PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE
I came off the Parkway, to surface streets, and at the top of the ramp stood a 30ish female with a sign saying
Homeless and Hungry
Anything will help
Seat-belted in, guys can’t reach wallets. Women with purses are good marks.
Clothes are neat and clean – there’s an insulated bag, stuffed with something. Under/behind it is a $125 backpack, better than mine. Its carry-handles tied around a sign-post, is a Wal-Mart bag full of groceries, including four cans of Campbell’s soups. It’s hard to make those up over a campfire.
I’m not saying she’s a scammer, but she looks it. 😳
***
Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.
Archon's Den 
What a great take on the prompt. Too bedraggled, looks sketchy; too neat and clean; looks suspect. How to find that juste milieu to make a living 😏
LikeLike
Another ‘too real to be fiction.’ I saw this on Wed. and had no better idea for a FF on Thur.
I’d say, ‘Show some grit, and get a job’ but even before COVID, jobs were hard to find, and roadside begging pays better than most McJobs. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a crazy time we are living in. Think I’m having any luck finding something? Ugh
LikeLike
I would rather work than beg. But hey …each to their own.
LikeLike
Some people are proud to create/accomplish something, others are satisfied with milking the system. I’m with you. 🙂
LikeLike
We had a man who begged in a neighboring town. Many businesses offered him work and he refused…. sadly he could make more per hour on the corner. Tax free.
LikeLike
Short-term it makes a little sense, but you can’t make a long-term career out of it – no benefits, no health insurance, no vacation time off, no retirement fund. 😯 I’m noticing more females doing this, which makes me wonder if they have husbands/boyfriends who provide those, and they are just supplementing family income. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
In Portland there are married couples working opposites end of the good corners. It’s a cottage industry.
LikeLike
I once witnessed a man who’d been begging pack up his stuff, walk down the street and climb into a very smart car. To some, it’s a profession.
Here’s mine!
LikeLike
There was one like that in Toronto, Canada. “Shaky Lady” had muscle tremors and speech problems – until quitting time, when she quickly slipped down a side street, and drove away in an Audi. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ll probably be seeing more of this in the coming months as the recession hits hard and the wealth gap widens even further. You can’t support a family on a McJob. Last option, compulsory religion?
LikeLike
My Mother said that she would “Give To The Needy – Not The Greedy.” I would help those who couldn’t meet their mortgage, but not roadside scammers with more money than me. 😳
LikeLike
I wonder sometimes when I see those folks if they got those things out of the trash can. My county is very prosperous and they throw away a lot of good stuff. Nice observation, there, Archon.
LikeLike
This one wasn’t pulling anything out of garbage pails. She’d obviously just come from shopping at the Wal-Mart on the other side of the off-ramp – apparently neither homeless, nor hungry. 😯
LikeLike
Ah! Ok, thanks. 🙂
LikeLike
She just needed a lift home, smooth talking hussy probably. But, why do people trust pretty girls? – What ulterior intentions are to blame?
Drive on by and feel guilty if she ends up in a ditch someplace. – My that is dark!
LikeLike
I recently picked up a hitchhiker. He said, “I’m surprised you picked me up. I might be a serial killer.” I said, “The chance of two serial killers in the same car is astronomical.”
Hello, Salvation Army – Do you save bad girls?? Well, save me one for Saturday night. 😳 😆
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yep, the old ones are the best – jokes I mean.
LikeLike
Hey…. I resemble that remark 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve heard one can make a good living that way. It’s sad because there are people out there who really do rely on that kindness to survive.
LikeLike
True dat! 😳
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some people give “begging” a bad name. If someone really Does need it, that’s fine. If they don’t need to beg and do it anyway because they are lazy – that’s so very sad. Look at their fingernails to see if they are really in need of a handout! Nice story!
LikeLike
Fingernails are a good telling point. My old eyesight just isn’t good enough to use it. The rest of the physical clues were a little larger and more obvious. 🙂
LikeLike
[…] my Flash Fiction about seeing a roadside beggar, a commenter from England said that a panhandler in his city has been spotted ending his day by […]
LikeLike