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A guerilla
historian in Gotham
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Intro - On Business - On New York - On Sleeping On The Subway |
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Final Thoughts On The Street Me: You’re an expert on life on the street. If I suddenly found myself homeless—without a home or a job, without a place to sleep—what would I do? [He thought about if for a moment.] Billy: Well, if you was a shelter type person I’d say go to a shelter. Some people go to the shelter. The shelters, they all over the place. That’d be the first thing I’d say. Everybody don’t know how to survive on the streets. Some people can’t make it on the streets. [Another person came by and paused at his sign, a plump woman "What do I do?" she asked in an Eastern European accent. "Whatever you want—you tell me off," explained Billy. She didn’t look amused. Maybe she didn’t understand. She looked at the sign, at the $2.00 price tag. "I don’t have two, here, take one." "Ok," said Billy. "ok, god bless!" We watched her walk off. "Yeah," said Billy, "yeah, you must bring some damn luck or something, because it sure wasn’t happening like this!" I thought that maybe that was because he was asleep before, but I didn’t say anything. He seemed more alive, more awake now, and grinned more often. He shook his head and came back to our interview.] Billy: Ok, so I’d say go to a shelter. But if you didn’t want to go to a shelter, if you were out on the streets, then you’d have to, you’d have to… [He racked his brain, trying to figure out how to say that I was asking a stupid question—because, after all, being on the streets means that you’re going to be reactive—there’s no planning ahead, no strategy. He gave it up and just grinned at me, secure in his knowledge, like some monk of the order of Gotham:] Well, the cold will make you figure out how to get warm! You can go around to the dumpsters, find you some clothes… you can always find clothes, blankets and stuff. Sometimes it’s harder to find blankets than to find clothes. And they be clean clothes! You search around the dumpsters around the big housing projects, you always find clothes. And some of them be nice clothes they just throw away, some of them be drug lords and got some good shit—name brand some of them! And they just throw it away ‘cause they got money, they buy mo, don’ need nothing, making money like that they don’t care—tired of wearing of them, they just throw ‘em away. [I turned off the tape recorder and thanked him. I asked him if the stuff next to him was all the stuff he had—a few blankets and a small back. He said yes, things got stolen and more stuff was just more to worry about.] |
