Not long after moving to Vegas, I was heading out of a Home Depot parking lot, waiting at the signal exit. A black man (woman and two kids sitting on the grass in the shade of the sign) was standing with a sign: "Need Work. 20 yrs exp painting".

The truck ahead of me was a beater that had paint drips down the tailgate. I could see the driver lean toward the passenger window and heard him yell, "Do you really want work?"

The black man LEAPED to the truck window, and said, "YES, SIR!"

I pulled around (no traffic nearby) and as I passed them, they were shaking hands. In five years of driving for a living there, I never saw that black man again.

I haven't seen a 'will work for food' sign in years. Now, it's 'pennies help, god bless', but what they want is dollars.

I used to work for an animal-assistance non-profit (we helped pay vet bills). A man called me (second time) for help with his dog, but we were out of money for the month. Ten minutes later, a woman called from the in-town ranger station, saying that he had called from her phone, but was gone. She said he was the guy who had spent the last two years at the end of the freeway exit (signal light) with his husky-mix dog. Her sister worked at the bank on the far side of the interchange, and said this guy would come in four or five times a day to deposit cash. He averaged more per day than the bank teller did.

Sue