THE HOBO HANDBOOK: MEMOIRS OF A HOMELESS POET IN NEW YORK
By Daniel Canada a.k.a Obsidian c.2010
The Hobo
Handbook exhibits what life on the streets is really like. I will familiarize
you with the actual existence of those without domicile, and demonstrate what
steps I took in order to survive the onslaught of the bare-ass-naked streets.
What is more, I will introduce you to some of the most colorful and bizarre,
real-life, characters you will ever meet; and no doubt, would otherwise never
meet, unless I made their acquaintance to you in this book. These are truly the
invisible people of the earth, folks that you've merely pass by on your way to
work, or any given day of the week.
Also, I
will present the types of personalities and characterizations I had to take
care not to unwittingly imitate, after spending a certain amount of time in the
company of the dispossessed. The Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet in
New York, uses my personal experience to demonstrate how practicality helped me
to survive and to keep my precious sanity, while navigating my way through the
trials and perils of the streets; this was all with the goal of extracting myself
from a state of homelessness and to once again find a place I can call home.
CHAPTER
ONE
SURVIVAL
AND THE HOMELESS
.
It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. All that matters is
where you are in the present. You probably were working at a well paying job,
in a respectable company, drawing six-figures. You might have been a manager or
the supervisor of a cutting-edge, corporate team. Suddenly, there's an economic
downturn and like Gilligan on "Gilligan's Island," you've been handed the short
straw, and you're the one out of a job. Now you're forced to scrounge off your
precious savings. At this point you reluctantly started dipping into your 401K
plan, or Roth IRA. However, this still doesn't seem to cut the mustard.