay $4 a gallon?

I gave a little karma back to a Canadian snowbird last year. Outside a southern Ohio gas station found a wallet stuffed with hundreds in cash and CCs. Gave it to clerks and asked them to call the sheriff. I figured the cash might disappear but the rest would get to him.
(In hindsight I should have called the sheriff myself. dumb.)

After working with the welfare crowd for several years, I don't give hand outs to anybody. The whole system is a scam. I've also quit donating anything to charities claiming to help with disaster recoveries/relief outside the country, when I heard large portions of it gets skimmed off by corrupt politicians and other criminals or a year later the charities still haven't handed out the money or resources or used 95% for administrative costs.

I agree. Thanks for saying this. I've been suckered occasionally, and I can live with that.

I'm assuming that you're not confusing being "hard-hearted" with being an enabler.

I seldom have cash on me. When I do, it's generally no more than $40 in some weird configuration of $1s and $5s. But if I have it to spare, I'll hand out a coupla bucks to a person standing at the many exit/entrance ramps around the city (I swear these peeps are all over the place, in Raleigh). I'll just do something stupid with it myself, so if it buys a guy a Whopper or a beer, so be it. No matter how I rationalize it, I'm still better off; they ain't getting rich. And they don't need my judgements.

Went out to dinner with Mrs Saucy in downtown Hartford CT a few weeks back, driving freshly detailed Black Suburban.

I opened the door and before my foot hit the ground..."Yo mistah, that sure is a nice truck. Someone with such a nice truck must have money to spare for a hungry brother..." Meanwhile, he's approaching me with speed. He got a $5.

Mrs Saucy thought it was weird that I was "generous". I told her I felt like $5 was a small price to pay to not have our truck vandalized or us get jumped...either or was about to happen. I didn't want to pull a pistol, so $5 was the conflict resolution.

We ate at a window seat at the restaurant, watching this guy pull this bullischt with almost every coupe getting out of their car.

20 yrs. ago I bought this Descente ski jacket w/hood in Paris for a foolish sum of around 500 USD...I like it and I had to have it.
Something about the heat-gathering properties of the fabric.
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So I notice that I need gas and I'm in an area of Oakland, CA where you might need to shoot your way out. As I'm pumping gas a black dude comes up and says, "Nice jacket, man. Where'd you get it and how much was it?" I said, "Downtown Oakland, a few bucks." He stood there for a little while looking at it and then walked to the pay window. He came back and again said how much he liked the jacket...this time he was so close I thought he was going to kiss me.
I quickly shortened my gas fill and sped out of there.
This was back in the days when the brothers were shooting each other for their Jordan Nike basketball shoes.
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