"Jimmy" the wino

There's a park not far from my place here in Norman that has recently (to the disgust of several of my neighbors) become a gathering spot for destitute members of our local population. A lot of folks call them 'homeless' but I happen to know a good number of them actually have a place to be. And their place to be is hardly one notch above the streets, but it's a roof and a cot.

The local pack of rabid neighbors constantly bitch about the "homeless" population at the park and feel threatened by their presence. I thought everybody had a right to be somewhere and I didn't realize we had a dress code here...but anyway..

I will admit a lot of these men and women have a propensity to get liquored up when they've got the money. To me that's more of an indication of their troubled spirit than their desire to be a fly in someone's HOA ointment. But the fact remains public intoxication is a misdemeanor and, when pressed, our constabulary will escort them to the drunk tank. Probably not as nice as an afternoon in the park I'm sure.

I've gotten to know a few of these fellas and they're generally pleasant enough. One or two of them have a good functional memory of motorcycles which can always get me into a good conversation. One in particular is a grizzled old man everybody calls "Jimmy". Jimmy hangs out at the park and the convenience store that is also the Greyhound Bus Station. I've chatted several times with him. Jimmy is usually dirty, drunk, disoriented and disheveled but always benign and friendly. His jacket is an old Viet Nam era OD green fatigue jacket on which he displays his Service Ribbon indicating his tour "in country" and his 1st. Cavalry shoulder insignia. I've talked with Jimmy several times about his two tours of duty in Viet Nam. Jimmy was one of a only a few survivors that were dug out of a mortar crater that destroyed his bunk and entire platoon during the Tet Offensive. A lot of people think Jimmy's stories are just that. But I happened to have ran into a relative of Jimmy's not too long ago and his stories of Viet Nam are probably the only things about which Jimmy doesn't lie.

I needed to run an errand today and thought I might spin by the park and see if the 'indigenous' personnel was out sunning their wine stained clothes. Maybe in the back of my mind I thought I might see Jimmy and slip him a sawbuck for a hot meal (we all know what Jimmy calls a 'hot meal"..). And I was hoping not to see uniforms wrestling lost souls into the back seats of their black & white patrol cars.

I was really surprised to see a group of people in one of the pavilions in the park with a number of our 'unfortunates' seated at the picnic tables. One of them was Jimmy. Some folks had gotten together and was dishing out lunch for all the 'regulars'. Did my heart good. Jimmy was getting his share of attention on Veteran's Day.

And I thought about these wayward men and women that, according to my critical neighbors, are at the bottom of a social predicament by their own choice. And even though they may be there by choice, they did make other and probably better choices in their lifetimes. One of those choices was to serve their country.

So thank you Jimmy for your service. I hope you had a good lunch and can stay out of the tank tonight.