June 23, 2011

This weekend is the second of my weekends off.  If you're in Lubbock and you get the chance, stop by Tent City and see some of these people.  Bring them some watermelon or some ice cream, anything to cool them down.  The song of the day today is "Cheap" by Seasick Steve.

I went to the abandoned house last night around 10:00, and everyone there was already in high spirits.  I'm not sure what time these guys usually get started, but it's clear that I am very late to the party.  There are several conversations going on at once among the eight or so residents, and I try and get in on one.  It takes a few seconds for me to realize that there are not very many coherent conversations going on and everyone seems to be speaking at once.  Julius is quite passionate about something and I'm a little nervous standing next to him when he speaks.  Julius is about 6'3" with a muscular build and several teeth missing.  He's got very dark skin, and I can only see his eyes as he rails against society.  The abandoned house is not well lit and the darkness seems to amplify Julius's slow and deliberate speech.  "African Americans built this country" he booms.  "Pickin' cotton!  Raisin' the key-ids!"  There's a white guy standing across from Julius nodding at everything he says.  This guy's about fifty and quite normal looking.  He's always got a friendly grin on his face, and speaks with a friendly tone.  At first, I think that he's got the hiccups as I hear a "yup" come from his grin every five seconds or so.  It takes me a minute to realize that this is just what he does; vocalize his agreement with anything anybody says.  I decide to call him Lenny.  Lenny tries to get everyone's attention so that he can say something, but his soft spoken manner isn't very effective at commanding attention.  He finally sees a break in the conversation and says "If I ever live in a mansion, you know who I'm gonna call?"  he doesn't wait for anyone to answer before he says "You guys.  The fridge'll be full of beer and I'll have plenty of beds, and..."  He's cut off by Julius who begins to tell a story about the time he was in the army.

I decide I'll need a few more quarts of beer or malt liquor before I can tolerate much of this conversation so I move along to another.  Slim is speaking to Pops, Carl, and a few others a little further down the wall of the house.  I look around, and everyone is drinking either forty ounces of malt liquor or 24 oz. cans of high gravity beer.  When the last drop is drained from a can or bottle, the empty is tossed to a corner of the yard alongside 200 or so of it's fallen kin.  Carl rises from the circle and walks to the rear of the property like a land lubber trying to find his sea legs.  There's an old, dirt floor shed back here that serves as the restroom and Carl ducks inside.  I think briefly about following him in there and knocking him over the head with my half-full bottle, but I realize that it will take more than that to bring down the devil incarnate.  Carl heads over to me when he appears again and asks if I saw the new ice freezer at Tent City.  I tell him that I have seen it and he tells me that he made some calls to some guys he knows and got them to bring the freezer out to us.  "They gonna reee-stawk it ever week fer us" he says.  He stands there looking at me expectantly for a minute.  I wait to see if he's going to say anything else before I tell him that I think someone saw the story about Tent City on the news and donated the freezer.  "Yeah.  I called 'em up 'n told 'em to watch the news." he says.  I tell him that it's nice to have the freezer and he decides to go back to the shed for some reason.

I turn my attention back to the conversation on the wall where four people are all talking at once.  Someone asks Slim a question, and everyone in the group begins their own long-winded answers.  Slim becomes frustrated and raises his voice "Would you guys let me explain?"  he asks.  "It's so frustrating to begin speaking, and have everyone speak at the same time."  This silences everyone in that pocket of conversation for a few seconds until Pops states calmly "Well, we're all drunk, Slim."  This causes me and Pops to laugh loudly, but nobody else seems amused.  Slim has the floor over here, now and I hear Lenny catch a break in the conversation a few yards away.  "If I ever have a house on the hill, you know who I'm gonna call?"  he asks, and I think I know the answer when he says "You guys.  I'll have a fridge full of beer and..."  He's cut off by Julius who begins talking about the relationship he has with his daughter.

I finish my beer and begin to walk to the convenience store to buy another.  Pops needs another one, too so he comes along.  He's had more to drink than I have, and I get pretty nervous crossing the street with him.  Pops is talking about all the donations that have been made to Tent City in the past few days and he says that he's going to have to be moving on soon.  "Gettin' too easy" he says "I'm gonna git used to awl this."  He laughs at this, and I laugh, too.  Pops is by far my favorite person at Tent City.  He never takes anything for granted, never complains, and helps out around the camp.  We buy our beers and head back to the house.  A few people are smashing their empty bottles on the side of the house, and seem to be having a great time.  I walk over to Julius and Lenny where Lenny says "You know why we're able to sit and have a beer right now?"  Again, Lenny doesn't wait for an answer.  "Because of you, Julius, and the sacrifi..."  He's cut off by Julius who tells a story about a snake being brought in from the cold.  Julius finishes his story and laughs loudly at the end when Lenny begins his shtick again.  "If I ever get a motel room, you know who I'm gonna call?"  I'm hoping I'll be surprised by this one, but I'm not as Lenny says "You guys.  We'll have a cooler full of beer and hot water for the shower and..."  He's cut off my Julius again who begins campaigning either for or against President Obama.  I finish my beer and decide to leave before Lenny invites me to drink half of a lukewarm bottle of malt liquor behind an abandoned house.