Christmas Day 2011: Part 3

How the day started:
Christmas Day 2011: Part 1

And, then it went like this:
Christmas Day 2011: Part 2

Now, for the end: Part 3

After I left the Christmas dinner, I went downtown to visit Jeff from the Food Not Bombs event to see his place at Occupy Birmingham.

For further information about this event:
occupybirmingham.org

There are signs for people to use who drop by

                                                        to support Occupy Birmingham.

Occupy Birmingham
Jeff is toward the back on right

A one-person room/house made of pallets and covered with blue tarps.

 A double-occupancy, guy in the left side is asleep. Note the tarps.

We had to be quiet since he had to get up and go to work in the morning.

"Practice Economic Disobedience"
You can see the pallet and tarp construction.

Finnish flag and I forgot why it is here.

Food storage area
Jeff is putting away the ham, turkey, rolls, and green beans.

I think that may be the trash can on the right.

Jeff invites everyone to follow the movement in Birmingham at occupybirmingham.org. Now, I will probably be detained indefinitely as a terrorist since President Obama signed the bill into law today. Just great! Tell him Linda sent you to the site.

An information station is necessary anywhere you visit.

Jeff took this picture inside his pallet house to show the shelf he built to hold his cell phone, clock and radio.

                                                     Once again, inside Jeff's "home."

                                         Christmas lights don't show up well with the flash.

More Christmas lights

self-explanatory

There is someone making these Occupy sleeping bags. They were given to the people who are at this Occupy, so I suppose this company supplies to other Occupy site. Does anyone know? The guy who owned this particular led me to his "home" and straightened it for me, telling me I should take a picture. I could never have recognized many of the things I took pictures of that night.

Solar panel for charging cell phones, plugging in computers, and supplying light. The Christmas lights are using solar energy.

They are camped out in front of a Regions Bank in downtown Birmingham, AL.

Bottom Left says, "This is an attempt to collect debt. Any information will be used for that purpose."

Christmas tree

Guest accommodations

Obviously, people visit from other towns.

Some of these guys have jobs. All have homes but choose to sleep on this site. They are not bums. The ones who don't have a steady job work when they can at various trades.  I met Jeff about three years ago at the home where I ate Christmas dinner. When I went to the Food Not Bombs event at Southside (area of Birmingham), I invited him to the dinner. He chose to spend Christmas with the guys at Occupy Birmingham.

That was my Christmas Day. I did not make it to the burn unit at UAB hospital. Before Thanksgiving  2001 was the occasion for my writing  HOARDING LITERALLY KILLED MY BEST FRIEND.  I was there Christmas Day in 2001 and saw people who had left their homes with only the clothes on their backs and had driven 300 miles to be with loved ones who had received horrendous burns. Most years, I drop by with food (cake and candy) for the people sleeping in the lobby and waiting room. Actually, I only missed last year because I was in bed on Christmas Day. This is the only place I have seen a hospital allow sleeping in the lobby. The children know Santa might have left their toys at home. But, they cannot get home to see. Next year, I promise. It's a sad place for all. 

Your turn

Have you been to an Occupy Site? Do you know anyone who is or has been a resident of an Occupy site?