'It is impolite to stare, stop staring, don't stare.' I repeated scoldingly to myself as I tried feverantly not to stare.
I walked to the bus stop and stopped in surprise shock as I tried not to stare at a gentleman wearing the most dilapidated winter jacket I have ever seen. I couldn't comprehend the thought process behind the man's choice. Then I scolded myself for judging because the reality is I don't know his story. My eyes kept straying to the jacket. It was ripped everyhere. I though perhaps he's transient or perhaps suffering from mental health issues however those thoughts were quickly dismissed when I over heard bits of his conversation with another man.
'Stop staring, stop staring I scolded myself.'
In order to not be rude I walked out of the bus shelter then unobtrusively took a picture of the jacket to share with my eldest daughter who's always dogging me about wearing my old jacket.
The bus arrived and we all boarded. At the next stop a woman I always say hi to came on. We said morning to each other and sat opposite each other. She looked to her right and spotted the man with the ripped up jack and waved him over in a familiar hello. He greeted her and she stared in shock at his jacket as he sat next to her. Then she said, "why you wearing that nasty tear up jacket?" He said something to her which I didn't heat but she responded with, "yeah but still you shouldn't be walking the road with a jacket looking like that!" He immediately put both his hands over the jacket pockets to hide it's defacing. I gave a shock laugh at her bold statement to him. She gave me this incredulous look that said, "can you he came outside with that jacket on?" The man kept his hands over the jacket inshame the whole ride.
At the subway my casual hello friend said to me. " I can't believe he would wear that ripped up jacket saying he was going to do dirty work and that justified him walking the street looking like that."
Like you, I probably would have thought that he may have been homeless, but I totally get that if he was going to work in a dirty area, he wouldn't want to mess up a good coat. His shoes look covered in paint, so maybe he does construction work? He probably just threw it on not giving it a second thought, and ready to start his day. I'm thinking that your friend who sees him outside of work was shocked, and felt close enough to him to share her true feelings. Hugs...
ReplyDeleteYeah. He seem cool with it as i saw him after that wearing the same coat.
DeleteUpdate. Well yes I believe he is satisfied wearing the nasty ass busted dirty jacket since I've seen him several times wearing it proudly. I guess he figure since he going to do dirty work there no sense in wearing a decent jacket or washing the current eyesore. Live and let live.Ti each his/her own.
DeleteToday, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave
ReplyDeleteit to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She put the
shell too her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab insid and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off
topic but I had to tell someone!