eyungen
Stranger 4/100 - Vincent
Stranger Number 4: Vincent, the man with a 1,000 one-liners. “A horse walks into a bar, the bartender says, “Why the long face?””
My fiancé and I have a weekend tradition, either on a Saturday or Sunday, whichever we have free, we go to our favorite place to get hot wings. They’re not breaded, I think they use Frank’s Buffalo Wing sauce and they are delicious. Anyway, this Saturday, we ended up there on a whim, hadn’t really planned it for that day, but we were in the neighborhood. I also hadn’t planned on “Stranger hunting” that day, but luckily I had my camera shoved in my gigantic purse.
After enjoying our wings inside, we decided to have a drink outside before we left since it was such a beautiful day. We ordered them and paid our bill, not expecting to have another or stay past just the one. As we were outside enjoying that one last drink, an older gentleman dressed in all black, a white beard (not quite like Santa’s) and a cane, came walking down the sidewalk towards us. He paused next to our table and told us a joke. We laughed, he told us another joke. After interacting with him for a minute or two, I asked him if he would do me a favor and let me take his picture. I tried to quickly explain that I was doing this project and I told him he was just so funny and friendly, that I had to ask. He actually didn’t respond to my request, but instead, possibly in reaction to my comment about being funny and friendly, he started talking about his life, one that wasn’t so fun.
Long story short, we invited Vincent to join us and we visited with him for the next 3 hours. Vincent is homeless, staying down the street in a shelter, sleeping on a thin pad at night. Our time with him was full of jokes, peppered with abrupt moments of seriousness with a shaky voice and tears in his eyes. He uses humor to cope, to escape, to make others smile. The sadness in his life is always very close to the surface. It came out often and sudden, disappearing with a joke as fast as it came. We knew Vincent wasn’t a saint, he explained he would be going to jail on Monday for a probation violation for trespassing (he said he just wanted the pictures of his kids he had left behind), we both assumed there was more to this story. Regardless, you couldn’t help to feel for him. He had a love, Vera, whom he wasn’t able to see and was apparently in wheelchair now and not in good health. He was the 16th child of 18, but had nobody he felt he could call, he said they wouldn’t take his calls. He had children that he couldn’t see, or wouldn’t see him, he mentioned his ex-wfie had told their children lies about him in the past, out of spite. We offered him a meal while we visited, he declined our offer, he says depression doesn’t leave him with much of an appetite.
Vincent entertained us for those 3 hours with jokes, his story and a little harmonica. He seemed to be happy to have someone to talk to, someone to listen to him (he mentioned the others that stayed at the shelter weren’t so friendly). We found out later when we searched for his name online (he had offered up his full name when we met), that he did have quite the rap sheet, just as we had thought. His record paints a different picture than his words. However, we still thoroughly enjoyed visiting with him. He may have made some mistakes, probably A LOT of mistakes, but it seems he has a good heart. He says his favorite thing is making people smile and the key to a lasting love, is to always hold hands.
This picture is #3 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page [www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/]
Stranger 4/100 - Vincent
Stranger Number 4: Vincent, the man with a 1,000 one-liners. “A horse walks into a bar, the bartender says, “Why the long face?””
My fiancé and I have a weekend tradition, either on a Saturday or Sunday, whichever we have free, we go to our favorite place to get hot wings. They’re not breaded, I think they use Frank’s Buffalo Wing sauce and they are delicious. Anyway, this Saturday, we ended up there on a whim, hadn’t really planned it for that day, but we were in the neighborhood. I also hadn’t planned on “Stranger hunting” that day, but luckily I had my camera shoved in my gigantic purse.
After enjoying our wings inside, we decided to have a drink outside before we left since it was such a beautiful day. We ordered them and paid our bill, not expecting to have another or stay past just the one. As we were outside enjoying that one last drink, an older gentleman dressed in all black, a white beard (not quite like Santa’s) and a cane, came walking down the sidewalk towards us. He paused next to our table and told us a joke. We laughed, he told us another joke. After interacting with him for a minute or two, I asked him if he would do me a favor and let me take his picture. I tried to quickly explain that I was doing this project and I told him he was just so funny and friendly, that I had to ask. He actually didn’t respond to my request, but instead, possibly in reaction to my comment about being funny and friendly, he started talking about his life, one that wasn’t so fun.
Long story short, we invited Vincent to join us and we visited with him for the next 3 hours. Vincent is homeless, staying down the street in a shelter, sleeping on a thin pad at night. Our time with him was full of jokes, peppered with abrupt moments of seriousness with a shaky voice and tears in his eyes. He uses humor to cope, to escape, to make others smile. The sadness in his life is always very close to the surface. It came out often and sudden, disappearing with a joke as fast as it came. We knew Vincent wasn’t a saint, he explained he would be going to jail on Monday for a probation violation for trespassing (he said he just wanted the pictures of his kids he had left behind), we both assumed there was more to this story. Regardless, you couldn’t help to feel for him. He had a love, Vera, whom he wasn’t able to see and was apparently in wheelchair now and not in good health. He was the 16th child of 18, but had nobody he felt he could call, he said they wouldn’t take his calls. He had children that he couldn’t see, or wouldn’t see him, he mentioned his ex-wfie had told their children lies about him in the past, out of spite. We offered him a meal while we visited, he declined our offer, he says depression doesn’t leave him with much of an appetite.
Vincent entertained us for those 3 hours with jokes, his story and a little harmonica. He seemed to be happy to have someone to talk to, someone to listen to him (he mentioned the others that stayed at the shelter weren’t so friendly). We found out later when we searched for his name online (he had offered up his full name when we met), that he did have quite the rap sheet, just as we had thought. His record paints a different picture than his words. However, we still thoroughly enjoyed visiting with him. He may have made some mistakes, probably A LOT of mistakes, but it seems he has a good heart. He says his favorite thing is making people smile and the key to a lasting love, is to always hold hands.
This picture is #3 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page [www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/]