STRANGER #3 (EXPLORED)
Meet Don, Stranger #3 in my 100 Strangers Project.
I watched Don for a while before approaching him. He was entertaining. He'd sit in this doorway watching people walk by on the 6th Street sidewalk and crack up laughing, make faces, overall just having a great time. Most people didn't notice him or just plain ignored him. I snapped pictures.
I finally approached Don and asked if I could take his picture. He agreed. I stood across from him and snapped this shot and about 8 more. When finished I thanked Don and he said that will be $1 per picture. Then he laughed.
I typically won't write or discuss giving money to someone in need because I think it takes away from the act of giving. That's between me, the person I've given to, and the Man upstairs. Well, this time it plays into my story. I had a $10 and needed change to give Don a couple bucks. I walked over to a food cart and asked for change for a $10. The owner, Marco, (who'll you'll hear about in another Stranger post), nicely told me, "No, I won't support their drug habit." I offered to buy a water, but he still declined. I asked him if it was that bad, Marco said it was. Crack is the drug and Don had a big problem with it. Marco told me he used to give guys like Don spare change to help them out, but these guys didn't want change because the drug dealers won't take it. They only want bills. So, in the case of Don, Marco would give him a bottled water because it was so hot out. He did that until he saw Don selling the water bottles on the street to get money to buy drugs, (instead of drinking it himself).
I went back and sat down with Don for a while longer. Don is 47 years old and is originally from California. In fact, he went to school in Thousand Oaks where I grew up. Later in life Don moved to Oregon. Things got sketchy then and he stopped talking. His mood was somber and the humor was gone. I asked if Don if he was okay, he told me he was thinking about what he was going to say. Then he told me he didn't want to talk about it. That was it for the Oregon portion of his life. Don did mention being in Austin for the past several years.
Don was a nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him. In the end he asked me if he could go buy a beer and he'd bring me the change. He said I could trust him. I gave Don the $10 and he walked away. Now, I knew I probably wouldn't see him again, but I really wanted to know if Don would return with my change. Besides, wouldn't that make a wonderful ending to my story? I thought it would. I love a heart warming ending.
Well, Don never returned. It was no surprise, but I was betting that he would.
He is my 3rd stranger in the Flickr challenge to shoot photos of 100 strangers:
www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
Reviewed by Zannnie
on
2:16 AM
Rating:
