Pan handling

I have been approrached by pan handlers, and frankly, I have not enjoyed the experience. You have various emotions sweeping over you all at the same time. First, you are saddened by the individual's plight. Then , you wonder, is he , she really this destitute? I mean, to demean yourself to beg for money is degrading. Would someone do it just to free load?

But.there are times when it is necessary to ask for help. I have been in a few scrapes. I once had my car blow a radiator, and I was stuck on Route 66. I was about two hundred or more miles from home, and I was stuck.
I remember walking across a dusty field to a farm house, where a little boy and girl were playing on a swing. I asked if I could use their phone. They called out to their father, who greeted me.
He allowed me into their home, which was nothing to write about, just basic shelter. i sat aty a table, and chairs, and I was offered a baloney sandwich, which I took, and a glass of milk. I made my call home, asked Mom to come pick me up, told her as best I could where I was.
The old man drove me back to my disabled Rambler, and promised that he would come and check on me during the night.
Having nothing better to do, I went to sleep. I was rousted by a bright light shining in my face.
Two cops saw my car, and came to investigate. They began to grill me as to why I was parked on the side of the highway. I explained that my radiator was burst, but I had help coming. They looked askance when I told them from where my help was coming, Northern Indiana, because I was close to Southern Illinios. They saw my books, and my things which I had collected to take back home, so they left, promising to keep watch over me as well. I nodded off again to sleep.
I don't know what woke me this time,but I saw a car pull off to the side of the road on the other side, and a man was walking towards the median strip. I got out and I yelled, "Who goes there?"
The figure did not answer, but kept coming. I began to feel sweat roll down my face, fear. I grabbed a desk lamp, put the cord around my arm and prepared myself to use the lamp for a weapon. The figure got within three feet, I tensed, and then the flash of a passing car light showed me who the man was, he was my benefactor. I must have startled him, when I hugged him. He had been true to his word, he had come back to check on me.
Later on, I heard a frantic knock at my window, it was my Mom. She was all franic, thinking I was dead. She had found help.
So, I have been there. My plight was not as desperate as some. But , I have been there.