In this episode of Tidewater Talk, Brodie and Co dive into the significance of Easter and the traditions surrounding it. They share personal stories about family traditions, or the lack thereof, and discuss the importance of creating meaningful celebrations. The conversation then shifts to community updates, including the progress on the local rail trail and Brodie's application to the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities. The hosts also touch on the topic of homelessness in Virginia, exploring the challenges of accurately counting the homeless population and discussing local efforts to support those in need.
The episode continues with a discussion on the local weather and a light-hearted segment about mismatched socks. Brodie and Co engage with their listeners, encouraging them to share tips and stories to foster a more connected community. They also introduce a new question for the week, asking listeners to share their favorite ice cream spots in Tidewater. The episode wraps up with volunteer opportunities for those looking to help the homeless and a humorous note to lighten the mood. Join Brodie and Co as they explore the vibrant community of Coastal Virginia and encourage neighbors to connect and contribute.
[00:00:01]
Co:
Good evening, neighbors, and welcome to Tidewater Talk, the podcast that keeps you updated on what's going on in our vibrant Coastal Virginia community. So whether you're a local or just dropping in, we're glad you're here. You're hanging out with Brodie and Co excuse me. Brodie and Co And each Tuesday, we'll dive into something new and share some tips and ask you to share some tips with us so we can all experience what our community has to offer.
[00:00:28] Brodie:
I'm Brodie, and he is risen. I'm so excited that it's Easter.
[00:00:35] Co:
Yes.
[00:00:36] Brodie:
The biggest Christian holiday. I think it's Do you guys have any, like, family traditions? We don't, and I'm sad that we don't. I thought about it last year that we'd like, this is the most important Christian holiday, so we really need to be celebrating it better than Christmas, but we don't.
[00:00:58] Co:
So Do you guys dye eggs?
[00:01:00] Brodie:
Yeah. So we do have one little tradition. My wife is really good about going and getting eggs and hiding them around and have the kids go out and look for them and stuff. But we don't have, like, read the Easter story out of, you know, the gospels or something. We need to do better about that.
[00:01:23] Co:
Yeah. I've kinda gotten away from it too. Growing up, it was, you know, a big deal for us. My grandmother was really into, our church, and we always had, like, the Easter play and the Right. Big Easter ceremony where the children's choir would sing and the adult choir, and we'd be at church all day long. And then we do, like, dyeing eggs excuse me. Dyeing eggs and Easter egg hunts and Yeah. All of that stuff.
[00:01:53] Brodie:
Fun. Yeah. We need to do better about it. I need to need to plan something better this time and actually make a tradition out of it.
[00:02:03] Co:
Co and I guess I I didn't come up with anything today, but I'm looking and my socks do not match my clothes today. I have bright yellow socks and a blue shirt. So
[00:02:15] Brodie:
I was gonna bring that up, actually. So
[00:02:21] Co:
Really?
[00:02:23] Brodie:
Because I wanted to have a little, change stuff. Maybe have a meeting, but I hate meetings, so we'll just do it kind of live.
[00:02:34] Co:
Okay.
[00:02:34] Brodie:
So I was thinking we'll change up a little bit, and instead of, well, so now we would do, like, an update first thing. So because there's a few things that we've talked about in the past and never, like, done an update or a follow-up or something. Right? And then we'll go into our story or a news or something, and then the weather, and then answer the question we had from last week and then ask a new question and then do the tips.
[00:03:11] Co:
I'm taking notes.
[00:03:13] Brodie:
I can send it to you.
[00:03:16] Co:
I'm following.
[00:03:17] Brodie:
Does that sound like sound good? Sounds good. K. So a few things I thought of for follow ups is I talked about the rail trail a few weeks ago because they're actually building it by my house. And now they got gravel down and they're moving a whole bunch of the power poles. It's kinda weird. They're doing it in a weird way. Like, some of them are still up because they have to leave power to people. So they're leaving them up and trying to move them out of the way and stuff. But looks like they'll be pouring some.
[00:03:56] Co:
Why is it weird?
[00:03:58] Brodie:
Because, like, there's one of them was hanging. The the pole was hanging from the sky. I mean, I guess
[00:04:05] Co:
because I don't know what the normal way is. Yeah. True. What was weird.
[00:04:12] Brodie:
Yeah. I don't know. But now they got they're probably about ready to put some asphalt down. Pretty excited. It's close enough to my house so we can actually go out and use it.
[00:04:26] Co:
That'd be nice. Yeah. Wasn't this a a four year out thing?
[00:04:31] Brodie:
Yeah. I'm a say but they actually are doing it, so it's really cool.
