Do You Get Flack for Being 'House-less' ?

[cantxsailor]

She sounds like she is making a living talking to upper middle class patrons about her choice to be homeless for a year. I do realize she got there partially, as so many others do, through depression.

Back when I was younger(15 to 25yr old) I lived in a van on and off, in a teepee in the woods for almost a year, the beaches off Vancouver Island for a couple of summers, a run down fishboat for more than 3yrs and up and down the highways of Canada on my thumb for several more years.

I worked when I could find work mostly in restaurants and on fishboats(they feed you) and ate at a lot of soup kitchens. I even did some dumpster diving at supermarkets. You would be amazed at the good food thrown away because it has reached its arbitrary best before date or one tomato in a packet of 4 has gone soft.

I wasn't homeless. At least I didn't think so at the time.

I was more free than I have ever been since.

I wasn't drunk or drugged or depressed. I was just living, surviving maybe.

I wouldn't recommend it and I wouldn't want to or probably be able to do it now for I'm sure for society has changed to much to allow it.

Of course the biggest difference is when you're 20 its an adventure. When your 50 is probably an ordeal.

For now I'll suffer a lack of adventure, but not forever................m

Still, if my wife gave me the boot at least I have my little boat and it WILL take me anywhere I'm sailor enough to go.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by sww914

The people that liveaboard and cruise are capable. That can't be said of all of those with square walls. I like to hang around with capable people.

Nope, not always. I've know some pretty incompetent livaboards and I'm sure others have as well. The lifestyle does attract the independent minded but there will always be exceptions. Of course independence doesn't always equate to competence. Just looking at the condition of some boats will confirm this.

[atoll]

so what day is it to today?
where do you think you are going?
why don't you get a job?
why don't you marry that women and be respectable?
and many more......
these are all common puritanical dogmas that effect the reasoning of western thinkers.
live and be

[dana-tenacity]

I did get stopped twice by police in North America because I was on foot and therefore suspicious.

[sww914]

Yes, me too. The first time I lived aboard I decided to walk up to the nearest store, a liquor store, to get some milk & cookies. After choosing a quart of milk and some Chips-Ahoy I set off back to the boat. One of Morro Bay's finest had seen me walking out of the store with a brown paper bag and pulled in to the nearest driveway in order to impede my progress down the sidewalk.
"What are you doing?"
Walking.
"Where you going?"
Home.
"Where's home?"
On a boat.
"Which boat?"
The Miss-fit.
"Where's that?"
On the North T Pier
"Where you coming from?"
The liquor store
"What's in the bag?"
Milk & cookies
"BULL&^%T!"
No, really.
"BULL&^%T!"
So I pulled up the quart of milk, then the log of cookies and showed him.
He squealed in frustration and sped off, almost hitting a parked car.

The MBPD has always been known for their spirit of service to the community.

[pillum]

World of difference between a '75 Chevy Van and a cruising boat... Had someone made the trip in a 30' Winnebago it might have made more sense. The way she did her thing would have more in common with someone loading the dog and cat into a dingy and setting off into the sunset than any moderately well planned cruise.

Her attitude was interesting though, this video was more of a sycophantic "I'm really not one of them I'm really one of you" self pat on the back than anything else.

[Hudson Force]

The last time I lived in a house was the spring of 1964. Nobody's given me any flak to date!

[svpattyd]

When our grandson first visited he was confused as to 'where is the front door?' We had told the family that we were going to live on our boat. They just wished us luck. If you state your plans as a given, you leave little room for confusion.

[wolfaroo]

nice thread... the kind of conversation I enjoy in the cockpit armed with a cold beer or three.

Luckily [from my perspective] being house-less and living on a boat isn't the usual 'path' taken by the masses, thereby making it, well, different. Lots of folk seem to see 'different' as some kind of danger or threat and are quick judge and discredit, so you will get plenty of flak, in various forms.

Several years ago I lived on a boat on the Thames in central London in order to save money - to rent a small apartment in an average area was about £1400 per month, to live in a nice marina surrounded by restaurants & bars in a great central location was less than £200 per month (+ boat of course!), a difficult choice I hope you'll agree. I was single - girls were very curious to discover I lived on a boat and many of them were very interested to have a drink onboard (I didn't tell them in advance it was only 23ft ).

So I had more money to spend, a boat, lived in a great place and had plenty of girls to entertain. And still people tried to give me flak.

haha.

[lorenzo b]

In the past few year many have come to view their home as a burden and liability rather then the cash cow it once was. Almost any homeowner could live lavishly anywhere in the world on their mortgage payment. If you're still working, you do need a place to live, but right now and for the near future renting is a much better deal, as many property owners would rather bite the bullet and rent at a loss then sell in a down market.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

....or another "up" is the freedom of not owning all that stuff!

Ah, yes - when you mean the old stuff. But we sailed a rtw and, well, accumulated quite a lot of the newer stuff - seashells, used up sails, pieces of coral, bottles of rum (empty), odd jandals and boxes of cinnamon wood ...

Alternatively, a boat with a voluminous hold would do.

b.

[imagine2frolic]

If you are living your life for you, and not others. Then what does it matter what they think? Of course it is this kind of thinking that made me the black sheep of the family, and I took a wee bit of pride in that too!.......i2f

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

.............. seashells, used up sails, pieces of coral, bottles of rum (empty), odd jandals and boxes of cinnamon wood ...
b.

'sounds like a great burden on a boat. You must have been collecting it to take it all to a house! ....or do you really continue to keep those kind of things on a boat? We had two teenagers move out of our aft cabin about fifteen years ago and we're still enjoying the void. I'll stand by the freedom of non-ownership.

[Triton318]

Originally Posted by atoll

halsar you are obviously more worried about what people think of you, than about what you think,and how to live your life.

read some of bernard mortissiers books,then post some less egocentric threads.......you might find the answers you are really looking for.

Wow. How do you get all that from his post? It sounded to me like he was just taking an informal poll. It seems like you read an awful lot into that.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

(...) we're still enjoying the void (...)

void ... last time I saw any was the day we moved in ...

small boat here, mate, small boat ...

cheers
b.