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Happy Valentine's Day It's Valentine's Day. Romance is in the air. In a precursor to Spring love that is about to bloom young boys and girls are swapping cards and chocolate. While long married couples struggle to come up with a way to spice up their love life for that one of the two night each year a husband is guaranteed to get sex (the other is the anniversary but only if she gets a nice gift).

Still love can warm the heart; make the world a wonderful place, and give you hope that good things are just around the corner. Thus on this special day where we are supposed to express love we thought a simple expression of love might mean more to those with the least - the street people of our city. Our team loaded up a shopping cart, because we are dealing with street people , full of Valentine's candy and hit the streets offering a little love from deep in our hearts, our chocolate cream filled hearts.

This bum candy-gram offered a different perspective on the street people that inhabit our city. Our first stop was HB Hospitality center downtown where the street people had lined up hoping to get out of the cold, have a hot meal and spend the night in a warm bed. It was interesting to watch as several street people under the influence where turned away. We handed out some candy to some of the men and women with one street person turning it down. She pulled out her medical kit to explain that she was diabetic and that a dollar would do her more good than the candy. Generally, we only give money to street people we are photographing but this was one of the few street people we had ever met that turned something down because it was bad for their health. I slipped her a dollar. She asked if I had change to cover the tax on a Wendy's $.99 cent hamburger. If you give a street person an inch, or in this case a dollar, you are going to get hustled.

Our team did meet Howard Steele who has been out looking for a job that will let him use his mind. It seems that he is trying to get some money together because it is Christmas season and he has gifts that he needs to buy for people. Let's just hope that he is really planning ahead. I did not mention that Christmas had passed about 45 days ago. He had been out looking for a job at one of our city's fine day labor places and did not get picked today. He shared that he should have been thinking about a career while he was in college. Howard spent all his time playing basketball for two colleges in town and did not spend any time studying. He regrets that now, but being a doctor seemed really hard and he just liked playing basketball so much that he spent all his time doing that at school. He thinks it would be a good plan to get back into college and learn computers or telephone repair and had plans to attend University of Arizona. It's good to have a goal. Howard was very happy with his box of chocolate, as he said "it is harder and harder to get those little extras as everything seems to have doubled in price."

Got anything for Esther? We found this nice young lady walking around bundled up in her coat, another coat, a hat, and a sheet. She saw us pull over and came up to the car to greet us welcoming us to her park. She introduced herself as Esther Harris and she is 55. We never asked she just said hello and said her name and age. She was happy to have guests in her park and then asked if we had any Tylenol. She produced a small Tylenol bottle opening the top and turning it upside down to prove that she was out. She then asked again if we had any Tylenol.

Absent a bottle of Tylenol, we presented Esther with a box of chocolates, this really excite her. She was happy that we had a gift for her and immediately after looking at the box of chocolates asked if we had anything else to give her. She suggested cigarettes because she really likes to get cigarettes. Before we could tell her none of our team smoked she suggested a ride in our car because it looked like a nice car and she would really enjoy a ride in the car. "I bet it's a nice car and warm because it is cold out here and the car would be warm and I would go anywhere you wanted because I would just be happy to ride for a little" commented Esther. We turned her down on the ride in the car but asked if she had gone to a shelter to stay warm. She said "no I am trying to find that guy that owes me $600 cash". Hoping that she intended to use this money to get a place to stay we offered here a few dollars for her picture and her story. She was very happy for the money and immediately bent over and stuffed the money in her sock. She was quick for someone wrapped in blankets and other unidentifiable pieces of fabric. Bending over, stuffing the money in her sock, and popping back up to ask us for some quarters took only a fraction of a second. What is it with street people? This was twice in one day we offered someone money and they tried to get us to raise the bid. "Quarters are nice" commented Esther "got any of those? No? How about pennies, I like quarters but I would take some pennies." We had to let her know all we had for her today was chocolates and a few dollars and she responded "Well if this is all you got for me I have to go."

We said "Goodbye Ms. Hollis stay warm" and she turned around. She gave us one of those about to go crazy street people looks and then said "That's good, I never told you my last name and you guessed it. I'm Mrs. Hollis." The she adjusted one of her two jackets and walked off.

Burger Hungry Bum Finally, We met Joe. Hustling change off a highway overpass with a most peculiar sign. The sign read "Burger Hungry" as if he had been walking along and all of a sudden it hit him that he was hungry for a burger. No other food would do. He was a hamburger junkie and need a fix of beef, grease and bun. He was not panhandling money for hamburgers but for that American delicacy itself. He wanted people to give him hamburgers. Someone must have given him one because he had ketchup smeared around his mouth.

We offered up our Valentine candy and Joe eagerly squealed "Oh, a snack" confirming that he was a food junkie. He was happy to receive some desert to follow his anticipated burger binge and opened the package of candy while we stood and chatted. He was even happier to earn money by posing for a photograph. We made sure we gave him enough so he could get his favorite – double stack with bacon and cheese with extra pickle. If we could have covered it with chocolate and stuffed it in the box of candy I think he could die a happy street person.

Remember street people are people also, stinky, smelly people who most likely have body lice, but they are people that need love. On this day when we celebrate love think about those people whose love is a 40oz beer and a dry place to sleep at night. Then snuggle up to your significant other, commit a carnal act that should never be put on film as a sign of your love and remember this is why you don't chuck it all and live under a bridge because bums never get to do the nasty and then roll over and watch Sportscenter.

Theboxman's Blog

Happy Valentine's day: Be My Bum

Theboxman

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