Elmer and I cruised by the remains of the encampment. I estimated it would require four 12-yard dumpsters to hold all the garbage, including a mattress and couch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And a lot of people to haul the garbage out of what amounted to a pulverized wetlands to the dumpsters stationed at the boat ramp, 200-300 yards away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is, if the city or county or some other governmental or non profit entity paid for the dumpsters. And someone or some group or agency organized and promoted a cleanup of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if someone invited and\/or recruited the homeless people in the area to assist in the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was 1:30 in the afternoon, sunny, cold. A low tide allowed us to traverse the entire stretch of my local Coos Bay beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I heard a harmonica in the encampment! A flute, guitar and fiddle over the years of observing and interacting with the homeless, but this way my first harmonica. I didn’t recognize the tune; maybe the player was improvising. Had to be a blues riff considering the context. I told myself that after our romp, if the harmonica was still playing when we walked past, I was going to call out to the performer and offer five bucks for a performance. If Elmer heard a harmonica up close he would go berserk\u2014in a good way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The player came partially into view. He was a white-haired man wearing a red hoodie. I also saw a young homeless woman who formerly lived out of a sedan with her two dogs, but now was on foot, still with the dogs, and roaming around the neighborhood. In recent weeks I’d seen her sleeping on this very beach in the mornings, with one blanket, and temperatures in the high 30s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer and I horseassed in the sand for 500 yards, then turned around and headed for home. I was giddy at the prospect of a harmonica performance. If somehow \u201cTurkey in the Straw\u201d or \u201cOn Top of Old Smoky\u201d emerged, my walled would be emptied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked north down the beach toward the encampment. Something odd was happening that baffled me. Then I made it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two people were carrying the mattress over their heads! What the hell? Well, at least a homeless person would have a decent bed for a spell and the mattress wouldn’t go totally to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More movement appeared near the encampment, strange movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It hit me. A cleanup of the encampment was underway! I hadn’t heard a damn thing about it. No poster. No flier. No press release in the corporate rag. If I’d known, I would have left Elmer at home, pitched in, and met the folks who had organized it. These are the kind of connections I must start establishing in my new community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer and I picked up the pace so I could meet some of the volunteers and discover the nature of this event\u2014and when the next one was being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In due course, I met two couples who live on the edge of Coos Bay, in the Empire District. One couple had lived there for 35 years! Both couples remarked about Elmer’s handsome appearance and said they often saw us from their living room windows romping down the beach. One woman even had a name for Elmer\u2014Snowball!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were members of an Empire improvement association and had organized the cleanup. I asked why there were no posters or fliers to advertise the event. They said it was promoted on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About a dozen people were participating in the two-hour cleanup, including some kids with their parents. The effort had been underway for almost an hour. The volunteers would barely put a dent in the garbage, but it was a start and at least I wouldn’t have to see the mattress, couch and one computer monitor anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked about next event and offered to assist with the promotion, design a poster, and tack it up around the area. They seemed delighted. I was also was invited to attend the next meeting of the improvement association. That was something I might consider, although at this point in my life I abhor the thought of sitting through meetings with agendas and jargon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sometimes that’s how you get important work done. My nation does not often change for the better with only freelancers working in stealth at the margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was time for the couples to return to work and for me to walk Elmer home. I wouldn’t be able to return before the cleanup ended to help out. I had a final question for the two couples: when did the severe nature of the homeless crisis first appear around the boat ramp and Empire in general? Approximately 2014-15. Over a decade later and it’s getting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I left, I looked around for the harmonica man and the young woman. I assumed they would be hanging around, helping out. Why the assumption? I had no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were gone. And something about that irritated me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elmer and I cruised by the remains of the encampment. I estimated it would require four 12-yard dumpsters to hold all the garbage, including a mattress and couch. And a lot of people to haul the garbage out of what amounted to a pulverized wetlands to the dumpsters stationed at the boat ramp, 200-300 yards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1264,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coos-bay","category-meditations","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\/9715","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=9715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9717,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715\/revisions\/9717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}