[00:04:39] Co:
I hit school. Yeah.
[00:04:42] Brodie:
And then, mayor's remember I went and applied for the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities? So Yeah. That big story. Well, I actually got a phone call from somebody at the city that said the application on the website was wrong, so I need to fill out a new one. But he did give me a link, so I was able to fill it out online and sign it. Mhmm. So we'll see if I get accepted to the committee.
[00:05:17] Co:
You're persistent, so they all noticed that.
[00:05:22] Brodie:
And and then I was gonna ask about your socks. So you had socks that were falling down.
[00:05:30] Co:
Oh, yeah. I didn't throw them away. I just threw them in the laundry. So they'll make it back through the cycle at some point. Maybe I didn't realize that I'm always concerned about my socks.
[00:05:47] Brodie:
I'm a I'm a big I love my socks. I love just I love new socks. They don't have to be awesome, like, real expensive socks. I can do cheap ones, but I love them to be new.
[00:06:02] Co:
I just like colorful socks. Yeah. Since so many years of, you know, black socks. Oh, okay. I got rid of all the black ones, and I just get every color that I that I see.
[00:06:17] Brodie:
And then the you asked me a question last week about do most places have access or accommodations for disabilities? Right. Yeah. Or do we just kinda have to make do with things? Right. So I asked my wife and she's like, we make do all the time. So I guess she notices it a lot more than I do The Yeah. Yeah. There's not parking a lot of places and there's not a way to get him into the train and there's not this and not that. So, yeah. You just kinda make do a lot of times. I just don't I don't know if I just don't notice it as much or what.
[00:07:06] Co:
Or you just become used to it. Like, that's just the way that it has been and the way that it is for you, probably. Maybe.
[00:07:16] Brodie:
People are nicer when I when I have him. My son I ran over this lady last night.
[00:07:26] Co:
What?
[00:07:27] Brodie:
I was we went to Crumble Cookies. Uh-huh. And I pushed him in and we made our order and then I wanted to get out of the way. So I started backing up and I looked to my side and saw there was two people like kinda behind me. So I went like turned just a little bit and kept backing up and then I hear this.
[00:07:52] Co:
Oh, no.
[00:07:53] Brodie:
Did you back into her? Yeah. I just backed right into this lady. Oh, no. I'm like, oh my gosh. I am so sorry. She's just like, it's okay. I don't I don't think she would have been okay with it if I hadn't had my boy with me.
[00:08:11] Co:
Well, you probably don't have an excuse then. Yeah.
[00:08:16] Brodie:
Like, I swear I was looking, but I just I did not see you. I'm so sorry. Felt so bad. So then we'll answer our questions at the end and come up with a new question for neighbors to answer. So what I wanted to talk about today was Easter. Well, because of Easter, been thinking about charity and thinking about our community is really, friendly. You know what I mean? Like, when we lived, we lived well, I probably shouldn't say where, but we've lived places where people are just, they don't open doors for you. They don't really say hi to you. They don't look at you. And we didn't even realize how bad it was until we took a vacation to Utah where everybody is super friendly.
We're like, oh my gosh. There's just a different feeling here. And I was thinking about here. There's that different feeling here too. Like, I really feel like our neighbors and people you run into are really nice around here. So I kinda wanted to think about the homeless. So I was looking up some some stuff about homeless and I couldn't get numbers of homeless. I saw one site said well the census said that we have 4,715 homeless in Virginia. Does that sound right to you?
[00:10:08] Co:
Sounds low. Right? I would think. Yeah. I would think so. Way too low.
[00:10:16] Brodie:
So I looked up some other places and one said that we're at well, it was a list of all the states and how many per 10,000. Virginia has 8.1 per 10,000 people. So that would give us 7,000 just over 7,000 homeless. But that doesn't sound right either. Like I feel like I saw 7,000 homeless when we rode the bus the other day. Like, that can't be right, can it?
[00:10:49] Co:
I don't know. I hadn't seen any numbers either. And I wonder who's counting and how they count and And how. That's what I'm thinking. Like, how do you, you know, account for all these homeless people who you probably cannot contact, Yeah. You know, via phone or email. Are you just going around and doing a head count because you're gonna miss some doing that? Right. You're gonna miss a lot. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know how you account for all of the homeless people.
[00:11:20] Brodie:
Yeah. And it has to be more than that because the way I think about it is is like you're if you have well, like, polling. Right? Why all the polls are so messed up all the time? Is that if you poll 10,000 people, then half of or like, if the is the sky blue you're gonna get like 20% that say no. Right? So with the homeless if you had a certain number like 1% or something those people probably want to be homeless. Right? Like what's the threshold where you'd say there's a problem? Because there are some people that just want to be homeless. I've known people that just say you know I'm I'm done living in a house. I'm gonna live on the sidewalk.
