Images from my recent trip:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reedsport: bedraggled men and women shuffle along Highway 101 pushing grocery carts and carrying bags of cans and bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lakeside: a young disheveled man with his possessions sits in the gravel off the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Bend: an elderly man sits in a wheelchair outside the Humboldt Club. I’m there for breakfast. He’s there because he’s homeless. I know he’s homeless because he told me after I asked how he was doing. He’d lost his housing the previous week but had a lead on a room in a basement or garden shed or something I didn’t catch. He knew it was coming through, however, he just knew and kept the faith. He tried selling me a mini tablet that worked but needed a charger. I asked how much<\/em>? Three bucks<\/em> he said. I said I already owned two tablets that streamed nothing but shit. I gave him three bucks anyway and told him to get a coffee and maple bar. He thanked me and cracked a big smile. (The thought of a maple bar can do that!) He commented that it was going to be a great day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou sure are optimistic,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s always sunny with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wished him well and he thanked me for talking to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a strange and good feeling to be thanked for talking to a homeless man you just met and will never meet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coos Bay: at least a dozen homeless people are splayed in alleys and doorways of the dismal downtown area. All ages. All colors. Men and women. They don’t look passed out. They look dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Port Orford: various derelict RVs abound along Highway 101. A few people walk the shoulders looking for cans and bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gold Beach: A woman in pajamas with a backpack is sobbing and swearing at the breeze; a black man with a gray beard holds a bindle while crossing the highway; a crazed young man wearing tattered clothing counts his change on a sidewalk; an elderly woman living out of her SUV hunts for agates at the beach with her blind dog; a homeless woman wearing a gold parka is walking in circles and gesticulating; a homeless man shows pictures of his baby son to a barista.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this on one Saturday morning on the Southern Oregon Coast. Roughly a hundred miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Images from my recent trip: Reedsport: bedraggled men and women shuffle along Highway 101 pushing grocery carts and carrying bags of cans and bottles. Lakeside: a young disheveled man with his possessions sits in the gravel off the highway. North Bend: an elderly man sits in a wheelchair outside the Humboldt Club. I’m there for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-coast_history","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8402,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions\/8402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}