One of the things I am proud of is

that during my wandering and homeless years I never took and free stuff form the government. I always managed to take care of myself.

After I got out of the service I did go on unemployment for a few weeks until I found work but that's actually an insurance policy of sorts that I collected on.

It really wasn't hard to do this. I had simple needs and simple tastes. I was also always willing to work. Needless to say, I did do a lot of hard, dirty jobs but it paid the bills.   

One of the things I occasionally did was to wander into a diner and offer to wash dishes and clean the place up in exchange for something to eat. I was rarely refused and almost always the diner owner would hand me a couple of meals worth of go-go food to eat on the way to my next stop. I was also often offered a job if I wanted it. Sometimes I would work for a couple of days and make a little traveling cash.

Once in a diner one of the diners there overheard me and offered me a week's work as a cowboy. I took him up on it and was taken back to the ranch and handed an old dilapidated Jeep, a fencing took, some barbed wire and a revolver and spent a week mending fence. 

There was and likely is always something to do if you want to do something and pay your way.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY