I decided not to post this in the TRAINS thread because I believe the train car is secondary to the real story here.
Yesterday, I decided to kill some time and visit a caboose that is parked not too far from where I live. I parked my car, prepped the camera and took the short walk to the caboose.
The first thing I noticed was how much worse it looked since my last visit a year ago. No one is maintaining the car, though it would be a wonderful restoration project. As I walked around the caboose, I noted a strong odor of feces. There's a specific smell to human feces over animal feces, and this was definitely human. I was snapping some shots, trying to breathe through my mouth, when I came upon a pile of discarded clothes. They looked like a pile that would have just come out of a dryer. The clothes appeared to be that of a female; maybe even a child. No shoes. Just shirts and stuff like that.
The clothes drew my attention to the underside of the caboose. There, under the wheel section of the caboose was someone's house. Under the caboose is where they lived. It was where they slept each night on the railroad ties and rocks. No mattress, just rocks. The bathroom was obviously nearby. I didn't see a kitchen.
The underside of the caboose was uninhabited last year. I hadn't realized the area was being "developed".
Was it a sign of the times? Was it remarkable at all? Either question's answer is unacceptable in any case. How does the most affluent country in the world allow squalor like this? I'm not a wholesale welfare advocate, but there are people that honestly need help. People that have fallen through the cracks. Forgotten people.
When I left, I wondered if it was a man or woman that lived there. I wondered what dryer they had stolen the clothes from. I wondered if it was a veteran. Someone's father or mother? Someone's child.
Then I drove home and had lunch.
Yesterday, I decided to kill some time and visit a caboose that is parked not too far from where I live. I parked my car, prepped the camera and took the short walk to the caboose.
The first thing I noticed was how much worse it looked since my last visit a year ago. No one is maintaining the car, though it would be a wonderful restoration project. As I walked around the caboose, I noted a strong odor of feces. There's a specific smell to human feces over animal feces, and this was definitely human. I was snapping some shots, trying to breathe through my mouth, when I came upon a pile of discarded clothes. They looked like a pile that would have just come out of a dryer. The clothes appeared to be that of a female; maybe even a child. No shoes. Just shirts and stuff like that.
The clothes drew my attention to the underside of the caboose. There, under the wheel section of the caboose was someone's house. Under the caboose is where they lived. It was where they slept each night on the railroad ties and rocks. No mattress, just rocks. The bathroom was obviously nearby. I didn't see a kitchen.
The underside of the caboose was uninhabited last year. I hadn't realized the area was being "developed".
Was it a sign of the times? Was it remarkable at all? Either question's answer is unacceptable in any case. How does the most affluent country in the world allow squalor like this? I'm not a wholesale welfare advocate, but there are people that honestly need help. People that have fallen through the cracks. Forgotten people.
When I left, I wondered if it was a man or woman that lived there. I wondered what dryer they had stolen the clothes from. I wondered if it was a veteran. Someone's father or mother? Someone's child.
Then I drove home and had lunch.
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