Muscle Beach on Venice Beach

There's a long history of Muscle Beach here along the coast. Without going into much detail, since frankly I don't know that much about it, I can report that the old Muscle Beach is near the Santa Monica Pier; just before you get to the Pier proper there are rings and bars, balance beams, all kinds of stuff to be gymnastic or just fit. But the new muscle beach, with an actual gym you can join, is on the Venice Boardwalk, at about the far southern end of it, before you reach the fantastic beach homes that culminate in Washington Avenue, at which point you are near the Venice Pier but in Marina del Rey. Whew.

Anyhow, add me to this mix, because there are sets of public rings, a balance beam, a rope, and bars behind the gym. I go there to do my Rocky Balboa style chin ups. A lot of them. I've found it's one of the best exercises for working everything upper body, and it gives me a good feeling when I'm done.

For the past few times I have been there, a homeless man (I assume he is homeless, he's always there and everyone knows him among the local homeless) has also been sitting on some concrete benches nearby. In this way, as he speaks to those around him, I know some aspects of his life. Apparently he keeps getting ticketed or arrested, then sent to hospitals. I don't know if this is due to mental illness or alcohol consumption.

Today I learned that someone had taken many of his things, including a blanket. I'm not sure if it was the police or some thief. I did notice a police officer going through a homeless person's cart today. I wonder if this is necessary, some real reason, or do they harass them, because, homelessness is unsightly. I mean, we all knew about homelessness in the 80s. It was a big issue, along with starving Ethiopians. There was a visibility.

Seems to be gone, that visibility. I confess, I come from a town where it's not really seen, as in , they're not on the streets as they are here. Of course, the land that spawned (sort of supposedly) W couldn't have that.

But the problem is clear here. Still exists. Sometimes I feel as if perhaps neglect pushed all the homeless to the West Coast. Most of them do seem to be mentally ill. So what's the story? So many lost stories. I don't know what to do, but, they need to be remembered.

Back to my particular homeless man's story...so he may or may not have noticed me the other times I've been doing my chin ups, but, clearly today he did. I had finished working out and was getting my shirt and boots. They were off because, well, I did move here partly to run around shirtless, and, I had been walking along the shores edge because it was a beautiful day, and hadn't put my boots back on.

The homeless man looked at me and asked if I was from Texas. I didn't freak out. I didn't act haughty. I did wonder a bit if he'd heard me talking on the phone or something, but otherwise I had no idea how he knew, so I just asked, "how'd you know?" He said "the boots." Then he looked at his flip flops and said "this is Venice Beach," motioning as if to say I needed some flip flops. Then he proceeded to tell me I needed some sun, too white, and by this time his homeless compatriots were chuckling and adding to it. "Get naked and get some sun." But I did get a nice compliment, as he said "you've got the build [for Venice Beach], just get some sun."

I just had to shake my head and laugh. In a funny sort of way, it made my day.

I hope he's okay tonight.