YOU’RE IN THE ARMY NOW! page 1So there I was standing watching my daughter zoom down the street, away. I didn’t get to say good-bye! I went back in and filled out the paperwork that accompanies everything in modern America. (Personally, I think it is a plot of the paper manufacturers! Hell if it keeps them from being homeless then more power to them!) I was told the rules, which were up on the walls as well and read a minor version of the riot act. Not that I was in any trouble but this is to let everyone know what the rules are and that they don’t want trouble there. I chose one of the 50 or so mats on the floor as my bed for the night. Putting my backpack and the blanket they gave me down on it I went to the showers. They had towels for us - one a day - and there was a box of small liquid soaps and shampoos to use. The latter were contributions, they had a soap that was a body and hair wash but these herbal ones were most welcome. Especially by me, it had been a month since my last real shower. I lingered a bit under the hot water. No, I lingered a lot! I shaved again, washing my hair twice! I changed into cleaner underwear and socks after toweling dry. I’m not ashamed to admit how good it was to be completely clean and scrubbed feeling. I folded the towel up and put it into one of the laundry bags. Before the week was up I would be in the habit of putting it by my stuff for use in the morning. Like I wrote, you got one towel and if you didn’t hold onto it your choice was drip-dry or go into the used towels and use whichever one you grabbed. I didn’t relish the idea of using someone else’s wet towel so I ended up holding on to mine!
Soon it was time for supper. I got on line and before picking up my meal I signed a sheet that I was having a meal there. Somewhere there is an accountant whose job it is to count up all those meals I assume? It was the first hot real supper I’d had in too long a time. (No, I don’t feel that Whopper, heavy on the onions with a coffee I had counts as a “supper”.) The utensils were a problem though. We weren’t allowed knives. I was given a plastic spoon and fork, which were all right but useless on the thickly cut piece of ham roll. Someone in the kitchen had the only knife and weren’t that skilled with it. The round of picnic style ham was very uneven paper-thin in one spot, almost an inch thick else where. There were some rolls so getting one I tore it open and put the meat in it and some of the salad as well. There would be a lot of these ham meals and I missed the rolls on the days when there were none. Also after I left there it would be a long time before I wanted ham! I felt like in those weeks I must have eaten a whole pig on my own! The meals were made from food delivered by Second Harvest, which gets food contributed from restaurants and others. Rather than throw out unused food they let it be used by emergency services and shelters. A couple of nights each week we would have pizzas that hadn’t been picked up. They would be reheated in the oven and then we all had a slice of or two of whatever there was. It is amazing how much food is just thrown out in this country! Not just the usual stuff at home like the “whatever it was it now is soft and green” in back of the refrigerator or what the kids just won’t eat but from restaurants and from supermarkets. Second Harvest solves two problems -one; getting food to those who can’t afford it but also it prevents this from ending up in landfills.
My first couple of nights in the shelter I didn’t sleep too well. It was too new and every cough and noise kept me up or woke me. Besides there was the strangeness of sleeping with bout forty-nine other guys! I kept a death grip on my bag; I was so paranoid and afraid of having it stolen. Te thin mat made the floor a little less harsh but was far from comfortable. In the movies they show people sacked out on folding cots but I’ve only seen these mats on the floor at the couple of places I stayed. I used my bag for a pillow and kept my socks on for comfort. Every cold breeze was on the floor and got through that thin blanket. The mats have the advantage of being easily cleaned, a real cot or bed would hold anything spilled on it; bodily fluids of any type would soon be a problem!
I soon found that by choosing a spot under one of the lights I could read for a bit and that would help me to sleep.
Waking up was often a start. We were woken around half past six every morning. I would wash up and shave. We all stacked our mats in two piles along one wall and had a small breakfast, usually a cold cereal and about half the time coffee as well. I do recall hot sausages one morning and a hot herbal coffee substitute that tasted oddly of berries. I was learning to drink coffee black, which was new for me. Usually I preferred it light with one sugar. But the bit about beggars not being choosers applied to me even if I wasn’t begging.
The shelter is on the edge of an industrial zone so I hoped I’d find work. None of them were looking to hire. At one a sympathetic interviewer wished me luck and said not to give up. Later she ran into me as I while I was making my rounds filling out applications when she told me that most of the places had a policy of not hiring people who couldn’t speak Spanish, her employer included. This was disheartening but I figured I’d try anyway! I spent a lot of time trying.
There was another place to go to that has since closed. It would provide two meals a day to those who showed up and early in the morning would put out breads and other goods from supermarkets chains and some local farmers. Anyone could take what they wanted. Some mornings I showed up to get a small loaf of bread or whatever that I would take with me and have as lunch. Also once a week you could get some laundry done. It would take hours and you had to wait there but the chance to have absolutely clean clothes was wonderful! I got a spare shirt and pants I’d wear while the guy had my stuff from my knapsack. They provided some clothing as well, which is how I came to have that shirt and pants. I got a voucher for a hair cut at Riverside Community College. They have a cosmetology and hair stylist program there and the woman who cut my hair gave me the best cut I think I ever had Even though it was obvious I was one if the homeless what with my bag and the voucher I was treated with respect. I felt pampered. I loved the experience. Before that I always hated haircuts. I hope the woman who cut my hair has great success. I know I felt better than the million dollars in proverbs!