One of the many things The Mouth loves about Astoria is that we love our homeless eccentrics.  Ms. Mouth somewhat felt this way when she lived in the Hawthorne District in PDX, but even in the uber-liberal HD, we weren't on the first name (or first moniker) basis we are here.

 

The cast of homeless characters in A-town is not endless, but what it lacks in length, it makes up for in substance.  Consider P___, our mostly homeless, schizoid artist who is so prolific  that he sells his watercolors by the bagful in more lucid times.  Some of his stuff is fairly infantile, but some of it is quite good.  You never know what you are going to get with P___.  He could be friendly one minute and screaming at tourists or pigeons the next.  It is part of his charm, assuming you aren't the aforementioned tourist.  One of the Mouth's favorite interactions with P___ was at the Sunday Market last summer.  After reminding P___ that it wasn't good manners to obsessively rub the Mouth's arms as a greeting, P___ informed Ms. Mouth that he had recently seen Jesus Christ.  He went on to say that Jesus Christ made personal visits to people that believed in him.  When Ms. Mouth said that such a practice must keep the Good Lord pretty busy, P___ replied: "It's okay, he like his job."

 

A second character is "Helmet Guy" (clearly named for his attire, a large motorcycle helmet that almost never leaves his head).  Regretfully, Ms. Mouth does not know HG's real identity, however, she can safely say that there is no more prodigious worker than HG.  HG carts (literally) all of his possessions across the many acres of Astoria Proper with one purloined shopping buggy and what appears to be at least two 40 lb. garbage sacks.  He does this by moving the buggy to one location, perhaps a block to a block.5 up and then retrieving his sacks slogging them to the cart.  Repeat, ad infinitum, until the projected goal is met.  Consider how much of a feat this is, in sun and rain, wind and deluge, day in and day out.  Few of us can even conceive of the shear determination it takes to live this way.

 

The beauty of Astoria is that it is not an unusual occurrence to see HG and P___ , along  with any number of the few others in the cast of characters that make up A-Towns underworld, sipping on coffee at the tables outside of Godfather's Books.  Not only is it not unusual, it is also common for natives to stop by and at the very least say hello, and sometimes even join in the conversation for a moment or too (assuming actual conversation is occurring, which is sometimes not the case at all -- rather there are times when "conversation" is composed of the individuals mumbling in a seemingly non-response seeking sort of way).

 

More than the latter, which can possibly be seen as condescending (it is not intended to be), we look after P__ and HG.  Ms. Mouth has observed several instances of folks helping HG in particular, and heard anecdotes of acquaintences bailing P___ out of sticky situations.  Ms. Mouth herself once intervened with P___ and a tourist who  believed P___'s "I'm gonna kill you fucker," was directed at him (tourist) rather than the pigeon at his (P__'s) feet. By the time Ms. Mouth got there, the tourist was screaming at P___ who was, by now, rocking and shifting his focus from the pigeon to the tourist.  The Mouth fears to think what could have happened without the timely coincidence of stumbling upon the two.

 

P___ and HG live on their own terms.  Sometimes, P___ at least, wants to take his meds and live in shelter or HUD housing, and sometimes he doesn't.  This is what he has told The Mouth anyway, and who is she to decide what is best for him. 

 

To The Mouth, it is an important characteristic of this town that we look out for those who need it when they need it, and just let them be and live on their own terms when they don't.