This man is WORKING! Not begging.
We are back in Roma, and almost everywhere you look (I was looking from my little travel cage as we drove in from the ferry), there are men (and women sometimes) with window washing squeegees and a bucket of water, ready to clean your windshield for an euro—about $1.36.
Personally, I think that’s a bargain. Now lots of anthros complain about what are now actually known a The Squeegee People—they are invasive, they start cleaning when you’ve said no and then get mad at you when you don’t pay and leave soap on your window, and so on. Plus, a lot of people can’t stand waiting at ANY light and get antsy and think they can’t have a window wash because the light’s too short, and did you know there are actually horrible people who just let the poor man or woman wash the window and then DRIVE OFF without paying? Incredible.
In all the years mama and papa have spent time in Roma, always with a car, mama said that they have never run into someone who was rude or abusive or left papa looking through soapsuds! Plus some of the Squeegee People are really interesting, if you talk with them for a minute or two. And if they see me, they always say, Awwwwwww, she’s so cuuuute. I try to talk bugs into running into the windshield just so we can stop and get washed!
Now think of this: if all the cities where squeegee people work were to lengthen their red lights just a tad, just long enough for a nice window wash, the squeegee people would have more satisfied clients more of the time and would not be as poor as they are right now, needing welfare or help from the coffers of the city. This could be very lucrative for both parties!
Mama, papa and I come in from little jaunts in the car, and almost always, the windscreen is covered with those little kamikaze insects who seem to have nothing but pea green or baby-diaper-yellow insides that squoosh right in front of the eyes of the driver (papa) and passenger (mama) and backseat rider (I can’t see out of that battlefield of dead bugs either!) and the one thing you want after a long trip is to see out, especially if the city you are looking at is ROME, and so I am glad there are those nice men and women who are just trying to make a buck by actually doing something, not just begging on the streets.
I think it makes them feel good that they are working for their money and in a way, are a real part of the economy like other working anthros.
Anyway, it was just a thought….waiting a few seconds longer for a light helps to calm the spirit, a kind of tiny zen exercise that everyone can benefit from, except the s…ts who peel out and don’t pay, may their tire blow in the next block!
HEY, get back here and pay this guy, you schmuck!
You are so right. Mommy’s daddy used to have people come to the church (he was the pastor) begging, and the word went out that anyone who would do a bit of work (sweep a sidewalk, pick up sticks, dust the pews, water flowers, any simple thing) would get a nice sandwich and something cool to drink and if the chore was a big one and it was cheerfully well done, a little money, too, and another sandwich “for the road”. A little dignity goes a long way.