Comments on: Barking downtown. http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown Playing By Ear as a way of life Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:24:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: regi berry http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown/comment-page-1#comment-110 regi berry Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:31:11 +0000 http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown#comment-110 Howdy~ I was doing errands downtown and ran into a friend from Oregon who was playing dulcimer downtown. Her car had broken down and she needed money to repair it and get back home - to her job in Oregon. I got my dulcimer and guitar and joined her for a few songs only to have the business owner call the police...we were obeying all the rules. It was embarassing that this would happen in MY Santa Cruz. I admire you all for playing on the Mall...but I just won't put myself thru all the crap of street people and arrogant business owners or the police. It just isn't worth it to me! Also was called to jury duty and the case was of a woman who had been arrested for playing on the Mall...Needless to say, I wasn't picked for the jury once it was disclosed that I was a musician! Howdy~
I was doing errands downtown and ran into a friend from Oregon who was playing dulcimer downtown. Her car had broken down and she needed money to repair it and get back home – to her job in Oregon. I got my dulcimer and guitar and joined her for a few songs only to have the business owner call the police…we were obeying all the rules. It was embarassing that this would happen in MY Santa Cruz. I admire you all for playing on the Mall…but I just won’t put myself thru all the crap of street people and arrogant business owners or the police. It just isn’t worth it to me!

Also was called to jury duty and the case was of a woman who had been arrested for playing on the Mall…Needless to say, I wasn’t picked for the jury once it was disclosed that I was a musician!

]]> By: Luke http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown/comment-page-1#comment-103 Luke Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:58:35 +0000 http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown#comment-103 To me, the moral of the story is this: unless you're already on good terms, you'll never get anywhere calling someone "sweetheart"... Luke To me, the moral of the story is this: unless you’re already on good terms, you’ll never get anywhere calling someone “sweetheart”…

Luke

]]> By: dan http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown/comment-page-1#comment-98 dan Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:27:19 +0000 http://www.abbottfamilyblog.com/2007/09/27/barking-downtown#comment-98 in the 90's i had several good young friends who were going to ucsc and living fairly close to downtown. many a time i spent with them on pacific st. (ave.?) grabbing breakast or going shopping or just walking around running errands. the number of kids begging for change was crazy, not to mention the bums and vargrant-y looking guys clustered near the bus station. i noticed that an awful lot of the begging teens didnt look homeless or any differently dressed than my friends and i. then it dawned on me that this was just recreational begging, something sort of vaguely "cool" to do in a defiant kind of way. it pissed me off for a number of reasons, one of them being that it took business away from the truly homeless kids begging who probably really did need the money for necessary food or necessary drugs. the whole thing sucked and so i finally lost my cool one day and barked at a bunch of teeneagers who were obviously recreationally panhandling. they just stared at me or the ground and ignored me, but it felt good to express it, including the words "get jobs" and sometihing about being lazy. ya know, it was the truth then and it's the truth now. in the 90’s i had several good young friends who were going to ucsc and living fairly close to downtown. many a time i spent with them on pacific st. (ave.?) grabbing breakast or going shopping or just walking around running errands. the number of kids begging for change was crazy, not to mention the bums and vargrant-y looking guys clustered near the bus station. i noticed that an awful lot of the begging teens didnt look homeless or any differently dressed than my friends and i. then it dawned on me that this was just recreational begging, something sort of vaguely “cool” to do in a defiant kind of way. it pissed me off for a number of reasons, one of them being that it took business away from the truly homeless kids begging who probably really did need the money for necessary food or necessary drugs. the whole thing sucked and so i finally lost my cool one day and barked at a bunch of teeneagers who were obviously recreationally panhandling. they just stared at me or the ground and ignored me, but it felt good to express it, including the words “get jobs” and sometihing about being lazy. ya know, it was the truth then and it’s the truth now.

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