Yet another begger

[Less]

So there I was stood outside one of the few pubs thats still open in accy and sells beer to the common man at a price he can afford.

I was smoking a ciggy, (I don't know if anyone else has noticed but all the pubs I visit have removed the ash trays, so rather than make a mess of their carpets I go outside to smoke).

It was Blackburn road in front of me and as usual all the traffic was grid-locked, (God bless the man that changed the roads from throughfares to congestion 'cos I can't).

Anyway back to the tale, I'm stood outside freezing because the wind knows where it wants to go, when a young lass, (these days most women are younger than me), floated towards me her pupils wider than the grand canyon and in a pitiful voice asked if I could help her.

Alarm bells are ringing and I cautiously ask how?

She tells me she needs desperatley to get to Blackburn, can I help to get her there?

Well, my answer was an immedieate Yes, turn around because at the moment your heading towards Accrington town centre and Blackburn is in the opposite direction!
Do you know I have heard every one of the words she used to tell me what she thought of me but, never, all grouped together in such a fashion!

I let her continue into Accrington, after all, I didn't need to go to Blackburn.

[BERNADETTE]

Good on you Less they are everywhere at the moment

[lancsdave]

I think you have a heart of gold Less

[emamum]

has anyone here been genuinly stranded and needed help?

[Stanleymad]

Originally Posted by emamum23

has anyone here been genuinly stranded and needed help?

Yes! but i never begged, taken or borrowed nor even stole being in bad situ's before & tended to eventually find my own way by own needs like walk.........done the 5-6 mile walk to Blackburn & back with not a penny to my name & been stranded in kent with nowt to me name being vunerable & walked miles back to relations home that i had only been in for one day, because i had to manage & least kept my dignity ...so agree with Less on that one.

[emamum]

i had to take my son to hospital once and i didnt have enough money to get us home.... i used the hospital phone to ring family but nobody was answering... what was i supposed to do?

[Less]

Originally Posted by emamum23

has anyone here been genuinly stranded and needed help?

Of course plenty have, but don't give sympathy where it isn't deserved, she chose the path she's staggering down just as I chose to smoke, strangely the government and the NHS have more sympathy for the druggie than the person smoking a legal cigarette!

She was out of her tree, gone, finished, absolutely Pie eyed, her choice, I didn't put her on drugs therefore why should I, subsidise her habit? She wouldn't have made it to Blackburn and if she had what would have been waiting for her?

I do get annoyed with, the "ah, but, crowd, Put yourself in their shoes you cry what if it was you? Well it's not me and I don't ask strangers for hand out's so let her struggle!"

[Stanleymad]

Originally Posted by emamum23

i had to take my son to hospital once and i didnt have enough money to get us home.... i used the hospital phone to ring family but nobody was answering... what was i supposed to do?

Walk....seriously been there too not that i live close to the hospital either, might sound completely heartless but maybe cos many of time i've had to manage with what i had on my own, never would i ask a stranger for money [that in itself can be dangerous for vunerable people, young or women].

[emamum]

at 2 oclock in the morning with a poorly child??

[Less]

Originally Posted by emamum23

i had to take my son to hospital once and i didnt have enough money to get us home.... i used the hospital phone to ring family but nobody was answering... what was i supposed to do?

What has that got to do with the price of fried fish? Give me your address your bank card number, a spare key to your house and your pin number, I won't use them but I'll pass them on to the next low life that asks me for money, betcha they can get a taxi to your place sooner than I could ring you up to warn you.

[emamum]

i know that people take the mik and they are trying to con you out of your money for drugs and drink... the point that i was trying to make is that sometimes it is genuine!

[lancsdave]

I can understand the point of suggesting we might all be in the same boat at some point in our lives, but on this occasion we have to take Less's judgement that the girl in question was not altogether with it. If anyone is an expert in people standing outside pubs on Blackburn Rd looking totally out of it then Less would recognise it

[Benipete]

Sounds like the same girl I've met several times,in fact she's one of the reasons i don't walk down B'burn Rd,well that and I'M LAZY.She's been using that script for years

[Stanleymad]

Originally Posted by emamum23

at 2 oclock in the morning with a poorly child??

Worse time to borrow money of a stranger & the most vunerable, something i have learnt over the years in such adversity there is help available but without resorting to asking for money from a stranger in the street especially at that time of the morning with what kind of people are about at that time, like waiting in the waiting room till u could contact family or enquiring your options to staff about getting home safely. Always keep a small emergency fund safe & handy in times like this helps.

[Less]

Originally Posted by emamum23

i know that people take the mik and they are trying to con you out of your money for drugs and drink... the point that i was trying to make is that sometimes it is genuine!

Yes on a very rare occasion not quite as often as a blue moon but almost with the same intervals, someone, genuine asks you to trust them, but they are people that can throw words together and make an articulate sentence without being close to falling over.
There are people who are unlucky but there are far more people out there looking for someone like you, today she didn't find that person on Blackburn road but I bet everybody on the way to Accy town centre was sobbed at in the same way until she found a mug, (erm were you on B'burn Rd today and is your wallet a little lighter?).