Or I talk to a lot of the homeless, especially when I was working up at Newport News. I know, there was a lady Marjorie that I always, pushed because she was in a wheelchair, but she was living in her wheelchair. So I would ask her if she needed to push down to the 711 or something, so I'd push her down there. And there was a guy, Tony. He seemed like he didn't like he was okay to be homeless. Like, every once in a while, he'd go down to a shelter or something, but he he really just didn't want to be around people. So he'd sit on the same corner all the time and just sit. He wasn't asking for food or money or nothing. Just wanted to watch people go by.
You know what I mean? Like there are those people. So at what point is it not, government program issue? Like we couldn't fix the economy better to make those people live in homes. We couldn't have programs or something to help that. So there's there has to be a certain level where you're saying that it's not a problem. Right? Does that make any sense?
[00:13:42] Co:
No? I think no. I think it does make sense. I'm just trying to, line it up with something else that I was looking at earlier. I think it was it was a different state. I don't wanna well, it was a different state. It wasn't Virginia, but they were, like, trying to criminalize homelessness. Alright? So, like, if it was a misdemeanor charge and then you get a $500 fine for being homeless, but you can't pay the fine, so then you go to jail. So Yeah. Now you have these, you know, the the folks who are homeless because, they've lost their house and, you know, they're below the poverty line. And, of course, they don't have the $500 and now they're just stuck in this cycle.
[00:14:31] Brodie:
Yeah. That's ridiculous too.
[00:14:33] Co:
Yeah.
[00:14:35] Brodie:
But in my mind 7,000 is means that we don't have a problem. But we clearly do. Yes. Right? So that number is too low. Yeah. Does that make sense how I said all that? Yes. Maybe I didn't say it right. So I looked up how many shelters there are in Virginia and I got 14,000 homeless shelters. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I was reading the site wrong though. It seems like there's a whole lot more shelters than homeless, if those numbers are right.
[00:15:21] Co:
Well, there I've read this article earlier, and it was they were talking about, like, how all of the shelter beds are at max capacity and, like, getting getting, like, a spot is a months long process.
[00:15:36] Brodie:
Right.
[00:15:38] Co:
Yeah. So I don't know. Let me see if I can see, like, how many beds are in this shelter.
[00:15:47] Brodie:
That makes sense. Yes. And
[00:15:50] Co:
Go ahead. Sorry about that. It says the twenty twenty four point in time report from the Greater Virginia Peninsula homeless Consortium found that while there were more than 1,400 shelter beds on the Peninsula, the transitional housing was at 111% capacity. Right. And then permanent supportive housing at 95% capacity and then other permanent housing options were 99% full.
[00:16:25] Brodie:
So if my number is right, that we got 14,000 homeless shelters and they're all full, then clearly the homeless number is more than 7,000.
[00:16:38] Co:
I think that's the number of beds, not the number of shelters.
[00:16:42] Brodie:
So the numbers are low. I'm wondering if we have any neighbors that know the real numbers or work with homeless or anything can kinda help us out with it. But let's just say that there's more than that and that there is a homeless problem. Because I know there is a Newport News, and I rode the bus last week with my boy, and it was there was a lot in Chesapeake. And I see them all over Virginia Beach. And I kinda wanted to ask you, do you give them money?
[00:17:19] Co:
Sometimes. Yeah? Not all not all the time.
[00:17:24] Brodie:
Do you see those signs that are like, don't give homeless money. We have this program for them.
[00:17:32] Co:
Yeah. Like, I think it's like the panhandlers that are, like, in the medians and stuff that they don't want you to give money to. Yeah. And I don't know if that's like a safety thing. You know, like just walking up to cars on busy roads and stuff. That makes sense. But I don't I'm sure there's probably other reasons too.
[00:17:53] Brodie:
Yeah. I don't usually do that, but I give I, tend to give him money. One time my boy so he does he has no concept of money, like, what money is. Mhmm. But he gets really excited about having it. And Mhmm. One time we gave him a penny and he's just excited that it's money. So even though it doesn't seem like it means anything, it's like his whole world. And he had seen me giving money to people on the sidewalk before, so we saw somebody and he ran over, well, wheeled over and gave this guy a penny. And it was Oh. The guy just looked at me like, are you serious? I'm like, just thinking, man, you better be appreciative because that is Yeah. His whole world. Something to him. Yeah. He just gave you everything that he has, You know?
