h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the old days, when the world was in black and white there used to be tramps. They would walk all over the place and might knock on a door as they were passing and ask for a cup of tea or some bread and cheese.

This was the old fashioned 'Man of the Road'.

I think that the female equivalent was The Bag Lady - although I suspect that the nature of The Bag Lady has changed.

When did you last see a proper tramp?

PP.

Its been years now

A few hours ago....

Well not a bag lady, a male, a couple of panhandlers at a suburban intersection actually.

I haven't seen a female panhandler recently,.and when I did it was up in Houston.

I have to make a U-turn to get to the entrance to my neighborhood. There are usually long lines at the light, and usually someone is standing in the median strip asking for money. All kinds of people -- men, women, some with signs explaining their plight, some with buckets for motorists to put change into. Most recently, the people have been collecting for one charity or other. A year or more back, there were individuals who had been hit hard by life's difficulties. I might occasionally give to individuals, but the charities have many different ways to get money. It seems unfair of them to try the patience of motorists who have to wait for so long to get the green arrow.

The tramps have all stopped tramping around and have become 'homeless people' who sit in sleeping bags with signs, asking for money to pay for the hostel. I pass many of them every day.

Rather than giving money to individuals, I give a monthly payment to a charity that looks after them.

Yes, the homeless are generally better kitted out these days. I'm not sure what flavour of 'chic' you'd call it, though.

I walk past sleeping homeless under the arches by Waterloo railway station most days. I'm regularly asked for money on the busy commercial street I work on, because there's a hostel up the road where they all congregate. The beggars tend to be migrants rather than down-and-outs.

I have heard that this town has about a dozen homeless at at given time, but not seen them myself. Or if I did, they weren't particularly 'obvious'. The city of Kingston - about an hour east of here - has many, and they are especially obvious on the business streets during the mid-day. I gather that most folks in that city will give a guy a meal just bought, rather than money which may be ill-used.

There are homeless people everywhere, obviously.

Yesterday I was approached by a man who wanted money for food. I had none, so directed him to the soup kitchen at the nearby mosque.

'He probably wanted money for drink or drugs' some might say. Pfft. Let him have it.

The current scourge is synthetic cannabis (Spice) which many homeless are hooked on. I've seen a few deaths reported on local news recently. Here's a Guardian article on it from this time last year:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/07/cheap-spice-strengthens-grip-northern-towns-blackpool-synthetic-cannabinoid

Every time we walk out the front door... and every night, in the street, by the main roads, begging for money for booze cigarettes and drugs... - especially when we walk near the nearby homeless place, as they congrigate outside there to drink their spec brew Used to be a daily march of them, opposite my house, coming out of the enterence to the graveyard, but they don't seem to be loitering there in quite the same way they did. A lot clearly have very severe mental issues and/or drug problems; one nearby pharmacist is a nightmare to use, on the day they pass out the methadone to the addicts locally before they head off to sell the medacinal drugs on Mill Road, in order to buy the drugs they want There are often a guy or two at the end of this road, begging right by the traffic lights/crossing who are pretty agressive sometimes to passers by - a lot of homeless from London appear to migrate towards Cambridge, believing its easier pickings I guess, or soemthing, which was I heard the explination for the high levels round this area....

It's great to see you back, Edward. I've missed you.

I've seen hitch-hikers the last two occasions I've gone out, unusual these days.

Hopefully not victims of the 'traditional' pre-election economic disruptions.

(American national elections next month.)

Really?

I thought it was two guys who were clandestinely filming "Undecided: the movie."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6122540/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4

Saw another hitch-hiker today, flaming redhead hitch-hiking illegally on the freeway rather than from the on-ramp.

Unusual.

They all seem to be dressed the same.

That's illegal in your zone? Interesting . . .

You see far more homeless people in big cities than in small towns; I rarely see any here in Tullamore. There's an occasional beggar (usually Roma), but I rarely even see them.

I get the impression that the "classic" tramps were largely rural; in that case, I've never seen one at all.

TRiG.

Our town is fairly small and there's one chap who pushes his stuff around in a shopping trolley. He never seems to be drunk or high, just trying to make ends meet.

There was one real nutter who went around town day and night telling everyone (very loudly) how he'd been cheated out of all his money but he's gone now. Hope he got a job and his sanity back.

Eastleigh is home to a man known as the 'Naked Rambler', who likes walking all around the country without being encumbered by clothing.

<BB<

Do you know the difference between hobos, tramps, and bums?

A hobo travels from place to place picking up odd jobs.
A tramp travels, but prefers not to work.
A bum neither travels or works.

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/11/26/the-difference-between-hobos-tramps-and-bums/

In the OP I was thinking about the hairy old chap who carries everything he has round in a few bags and who probably walks from town to town to town with some vague plan. In years gone by he may well have suffered mental illness, probably wasn't a drinker and may indeed be ex-forces suffering from PTSD or simply unable to adjust to civvie street. Longer ago, recession may have played a part.

I THINK the last time I saw one of these it was a Scotts guy who had taken shelter in a barn fearful that a sword was going to fall from the sky and kill him. Some years ago.

What people seem to be seeing is a new(ish) class of homeless person I think. There are of course exceptions, but cheap alcohol and easy access to 'recreational' (peculiar term for something so damaging) drugs are playing a massive part. Why anyone would take spice twice is beyond me.

I must read 'Down and out in London and Paris.

PP.