R.I.P. Eddie

Something tells me that if I want to hang out with the homeless I should get use to turnover, whether it be the final kind described here or someone like Jimmy getting pulled into the shelter system because they hit bottom a little too hard or someone like Mike who moved on to Daytona.

May 15, 2012

Wednesday they found Eddie dead on the grounds of the Swimming Hall of Fame. Homeless folks like to sleep out of the way so they do not get harassed. They think Eddie had been dead three to five days so he must have found a good spot. Natural causes, they said. 

Eddie was one of the regulars of my homeless crew smack in the middle of the spring break area of Ft Lauderdale but we were not close. Eddie struck me as a mean little weasel of a man and the bottom feeder of the group, though I hear he was also the drug dealer. Never saw him do a deal, maybe because Eddie always suspected I was a cop.  Later I heard more than one guy speak very highly of him and especially his sense of humor.

Watch Mitch's video of Eddie

The night I met Eddie was the night I became a favorite of the group by financing a little beer fest. Daniel the alpha male hit me up for a ten for some beers and I said all I had was a twenty and Daniel promised to bring me the change. An hour later long after I knew he would not return he did and gave me my ten in change and handed out the beers but not to Eddie. 

Eddie appealed to me as financier but I said I was new to the group and could not intervene like that. But then it was time for me to hit Spazio for dinner and I told Daniel he was a man of his word and gave him the second ten to spend on the guys and I gave Eddie a five so he would not have to grovel. But then he decided I was a cop and kept his distance except for the time it was just the two of us and he started ragging on Daniel who I liked so I just went another way. 

Weeks later out of nowhere Eddie asked me for a twenty, promising to pay me back on Tuesday. I knew he knew I had done that for other guys and was just piling on and it was off key because the other guys asked for loans only after we had been chatting amiably for an hour. I thought what the hell I would rather give him a chance and be wrong than not give him a chance so after a pause I gave him a twenty. 

Eddie neatly folded the twenty and handed it back to me and spent the next ten minutes thanking me. Had I pulled him from a burning house he would not have thanked me differently. After that we were cool, then Wednesday they found Eddie dead on the grounds of the Swimming Hall of Fame. 

And so it goes.

Grand Opening

Listen to Mitch

I loaned Mitch a compact digital camera since he was always showing me cell phone pictures. Cell phone cameras are pretty good but I thought Mitch might like the extra features of a cheap Canon or whatever it is.

All photos copyright @ 2012 by Mitch

I met Mitch on The Wall in East Las Olas, the little two foot high sea wall along the beach in Fort Lauderdale. 

Mitch was one of a regular crew of good folks from different walks of life but most often folks between homes because they have the most time to socialize. Me, I rent an amazing condo on one of the Fort Lauderdale isles, but on The Wall we are all the same. 

Mitch asked me what pictures I wanted him to take and I said they should be his pictures, whatever he wanted to take. Turns out Mitch likes girls and taking pictures of people taking pictures.

Douglas Hostadter would like the self-reference of photographer photographing photographer, but methinks this has more to do with Existentialism and Sartre than recursion: Mitch also loves being the subject for which others lost in their subjectvity are his object.

But it has been a few memory card exchanges now and it seems Mitch just plain likes people: the pictures of passersby now include the old and the obese as well as the scantily clad.

Sometimes all three...

Mitch always tells me he cannot tolerate people but I have never seen it but he always has an excuse for anything sociable he has done that I point out. I remain skeptical but I have heard he has a bit of history I will find out about if we ever go to jail together some day for open containers when they make a sweep before a big holiday to get The Wall cleared for the tourists.

Mitch also likes wildlife and landscapes and...see below.

The very first photo in this post is noteworthy because Mitch actually got off his ass to take it. I watch Mitch at work from the bars across the street and the work generally involves Mitch on The Wall slouched against his backpack just shooting whatever passes before him. When alerted to a girl on the beach in a bikini he will do the heavy lifting and slide around to face the sand, but generally he faces the street where the stream of passers-by offers more material.

So I give Mitch credit for this one, reprised for the reader's convenience from above.

All photos copyright @ 2012 by Mitch

It came from a week of pictures which came to over thirteen hundred so I thought it might have been random luck but when I sent him a bunch I liked including this and the attachments did not come through but my comments did he said, "That one must have been the guy pushing the bicycle on the beach." even though all I said was "This one is amazing". Mitch then explained how he was excited when he saw the opportunity and described actually getting up and walking to a better spot for the shot.

I suspect this next one did not involve much exercise because I can tell from the background that this is where Mitch sits.

Posing with the model got him off his backpack, though.

And now more of the world through Mitch's eyes...

More to come.