Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Open Thread: Heard on the Street

OK, folks, whip off the headphones and start listening. I heard some shit today that was really hard to turn away from, and you know, I only heard it because I was futzing with my radio. This woman and this guy were standing on the sidewalk next to a bike rack. She said,
"you're not my friend..Those are women who just want to fuck!"
and the guy sort of looked at the ground and said, "but---"
well it went on from there. I'm sure you can imagine. I wasn't really sure of what had happened, but the situation was readable. A man and woman in their twenties in hipster gear. A woman dressing down a man who had done something to wreck their friendship. She was so mad, but not so mad, or so "over" whatever their relationship was that she was walking the other direction. She was giving him a dressing down, telling him what was what, giving him a lecture to let him know just how badly he had fucked up. He was looking for excuses, explanations, and not really getting a word in.
I really, really wanted to be a spectator (and I tell you, I wasn't the only one. Like cars going by a traffic accident, people were rubbernecking all over the sidewalk).... But - I put on my headphones. Some things, we're not meant to hear...even when they happen in public.
tell me what you heard on the street today.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
There were two homeless fellows I would pass daily on my way to the train station. They were allways glad to see me because I often felt compelled to give them a dollar or two. Finally it became kind of intense both of them shouting "Yo!" and expecting me to daily miss my train waiting for them to catch up to me. Then one day about 6 months ago they both vanished. I finally heard the story when I ran into one of them a few days ago. He was locked for 6 months for a parole violation. He has HIV and had been looking pretty bad before, but this time it was about as healthy as I had ever seen him. He told me about the other guy, he was beaten up by the shop rite security guards so bad that he is in a nursing home, and to my knowledge is still there now.
mcapri

reb said...

That is some of the saddest street news I've heard in a while.

Anonymous said...

Passed Raymond near shop rite today-the fellow with HIV, gave him a buck and a freebie lexis-nexis shirt I got at work. Some younger nattily dressed fellows found this hilarious and informed me, and him that his nickname is "yuckmouth" presumbably from his bouts with oral thrush.
mcapri