In the warmth of the South Boulder ATM I encounter three homeless men with all their worldly belongings, sheltering from the cold. I don't feel unsafe getting my cash; they seem harmless. They remind me of someone I loved who was homeless for a while. One of them is struggling with a stuck coat zipper.
“Do you know anything about zippers?” he queries, and the others go very still for a moment. But I’m pretty sure the question is innocent.
“Bring it all the way down first and then work it back up,” I say inanely although the real stuck zipper solution is of course more complex. It is very cold, and snow lies heavy on the ground. A broken coat zipper can be a real issue for people living outside. “Do you guys have some place to go tonight—the shelter?”
“Oh yeah,” they all assure me.
“I’ve seen worse than this weather in New Orleans,” says the one with the flushed face and the southern accent. “This is nothing compared to that!”
“Well I saw pigs after a tornado,” says the one standing nearest me, his eyes wide. “Lots of dead pigs after the wind, their legs up in the air.”
“I grew up in Indiana – I’ve seen tornadoes too,” I say.
The quietest hunkering tiredly in the corner nods and says, “I’m from West Texas, and I’ve seen tornadoes too.”
“I got it!” says the guy with the stuck zipper, and indeed the zipper now slides smoothly.
I pause before leaving, and the West Texan lies, “Don’t worry. We’re fine. Just waitin’ for a ride.” There is no discussion of money. I walk away remembering a coat I bought long ago for another homeless guy who lost it the next winter. But I would like to believe that for a time it gave him warmth.
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Reminds me of a couple of weeks ago, I had taken Bill and Jay to the thrift store to try to find them some coats they could use snowboarding. New coats were wrapped under the tree but I didn't want to ruin that surprise. Jay was not about to wear anything "2nd hand" but Bill found a nice warm one. As we were paying the 4.00 for the coat the clerk mentioned "this is a nice warm coat, I know as it kept me warm all last winter". Bill left happy. Today we plan on re-donating the coat as his new one is just fine.
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