“JustfineMa’am, thanksandyou?”

“JustfineMa’am, thanksandyou?”
My co-workers called him Jimmy Stanks. I always hated that. Granted, we never took the time to find out the names of most of our customers, and the homeless people were no exception. “Jimmy” really did stink. He stank baaaaddddd. He walked real slow around town, collected cans, and turned them in for more tall cans of his own. He never hung out with anyone else. But he was always polite. I always asked him how he was doing, and he always replied, “JustfineMa’am, thanksandyou?” Like it was two words. I don’t think he ever said anything else to me. Only nodded when I cashed out his deposits and placed his tall cans in a paper bag, and wished him a good day. When it was raining, he smelled worse, and I waited until he was out of the store and out of sight- and I’d have to spray Lysol in the air. I felt so bad. He was my favorite of all of the downtown foot traffic people. He was polite, quiet, and I never had to call the cops on him.
I worked at a Gas Station/Convenience Store that was a block away from a local concert venue, next door to a methadone clinic, in front of a drug dealers alley from heaven, and on a very busy street. Needless to say, shit went down quite a bit. I had some fun co-workers, but we were all young, dumb, just turned twenties and some of the customers, well...

Bucket Dan carried a 5-gallon bucket with him every where he went. No big deal, until he dropped trou and started taking a shit in the middle of the store in it. 

There was a guy they called Boxcar. He had been 86’d from every store in town, ours included. AND, he’d been hit by every type of moving vehicle, except a tank. I think we ruled out a tank. He had really been hit by a train, had a glass eye, and was a staple on the streets for quite a while. I later found out his name was David. 

There was the couple that tried to microwave a full sized- thawed out DiGiorno pizza. He was always rude to me, but one time she gave me a pair of earrings. It was so nice of her. But the baggy had an unidentifiable white powder in it.

There was the just-stepped-off-the-set-of-Grease....auditions guy. He had style, charisma, and didn’t seem like the streets were the life he chose, yet he kept making the street life choices.

All I know, it’s gotta be damn hard to live 2 tall boys at a time, in paper sacs, no roof, only the clothes on your back. And all these years later, I still remember them. And I wish I would have asked “Jimmy” what his name was.
~A