Yeah. Like, everything about it. Like, that is really special to him, and he just gave that to you. So I, I don't know.
[00:19:06] Co:
Yeah. I've had a few instances like that where, like, there's in in, was it Spain or I don't know. Somewhere in Europe. But, like, this lady would just, like, come out and, like, start wiping your your window or begging for money at the window and all I had was, like, a bunch of change in the cup holder. And I gave it to her and it was probably mixed with euros and American money, but she just kind of looked at it like, what am I supposed to do with this? And I'm like, I'm sorry. That's all I have.
[00:19:42] Brodie:
Yeah. And
[00:19:44] Co:
then one time in in New Orleans, I gave someone money, and then I saw him buying drugs on my way out of the train station. So Oh, man. Yeah.
[00:19:58] Brodie:
What I do like to do though is so my mom knew this one of those guys I was talking about that, chose to be homeless and Mhmm. Asked him one time what, what he what would help him. And he wrote out a big letter about being a hobo. He said, yes. We call ourselves hobos. So that's not a derogatory term. I still hate to use it, but I call it a hobo bag that I put together. And me and my daughter went and got a whole bunch of stuff and made like 40 hobo bags. And we put in there, because he wrote out a bunch of stuff that he would want. And it was gum, jolly ranchers, slim jim's, granola bars, then a comb, socks, Tylenol, toothbrush and toothpaste, wet wipes, and lotion, a razor, deodorant, shampoo, lip balm, fingernail clippers.
And then we put all that into a big gallon baggy Mhmm. And carry it in the car and give those out. Sometimes we'll go looking for people to give them to you and then sometimes we'll just give those on the side of the road. That seems to work real well.
[00:21:26] Co:
Yeah. That's nice. There's people And that's nice that you that you got a firsthand list.
[00:21:32] Brodie:
Yeah. And it's nice to be able to do, and that means something to the kids too.
[00:21:39] Co:
And then most of the people are very appreciative of it. The one place that I went with, they had a whole lot of homeless, but, like, people treated the homeless well was, Portland.
[00:21:52] Brodie:
Really?
[00:21:54] Co:
Yeah. So my, son, like, he had this old red hoodie, and I was, like, telling him, you need to get another hoodie. I'm a go buy you another one. We're in the store, and, you know, he picks out one, and I go to pay for it. And I was like, now you could throw that thing away. And the person behind the cash register said, or you can just give it to one of the homeless.
[00:22:19] Brodie:
Oh, yeah. Good idea. Yeah. And did he? But you
[00:22:24] Co:
yeah. He did. But Cool. I'm just saying, like, they that's just, like, the culture there. Like, they just give to the homeless. Like, you'll see, like, the homeless under the bridge in Portland with, like, a tent and a cart full of stuff and a suitcase and, like, they just have stuff.
[00:22:42] Brodie:
I think they're I think we have less of a problem here than Portland, but there's still Oh, yeah. Quite a few.
[00:22:50] Co:
So I tried to, look this up real quick, and these numbers are even lower. Like, for Virginia Beach, it says in 02/2001, '3 hundred and '40 '8 people experiencing homelessness. See, that can't be right, can it? I don't know. You think the numbers are really that low?
[00:23:12] Brodie:
No. No way. 300 in a city of, what is it, 470,000?
[00:23:24] Co:
They must just not be able to Statistically,
[00:23:26] Brodie:
you're saying there is no problem here.
[00:23:31] Co:
Well, I guess when you count it that way, then you can ignore it.
[00:23:37] Brodie:
I guess. I mean, when when it's less than, like, point 01%, then what government program could help?
[00:23:48] Co:
That's what I'm saying. Right? So if if you report the numbers this way or you only report, you know, folks that you can document or however they get these numbers, then you don't really address the the problem in its entirety because you leave out a whole other part of the population.
[00:24:12] Brodie:
Right.
[00:24:14] Co:
And then more into it. Thus, you can't get all this big funding because your numbers aren't significant enough for it. Right.
[00:24:26] Brodie:
Yeah. There's something going on with those numbers. Hopefully, we have a neighbor that can help us out. Let's talk about weather. Oh. It is windy. Look at weather.
[00:24:43] Co:
You didn't say that in the list earlier. Oh,
[00:24:46] Brodie:
yeah. I did. Didn't I? Sorry. It's windy today. Man, I had to get gas on the way home, and I was like, I don't wanna stand out there in the wind. Well, it's breezy. High of 70 today, so it's warm enough. It's just windy. And should the wind should calm down a little bit tomorrow, and we'll have a high of 66, and then 68 on Thursday. And then we're warming up for the weekend. Seventy nine and eighty four on Saturday, but no rain until Monday. And out on the Chesapeake, there's a small craft advisory because the wind's up there. It's like 25 knots and seas are three to four feet.
