I was recently reminded of a story of an encounter my husband and I had with a homeless man and a valuable lesson I learned from him. It was summer 2014 when my husband and I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia. My husband was presenting his master's thesis research at an academic conference there. While in the city we decided to do some sight seeing. My husband and I aren't city people. We're small town folk and big cities confuse and stress us out.

photo credit pixabay of the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta

We had two places we wanted to go: The Coca Cola Museum and Underground Atlanta. My husband and I got lost trying to find the Coca Cola Museum because it had moved to a new location and we didn't realize until we arrived at the old location. Later, we had a hard time finding Underground Atlanta. This at the time was basically a neat shopping center.

Because we aren't use to city culture we got a bit overwhelmed and stressed out walking around the city. Underground Atlanta was cool but it's not a place I would go ever again (it was shut down in 2017 so no chance of that happening). You walk in the doors of a train depot and there are different levels going underground. Throughout the place were stores and food places in a mall-like setup.

It was a unique place. The only bad part was homeless people. It started raining at some point and all the beggars who were outside asking for money moved inside. We somehow accidentally walked through a hall full of beggars harassing us for money trying to exit the place. Neither of us felt safe being in the place by that time.

photo credit pixabay of Atlanta at night

We left and my husband decided he was hungry. We were both stressed out from all the cars and walking and people. Beggars were everywhere. My husband is a nice guy so he gave a few some dollars or change he had in his pocket. After that it seemed like we became a magnet for every beggar in the city and we had people bother us every several minutes.

We got lost again and my husband, who has social anxiety like me, randomly turned around and headed back for Underground Atlanta since they had food places. I didn't want to go back there because it was a bad part of town. I snapped at him for going back there and just wanted to go back to the hotel. Another random move by my husband took us into this sketchy looking store. We walked in and a group of guys at the counter just stared at us like what the heck are these people doing in here. Uncomfortable at them staring at us the entire time we got out of that store and back onto the street.

This was the point where my husband and I got into a rare argument. My husband, when he has anxiety attacks gets absentminded and illogical. He was making too many random moves. I wanted to get us out of there and back to our nice, safe, quiet hotel. We argued which way to go to find food and our way back to our car. It was raining again and we were arguing in the rain.

Nearby, was a bus stop. A homeless man wearing a heavy green jacket was camped out underneath it's canopy. The guy called us over to the bus stop and told us to get out of the rain. He told us it's not good to argue and then started joking around with us as we joined him in the bus stop. He then transitioned into telling us about himself. He kept his right hand hidden in his pocket and he reeked of alcohol. I don't remember what all the guy talked about but he claimed a talent scout had discovered him and loved his singing. He told us the guy had hooked him up with an agent and he was going to be a big star.

While the rain fell hard around us, we listened to this man tell us tall tales about how he was discovered. He eventually sang us a song and he was downright horrible. Both my husband and I knew he was lying but he seemed very nice. I didn't fully feel safe because he kept his right hand in his pocket. I feared he had a weapon of some kind.

The guy then told us he wanted to show us the card of his agent as proof he was discovered. As he started pulling his right hand out of his pocket, with difficulty, I was scared he was about to mug us. The guy saw me back up towards my husband and I think he knew I was afraid of him. Out of his pocket he pulled...a business card. No weapon. He smiled and handed it to us so we could see his agent's name. He sang us another song. By then the rain had stopped and my husband told the guy we needed to go. The man asked us if we had a few dollars to spare to get a sandwich. My husband gave him $5 and we left.

We were much calmer. The guy had calmed our nerves a bit with his jokes and horrible singing. We picked up a few burgers down the street and got our bearings to figure out how to find our hotel. As we walked back to where we parked our car, we passed the homeless singer also walking down the street. He waved and said he got a sandwich and it was delicious.

photo credit pixabay of a park we walked through on the way back to our hotel

Moral to the Story

I went into meeting that man with a lot of fear. I was afraid he would try to hurt my husband and I because I knew he was homeless and from his tattered coat and smell of alcohol. We were in a bad part of town so it was a logical outcome. I was wrong about him though. He saw my husband and I arguing in the rain and decided to help us. He invited us into the dry bus stop and tried to cheer us up with jokes and singing. I'm sure he used the "discovered by a talent scout" bit to get money out of other tourists but in a weird way that helped my husband and I to calm down. I don't think he called us over to beg for money but did it to help us out. He was a nice guy and I hope his life turned out okay.

Looking back I feel a bit ashamed for being so afraid of the man and thinking the worst of him. Later when my husband and I talked about the meeting my husband said it never even crossed his mind that the guy would mug us. My husband tends to be more trusting in others than me. That day I learned you can't always judge a homeless man harshly. Many nice and kind people are homeless. It's a shame to see good people suffering. I wish we could have done more for the guy who helped us.

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