The Reagan "Car People" are heard from. (Tales of the homeless DUers)

[asdf2231]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4038997

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 03:51 PM
Original message
When I was homeless for a while in the '80s
Due to the Reaganomics disaster, why didn't anyone come bail me out? I desperately needed help and no one came to help. No one.

This reminds me of that line from "Raising Arizona" where Nick Cage says "I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House. I dunno. They say he's a decent man, so maybe his advisors are confused." 

DaveTheWave  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
1. Cars were bigger back then
 I know, I lived in my Plymouth Valiant for almost three weeks.

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 03:55 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. at least I had a van
 I lived in it for 6 months

Funny the longest I ever went between jobs was less than a week...

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 04:08 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. LOL
 I remember, some of us found a refuge in the back section of a public park where we were pretty much left alone.The local cops knew we were just some hard struck folks and looked the other way.

Anyway, one of the few posessions I still had was a pump up pellet rifle and some pellets. There were fat squirrels running through the trees and I was starving to death. So I pulled out the pellet rifle and dropped a couple of them. The guy camped next to me said "what are you going to do with those squirrels?". I pulled out my knife and started gutting and skinning one and told him "get a fire started, we're gonna eat."

The look on his face was a Kodak moment for sure.

Nay  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 09:12 PM
Response to Reply #8
17. I've eaten a squirrel! U know what's funny, gtrman? The people today
 would starve to death on the street before they could even think about eating a pigeon, a squirrel, etc. They can't even boil the water to cook the damn thing, much less kill it, skin it, and cut it up for the pot. There are lots of ppl out there who don't eat vegetables. At all. Tons of ppl wouldn't eat fresh groceries even if they knew how to cook them up -- if it isn't pizza, boxed mac n cheese, or Hot Pockets, they are stumped.

As mean as it is of me, I'd love to see this part of the disaster scenario happen. I would just laugh and laugh.

lib2DaBone (836 posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #10
15. Less worries.. I lived in my van in 1982...
 Edited on Fri Sep-19-08 04:35 PM by lib2DaBone
I lived for a whole winter in my van in Orlando, Fla. Had the Ford Econoline.. shag carpet on the walls and quad speakers. (far out man..) The guy who parked next to me in the campground was a golf pro (or trying to be) He was trying to get his PGA card. Every morning he would leave at 7 am to go hit balls at the driving range. (8 hrs a day) At night everyone would drink beer and practice putting at the camp site. I think Ronnie Ray-Gun was the Pres? How come every time a Repuke gets in I end up living in my van?

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 04:38 PM
Response to Reply #10
16. ouch, that's small
 Luckily, I had traded a Datsun pickup for the van a few months before I hit the bricks.

I remember one week, I filled out over 100 job applications in 5 days. Didn't care what it was, dishwasher, busboy, anything. Not one single bite in all that time, I was parked near a pay phone and guarded it with my life trying to get a call for a job. Nothing. A whole lot of people have no idea how bad it got for a lot of us for a while back then.

readmoreoften  (1000+ posts)       Fri Sep-19-08 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
2. That's impossible, when the rich people get richer, a rising tide lifts all boats...
 

Because they hate us. 

 

[Chris_]

It looks like TiTosis is infecting the place to me.

[tuolumnejim]

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 04:38 PM
Response to Reply #10
16. ouch, that's small
 Luckily, I had traded a Datsun pickup for the van a few months before I hit the bricks.

I remember one week, I filled out over 100 job applications in 5 days. Didn't care what it was, dishwasher, busboy, anything. Not one single bite in all that time, I was parked near a pay phone and guarded it with my life trying to get a call for a job. Nothing. A whole lot of people have no idea how bad it got for a lot of us for a while back then.

Might be that changing bong water and rolling a tight dub just are not very good qualifications for employment. 

[Flame]

You know, I could lose everything I have and still not be homeless...you know why?  my FAMILY would help me until I got back on my feet.  Yeah, my family....those people the DUmmies disown over piddly crap....would help me because <gasp> that's what families do!

[Texacon]

I have to confess.  In 1985 I was living in the back of a GMC pickup.  It was my choice though and I was having a blast. 

KC

[BlueStateSaint]

You know, I could lose everything I have and still not be homeless...you know why?  my FAMILY would help me until I got back on my feet.  Yeah, my family....those people the DUmmies disown over piddly crap....would help me because <gasp> that's what families do!

But, my dear Flame, most DUmb****s have no families because they've been such ****ups that they were disowned . . . 

[GOBUCKS]

It looks like TiTosis is infecting the place to me.

No, TiTtyboy would not simply live in a car, although he has apparently been homeless his entire adult life. If he lived in a car, there would have to be some celebrity component to the story.

Like, in the 70s he was living in the back of Richard Petty's Plymouth when he won the Daytona 500. Left those high bank turns in a fog of reefer smoke.

John DeLorean, TiTtyboy's poker buddy, gave him a DMC prototype to live in on the beach at Malibu. That was while he was shacked up with Farrah Fawcett. He'd throw these great parties underneath the open gull-wing doors, and DeLorean would bring some killer blow.

That's how TiTtyboy rolls.

[jukin]

1982?

Even Reagan could not turn back the disaster that was the Carter reign of incompetence in less than two years.

[Carl]

GTRMAN  (1000+ posts)      Fri Sep-19-08 04:38 PM
Response to Reply #10
16. ouch, that's small
 Luckily, I had traded a Datsun pickup for the van a few months before I hit the bricks.

I remember one week, I filled out over 100 job applications in 5 days. Didn't care what it was, dishwasher, busboy, anything. Not one single bite in all that time, I was parked near a pay phone and guarded it with my life trying to get a call for a job. Nothing. A whole lot of people have no idea how bad it got for a lot of us for a while back then.

Might be that changing bong water and rolling a tight dub just are not very good qualifications for employment. 

Yep,try to imagine what impression the person gave to a possible employer.

I remember back to that time and even then with unemployment high there were always jobs in the paper and they were just what he describes so I find it pretty unlikely he couldn`t find any job if he was truly willing to take it.

[BannedFromDU]

I lived in a van down by the river, and all I got was this stinkin' t-shirt

[GOBUCKS]

I remember back to that time and even then with unemployment high there were always jobs in the paper and they were just what he describes so I find it pretty unlikely he couldn`t find any job if he was truly willing to take it.

Especially when you consider this was before they began drug testing.
But.....he is, after all, a DUmmy.

[Chris_]

It looks like TiTosis is infecting the place to me.

No, TiTtyboy would not simply live in a car, although he has apparently been homeless his entire adult life. If he lived in a car, there would have to be some celebrity component to the story.

Like, in the 70s he was living in the back of Richard Petty's Plymouth when he won the Daytona 500. Left those high bank turns in a fog of reefer smoke.

John DeLorean, TiTtyboy's poker buddy, gave him a DMC prototype to live in on the beach at Malibu. That was while he was shacked up with Farrah Fawcett. He'd throw these great parties underneath the open gull-wing doors, and DeLorean would bring some killer blow.

That's how TiTtyboy rolls.

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of the squirrel killing. Sort of TiTty-lite. But I do have to say that I laughed my ass of at this: Like, in the 70s he was living in the back of Richard Petty's Plymouth when he won the Daytona 500. Left those high bank turns in a fog of reefer smoke. If only you had added that TiT was coaching the King the entire race. Screaming instructions from the trunk. That's how Richard learned to win all of those races. With a standard TiT, "Damn, damn, damn, I miss those days."