Posted 11/25/2002

This memory and it's telling were evoked by David Arthur Walters' article:"Profiling Panhandlers". (Authors Den).  Seemingly weirdly, Mr. Walters was deleted from AD.

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   I was in Seattle in the summer of 1986.  One of the summer stock groups was performing a comedy written by a local playwright.  The theater was located on the south side--Seattle's "Bowery"--near the old King Dome.
   The doors would open at seven p.m.  I went early, about six o'clock...wanted to eat something before the show.
   Went into a corner delicatessen, got a couple of sandwiches and a drink, stepped out, headed for a little park-like area across the street.  Waited for the traffic light to change.

   This thirtyish-looking dude, wearing brown and white oxfords, green trousers, long-sleeved red shirt, complementary plaid vest, sunglasses, and a red-banded green fedora, stepped up and said, "Say, man, can you spare me forty-five?"
   I said, "Forty-five what?  Dollars?"
   He drew back his head and shoulders, mouth half-agape...blurted, "Man, that would be outrageous...me askin' for forty-five DOLLARS!"

   I looked along the streets.  Other men were standing there and... there...and there...nonchalantly watching.   I asked him, confidential-like, "If I give you money, how about these other guys?"
   He glanced around, then--with a jerk of his head--said, "Step over to my office!"  (Which was about three square feet of space at the side of a large U.S. Mail box.)

   Safely "inside" --the box behind me, the street-traffic to my left, the delicatessen to my right, facing each other--I suggested, "What would you say to twenty-five?"
   He thumb-and-fingered his chin for a moment, then agreed:  "Given the present economic conditions, especially my own, I would have to be more than grateful to accept your offer!"

   As I turned back toward the little park-like area, he uttered--confidential-like, "If those other gentlemen hit you up for a handout, just tell 'em you gave at the office!"

(The 11/27/2002 review {below} was not submitted by Nubianne Black
but by David Arthur Walters, now writing at http://downtownkansascity.blogspot.com )