most of y'all know that back in 91' i was on the run from the law, because of my third D.U.I. in Bama. i took off to the great city of Miami. imagine that!! a country boy from Alabama landed in one of the most corrupt cities in the United States!! those folks down there don't even speak english. i was in a mess bigger that i could ever realize.
i just hung out of the beach all day. you know,...........South Beach where all the elite of Hollywood hides out. i saw so many famous people that they lost their appeal to me. all except Cindy Crawford. i could simply look at her all day. she was stunning beautiful then, as she is now. i saw her on the beach one day doing a photo-shoot for some magazine. i never saw the mag, but i didn't really need to, because i still remember it like it was yesterday.
i finally met some dude that spoke my language. he was a contractor staying in Homestead. he saw that i was starving to death, and made me a life saving offer. he said why didn't i go back with him? he offered his house to me for the night, a fishing trip in the morning, and to show me a place where i could stay. i had nothing better to do anyway, and this dude was even offering to buy lunch. how could i pass up on an offer this sweet!!
we spent the rest of the day hanging out in bars, and drinking cold beer. later that night we took back off to Homestead. you need to realize that hurricane Andrew had just devastated the Homestead area a few months ago. i had never laid my eyes on so much damage in my entire life. it looked like a war zone, and parts of it look like a nuke had went off. i quickly realized that i had just stepped into the pits of hell!! he assurred me that i could make all kinds of money in this area, and everything would be alright.
that night i slept like a rock on his floor. this was the first time that i had sleep inside, without the presence of bugs, and fleas in a while. in the morning we did what that he said that we were going to do. we went fishing down in Key Largo. it was a bummer of a day for fishing. we didn't catch anything. i did however get an opportunity for an unusual lunch. we ate pork and bean, and spam sandwiches..............yuck!!! i was hungry though, and i devoured three with no complaints. i have never really cared for either of these near food items, but when your really hungry it will work!!
as we were heading back from the dead fishing trip he pulled up in front of some apartments that had been through hell in the storm, and announced that we were here. here? what the hell are we doing here? he told me that this was the place that i could live. now,............i was in a place that i had never been before, and in an area that i knew nothing about. how in the hell was i supposed to live in this place?
he assured me once again that i would be fine, and said that he would check on me in a couple of days. i knew in my heart as he drove off that would be the last time that i ever would see him,.............and it was.
i took a few hours to tour the entire complex, and found a few people living there. the thieves had already stolen all the copper wiring, and anything else that they could sale. i could tell that some of these people that lived here left in the nick of time, because of what was left. i found cans of food to eat from, and i found me a place to call home for the time being.
my new home was a mess. the sliding glass door in the living room had shattered towards the inside. actually,............every sliding glass door in the complex had shattered. the good thing about my new home was the fact that i had a couch to sleep on. the first night was horrible. there where a lot of screaming outside my door that night, and a few gun shots. there was pitch darkness, because of lack of power. i wasn't safe, and i couldn't fool myself into thinking that i was safe. i could hear the animals, and rats walking through the broken glass in the room that i was in, but i couldn't see them.
i was scared,............alone,.............and confused. i wished that i had ran to the jail, and turned myself in instead of running to Florida. i laid there on that couch with all this activity going on around me, and finally cried myself to sleep. i didn't sleep long when the door burst open, and three guys came right on it. they had a lantern in their hands. i wasn't sure what to do. i froze perfectly still, as they went in to my kitchen. they found the bounty of canned food that i had found earlier in the day, and stuck in a bag. then that went straight out the door without even seeing me laying on the sofa.
when the sun rose the next morning i was still laying on the sofa paralyzed. i hadn't gone back to sleep once the bandits have left for fear that a different set might appear. i didn't know what to expect, but i did realize that i was out of my league. i also knew that everything that i had known before would have to change if i planned on making it in this hell that i had fallen into last night.
i wander around the streets for the next three days, and finally met a friendly face. his name was mike, and i think that he felt sorry for me, because he began to teach my green ass how to survive. i hadn't had a bite of food in three days. mike said that he could fix that. he reached into his sack, and brought out a foot long sandwich from Winn Dixie. i started tearing right into it, and thanked him for it. he said that would be my last free one, from now on i had to go get my own.
i said that i didn't have any money, and he just laughed. he didn't have money either, but he took me to the place that i could get food. as we walked in front of Winn Dixie i was heading to the front door, and he said no, we need to go around to the back. i thought that maybe he knew somebody that worked in the store. i never even thought about where he got the food. maybe he was going to meet somebody around back i thought.
when we walked in back of the store he pointed at the dumpster, and said that my feast awaits me. what? that sandwich came from the dumpster? you have to be joking me? i slowly walked up to it, and peered inside. there was a lot of different food inside amongst the trash, and i saw some foot longs also. my guts started churning, and i puked like i was possessed. my first meal from a dumpster was some other critters meal now...............man, i was sick!!!
i cussed and raved at him like a mad man. i said that he was sick, and i wanted nothing else to do with him. he just laughed, and said that i would change my mind latter on, and walked away. i went the next three days without eating. there were no food lines in Homestead at this time, and i was pretty hungry. i was dumb, green, and had no idea how to take care of myself. i had also became desperate!!
it didn't take long to head back over to the dumpster. when i got there somebody else was raiding my bounty. i waited patiently my turn. all of a sudden mike's head popped up, and saw me. he started laughing, and told me to come dig right on in. i should never wait when i was hungry, because there might not be anything left.
mike kept working with me until i was good on my own. he finally gave me an extra tent that i could sleep in, and not that apartment. if it had not been for mike i would have probably starved to death out of ignorance. i never really cared about eating from a dumpster, but that was a little bit better than death.
mike disappeared one day like so many homeless people do. nobody seem to know what happened to him. we don't know if he just wandered off, or if somebody killed him. if he is out there somewhere, and reads this,...............i want to say thank you,..............thank you for giving me my first dumpster diving lesson!!
................much love
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