Guitar Man

A young, bearded homeless man leaned against a chain link fence protecting a disused boat building/repair complex at the Empire Boat Ramp. He held a leash to a mutt in one hand and the neck of an acoustic guitar and crab trap in the other. Yes, a man somehow managed to hold onto a dog, guitar and crab trap at the same time. If I hadn’t seen if for myself I would never have believed it possible.

It was a sunny February afternoon in Coos Bay and Elmer and I were out for our third walk of the day.

We cruised to the trail that led to the beach. Thwarted! A high tide and covered the beach. We turned around for a walk around the boat ramp. I looked at the young man, The mutt was pulling on the leash, but he hadn’t released the guitar or crab trap. He just leaned against the fence and stared at the bay. Perhaps there was something out there that could assist him in some metaphysical manner.

I told myself that if he was still there after Elmer and circled the boat building, I would approach and ask him to play a song, his favorite, and pay five bucks for the performance.

We circled the boat building and the man and dog were on the move, up the hill to the main drag and to somewhere unfathomable. We followed him and I closed the distance. Why? Why not? Maybe I was curious about the guitar.

It was then I noticed the guitar had no strings. He wouldn’t have been able to play me a song!

Or perhaps he could pretend to strum and sing. I’d seen that in a few buskers over the decades, most famously the Elvis impersonator at Portland’s Saturday Market.

But maybe the young man wasn’t a performer and wanted to carry a guitar around. In the course of my teaching career, I’d seen multiple males and a couple of females who carried guitars around campus and never played at the open mics I staged out of my classrooms or anywhere else at school that I ever observed. They just wanted that status of carrying a guitar in the presence of their peers. It conferred a kind of rock and roll attitude and that still meant something in an era where rock and roll was long dead.

Maybe the homeless man carrying a guitar with no strings was on the same level.

I watched the man and dog ascend the hill and disappear. It felt like I had blown a unique opportunity to engage with a homeless person and offer some kindness.