My favorite panhandler in Berkeley is back. He’s this old black guy who walks up to people with an angry leer and says “Spare change, ya’ red-assed snake?” Even odder, sometimes people actually give him spare change. To which he replies. “Thanks. Ya’ red-assed snake.”
I always wondered if there actually was a species of red-assed snakes or if it was just some weird mixed metaphor he came up with off the top of his head.
I only tried spare changing once when I was 19. It happened by accident. I was walking down Skid Row in San Francisco with my doomed pal Fearless Frank and we happened to be talking about the subject of panhandling and a passerby heard me say the word “spare change” and handed me a dollar. I thought, “Man thats easy.” So I gave it a try. I sat down on the sidewalk on Mission Street. The second guy I asked for spare change was this businessman and he turned around and shouted at me. “SPARE CHANGE? FUCK SPARE CHANGE!”
I was so humiliated I never tried it again. Except for this one time. I was sitting against the Cody’s Books building drinking a cup of coffee. And this little old lady walked by and put a quarter in my cup. I fished the quarter out of my coffee and figured I’d better quit while I was ahead.
I used to say :” SPARE CHANGE FOR A BRAIN TRANSPLANT?”
Comment by Obadiah Robert Robinson — August 19, 2011 @ 10:40 pm |