Rich and Poor in Bristol

My friends with money are not greedy. They want very much to give to those in economic need.

Instead of just giving indiscrimately, however, my friends with money tell me they want to be assured primarily of two things:

1 - That the money goes toward those truly in need.

2 - That the money they give stays “local”.

I have a unique situtation involving both the rich and the poor in Bristol. Over my teaching career, I taught nearly two thousand inmates at the Bristol Jail … and at least that number of children in local elementary schools. I have stayed in touch with most of both populations, as best I have been able. All this has led me to have a keen eye for finding and serving the local poor and needy among us.

Bristol’s rich, generally speaking, I have found to be anything but greedy. I cannot tell you how many friends with more than adequate financial means (the so-called “rich” among us) go out of their way to write me a check each year to help my sojourns as Santa, personally delivering much-needed goods, gifts, food, and services to many local residents in need.

Again, my friends only want to know - and quite fairly so - that their giving stays local and goes directly to those who truly need it … the two big stipulations I can most assuredly and verifiably meet as well as anyone I know.

Bristol’s poor, generally speaking, I have found to be anything but lazy. Not all have one “full-time” job, as do most folks with greater prosperity. Many work two or three, or even four, jobs to help meet rent and food. Such jobs are not “lifetime” careers, such as the one I was blessed to enjoy as a teacher. Their jobs tend to be much more transient.

By the way, do you know how high of a percentage of their take-home-pay goes specifically toward rent alone for the poor among us? It is a virtual crime. No wonder the poor so rarely are able to escape poverty, no matter how hard they try. There exist so few realistic paths of upward mobility toward a more viable economic life for these people.

While there may be virtually no economic “way out” for most adults living in property, there exists, all across America, a Great Equalizer for every child. It is called Education.

The working poor may not have a visible path to prosperity …. alas, but their children do.

Which is precisely why, on my visits as Santa, I don’t ask if the children in any family have been “good”. Instead, I ask if they are doing well in school and working hard, because I know those two things are their best ladder to climb up and out of poverty. As Santa, I practically beg the parents to put great emphasis on their children’s education.

“I know you love your children. The better they do in school, the better their chances of doing well in life will be. And I know you want them to have a good life, right?”

Some do listen. I know because I keep up with these families from year to year.

In visiting literally thousands of homes in Bristol over the years, I can count on one hand the number of families I would label as lazy.

One year as Santa, while visiting a family who lived in a place so poor they had a dirt floor (yes, we have those here in Bristol), a little girl heard her father graciously thank me, but tell me that he wished I’d go to someone more needy, that they were fine. (Her father didn’t say this with a mean spirit at all, but with an honest and giving heart.)

The little girl had disappeared while I was talking to her father. Upon her return, she smashed a tiny piggy bank on the floor. Stooping down, she then raised up with not a coin missing from her two little hands. Walking toward me, she said, “Will you please give this to the poor, Mr. Talley?”

Dear Lord, why do we not build monuments to honor such selfless souls among us?

As for the rich, in my twenty-plus years of delivering goods, gifts, and food as Santa to the needy among us, I can count on one hand the number of friends “with money” who have ever refused when I’ve asked them for funding help.

Bristol has its economic problems, yes. But, as the sign spanning State Street proudly proclaims, it is still “a good place to live”. Thanks to its people … rich, poor, and in between.

In the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one.”