Part I
Times are hard. We hear this daily. In 2009, the American Community Survey reported, 14.3 percent of the U.S. population had income below their respective poverty thresholds. The number of people in poverty increased to 42.9 million. The economy is bad and has shoved some of us Milwaukeeans into an impoverished state. If impoverished is too strong a word, let’s use struggling. If these are lean times for business, why is it then unheard of that it would be lean times for individuals?
It is safe to say that at this very moment, someone you might not suspect is struggling to find food, shelter and/or adequate resources to meet their basic needs. I have been one of those people.
Fledgling (but honest) business owner, single-mom, and state worker – still, sometimes I am just broke. Much more going out than coming in. Frozen pay, furlough days…inflated costs of necessities…tuition payments for me…for my daughter…you get the picture.
So imagine my naïve excitement as I read the words, “Donate Plasma, Earn Money, Save a Life.” Heck, I am a life saver, so why not, I thought. I am not a shameful kind of person, even when, perhaps, I “should” be ashamed! I’ve waited in long lines for all kinds of things and I kind of like lines. If you can block out the chatter and zero in on what people are saying, (or not) you can learn a lot!
Being broke before Christmas was a bummer. Not because shopping is the “norm,” and your kid wants new things or a new thing, for Christmas; nor is it because everyone around you is writing shopping lists and planning Santa stops, for those who have been good and even bad.
I have given up on receiving anonymous gifts from a big bellied white guy, who failed to find his way into my home in the projects, when I was 9. We were not fortunate enough to have a chimney fireplace in these walls. I’m over it though, really.
Getting paid once a month is a drag, especially, when you are urged pay all of those bills in full (builds credit) the same day. So, hoping for a bit of extra cash to get my daughter “something,” I held the “donate, earn, save” mantra in my head and at 5:46am, just before Christmas day, I drug myself out of bed.
I got this local “blood-letting” spot, which I will not identify…I may have to go back. I quickly realized that my idea of getting up early during a light snow storm, to collect a well publicized gift, for my plasma, may have not been such a no brainer after all.
Sure, I have given blood for years, but always for “free.” But Plasma, well, I never! I could not have fathomed, I’d be standing in line with 21 other people. Yes, the line grew from the three gentlemen that proceeded me at 6am to 21 people by 7am. What does that mean? That means I am not the only one that needed a little extra Cash for Christmas.
The three “gentle” men informed me vigilently, as if they were staff members, on where to stand, park my car, what not to eat or drink and when to show up — to increase my chances of being not being deferred.
See, what I learned, is that if you arrive to the center (which in fairness will continue to go unnamed) too early, before their opening time at 8am, even though you may have waited in line, in the cold, say an hour, you will be sent home. If you park your car in the lot, at 7am to wait in the warmth of its heat, they will send you home – deferred.
If you wait (too early) on the street, or in front of the door, you will be asked to leave – deferred. If they don’t like your attitude, they reserve the right to…you know the drill…defer you.
