There's a hooker been walking the street in my hood

[graywarrior]

I've seen her every single day for the past week. She wandered in from route 41, Tamiami Trail where all the hookers hang out looking for biz. Somehow, this little girl decided the pickin's must be better in a neighborhood setting. Sometimes she wears her hair piled up in a rats nest on top of her head, sometimes she wears it down in a flow of strings that look like they could slither away. She always wears brown, from head to toe. One day she was on a bike.

I wonder about her. She makes direct eye contact and I think she's sending me a message that she wants a sandwich. I can't imagine where she lives. Maybe a few doors down, but more than likely in one of the crappy motels that line route 41. I saw her heading toward Jan Schneider's headquarters yesterday. Maybe Jan gives her sandwiches.

I think hookers have a plan and she's implementing it.

[bertha katzenengel]

1. I'd give her a sandwich.

I'd give her a meal a day.

[graywarrior]

3. Mr. Gray's religeous nut fther brought a hooker home one time

to give her lunch. Mr. Gray's mother was not happy about it. He met her on the steps of St. Mary's church.

[bertha katzenengel]

5. I hope Mr. Gray's mother got over it.

Hunger is the root of many of the world's problems.

Not to mention: if someone is hungry, and you can feed him, that is what you do.

[graywarrior]

6. Well the hooker came back for a week

and Mr. Gray's father was happy to have someone to pray for.

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. I'd offer her a drink or a sandwich.

In a casual way, I'd probably say something like "Hey, I notice you waiting there a lot. Can I get you some bottled water or something? How about a sandwich?" Maybe she'd think I was a busybody, but the worst she could do is tell me off.

Something else to offer is a dead cell phone (if you have one). The phone will still call 911 without a plan.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. I hear low key jazz music......

....and the voice of Brent Hughes rhyming in the background....

"The hookers stroooollll while the pimps roooollll up and down the hood trying to find the goods..........."

[graywarrior]

7. I wonder if she has a pimp.

Maybe I could be her "go back to school and get a good job" pimp.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Sandwich?

Maybe. We have a few, but one in particular a friend of mine wanted to "save" He picked her up, bought her food (I never asked if there was a sexual exchange and I never will) She had kind of a ravaged face, with this beautiful hair. She was a crack addict and he tried to get her into treatment. In fact he did. She ran out. She moved "to the country with her brother" She came back. Went back to hooking down the street. My friend continued to try to help her. He'd get pulled over by the cops all the time because she was involved with drugs and drug dealers. (This guy isn't at all) Had the absoulute shit beaten out of her one day for "rollin' on her dealers"--My 50 year old friend was fast picking up street lingo-- He took her to the hospital. He introduced her to women he thought would help. Man that guy never gave up. (I wasn't nice, I live in a kind of rough neighborhood, I had kids living with me at the time and told him not to bring her over EVER) She'd walk by and say hi anyway.
Well this has been going on for about four years now. Last I heard she was clean and sober in decent living conditions. I hope it's true and stays true.

[graywarrior]

9. I knew someone like her.

She used to get all messed up and then show up where I worked and sing Bob Dylan songs, pass out, wake up and sing some more.
One day I was at a 12 step meeting, and there she was, clean and sober and had been for a year. She got there by the same type of person your friend is. Persistent and never gave up on her.

[ismnotwasm]

10. That's right

All he saw in her was possiblity for a real life. His persistance was astonishing. I'm still humbled by it.

[graywarrior]

11. My brother is like that.

He has friends going back to first grade, some of them the most abrasive people I know. But he cherishes them. I can;t imagine what they talk about...most of them druggies and alkies.