Places the booze took me and what I learned

There were many place drinking took me. Some were a lot of fun, of course all of the fun was in the beginning of my drinking. I went on a nice trip to the Bahamas with 2 very good friends. Had a blast from what I do remember. One of them bought a bag of weed that turned out to be seaweed. Which not being  a big smoker of pot, I found hysterical. There were trips to Ocean City, MD that I went on with numerous different friends, all enjoyable. I even lost one of my friends for a week down there. To this day I have no idea what he was doing. Next time I see him, I am going to ask him about that.  Funny while I don’t remember the details, I do remember going. I lived in Orange Country, CA. when I was 17-18 with one of my brothers, and had a good time out there, however the pace that life was lived at that time was a killer. Came back to MD, for a while and off to Orlando FL another fun city. There were more places at the start of my drinking that I went to that were nice and that I am sure I had a good time at, but that’s not really the point of this.

Once my drinking took control of me, the places I lived and visited were not as nice to say the least. Give you a quick run down of places I called home, the woods off of Forest Drive near Quiet Waters, Watkins Regional Park, The parking garage at Arundel Medical Hospital, any visitor or truck stop parking area, any parking lot that I could get away with parking over night at. If I could sleep in my car or hide it and sleep on the ground it was all good to me. 

Now I learned a lot about human nature living the way I did. I knew who I could trust, who I could con and who to steer way away from. Keep in my I am a guy and was never addicted to anything but Booze, so I never had to worry about selling myself for a hit. I have seen guys have sex with other guys for a quick fix. (did not watch, just knew what was going on) The women I saw trading their body’s for drugs saddens me to this day. Most would end up working for the guy that was giving her the drugs, and he would pimp her and sell his drugs. If he got busted someone else was always there to take his place.  I wrote the above after reading about Tim Edwards below. Everything I have written above are things that I have seen and been around as a homeless person.

Most normal people want nothing to do with the homeless, sure they talk a good game but when it comes time for action, there is few who step up to the plate. Those that do are often bashed by the other “normal” people in the world. Prime current example is the site Pimp this bum which is a racy  title but draws people in. The first homeless person who agreed to this type of site is Time Edwards and thanks to the people who visited the site and the people who  put the site up, He is now entering a treatment plan. You could think that people from homeless agency’s would be happy to have one more person have the chance to be off the street. However  that does not appear to be the case.  Homeless of Houston/Harris County President Anthony Love , says the name of the site is enough to make him bristle.

Having been sober for a little over 5 years, and knowing how hard it is to get anyone to help you when your living on the street, I am glad that Tim Edwards is getting another chance. What he does with it will be up to him. I would hope that other advocates and agency’s do not slam Pimp this Bum anymore. If they can get one more person off the street, than they do deserve to be left alone to try and help any way they can. After all in the case the ends justifies the means. Plus as a former homeless person, I can tell you I would have jumped at this chance. When your out begging for spare change you really do not have much of an ego.

I will pray for Tim, and for those who are still in the depths of their addictions that they can get help as well.