Wednesday, April 17, 2024

since I am now unemployed, and hell, a little freaked out about finding a new job when the world, the country, the state, the county, and the city are in chaos and lay offs are a daily news headline, I'll be posting less, but, THIS? You GOTTA see!


I think most of you know I celebrate and share a LOT of what impresses me, and what I think is awesome, and this is a house a homeless guy built on an LA freeway siding. 

Most of you have been readers for a while, and know I often post about things only barely in the realm of car stuff, and will stretch the connection a bit, and this one makes it on the page because it's on a freeway. Yup, that is in the zone of what I post about, stuff on the freeway, AND something that is AWESOME. 

I think you'll agree, that when you see this kind of accomplishment it's all that you need to wish you could help that person of talent and commitment along in life to a happy day. With something they request when asked, "What can I do to help" 

I've been homeless before, not helpless or hopeless, and lived in my garage for years while keeping a job, and blogging away. A few of you know that. 

But I have never been able to even consider being half as fortunate as anyone that can buy a home, no matter how humble or run down. It's in the news last week that you must make at least 65k as a single income person to buy a home, and that's ONLY in 14 states, where it's possible to buy a house for under 75k, down from 35 states the last time that survey was completed https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/04/13/us-states-where-you-can-buy-a-home-if-you-earn-less-than-75000.html 

So, life in the USA, as around the world, is divided by the haves and have nots, those that have made it past the struggle and challenges of life and income, and have homes. Others are nearly there and rent. The rest, around the world, make do as best they can and often make shacks of what's available, where ever they can, and you others that have traveled the world know what I'm talking about and have seen the tent cities of refugees, the Jamaican shacks made from hurricane damaged building materials


and you may have seen the vast tent cities of America 100 years ago on Shorpy.com 



homeless camps have been more or less permanent fixtures within U.S. cities since the rise of modern industrialism in the latter half of the 19th century. Hobo camps, migrant camps, trailer cities for WW2 workers coming to the aircraft jobs in California, Hoovervilles, shantytowns, Skid Rows, etc.  https://placesjournal.org/article/tent-city-america/


“There was a Hooverville on the edge of every town,” wrote John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath, his Depression epic about tenant farmers who journey from Oklahoma to California.

Few dispute that the contemporary era of chronic homelessness in America began with the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. The Reagan administration slashed federal subsidies for low-income housing and psychiatric health centers and deinstitutionalized thousands of mentally ill patients. The all too predictable consequence was a dramatic rise in the ranks of the homeless, and the return of encampments to the streets and open spaces of American cities. Then, the Reagan nonsense of war on drugs, which made drugs ubiquitous, added to the humanity crisis, and it's been about 40 years of hopelessness for anyone living on the street. 

But not this guy!


Even in California, with half the nations homeless population in just 300 miles of So Cal beach cities, this guy made a veritable cottage. On a freeway siding 


that is just amazing, and really nice looking! Yellow with white trim, latticework, and a white fence? Hell, that is classic. It looks like there are some trees planted in stone rings to the left! 

As Steve Carlisle once sang 
"Got kind of tired packing and unpacking
 Town to town and up and down the dial 
Maybe you and me were never meant to be 
But baby think of me once in awhile 

Baby, if you've ever wondered, 
Wondered whatever became of me, 
I'm living on the air in Cincinnati, Cincinnati, WKRP" 

And Aerosmith sang:
"There's something wrong with the world today
 I don't know what it is 
Something's wrong with our eyes

 We're seeing things in a different way 
There's something wrong with the world today 
The light bulb's getting dim 
There's meltdown in the sky

 If you can judge a wise man 
By the color of his skin 
Then mister you're a better man than I, oh

 Living on the edge
 You can't help yourself from falling 
Living on the edge 
You can't help yourself at all

well, this guy is living on the edge of the 110. 

As legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite signed off  -  "And that's the way it is,"

2 comments:

  1. Great insight and commentary. I feel in this great country we live in we call America there is a war on the homeless. Instead of providing the true help needed, the majority make a broad assumption that it is the fault of the individual instead of the circumstance. Even in the video on the article there seemed to be more condemnation then admiration or praise for making due with what they have. Instead of helping our fellow man/woman we condemn and criticize then punish them for making the best out of a situation by building shelter. I really feel there needs to be a mind-shift on the haves and have-nots so we all may help each other be the best version of ourselves. Although I mostly read for your car content this type of insight and perspective really is amazing. Thank You for sharing it.

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  2. The guy who built that is not lazy! He has a serious work ethic and I hope someone rewards him for that rather than punish him.

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