BY Tenere Williams

Since the beginning of time, man has always used public transportation to travel. Whether it was camels in Ancient Egypt, horses in the Roman Empire, boats in medieval Europe or more recently buses and trains in America, man has always had the means to travel with total strangers to a common destination.

Today, as you travel to cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Boston and other major cities across the country, you will no doubt come across some form of a below ground/above ground train system.  And for anyone who has ever ridden on some type of subway, you know that there is a whole cast of characters that ride on them.

One of the most common type of train passengers is homeless people. Now in no way am I making light of the situation that these individuals are in, but there has definitely been a shift in the attitude and tactics that the homeless use when interacting with other train riders.

Back in the day when I saw homeless people on the train or bus here in Los Angeles, they had a humble attitude when asking for money or food. There were no pressure, tirades or tantrums. However, a recent experience on the L.A. Metro really showed me how much things have changed.

On a recent trip home from work, I made my usual dash with the rest of the downtown crowd to get a seat. After knocking over two small children, getting elbowed in the stomach by a 90-year-old grandma, putting down at least two NFL-caliber moves to slip by another passenger, and getting my arm bitten by a pregnant woman, I finally made it to a coveted window seat. With ear buds in place, iPod in my pocket, and bag in my lap, I was ready to settle in for my usual 30 minute ride home.

As we traveled down my route, the usual cast of characters got on the train during each stop: business people, thugs, ultra loud talkers, people ready to fight, taggers, school kids, people talking to themselves and of course, the homeless people on my route.

That particular day, I had one of the usual homeless people that I commonly saw on my train. He went about his usual routine of asking for money, in English and Spanish (to make sure he didn’t leave anyone out), and then sat at a seat not too far from me. About three stops away from my stop, I decided to stand by the door. To my surprise, the man began to engage me in conversation. He seemed nice but as the train approached my stop, the homeless man began to laugh. But it was uncomfortable because there was nothing in our conversation to that point that had been funny.

I finally asked what was so funny and he said, “Man, I’m lookin’ at your outfit and you know what? You really need to throw yo’ shoes away!” Now mind you, I was dressed in a shirt and tie, dress slacks and dress shoes. So you can imagine my confusion after hearing his comment only to see… that he wasn’t even wearing any shoes!

Really? The first words out of my mouth were, “Sir, could you need to get some shoes before you can talk about someone else’s shoes?!”

Then, to add insult to injury, he asked me for money before I got off the train. Are you serious?! C’mon maaaaan!

Needless to say I did not give him any money…nor my shoes!

That incident is just one example of how the new millennium homeless have become super bold in confronting others when it comes to getting what they want.

But I’m here to tell you this: whether you’re on a train, bus or on the street, should you ever encounter such an attitude from a homeless person, don’t let the clothes or any funny signs fool you. If they throw attitude, please feel free to throw it right back at them and not feel bad about it.

__

Tenere can be reached at twilliams@oyemag.com

Tenere is a life long resident of the great city of Los Angeles and does not like kids who throw tantrums in grocery stores or the taste of mushrooms.

Popularity: 1% [?]