ALTERNATE MODES OF TRANSIT

Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee

Golden Gate Park’s bushes are home to many homeless. I think we’re in a sweep-the-homeless-out-of-the-park phase, but these things are cyclical.

Sometimes I’ll see little tribes of homeless youth passing by the tennis courts, four or five of them with a dog or two, grungy, disaffected, but bonded to each other for survival.

When I hitched cross country I picked up a hitching companion just a few miles outside San Francisco. He was recently released from the army after serving in Vietnam. We stuck together for fifteen hundred miles. I guess it was a companionship thing and a safety thing.

He was a wiry little guy, tough. While I might have been a soft target, no one would get far messing with him.

So, homeless youth, now that the city’s fireboats are done ejaculating over a luxury liner, SFWILLIE’S BLOG salutes you, and your noble quest.

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