Remember, ... behind the eyes of those you meet may be 'quiet desperation'...

[Blackhatjack]

I remember those who lived through the 'great depression' talk about how people did what they could to get by, life was reduced to making it through next month ... or next week, how people did not have social security and they often adopted a stoic exterior that hid a quiet desperation.

This Christmas season I have shopped stores in both the 'richest' part of town and the 'non-richest' part of town. There are always exceptions to every rule, and appearances can always be misleading, but...

Just my observation, but it seemed those shopping on the 'richest' part of town seemed to be happier and spending more freely, much like prior Christmas seasons when the economy was rolling along. And on the 'non-richest' side of town people seemed to be watching their money much more closely, searching for 'deals', and not nearly as cheerful.

Not everyone who is hurting will share their pain with others. Yet that does nothing to alleviate the pain being felt by them and their families.

It just seems like there are two worlds out there, and those suffering the most are quietly dealing with their own desperation.

One other observation: Pawn shops seem to be stacked to the gills with everything that can be pawned --in some cases the pawn shops won't even take an item because they already have half a dozen to sell.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[TiberiusGracchus]

2. Yeah I went by a thrift store to grab some towels for my car and it was PACKED before xmas.

The place was usually empty except for a couple kids looking for vintage clothes, but the place was seriously packed and the customers all seemed pretty forlorn.

[murielm99]

3. Sometimes those are the best places to shop.

Some of the older clothing is of better quality than the cheap crap made in China that we buy new.

I can't find new winter slacks that keep me warm. The resale shops have them. My daughter went to the Brown Elephant in Chicago and got a beautiful camel hued wool coat. It is heavy and toasty warm. It looks like it was made to last thirty years.

Those thrift store shoppers sound pretty smart to me.

[Blackhatjack]

4. It seems people are trying to hang onto the last shreds of their dignity even if ...

... everything else has gone to pot.

There are people who will not go to a food bank, or seek help in any way. Some end up dead. And then we wonder why someone didn't reach out to them.

Well, sometimes we don't know what is going on behind closed doors ... foreclosure, repossessed cars, lost jogs, overwhelming medical bills, etc.

[winyanstaz]

5. Main street in my little town is littered with empty store fronts.....

and here on the "suburb" between my little town and the next little town down the road...there is a mega huge new shopping mall down the freeway a ways,...that seems to be doing great so far...
But the little corner mall now has two new empty business fronts.
There is a lot of unemployment here as several smaller business have folded along with the biggest sawmill shut down.
In the meantime...all Fred Mayer stores in the area are letting food ROT in their garbage cans rather than give pulled produce to the local food banks..and how many other big name stores are doing the same thing? Can't be many big stores giving as the food banks shelves stay mostly sparse and the vegetables and fruits they dole out are mostly rotten.
Yes Fred does have a barrel out front for the customers to buy things to give to the food banks...but that never gets very full as people are hurting.
At Christmas Fred buys a lot of advertisements on tv about their food bank drive (that the customers buy)..while tons of food rots.
I just want them to let the food banks have that food all year round instead of letting it rot.

[LibDemAlways]

6. I know a college student who took a part-time job at

Border's bookstore working in their cafe. Her first day on the job at the end of her shift her supervisor told her to take the unsold baked goods and throw them in the dumpster out back. When she got back there, she encountered a homeless woman rummaging through the trash. The young worker handed the woman a cookie - a gesture that was noticed by another store employee. When the worker headed back into the store she was severely reprimanded by her boss who told her never to give anything away - but to "bury it" in the dumpster.

I realize that by giving the woman a cookie the young employee was encouraging the homeless woman to return for more hand-outs - something the store was trying to discourage. But, on the other hand, refusing to give away leftovers that are only going to rot on the garbage pile seems very miserly, especially in this economy.

[Berry Cool]

10. If I were her I'd stash them away in my purse until I got off work

then go back behind the dumpster and see if the woman was still there. Soon she'd learn to meet me there and I'd hand her every leftover I had for the night. I'd figure she'd probably know someone else who could use what she couldn't eat.

There's at least one great organization I know of that wraps up leftover backstage food after concerts and similar events and distributes it to people who need it.

[Blackhatjack]

7. In this land of plenty, children go to bed hungry... unforgiveable.

A few weeks ago one of the headlines was 1 in 4 children are on foodstamps.

Later there was an article about 'food insecurity' among children, where they missed meals at home and how school officials were concerned about how they would be fed during the holidays while on vacation from school.

And on the same day there were people defending bonuses over $16 billion were set aside by Goldman-Saches for its upper level officials.

How do you reconcile such ultra-wealth, and such heartbreaking poverty? in our country?

And all some want is to have the food that is thrown away in trashcans?

Something is seriously out of whack here....

[EmeraldCityGrl]

8. This time of year I call a lot of people

that I may not have spoken to for several months. I noticed the same thing in the voices and updates on
family, work etc. Nobody wants to sound as if their on the edge, but that's how it feels. The best we can do
is gracefully help those that may not ask for the help they need, especially the elderly.

[Blackhatjack]

11. You are so right about the elderly....

Many won't ask for the help they need, and sure don't want others to know that they are in need.

[leftstreet]

9. K&R