Right by the freeway onramp at Van Ness, there’s a guy that I often see panhandling for money. I’m loath to call him “homeless” because I’m not sure that he is. And he’s certainly a lot friendlier than most other homeless dudes I know.
He normally walks around with a sign that says “If you can’t spare a buck, how about a smile?” as he passes between the cars stopped at the light.
Tonight, however, he had a different sign. It was a clever little flip sign that displayed four or five messages as he flipped it around. And they rhymed, to boot. On top of which, the message ended with “Happy Mother’s Day,” which means that he went through all that trouble for a sign that he could use for a few days, if that.
He’s definitely one of my favorite panhandlers.
This is pretty good. You get across a lot of character and personality in these shots.