Right now, we're at 70 degrees. You guys are 68.
[00:25:44] Co:
You're telling me because,
[00:25:46] Brodie:
I don't know right now. Winds gusting to 25 though.
[00:25:51] Co:
Yeah. It was a little bit breezy. I was outside right before we, got started.
[00:25:57] Brodie:
There was a gust of 36 over on Naval Station. Wow. Norfolk? Yeah. We're so delighted to do this podcast. I'm having so much fun with you. Thanks, Co.
[00:26:13] Co:
Thank you, Brodie.
[00:26:15] Brodie:
We're delighted to do it for to know our community better and then to know our neighbors better. Do it for on a value for value system. So if you get any value out of this, you get any tips or news stories that you wanna share with us and your neighbors, then let us know. We call you neighbors, not listeners, because we wanna know, what's going on and what else we can share with everybody. Become more even more of a friendly community. So if you get any value, just give that value back. Whether that's in news tips or stories.
And if you have any art for the show or any other skills for us, let us know. You can send tips to [email protected] and or you can give monetary value. So give a tip give a donation at tidewater talk dot com. And we wanna follow-up. Last week we asked, where do you take your pets? And we wanted to get a mobile groomer, but I didn't hear from anybody on mobile groomers. I don't know if you looked that up or anything. I didn't.
[00:27:47] Co:
No. I didn't. I forgot about it, actually. Oh. I didn't know we were gonna.
[00:27:57] Brodie:
So I got one tip of Preppy Pooch as a groomer. It's, in Virginia Beach, and it's a groomer for dogs, but they pamper your dog and give them a massage and a spa treatment and it comes away smelling real good and their coat looks real fine and it's really nice. Makes your makes your pet happy.
[00:28:31] Co:
Make me happy.
[00:28:33] Brodie:
Yeah. I wanna spa day like this. Queen. Says they have state of the art grooming facilities, and they have lots of experience.
[00:28:45] Co:
Okay. And Preppy pooch.
[00:28:48] Brodie:
Yeah. And I like to take my dog to Home Depot, actually. To Home Depot? Yeah. They allow dogs in there, so it's fun going in there with the dog. Kinda it's a good place for exposing him to other dogs too instead of on the side of the road. I can hold him better. So I don't take him if I'm gonna have a whole bunch of stuff in my cart and won't be able to hold him. But But
[00:29:23] Co:
Yeah. Only take my dog to, like, the vent and the dog park at the Chesapeake City Park.
[00:29:31] Brodie:
And what's the leash rules at the park dog park?
[00:29:35] Co:
You can. It's in in a fence. You could take them off inside of the fence and let them run around. Really?
[00:29:42] Brodie:
Mhmm. Is there many dog fights?
[00:29:45] Co:
Sometimes. Yeah. I have sometimes.
[00:29:48] Brodie:
I've never done that. I should take him to a dog park.
[00:29:52] Co:
Yeah. I don't know about, for where you live, but we had to go and take, like, shot records and stuff to the what's the name of the one of the city offices so that you can get, like, the little permit to be able to take your dog to the city park.
[00:30:10] Brodie:
Oh, really? Mhmm. I'll have to look into that. Question for next week. And I have two of them. Help me choose which one's better. Wanted to ask if you do shift work because I heard I was listening to another Tidewater podcast about, sleep. It was the TPMG,
[00:30:38] Co:
the Tidewater Physician. Oh, the medical one. Yeah.
[00:30:42] Brodie:
And they were saying that there's more shift work in this area than most areas. And I'd have to look into that. I don't know that that's true, but it made sense when I first heard it that, because we have so many, like, shipyards and construction and, things going on here, but there's no way it could be more than, like, Las Vegas or New York or something, could it? I don't know.
[00:31:20] Co:
Not something I've thought of. So that's one question. In comparison to, like, the country as a whole. Like, there might be some hot spots like that, but, like, for this size of city, maybe.
[00:31:36] Brodie:
Yeah. Maybe.
[00:31:37] Co:
Maybe. I'm just guessing.
[00:31:40] Brodie:
So that would be my question is, do you do shift work? And if so, like, how do you deal with it? Like, do you sleep okay? Do you have to blackout your windows? That kind of stuff. Or the other question I was thinking is what is the best ice cream in Tidewater? Where do you get the best ice cream?
