I live in a suburban city that was once a small town. My high school history teacher always told us about what it was like when she grew up here; 2 main roads and alot of farms. Things have changed alot since then and I've graduated almost 5 years ago. Things have changed to the point where city contracts are just about given to the mob and eventhough we pay alot of taxes there almost seems to be nothing to show for it. A place where drugs are begining to run rampant and the local police force seems to be the fastest growing job sector, but I'm not complaing, it's besides the point. More on the flip.
In high school I was a drifter. I moved to Connecticut almost 8 years ago, my freshman year of high school. I hung out with the nerds in class, I was a jock, and on the weekends you could find me with my cheerleader girlfriend hanging with the "bad" kids who without a doubt were a good influence on no one. Without a doubt, I got along with almost everyone and to this day I'll stop and talk to whoever seems to want to as long as I have the time.
Once in a while I run into a bum. They love to talk cause lets face it, the don't really have anything to do. In fact, they're usually the only ones who will sucker you into a conversation and believe me, they're hard to get rid of without being rude. And I feel bad in doing so, so I chat for a bit. You'd be surprised what you can learn.
There's 2 types of bums in this world: the happy entertaing bum, and the sad lonely bum.
The happy bums are never mad at what went wrong. In fact, I'm pretty sure nothing did go wrong. They always tell stories of past loves (which amount to rants most of the time which are hard to follow), their children and how they love to do wahtever. And more often than not, in fact, almost always, they have so crazy pipe dream to become an Alaskan fisherman, or what have you. They always have the details worked out and I find myself thinking, damn, that's clever as all hell! I wonder if they ever follow through but doubt if they do. But I don't feel bad. They don't ask for anything but a conversation and seem to feel a sense of freedom most of my friends don't have.
Then there's the other bum. It's what could become of anyone. It's that IT guy who's wife left him. It's the laid off construction worker or banker. They're miserable, and I usually end up trying to get away as fast as possible. They always have a sob story and bitch about work being sent overseas and how they miss their kids. I can only imagine how such a pessimistic person can pull themselves up from their bootstraps.
Well, lately, I haven't seen the happy bum. I ran into the first one in a few years. He was some dude from Montana or something by way of Canada. They're hard to find around these parts.
My point is, people are losing their jobs. The happy bum I ran into was a bum because he wanted to be. He didn't care. He was well, a happy bum! He wasn't some poor fucker living out of his car asking for a dollar. I'm beginning to see the toll of this admin first hand.
Where did all the happy bums go?