Jerry the Voice: Dining with the Homeless III (6x2)

[Gita]

George tried for the third time to get all the wheels on his shopping cart to go in the same direction, but something -- bearing? socket? -- was beyond repair.
Swapping carts was tricky. George knew all about it: if you went to a grocery store parking lot for a new one, you had to stand there and transfer everything from your old cart in plain sight, and that took a lot of time, and the store manager might see you.
If you left your cart around the corner -- the loaded one with all your valuables -- and went to fetch a new one, you could be robbed.
That had happened to Jerry The Voice when he tried to make the switch at a Wal-Mart. He had lost everything -- years' worth of blankets and boots and a transistor radio -- the radio was the worst. People had paid Jerry The Voice to do the commentary on baseball games during the World Series.

He would sit in Gleason Park on a grassy hummock with the radio to his ear and do the play-by- play in a voice that could'a been Cosell's. Everyone came to hear, but if you wanted to listen, you swapped him five cigarettes for the privilege or half a bottle of cough medicine or a package of Hostess Twinkies or a beef jerky stick. When Jerry hollered, "And it's OUTTA HERE," all eyes would follow the unseen ball's great arc over the diamond, over the stands and over the wall to joyville.

George contemplated his wobbly wheels and weighed his options: Go for the slow swap in full view,  or leave his cart vulnerable and unguarded?

Or, wait, maybe there was a third option: if he could find Small Alice, she would guard his buggy for him.

 

[Mike Handley]

Actually, the correct url no longer has ning in it. Try 

http://www.thinkingten.com/

[Jeanette Cheezum]

@Gita: I have no idea why I can't get on and stay on long enough to completely read something, or comment. Let alone write. Sometimes I can get on for a while when someone emails me a story I have commented on a while back. Sometimes I can get on by using the T-10 URL from my cavalcade page.

Oh well! Thanks for your interest.

[Gita]

@ Jeanette: There are five  segments now in the Dining With the Homeless series but I just can't fit them onto 6S. I wish you could get onto T-10. It's the same ning platform as 6S so I wonder what the problem is.

[Jeanette Cheezum]

I wish I could go to T-Ten. This is a great series and I'm glad you are having fun with it. WRITE ON .

[Gita]

@ Stephen Torelli: The series is continuing but not at 6S. If you would like to read new daily installments, please drop by Thinking 10.  http://www.thinkingten.com/profiles/blogs/small-alice-part-of-a-ser...

[Angela]

The dynamics of survival.  Mind boggling, really.

Homelessness aside, "over the wall to joyville" is a beautiful phrase.

No apologies, please.  Just write.

[Stephen Torelli]

This reminds me of two old fellas who visited the neighborhood when I was a kid, Homer and Strawberry Joe. Both were homeless and would hop the train traveling south for the winter and always return, until of course they got too old. Remember, they never die, "they only fade away."

[Stephen Torelli]

I can see George and those broken wheels. I hope he makes it. And Jerry, if you can, tell him I'll bring some Lucky Strikes for the next World Series. Does he do basketball? We love the Knicks up here. Outstanding series.

[Mike Handley]

Faved. No apology necessary.

[Teresa]

Don't you go apologizin'.  Juz write, dammit.  I need to read!