When Dave and I were restoring Victorian homes in Downtown Colorado Springs, we had a crew of homeless ‘tramps’ (their preferred moniker – aka ‘hobos’ or ‘vagabonds’) that would come thru town regularly and help us on our remodeling projects. Our favorite tramp was Skip. Whenever he was low on cash, Skip would fly a sign on any street corner, and within hours would have made several hundred dollars.
One day while flying a sign in Denver, a charitable soul stopped and gave Skip $5,000 in cash. Without going into the social and moral aspects of such a generous (but misguided) gesture, Skip hired a limo, went around to several City parks collecting some of his homeless friends, and headed down to Colorado Springs to treat his mates to a few nights on the town.
While driving on Tejon, Skip spied a beautifully decorated basket of cookies in the window of Mrs. Field’s Cookies at the corner of Kiowa, and instructed the limo driver to stop immediately. Upon entering the store and telling the cashier that he wanted the basket of cookies, he was informed that they were for display only and not for sale. He said he wanted a gift for his friend Mimi, and how much would the basket cost? He was again informed that it was not for sale.
Not to be thwarted, he pulled out a $100 bill, put it on the counter, and politely asked that it be packaged so that he could deliver it to Mimi. SOLD . . . back in the limo, over to my house, delivered into my hands, and then he drove off into the sunset to enjoy a few days of revelry with his friends.
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