Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 6
I actually stayed in Orange County which isn't really L.A. (but close enough) so I didn't get to see the real grungy parts of town such as the areas in the riots (just as well) but where I did stay was an eye-opener all the same.
There's heaps of homeless people (and that's true of all the large cities I visited, not just L.A.). It's almost beyond belief after growing up in Australia and a small town like Orange at that. Every day on the four corners of the intersection down from my motel you'd see beggars (many of them female surprisingly) with cardboard signs saying such things as "Need money for baby's food", "Will work for food" "Homeless, need motel money" etc. - pretty sad really.
Then the lines you got to hear time and time again:
"Sir, have you got a cigarette for me?"
"Sir, have you got a spare dollar?"
They're all so polite.
One funny thing happened while I was there. About a week before I left Australia I saw a story on the TV show "Cops" about a new con trick where people try and get money for a supposedly broken down car, saying they need money for a tow truck.
Anyway, the Sunday after I arrived I slept in late (slightly jet-lagged) and then went for a long walk around the area. [That probably wasn't a wise thing to do in retrospect, but I survived.] I walked past this guy (white, 40ish, fairly well dressed) who had a piece of paper with figures all over it, he told me that he needed $30 for a tow truck and he would give me his license to hold if I gave him the money. He would supposedly drive home and then come back in 15 minutes with the money to repay me and get his license back. I more or less told him to piss off.
The following Saturday, which was the day I was leaving L.A. to head across to Arizona, I went for another walk in the (fairly) early morning and I saw the same guy. He started telling me his sob story again (he must have a real unreliable car!) and I said you asked me for money last week to which he turned around and raced away into the distance. I wouldn't have given him any money but it was funny seeing the exact scenario I'd seen on "Cops".
[OK, that's a very condensed version of week one. This could rival a Stephen King novel for length by the time I finish.]
Another guy and his family standing on the corner in the morning begging. In the afternoon they were still there but had started packing up their meager belongings (cardboard sign, tin cup and tattered cushion.)
Well, that wasn't a bad day's haul. They walked behind a bush, blipped blipped the key to open the door of a car, hopped in and drove away! True story.
After L.A. I drove across the desert (via Palm Springs) to Phoenix where I stayed for a couple of days. The roads are so much better than here it's not funny. You can drive all the way across America (North-South or East-West) on an "interstate" without going through a single traffic light. You'd have to have an enormous fuel tank, a good food supply and a container of no-doz of course!
Chapter 7
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