How many people here want to be a "bum"

I had the same feeling when I had finished my military service in the early 70'. I was fed up of being bossed around and wanted just to 'feel free'. A friend of mine and I had an old sailing boat in which we sailed up and down the Swedish and Norwegian coast. We took odd jobs - just for food, in many cases, and befriended young women who felt sorry for us, - you can live long on that, and fed us. Occasionally, I telegraphed my father; 'send more money', but he was furious so that well soon dried out. So, we had to return, promise to continue our education and 'fall into line'.

Still I have good memories from that journey, - not much of a travel in today's perspective. But for us, back then, it was a big thing. The world was much larger back then. - I have only good memories and could write a book about all the people we met. - How we survived the journey in that old leaky boat; it was a miracle.

I am three years from retirement I am very much looking forward to that great 'free' feeling.
 
You could, of course, package up all these questionable municipal bonds into a super-bond fund, then issue new bonds on those and sell those.
 
The world was much larger back then.
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That's just the middle age talkin'; the world's the same size it's always been. 😀

the Euro is sloshing around the bowl along with the dollar right now.
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It peaked at about $1.60 in mid-summer. Many Europeans paid cash, and NYC realtors reported booming sales. Anyway, we'll have to have a full-blown depression before NYC is the capital of the art world again. Even at half-price it's still too expensive. Try Hartford CT, or Providence RI; you can own all the mill space you want up there for less than you'd pay for a parking spot in NYC.
 
My second ex- is always yelling at me to get a haircut, that I look like a bum. We're still good friends, although sometimes I wonder if it's just to keep me around to put new rolls of film in her Minolta X-700.

A couple of weeks ago I "destroyed" my image, shaved off my scruffy beard, and got a haircut for the first time since January. I had to renew my drivers license for another 8 years! I even wore a tie and jacket for the occasion. I was the only one at the license place "properly attired" and yes, they do treat you differently!

I've been active in local politics for decades, getting appointed to city advisory boards, being on the boards of directors of the N.M. Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, Mayor's Economic Task Force, etc. as well as the photographer for the local congressman and a small college. Enough years in suit & tie I thought. I started dreassing like a greying hippy in hopes that I could just retire in peace, no more breakfast and luncheon meetings, no more evening board meetings.I grew the beard, stopped cutting my hair, picked out jeans with the most holes to wear to board meetings. Nothing helped...LOL...but what the hell, I'm having fun! I guess that's what being a bum is all about. Carrying a cheap little Bessa L with the 15mm Heliar, flirting with the "girls" my age and the ones still in high school (why discriminate?) And as my ex puts it "You're a respected member of the community! Why do you have to go around looking like a bum?"
 
I think everyone wants to live as you described if what you describe is how you want to live. Either your living how you want or your resigned to the notion that you can't live how you want. Many people endlessly distract themselves so they never realize their lives are not what they wanted. Some have postulated that because the self is a synthesis of baseness and nobility (ala Dostoevsky) or of necessary and possibility (ala Kierkegaard), or facticity and freedom (ala Heidegger) one can never be happy in the present. The only possibility is maintaining the self in equilibrum or having an unconditional commitment to something or someone. Going off for a year can't be a decision, you should have no other choice and therefor everyone else around you will understand or else you have to keep silent and just go and have faith that it will all work out in the end. Not many people can make these movements, the resignation is the easy part.
 
Saganich said:
Going off for a year can't be a decision, you should have no other choice and therefor everyone else around you will understand or else you have to keep silent and just go and have faith that it will all work out in the end. Not many people can make these movements, the resignation is the easy part.
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Exactly. I assume that you mean by 'no other choice' is that the drive to do it is so overwhelming that the alternatives don't really get a look-in. When I hear people agonizing about it, I can't help feeling that they are not ready, and will never be ready.

This is not the same as the original post, which was couched in more general, 'just idly thinking about it' terms. And, for the OP, I'd add that it may make you unemployable in conventional terms. Or of course it may not. But I don't think I'd last long as a wage slave after this long out of 'The System'.

Cheers,

R.
 
I don't know if I call myself a bum (other may!) but I travel allot just to photograph and document event. I do a handful of weddings/advertising shoots during the summer to put a few grand in the bank and that combined with what the wife makes we do just fine. Not rich but we have never been happier. I just got back from Chicago, slept in a hostel, ate pizza, and witnessed an amazing moment in history. Your friends in the corporate world will hate you......but want to be you 🙂
 
When in college, I had an internship during tax season with a public accounting firm. When one of the partners offered me a job upon graduation, I replied "I would rather be a bum and ride freight trains". The uppity set didn't suit me, I preferred to go into manufacturing.

I had an offer to be a semi-pro road racing cyclist, working in accounting part time for a company that sponsored a team. Figured I was too old to live with my parents, and out out of the back of a pickup truck during the season. I passed, but it probably would have been a blast, and I sometimes wonder "what if".
 
I met a couple in their forties at the camera store. They had just sold their business and were planning to take "loser jobs" here and there to see what it is like. They had already lined up jobs picking berries and had interviews scheduled at Tim Horton's. They said they would work each job for two weeks, quit and move on to the next.
I found their concept somewhat condescending because their attitude was one of "slumming it" with the working class for kicks. They probably came from money nad had never had to pick berries or work at Tim Horton's. Probably didn't realize they would be screwing over any business that invested the time to train them, only to have them quit straight away.
The husband bought an M8, the wife a D-Lux 3.
Anyway, I'm not implying this is your intention Mervyn -- just thought it may serve as the other side of the coin.
I second Memphis' suggestion of working on a cruise ship. I worked on Princess Cruises for four years. I got paid pretty good money to travel the world, party with young girls and even learn a thing or two about photography. Look into it!
 
I have slept on park benches, had local cops give me the 'eye', and citizens avoid me and all this on a weekend motorcycle trip. Can't say I'd enjoy it for longer than that. I also dreamed of sailing around the world but the world got too small too quick and and too mean at the same time.
Guess I'll stay home.
 
memphis said:
you eat 3 gourmet meals a day
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I guess you never worked for Princess 😱
The food is horrible. Even worse for the crew! Doesn't matter though because as a photographer you barely have time to eat. It's actually one of the hardest jobs on the ship. The cabins are horrible too. No porthole until you move up to manager and you share your dingy little hole with another booze-soaked partying photog. You only get shore leave if you don't have other work to do that day - printing passenger D&P, setting up the gallery, In Port Manning for safety drills.
Ah, I'm starting to miss it! 😀
 
photogdave said:
I guess you never worked for Princess 😱
The food is horrible. Even worse for the crew! Doesn't matter though because as a photographer you barely have time to eat. It's actually one of the hardest jobs on the ship. The cabins are horrible too. No porthole until you move up to manager and you share your dingy little hole with another booze-soaked partying photog. You only get shore leave if you don't have other work to do that day - printing passenger D&P, setting up the gallery, In Port Manning for safety drills.
Ah, I'm starting to miss it! 😀
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What about the chicks? Must be some good stories there somewhere? 🙂
 
Harder to do this if you've got children and / or other committments.

My late father told me he waited until I was 16 before becoming a professional gamber - 'though he certainly seemed to do a lot of "preparation" in the intervening years!
 
I'm currently living in weed california by mount shasta developing a backlog of a film for my friend for a roof over my head. When the film runs out I'l go somewhere else.
 
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