At the end of the table today, two Native women demonstrated techniques for making cigarettes on a budget.
Joanne, like a number of smokers, gathers discarded cigarette butts from the street, public ashtrays and other sources. These are typically collected in a sealed baggie or Tupperware-style container for later harvesting of the tobacco.
The burnt end is pinched off and the remaining tobacco is worked from the paper tube. Since smoke has traveled through the tobacco, what remains is relatively harsh and it is often cut with low-cost rolling tobacco such as Bugler.
Here, she has culled enough to produce one hand-rolled cigarette.
Others work more in production mode, using a rolling machine. I've seen some guests insert tobacco in premade tubes, but Suzi (left) is using the simpler cradle-style roller.
Her technique involves snipping off the end of the filter next to the previous smoker's mouth and then reusing the trimmed butt.
The result is a well-shaped cigarette, but the recycled filter may not be to everyone's taste.
***
JC told me he went to bed hungry last night. Sometimes it's that way, he said.
Now that it's toward the end of the month, he is out of SSI money. Because he sleeps on the street, he doesn't get the breakfast and dinner served at the shelter. He's on his own for food and other expenses, such as buying the diapers he needs for his incontinence.
Early each month, his benefits account is credited electronically and he withdraws money in the predawn, calls a cab and takes it out to the Love's truck stop on the interstate. He typically orders biscuits and gravy for $7 plus coffee and a tip. Then he pays $11 to use the trucker's showers.
The showers are deluxe compared to what we have at the Day Center. They have a second head about waist high which can be directed at the feet. Since he's paying, there's no one banging on the door that his ten minutes are up.
He takes a cab back to his camp. The fare is $20 each way.
All in all, he spends nearly $70 within the first few hours of receiving his payment.
It may seem foolish, given his empty belly last night and the prospect of more if he can't raise a few dollars panhandling. But by spreading his dollars out, he might have to give up this one luxury, the only time all month when a few people do as he asks. When he can sit at a table and not be asked to move. When he can feel the hot water soothe his aches, the way we can do anytime we've had a bad day.