[00:32:02] Co:
Well, I wouldn't have an answer for the second question.
[00:32:06] Brodie:
But you'd have a week to find out. No. You gotta go try all the oh, you don't like ice cream?
[00:32:13] Co:
It's not that I don't like it. I just don't like me back. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. My wife's just Yeah. And even with, like, the dairy pills, like, it just doesn't help with ice cream in particular. So Really? I just I just don't eat it.
[00:32:29] Brodie:
Man, I eat enough for both of us.
[00:32:33] Co:
Yeah. My husband too.
[00:32:35] Brodie:
I eat a lot of ice cream. Love it. So see, you could get his answer for that one.
[00:32:42] Co:
That's true. I'd ask
[00:32:46] Brodie:
him. So which question do you wanna go with? We can go with the ice cream. Alrighty. So if anybody has their favorite place to get ice cream in Tidewater, let us know. That brings us to tips. Do you have a tip? Alright.
[00:33:06] Co:
I actually have a couple of, volunteer spots since we're talking about homelessness today. So the love Love the Tree of Life Clinic, is faith based, but it's a local medical ministry. And you don't have to be a medical professional, but they're always, accepting volunteers. So they're out there. There's also let's see. I know H E L P stands for something, but I'm not seeing it right now in front of me. But they're, also looking for volunteers. You can be it could be a group or just a person, just for a day or on a regular basis. They say they have many ways to volunteer. So that's help inc.
There's also hold on. Page has to reload now. The Salvation Army, in the Hampton Roads area. So it's the food pantry, and they are in need, preferably, of a regular returning volunteer to help out in the food pantry in order to provide food assistance, for the Hampton Roads community. What was that one called? And that and that one's that's the food pantry. It's by the Salvation Army. Yep. So if anyone was looking to help. No. I did one of those.
[00:34:43] Brodie:
It was a men's shelter. It was kind of it was really eye opening, actually.
[00:34:51] Co:
Yeah. I think this is what this one is. They need, like, a a day monitor in the, like, the soup kitchen.
[00:34:59] Brodie:
Yeah.
[00:35:01] Co:
Yeah. It's the men's center of hope.
[00:35:04] Brodie:
Yeah. It's really eye opening to work at one of those. There's all kinds of different reasons that people are homeless and just people going through some rough stuff, and it's really neat to interact with them and help them out.
[00:35:22] Co:
Do you ever have like, you just walk up to folks you don't know and start conversations?
[00:35:29] Brodie:
Yeah. Definitely with the homeless. Yeah. So I don't do that as much with, like, at the mall or something. I'm not I am not very outgoing. Mhmm. But I try to force myself to be when when it can be helpful to people. Like I was saying, Margo, that I would push her in her wheelchair because, you know, you just see a lady sitting there, and she's obviously spent the night on that corner in her wheelchair. And it's like, how are you doing? And what's your name? And and that seems to just help them to smile and, you know, like somebody cares about them.
So I try really hard to be outgoing for that when I can. But, no, I'm not usually an outgoing kind of person.
[00:36:21] Co:
But, you know, now that now that you say it, I I do the same thing. Yeah. If I I see someone sitting there, you know, I'll compliment them or Yeah. Just say hello or just smile or try to help where I can. But I'm not very outgoing in regular life even. Right.
[00:36:42] Brodie:
Working with homeless is really eye opening and cool though. I got to when I worked at Newport News, I was always talking to them and got to know there's like five of them that I was known pretty well. Margo and Tony was, like Margo, she used to be a horse trainer, and now she's in a wheelchair living on the corner.
[00:37:09] Co:
It's just crazy. Was it a horse accident?
[00:37:12] Brodie:
No. She just No? Okay. I think she got a divorce, and then she just kinda, I don't know, a bunch of stuff happened to where she is now homeless. I think it was a bad surgery that put her in a wheelchair.
[00:37:31] Co:
Well, I feel like we should tell a joke or something.
[00:37:34] Brodie:
Oh, yeah.
[00:37:36] Co:
Because it ended so Lighten it up a little bit. It's a bad joke, but, what do you call a cow that walks into an electric fence? What? Beef jerky.
[00:37:51] Brodie:
And with that
[00:37:53] Co:
And that wraps up another week's edition of Tidewater Talk. Thanks for hanging out with us, and don't forget to check us out at tidewatertalk.com. Have a fantastic week, and we'll catch you all next time.
[00:38:07] Brodie:
Try and top that for a killer show.
