May 30, 2019
Volume 49 - No. 22
By Friedrich Gomez
The year is 2011. For 17 years, since 1994, he hasn’t missed a single day. Every day, 7-days-a-week, come rain or come shine, he is a familiar sight to motorists on their commute to work. The old man stands at his regular spot on East 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan, just a stone’s throw from Third Avenue in New York. He is scruffy-looking, grey whiskers, and a ball cap covering his scarecrowlike hair. His untidy and disheveled appearance is hung upon his bent The Paper - 760.747.7119
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frame; a body bent from 97 years of living. At 3 years short of his 100th birthday, he is among the oldest of street beggars. His story tugs at the heartstrings. He began begging for money at age 80. Since that time, drivers -- and now their children – have taken him to their hearts, giving him money, sometimes generous sums at a time, as if he were a familiar family member. At one red light, the old man hobbles with the help of his walker to accept another generous donation from a smiling motorist who warmly greets the homeless-looking figure. His pan-
handling technique is not all onesided: he offers newspapers in exchange (free newspapers he gathers from various drop spots).
He hobbles between lanes of traffic, approaching drivers at the Queens Midtown Tunnel. A few minutes later, while still leaning on his walker for support, the feeble senior citizen asks a driver at a red light: “Help a guy out?” The driver obliges with a smile and cash transfers from his hand to the pedestrian.
Street Panhandlers - See Page 2
At the end of the day, the familiar old panhandler sits his tired body down and empties dozens of pockets, all stuffed with change and wrinkled dollar bills, some 10s, 20s, even 50 dollar bills. This particular day, he stops counting at $106.19 and writes the final total on a daily accounting sheet. He confesses out loud to a New York reporter that he sometimes gets $250 for a single day of panhandling. On rare moments, some of the New York motorists will peer long and deep into his squinting eyes as if trying to remember what famous person