Down And Out In Lansing (1 of 2)
I'd gotten off to an unusually late start, heading back to Muskegon. I kept walking as car after car after car passed. Finally someone gave me a ride from Waterford to the M-59/I-96 junction.
I walked out to I-96 and kept trying to hitch a ride. No one was picking me up. After a few hours of this someone gave me a ride to lansing. By this time it was getting dark, and I was getting worried. Being on the highway after dark was dangerous and stupid from so many different angles I didn't even want to try to hitch further. What should I do? I could sleep under a viaduct; it was certainly warm enough. I had no sleeping bag though, and was also hungry, thirsty, sore, and broke. I started picking up returnable bottles along the roadside, stuffing them into a bag I found. At the Cedar Street exit I found a party store to turn them in for cash, which gave me $5.65 total to my name. From there I made my way over to the Denny's to get a breakfast special and nurse a coffee as long as they'd let me stay.
I wolfed down the breakfast special, which then lay on my gut like a wad of greasy lead. As I sized up the waitresses and my odds of quietly spending the night hunkered down in a booth I realized they were sizing me up as well.
Damn. Maybe 2 hours, then they'd start ushering me out the door.
Which left me no alternative. I asked for a refill on my coffee to assure they wouldn't confiscate the cup while I was up, and went to the bank of payphones in the alcove off the restrooms. i called my mom collect. She suggested I call my dad, since I was still closer to his place than hers.
Gee, thanks mom.
I called my dad, who prolonged the collect call by lecturing me on how expensive collect calls are. He couldn't come to Lansing, he said. Gas was too expensive.
Gee, thanks dad.
Well, now what? I was obviously nervous as I returned to my seat. The waitresses were giving me the Look. I swilled some more coffee and lifted my cup for a refill. One of them slammed down her notepad with an air of disgust and came over with the pot.
The next time I signalled for more coffee she went in the back and came back a moment later.
"The manager says you'll have to leave now."
God I hate Denny's.
When I was little I recall they were called "Sambos" and had a horrificly racist mascot. I was not surprised, years later, when they were sued for discrimination.
But the immediate problem was how to get through a night in Lansing with nowhere to stay. I abandoned the idea of a viaduct as too dangerous. Maybe if I got on the roof of someplace closed I could avoid problems. I walked till I found such a place.
An old car dealership with a chain link fence around it.
I jumped the fence and was halfway across the lot when the police cruiser showed up.
It took all of my persuasion to talk my way out of going to jail for trespassing, but somehow I convinced them that I was more in need of help than looking for anyplace to burglarize. I pointed out that I was also technically a minor, which I was sure would create added complications and whole new dimensions of paper work should they decide to go through with an arrest.
Finally they consented to bring me to the Lansing Rescue Mission, which was downtown.
After being checked in and preached at and sent to shower and given a bowl of cereal with powdered milk it was time to settle down for the night in a room that reeked so badly of alcohol that it would have been easy to imagine I was already home. I was advised to sleep with my pack for a pillow, else I was likely to lose it by morning.
Around the time I was almost asleep the train came through, and since the ricketly building housing the mission was right next to the railroad tracks it sounded like it was actually IN the room.
The remainder of the night was spent almost getting to sleep, only to be thwarted by trains. By the time the morning came I regretted not finding a viaduct closer to the freeway.
Aside from the lost sleep, I now had a six mile walk back to the freeway. I was sent on my way with some cold oatmeal and a prayer.
Gee, thanks God.
I walked out to I-96 and kept trying to hitch a ride. No one was picking me up. After a few hours of this someone gave me a ride to lansing. By this time it was getting dark, and I was getting worried. Being on the highway after dark was dangerous and stupid from so many different angles I didn't even want to try to hitch further. What should I do? I could sleep under a viaduct; it was certainly warm enough. I had no sleeping bag though, and was also hungry, thirsty, sore, and broke. I started picking up returnable bottles along the roadside, stuffing them into a bag I found. At the Cedar Street exit I found a party store to turn them in for cash, which gave me $5.65 total to my name. From there I made my way over to the Denny's to get a breakfast special and nurse a coffee as long as they'd let me stay.
I wolfed down the breakfast special, which then lay on my gut like a wad of greasy lead. As I sized up the waitresses and my odds of quietly spending the night hunkered down in a booth I realized they were sizing me up as well.
Damn. Maybe 2 hours, then they'd start ushering me out the door.
Which left me no alternative. I asked for a refill on my coffee to assure they wouldn't confiscate the cup while I was up, and went to the bank of payphones in the alcove off the restrooms. i called my mom collect. She suggested I call my dad, since I was still closer to his place than hers.
Gee, thanks mom.
I called my dad, who prolonged the collect call by lecturing me on how expensive collect calls are. He couldn't come to Lansing, he said. Gas was too expensive.
Gee, thanks dad.
Well, now what? I was obviously nervous as I returned to my seat. The waitresses were giving me the Look. I swilled some more coffee and lifted my cup for a refill. One of them slammed down her notepad with an air of disgust and came over with the pot.
The next time I signalled for more coffee she went in the back and came back a moment later.
"The manager says you'll have to leave now."
God I hate Denny's.
When I was little I recall they were called "Sambos" and had a horrificly racist mascot. I was not surprised, years later, when they were sued for discrimination.
But the immediate problem was how to get through a night in Lansing with nowhere to stay. I abandoned the idea of a viaduct as too dangerous. Maybe if I got on the roof of someplace closed I could avoid problems. I walked till I found such a place.
An old car dealership with a chain link fence around it.
I jumped the fence and was halfway across the lot when the police cruiser showed up.
It took all of my persuasion to talk my way out of going to jail for trespassing, but somehow I convinced them that I was more in need of help than looking for anyplace to burglarize. I pointed out that I was also technically a minor, which I was sure would create added complications and whole new dimensions of paper work should they decide to go through with an arrest.
Finally they consented to bring me to the Lansing Rescue Mission, which was downtown.
After being checked in and preached at and sent to shower and given a bowl of cereal with powdered milk it was time to settle down for the night in a room that reeked so badly of alcohol that it would have been easy to imagine I was already home. I was advised to sleep with my pack for a pillow, else I was likely to lose it by morning.
Around the time I was almost asleep the train came through, and since the ricketly building housing the mission was right next to the railroad tracks it sounded like it was actually IN the room.
The remainder of the night was spent almost getting to sleep, only to be thwarted by trains. By the time the morning came I regretted not finding a viaduct closer to the freeway.
Aside from the lost sleep, I now had a six mile walk back to the freeway. I was sent on my way with some cold oatmeal and a prayer.
Gee, thanks God.