Where The Ragged People Go

Seattle

The bus journey up here was pretty interesting. At the station in Portland I ran into a couple of British guys I met in San Francisco. After we got settled on the very crowded bus I looked around to see we were in the middle of a wide array of unusual characters. The huge fat guy beside me (I was forced to sit at 45 degrees, my legs sticking into the aisle) didn't talk much, in fact he didn't talk at all, but my neighbour on the other side more than made up for it. Bob was a very talkative fellow, or at least I think he was because his lips were moving, I could really only make out about every fifth word. An ex-con currently on probation after a drink driving conviction with only a few teeth left and a mangled hand as a result of a "farming accident" he had plenty to stay on a wide variety of subjects, but mostly Vietnam and beer. He'd been talking about "Nam" and "Charlie" for a good ten minutes before I realised he hadn't actually been there. He buggered off to Canada in the early 70s to dodge the draft, clever sod. His brother did fight though, and I found out in great detail about the exact nature of his injuries after he got hit by a mortar. To try to get the conversation off such grim topics I told him a dirty joke, which he found so funny he laughed all the way to his stop.

Taking his seat was another broken-down looking guy, obviously fresh out of hospital with bandages and plasters all over him. He explained he worked as a collector of names for petitions and had recently been to several states getting both Ralph Nader (Green) and the Libertarian candidate on the ballot for polling day. Now those two parties have somewhat differing views on a lot of things but this guy didn't seem to be motivated by any great political desire. Instead of discussing policy, he went into great detail about all the cash and expenses he'd managed to get for doing this work. Then things turned very downbeat as he said his girlfriend had left him last night taking the car and all the money. Although this didn't explain why he had a series of nasty looking cuts, despite my curiosity I thought it best not to press the point.

Here in Seattle it's cold, or at least cold compared with the last few days, I'm sure it's still warmer here than in the UK. Maybe I should go and get a coffee to warm up.