Turners Falls

 

It was about this time last year that I was thrown off the canal one morning by officer Jimmy, and moved down to Peskeomskut Park, right in the center of town. And that's where I lived until officer Jimmy and officer Dan threw me out of there on December 1.

 

I lived in the band shell with my sleeping bag and my bag-lady shopping cart of worldly goods. While there was a great deal of shame and humiliation and a certain amount of hardship living outdoors, at the park I did have the squirrels and birds, and they were my friends. I certainly didn't have any human ones. And when I'd lived at the canal I had geese and squirrels (one that would swim back and forth over the canal) and ducks and possums and skunks to be my friends. The nights I slept at the river, I had the ducks and geese. And then there were the six or so nights I'd been allowed to sleep in the laundromat, when I had no animal friends.

 

And I am still angry, and insulted, and appalled, that in two whole months of living this way in a town where I'd previously had homes for 22 years,

not one person offered me a couch or a spare room.