The Fashionable Homeless

Drove past three young white kids at an intersection today, two scruffy-faced men probably in their late teens, possibly early twenties, and a thin woman about the same age, her hair in dreads.

The three were standing in a row like those Burma-Shave signs of old, staggered about ten feet apart from one another. As I approached the stoplight the first one I saw was the taller of the two men, and he was holding a sign that read "Newly Homeless - Anything Helps." Then I passed the woman with the dreads and she was holding up a sign with the words "God Bless & Have A Wonderful Day" written on it in flowery script.

The third one, the shorter of the two men, was at the corner, with what looked like three backpacks piled around the bottom of the stoplight pole. I chuckled at his sign when I read it, but as I had to stop for the light I also looked him over a bit. He was dressed in a flannel coat/hoody thing, and was wearing newish jeans - and Vasque hiking boots that looked fairly new. Then I looked back at the young woman and noticed the North Face logo on the back of the jacket she was wearing - and the Vasque hiking boots she also had on. The first man I had passed coming in was too far away for me to see what shoes he was wearing, but I'd bet dollars to tater-tots they were of a similar high-quality, high-dollar brand as Vasque.

"Wow", I thought to myself as I reread the sign of the man standing at the stoplight pole. "We Swear We Won't Spend It On Weed" might be true - but that apparently does not rule out spending it at REI.