Good evening, neighbors, and welcome to Tidewater Talk, the podcast that keeps you updated on what's going on in our vibrant Coastal Virginia community. So whether you're a local or just dropping in, we're glad you're here. You're hanging out with Brodie and Co excuse me. Brodie and Co And each Tuesday, we'll dive into something new and share some tips and ask you to share some tips with us so we can all experience what our community has to offer.
[00:00:28] Brodie:
I'm Brodie, and he is risen. I'm so excited that it's Easter.
[00:00:35] Co:
Yes.
[00:00:36] Brodie:
The biggest Christian holiday. I think it's Do you guys have any, like, family traditions? We don't, and I'm sad that we don't. I thought about it last year that we'd like, this is the most important Christian holiday, so we really need to be celebrating it better than Christmas, but we don't.
[00:00:58] Co:
So Do you guys dye eggs?
[00:01:00] Brodie:
Yeah. So we do have one little tradition. My wife is really good about going and getting eggs and hiding them around and have the kids go out and look for them and stuff. But we don't have, like, read the Easter story out of, you know, the gospels or something. We need to do better about that.
[00:01:23] Co:
Yeah. I've kinda gotten away from it too. Growing up, it was, you know, a big deal for us. My grandmother was really into, our church, and we always had, like, the Easter play and the Right. Big Easter ceremony where the children's choir would sing and the adult choir, and we'd be at church all day long. And then we do, like, dyeing eggs excuse me. Dyeing eggs and Easter egg hunts and Yeah. All of that stuff.
[00:01:53] Brodie:
Fun. Yeah. We need to do better about it. I need to need to plan something better this time and actually make a tradition out of it.
[00:02:03] Co:
Co and I guess I I didn't come up with anything today, but I'm looking and my socks do not match my clothes today. I have bright yellow socks and a blue shirt. So
[00:02:15] Brodie:
I was gonna bring that up, actually. So
[00:02:21] Co:
Really?
[00:02:23] Brodie:
Because I wanted to have a little, change stuff. Maybe have a meeting, but I hate meetings, so we'll just do it kind of live.
[00:02:34] Co:
Okay.
[00:02:34] Brodie:
So I was thinking we'll change up a little bit, and instead of, well, so now we would do, like, an update first thing. So because there's a few things that we've talked about in the past and never, like, done an update or a follow-up or something. Right? And then we'll go into our story or a news or something, and then the weather, and then answer the question we had from last week and then ask a new question and then do the tips.
[00:03:11] Co:
I'm taking notes.
[00:03:13] Brodie:
I can send it to you.
[00:03:16] Co:
I'm following.
[00:03:17] Brodie:
Does that sound like sound good? Sounds good. K. So a few things I thought of for follow ups is I talked about the rail trail a few weeks ago because they're actually building it by my house. And now they got gravel down and they're moving a whole bunch of the power poles. It's kinda weird. They're doing it in a weird way. Like, some of them are still up because they have to leave power to people. So they're leaving them up and trying to move them out of the way and stuff. But looks like they'll be pouring some.
[00:03:56] Co:
Why is it weird?
[00:03:58] Brodie:
Because, like, there's one of them was hanging. The the pole was hanging from the sky. I mean, I guess
[00:04:05] Co:
because I don't know what the normal way is. Yeah. True. What was weird.
[00:04:12] Brodie:
Yeah. I don't know. But now they got they're probably about ready to put some asphalt down. Pretty excited. It's close enough to my house so we can actually go out and use it.
[00:04:26] Co:
That'd be nice. Yeah. Wasn't this a a four year out thing?
[00:04:31] Brodie:
Yeah. I'm a say but they actually are doing it, so it's really cool.
[00:04:39] Co:
I hit school. Yeah.
[00:04:42] Brodie:
And then, mayor's remember I went and applied for the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities? So Yeah. That big story. Well, I actually got a phone call from somebody at the city that said the application on the website was wrong, so I need to fill out a new one. But he did give me a link, so I was able to fill it out online and sign it. Mhmm. So we'll see if I get accepted to the committee.
[00:05:17] Co:
You're persistent, so they all noticed that.
[00:05:22] Brodie:
And and then I was gonna ask about your socks. So you had socks that were falling down.
[00:05:30] Co:
Oh, yeah. I didn't throw them away. I just threw them in the laundry. So they'll make it back through the cycle at some point. Maybe I didn't realize that I'm always concerned about my socks.
[00:05:47] Brodie:
I'm a I'm a big I love my socks. I love just I love new socks. They don't have to be awesome, like, real expensive socks. I can do cheap ones, but I love them to be new.
[00:06:02] Co:
I just like colorful socks. Yeah. Since so many years of, you know, black socks. Oh, okay. I got rid of all the black ones, and I just get every color that I that I see.
