For the past 6 months, I've been working at a storage unit in down town Salt Lake City.
It has been eye-opening to say the least.
We have 5 floors of storage units.
One day a wealthier customer asked me what he should do with his barely used queen box springs and mattress.... I told him we'd find a nice place for it.... (in my bedroom!)
We have a group of homeless guys that share a 10x10 unit. They're usually dirty, but really polite.
There's a very nice man who comes in everyday to his little corner unit. His hair is always slicked back perfectly. He looks very nice. The only way you would guess that he was homeless is that he has a deep tan and he carries a heavy backpack. He looks to be in his 50s. Last night, I needed to find one of the carts that had gone missing. I figured he was using it for something. I came upon him sitting on clean utilitarian grey blankets spread neatly on the blue cart. He was using rubber cement to repair the holes in his shoes. It broke my heart that I had to ask him to give up his seat.
Today, a woman came in with her curly haired daughter. The child is almost 3 years old and autistic. The woman wore a dirty tank top, no bra and a smile. She was drenched in sweat. She is legally blind, so she wasn't able to read the receipt I handed her as she made her payment. She commented that she had just walked from the airport. (We're a good 6 miles away.)
Every day I meet people who are moving up in the world--buying houses, moving to Singapore for work, Boston for school, moving in with lovers, getting married. And everyday I meet people who happily survive within their less fortunate circumstances.
I am amazed at how many different lives occur in this city. Worlds within worlds.
4 comments:
What an interesting read. My bestie's uncle lived in a storage unit for years until he died last week. I had no idea it was such a common place for homeless people to live--that was the first time I'd ever heard of such a thing. I always thought storage units were for people who were living in temporary/small/distant locations needing to store their stuff until they returned/moved into bigger places. I was unaware that you were working at a storage unit! What a fascinating place to meet new people!
Well, no one is supposed to "live here"--but it is nice to be able to provide a safe place that they can call their own.
It would be interesting to write a novel similar to the Friday Night Knitting Club about fictional people that all store their things in the same building.
Yes, get on that.
I don't do fiction. I have tried, but I find creative non-fiction to be much more interesting. I am continually intrigued by the characters I come across in life.
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