Last seen
March 14th, 2005 at 10:14am |
Shopping cart guy was last seen heading down the road. Don’t know where he’s headed. Maybe looking for more bottles.
It’s odd to sometimes see my neighbor elsewhere, out of the context of a mumbled how’re you doing at the door or on my way to the car. I’ve seen him at the grocery store a couple of times, but from a distance. I don’t know what it is, but I feel odd acknowledging him outside of the environment I know him from. Much like ignoring the big pink elephant on the street. Harder to ignore when you’re at your door, though.
Posted in Shopping cart guy
Do you consider greeting him sometime?
Oh, we talk to him. I had the extended conversation about him moving the couch when I moved in. His father, or friend, or whomever, always says “hi.” Last conversation was asking if the skateboard ramp that now lives under the staircase, often in front of the shopping cart, was ours. And one time he had some other young guy in the doorway when I was going into the apartment, who told me to let him know if anybody bothered me. The wonders of male bravado…
It’s interesting. Dude is harmless, well, unless you did something to the cart, i suspect. He’s ill. And I think he does this compulsively. I didn’t realize how compulsively until I saw him a good half-mile down the street the other day, pushing the cart. And pushing this cart is no small feat, as the things billow out far beyond its plastic limits. but not the billowing you see in other carts, where it’s just recyclables in huge black and clear garbage bags. Always a canvas poncho or something, brooms, signs, bottles, something that smells like death… Through the blinds of his apartment sometimes you can see piles of junk crawling up the windows. It’s difficult to understand him, as his words are slurred together, so conversations tend to be brief. “Hi.” “It’s a great day.” “Do you want those bottles?”
Heather paints an apt description. And I’d guess he does have a problem.
We often say hello, he says he’s tired. Wants to know if we want those bottles. Or once, shortly after I got here, if I had any money.