Sorry for keep replying to this thread but since it started I've been thinking a lot about it.
My maternal grandfather was born in the early 1920's in Middlesbrough which is in north east England. Times were hard when he was young, for Christmas the family would have a roast chicken and the children would get a small present each and a tangerine (a big deal in those days apparently!).
I remember him saying that during the school holidays and on weekends him and his small gang of chums would walk to Redcar, a round trip of about 15 miles, not an inconsiderable distance for 8yr olds to walk. Once at the coast they would collect mussels and winkles (a small sea snail which you boil and then pick out of the shell with a needle) then bring them back home for their mothers to cook for the family.
He and his pals would also collect rose hips, crab apples, blackberries etc... a couple of the boys had ferrets, they would put nets over rabbit burrows and then send the ferrets in. Rabbits would bolt and then get caught in the net, they would dispatch the rabbit with a stick. (Me and my brother used to go ferreting but we were always useless. The rabbits would always come out of the holes that we hadn't netted and we would spend hours trying to find our ferrets again!
)
My grandfather absolutely enjoyed his time as a soldier in WW2. "Johnny" he said "the 2nd World War was the greatest adventure a young man could ever want for". Compared to the dull poor life back at home he got to do and see amazing things.
I know all of that wasn't like homelessness and it was off topic, but it wasn't that long ago when life was hard for a lot of people. My dad was born on VE Day 1945, because of rationing continuing until several years after the war he can remember eating his first banana!
5yrs ago I used to work at a school, I would take a short cut to get there by walking through the woods of a place called Roundhay Park. For months I would see a couple of tents at the top of the woods, a little fire going next to them. One day I passed by and their site had been wrecked, the tents ripped to pieces and their belongings strewn around. They weren't bothering anyone and I can only assume it was delinquent teenagers who'd done that to them. I often wonder what happened to those people and how they coped....
3yrs ago I was in Japan and I noticed more homeless people than I'd ever seen, short of London of course. Unlike the ones I've seen in London these seemed mostly very well organised and existed in a different place in society. It was explained to me that "shame" was quite often why they weren't living with their families.
I would fish the local rivers and see little shanty huts underneath bridges, made of tarpaulin, bamboo and corrugated metal and plastic. Everything rather neat all about, certainly no filth or squalor. I did wonder if living underneath a bridge was a good idea in a country beset by extremely powerful earthquakes, but I suppose unlike an Englishman these folks were pretty blasé about the whole thing.
I'd also see people bedding down in the train stations late at night. They'd get out there little mat, put their bag underneath their head and then put a newspaper over their face. The cops never moved them on, and people just walked by and completely ignored them. On a few occasions I went and bought bottles of green tea and put them next to them. I got funny looks off people walking past and was later told that homeless people would find an act of "charity" offensive. I'm not so sure....perhaps it's all the non-homeless Japanese people who find an act of charity offensive!
I did see Japanese homeless people collecting plastic bottles from bins. They had huge carts piled high with them, I guess they were taking them for recycling and would get some money in exchange. Something you expect to see in the slums of India, not in a high tech first world country. But perhaps there's a good idea for making a couple of quid on the side?
I've rambled too much, apologies for that
I think I'll go dig out my copy of "The Grapes Of Wrath".
YB
