Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Yesterday, walking through the industrial area on my way home from work, two scruffy looking guys told me there was free food in the park I was approaching. True enough. Long tables with white plastic tablecloths had been set up with a group of about 30 people standing around. It had been an extremely rainy day that finally let up late afternoon. I wandered into a group of more scruffy types eating off paper plates dished up from the tables that came out of the church (Baptist) across the street. I was hungry at the time and did a quick sort of economic evaluation of myself and looked around to see if anyone as wealthy as I was eating free food. A group of three church-y looking people were munching corn on the cob without looking too guilty, so I lined up. A young woman, maybe even a teenager, was using tongs to put very large pieces of roasted chicken onto plates extended towards her. I saw bags of salad, hot dogs, buns, condiments and a bunch of pie all sliced, ready to go. I wanted the chicken. It looked good. There wasn’t anywhere to sit so I took my chicken towards a tree and almost sat on its exposed root structure, but it was wet so I stood.
To be continued
“Like A Rolling Stone,” from Janis Zeppelin (Smarten UP! 2003) (download):
