Tis Official

I am a surburbanite.  I know, I know.  This isn't really news.  But it all came to me full force yesterday evening. 

I was picking my Pops up from the bus station which, as are most bus stations, is not in a revitalized area of downtown.  People just kind of milling around my car (and you know how I feel about my car), all of them kind of waiting to make eye contact.  It's like once the eye contact is made, that is an opening to start a conversation that will 98% of the time lead to a monetary request. 

So I call Pops from inside the car as a couple of dudes wander on either side of Magdeline.  Pops is inside the station and is coming out, though we have to wait for his bags which are on a separate bus.  Pops is completely comfortable in this environment and for a short time in my early days in Atlanta, so was I.  Yeah, notsomuchnow.

I get out of the car so Pops can find me and we decide that I should put some money in the meter.  Stupid me drops a dollar that I quickly pick up and put back in my pocket.  But now, I'm exposed as having an extra dollar which means I cannot lie to one of the fellows who has noticeably migrated with us from a distance.  As soon as we are out of earshot of the ambassadors (Atlanta has city ambassadors waiting to help tourists and discourage panhandlers), one guy comes up and asks for a dollar.  I've learned the best way is a quick dismissal; otherwise you're in for a long drawn out story which will make you give up the funds just so you can be left alone.  But in my head, I'm thinking I can't say my usual 'I don't have any cash on my' cuz I dropped that dollar 30 seconds ago.  I had to use my less reliable 'I can't help ya' which sometimes doesn't discourage enough.

In any case, it worked.  But now I'm thinking as we walk to the other side of the station to wait for the other bus, 'Dude's gonna do something to Magdeline...he knows I have a buck, probably figures I can spare the dollar, but that I just don't want to.'  Add to that, the very defensive tension that begets large groups of strangers in bad parts of town, and I was internally a bag of nerves.  What did I do?  I did what I always do when I get nervous....I went quiet.