Larry went much further than I would have ever done. Nobody gets into my car on the strength of some story like that.

I was sort of pushing things, Felix. He didn’t want to get into my car but I was determined that things were going to be done on my terms if he received help from me. I wanted him to understand that I was helping him because he needed help and not because I was intimidated by him.

I checked him over pretty good. He was wearing a tee shirt and nylon warmup pants. He wasn’t concealing any weapons that I could tell and I’m not a small man.

Much to his surprise, when the elder and his family emerged from chuch, there was the man, rising from the bench. An hour and a half had passed, and he had waited.

That’s something I’ve discovered about bums. They will wait you out. They have much more time to kill than you do. If you are going to run a bluff on a bum you better be prepared to go the distance with it. They don’t think about future consequences, only what they can BS themselves through at the moment.

Your Elder gave an angel a meal that day. I’m sure St. Peter will bring up that incident with him when they meet.

A sort of reverse twist on Larry’s experience, not something that happened to me, but to an elder of a church here in Chattanooga, located downtown.

As the elder and his family were walking up to the church on Sunday, a raggedly dressed man approached him and asked for a dollar for some food. The elder, sure that the man was playing him, told him that no, he would not give him money, but if the man would wait, after church he was welcome to share lunch at a local cafeteria with the elder and his family, as their guest. The man looked crestfallen, but nodded and shuffled over to a bench. The elder went into church with his family, sure that the bum would be gone by the time church was over.

Much to his surprise, when the elder and his family emerged from chuch, there was the man, rising from the bench. An hour and a half had passed, and he had waited. Nothing for it but to keep his part of the bargain, so the elder took the man to lunch with his family. The bum ate very well.

Having said that, sitting on a curb shaking a cup does not qualify as work. However, blasting out a well played tune on a Saxiphone under the arts atrium does. As does playing a guitar, dancing or taking the time to come up with an outrageoulsy unbelivable lie about why he/she needs the money.

The guy in the parking lot at Wal-Mart that gave me the story about how he and his family were trying to get to Kentucky but their van broke down and he didn’t have the cash to feed his family and fix the vehicle. Now that was a lie worthy of a reward. After I gave him the $2.00 or so worth of change in my pocket (and he dissapeared) I walked across the parking lot to the van he pointed out. The Lady in the Van had never met the man and the van was in decent working order.

$2.00 worth of entertainment right there.