I finally took the time to stop at the Lucas Foods to take a photograph of the large sign on top of the building. Local legend is that the juxtaposition of the words “Bait” and “Sandwiches” was not noticed by the owner until after the sign was completed. Instead of insisting that the sign be changed, the owner decided to keep it as-is for the novelty value. In a story I have been working on, the owner of a similar store in another Texas town took the same attitude – even offering Shrimp Po Boys to anyone who came in and remarked in a negative way on the sign.
Don’t know if the fellow owning the Lucas Foods has done the same thing. Maybe he should. Might make him a small fortune.
Lucas is another of the numerous well-to-do little towns here in this little corner of the DFW Metromess. Less than a mile south of this sign is a neighborhood called Seis Lagos. It’s gated. You can’t go there unless you have business there and can prove it. To the east about two miles away, is Brockdale Estates – a collection of McMansions costing well north of half a million dollars when it was being built a few years back. Going east, there are more than a few homes with plenty of acreage, most of them with a horse barn with real horses in them.
And then there are the RV parks.
We’re not talking about nice little resorts where people will go and temporarily park their Winnebagos for a month or two. We’re talking about a place where people live. Full time. All year round.
When on my way from Lucas to my little corner of the DFW Metromess, a distance of around 5 miles, I counted at least a half-dozen of these little camps tucked away off the main road. And that’s just in a five-mile drive. While driving by myself and with the other half, I have noted that there is an explosion of these little RV encampments within, say, a twenty-mile radius of where we live. Not trailer parks. A trailer park would be a step up from these RV encampments.
On the other hand, the other half pointed out that at least the people living in the RV parks aren’t living out in the street somewhere. Lord knows that we have enough people living in the streets already.
Someone on one of my social media feeds pointed out that for less than half the money being spent to help arm Ukraine, the homeless problem could be solved. Chump change for the likes of Jeff Bezos. Maybe he could help out just a little bit.
Elon Musk reportedly once challenged the UN – Give him a budget and he would be willing to end world hunger. A budget of $5billion was submitted, but he didn’t pony up. Instead, he made headlines in the past few weeks by buying Twitter for an outrageous sum of money. Somewhere in the vicinity of $150billion. But he didn’t have the money to invest in ending world hunger. (Wasn’t he manning a soup kitchen in an episode of The Big Bang Theory?)
I can’t help but to think that if these high-falutin’ billionaires would put their heads together and work on real problems instead of seeing how much money they can stuff into their bank accounts, the world would be a much better place for everyone.
The solutions are out there. We just need to change a few attitudes.
Be Seeing You!
bdharrellauthor 
It’s my money and I’m keeping it whilst I snag more of yours. Meanwhile, Imma tell you how humanitarian I am. Like Kroger (you know Kroger – Cinnncinnattii?) puts the bins out front, “Won’tcha buy a load of groceries (here, but of course) and after you’ve paid for them, drop them in the bin so we at Kroger can tell the world how Humanitarian the Kroger Corpuscleation is”?
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Kroger was right around the corner from us when I was a teenager in south-central Ohio. The scam you reference isn’t just a Kroger thing, the store I shop (a north Texas chain called Brookshires) does the same thing. I buy the extras, take them home, and then donate the extras to a small neighborhood pantry at my church. That way, the “Corpuscleation” gets none of the credit for their “benevolence.”
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