Balancing Act

Tonight was the last dinner at the park for 2015; the powers that be in Pasadena try to minimize the presence of the homeless during the Rose Bowl/tourist season. Some of the things they do include setting off the sprinklers at 8pm, just enough to get the grass wet to keep people from sleeping in the park. I suppose I can't blame them - I'm sure they make some serious dough from the tourists.

We don't publicize at all so when new faces show up it's usually because they've heard through the grapevine although we do offer foods to any and all passers-by who show any interest in what we're doing. We had a couple of people like that tonight.

They showed up as a pair, one older guy who looked to be in his 40's and another male who could have been anywhere from 15-20 who the older one kept referring to as 'boy'. I have no idea if there was a blood relationship but there was a clear dominant-submissive dynamic going on. The older one was loud and belligerent while the younger one when spoken to, responded so softly I can barely hear him. The older man was carrying 24-pack sized box in a paper bag, appeared to be under the influence, and was using the MF expletive either as a noun, adjective or adverb in every sentence he spoke.

The balancing act started here. Normally, I would have been happy to see them leave, but it was pretty obvious the boy was pretty hungry. So I kept engaging the older guy and took some verbal abuse which gave the boy time to finish his plate and get seconds. I was about to get him thirds when the older guy finally got upset and left taking the boy with him. I just wish I could have given that kid as much food as he wanted.