Morals

[DanClimbsTrees]

Unfortunately I can't see the gap between poor and average income people getting any smaller within the current government's term.

[Steve Bullman]

Unfortunately I can't see the gap between poor and average income people getting any smaller within the current government's term.

 

 

And that's the people's fault not the government

[aspenarb]

And that's the people's fault not the government

 

Which is true.

 

What we " people" also fail to do is spot the early tell tale signs of a person about to fall into the abyss of addiction. A bit more support and recognition from close friends and family would go a long way. Stable door and all that.

 

Bob

[Haironyourchest]

Story:

 

In the summer of '07 an English guy appeared in our wee village looking for an old girlfriend from many years ago, who was long gone.

 

In his early sixties, been a long distance lorry driver most of his life. Low size chap, hips and knees shot from too many years of sitting at the wheel, heavy smoker, and hard boozer. Pleasant company and intelligent.

 

So this guy, lets call him John, found a job hauling crushed stone for a local quarry. Only worked a week and the quarry closed. He was casually renting a room from someone he knew distantly through this long-gone girlfriend. When he ran out of dosh they put up with him for a couple of weeks then kicked him out.

 

So a friend of mine sorts him out with a job in the local hotel sweeping up in the kitchen.

 

I got a job that summer in the same hotel as a night porter. At 2.00am John and me were the only staff around, and I'd chat with him in the kitchen. The poor guy was sick. He had weeping sores on his arms (?) and could barely walk. Absolutely pitiful to see him pushing the mop around, with his buggered hips, tottering and wincing....

 

So John got sicker and sicker. I suspect he wasn't eating as well. And one afternoon he doesn't show up for his shift. Basically he just refused to get out of bed. So he squats in the staff house for a week, bed bound, and the management throw him out.

 

So I find him sitting on his duffle-bag outside the pub and he tells me the story.

 

Ok, so me being the good samaritan, I give him twenty bucks for supplies and tell him he can doss in the wee A-frame shack in our woods for a couple days till he gets his strength back. He comes back with (drumroll) baccy, a bottle of wine, and cupcakes!! I drive him up to the shack, sort him out with water, toilet paper and candles and he's wincing and grunting in pain as he shuffles over the forest floor, roots that we wouldn't even notice being physical obstacles to him...

 

He can't mount the steps into the shack and I have to help him. At this point I'm thinking "Jeezuz, what have I done??"

 

"Are you going to be ok John?"

 

"Yeah mate, I'll be fine in a few days, thanks ever so much, I'll just get on with writing me memoirs now..."

 

So I check on him in a few days and he's still there. Wine and baccy gone, and two or three out of the dozen cupcakes eaten...It's obvious that left to his own devices he will die in the shack, so I make a few calls and for fifty bucks a friend (bless her) will put him up for a week in the nearby town, where there is a social welfare office and maybe they can hep him. I haul him out of the shack, drive him to town and shove more cash into his hand.

 

So he stays with her for a week and she phones me: "Haironyourchest, you have to come and get John. He's a lovely guy but he's doing me head in. The dole office wont help him and he does nothing but lie on the floor all day and drink..."

 

So into the car again. I drive him to the next biggest town and dump him outside the social welfare office there, give him four hundred quid and tell him to ask the dole people to help him go back to England. He promises to repay me some day (!)

 

So a couple months later I get a text message. He's living in a homeless shelter and loving it. "Three meals a day, a safe-ish place to sleep, medical treatment and €50 a week pocket money!!!"

 

Eventually he makes his was home and gets work driving a lorry for a tarmacking firm and that's the last I ever hear from him...

 

Of course, I never see my money again....but whatever.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Haironyourchest
spelling

[RichieR]

Sadly In the case of my brother, there are always people who I may add have a warm heart, think they are helping by slipping them a few quid. Sadly the person has got to hit rock bottom before they will fight their addiction. The longer they are near to the bottom but can still keep feeding their addiction the less likely they are to recover.

[AHPP]

I'd have made him take the wine back first, eggs.

 

Fun story about beggars: I offered a day's work for £100 to the last guy who asked me for spare change. If he had said yes, I'd have advanced him the £3 for the bus fare there too. He said he'd rather just have the money. No deal!

[eggsarascal]

I'd have made him take the wine back first, eggs.

 

Fun story about beggars: I offered a day's work for £100 to the last guy who asked me for spare change. If he had said yes, I'd have advanced him the £3 for the bus fare there too. He said he'd rather just have the money. No deal!

 

I doubt he would have taken it back or even let me take it back for him.

 

You would probably know his Family's name, his farther is a wealthy farmer/business man in our area.

 

I worked with this fella for a couple of years (he worked for the family business). It's a real shame to see him this way.

[TIMON]

I'd have made him take the wine back first, eggs.

 

Fun story about beggars: I offered a day's work for £100 to the last guy who asked me for spare change. If he had said yes, I'd have advanced him the £3 for the bus fare there too. He said he'd rather just have the money. No deal!

 

 

In this country people are taught the art of helplessness.

[Haironyourchest]

I'd have made him take the wine back first, eggs.

 

Fun story about beggars: I offered a day's work for £100 to the last guy who asked me for spare change. If he had said yes, I'd have advanced him the £3 for the bus fare there too. He said he'd rather just have the money. No deal!

 

That chap probably cleared £100 that day begging.

[5 shires]

Today we went to a local barbecue, nice people, nice setting, great company.

 

Mrs Egg drove us home via the local supermarket to get herself a bottle of wine, leaving me supervising the car.

 

I spied a local lad i have known for as long as have lived here, I used to work for his father. He's a mess! He's always been one to indulge but, ... He's in a proper muddle! We gave him a lift back into town when he produced a bottle of wine he had stolen ( he told me so) from the supermarket. Mrs Egg gave him 20 quid to feed his belly, with whatever he wants to.... Was she right or wrong?

 

Normally we'd have fed him with her cooking but as we'd already eaten out, this wasn't going to happen.

 

He couldn't have been that hungry or he would have stolen food not a bottle of wine. I would have turned round and taken him back to were he nicks it from. This time wine net time something else. On the road to nowhere even if you know him or not giving him money won't help in the long run.