[00:06:17] Brodie:
And then the you asked me a question last week about do most places have access or accommodations for disabilities? Right. Yeah. Or do we just kinda have to make do with things? Right. So I asked my wife and she's like, we make do all the time. So I guess she notices it a lot more than I do The Yeah. Yeah. There's not parking a lot of places and there's not a way to get him into the train and there's not this and not that. So, yeah. You just kinda make do a lot of times. I just don't I don't know if I just don't notice it as much or what.
[00:07:06] Co:
Or you just become used to it. Like, that's just the way that it has been and the way that it is for you, probably. Maybe.
[00:07:16] Brodie:
People are nicer when I when I have him. My son I ran over this lady last night.
[00:07:26] Co:
What?
[00:07:27] Brodie:
I was we went to Crumble Cookies. Uh-huh. And I pushed him in and we made our order and then I wanted to get out of the way. So I started backing up and I looked to my side and saw there was two people like kinda behind me. So I went like turned just a little bit and kept backing up and then I hear this.
[00:07:52] Co:
Oh, no.
[00:07:53] Brodie:
Did you back into her? Yeah. I just backed right into this lady. Oh, no. I'm like, oh my gosh. I am so sorry. She's just like, it's okay. I don't I don't think she would have been okay with it if I hadn't had my boy with me.
[00:08:11] Co:
Well, you probably don't have an excuse then. Yeah.
[00:08:16] Brodie:
Like, I swear I was looking, but I just I did not see you. I'm so sorry. Felt so bad. So then we'll answer our questions at the end and come up with a new question for neighbors to answer. So what I wanted to talk about today was Easter. Well, because of Easter, been thinking about charity and thinking about our community is really, friendly. You know what I mean? Like, when we lived, we lived well, I probably shouldn't say where, but we've lived places where people are just, they don't open doors for you. They don't really say hi to you. They don't look at you. And we didn't even realize how bad it was until we took a vacation to Utah where everybody is super friendly.
We're like, oh my gosh. There's just a different feeling here. And I was thinking about here. There's that different feeling here too. Like, I really feel like our neighbors and people you run into are really nice around here. So I kinda wanted to think about the homeless. So I was looking up some some stuff about homeless and I couldn't get numbers of homeless. I saw one site said well the census said that we have 4,715 homeless in Virginia. Does that sound right to you?
[00:10:08] Co:
Sounds low. Right? I would think. Yeah. I would think so. Way too low.
[00:10:16] Brodie:
So I looked up some other places and one said that we're at well, it was a list of all the states and how many per 10,000. Virginia has 8.1 per 10,000 people. So that would give us 7,000 just over 7,000 homeless. But that doesn't sound right either. Like I feel like I saw 7,000 homeless when we rode the bus the other day. Like, that can't be right, can it?
[00:10:49] Co:
I don't know. I hadn't seen any numbers either. And I wonder who's counting and how they count and And how. That's what I'm thinking. Like, how do you, you know, account for all these homeless people who you probably cannot contact, Yeah. You know, via phone or email. Are you just going around and doing a head count because you're gonna miss some doing that? Right. You're gonna miss a lot. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know how you account for all of the homeless people.
[00:11:20] Brodie:
Yeah. And it has to be more than that because the way I think about it is is like you're if you have well, like, polling. Right? Why all the polls are so messed up all the time? Is that if you poll 10,000 people, then half of or like, if the is the sky blue you're gonna get like 20% that say no. Right? So with the homeless if you had a certain number like 1% or something those people probably want to be homeless. Right? Like what's the threshold where you'd say there's a problem? Because there are some people that just want to be homeless. I've known people that just say you know I'm I'm done living in a house. I'm gonna live on the sidewalk.
Or I talk to a lot of the homeless, especially when I was working up at Newport News. I know, there was a lady Marjorie that I always, pushed because she was in a wheelchair, but she was living in her wheelchair. So I would ask her if she needed to push down to the 711 or something, so I'd push her down there. And there was a guy, Tony. He seemed like he didn't like he was okay to be homeless. Like, every once in a while, he'd go down to a shelter or something, but he he really just didn't want to be around people. So he'd sit on the same corner all the time and just sit. He wasn't asking for food or money or nothing. Just wanted to watch people go by.
You know what I mean? Like there are those people. So at what point is it not, government program issue? Like we couldn't fix the economy better to make those people live in homes. We couldn't have programs or something to help that. So there's there has to be a certain level where you're saying that it's not a problem. Right? Does that make any sense?
[00:13:42] Co:
No? I think no. I think it does make sense. I'm just trying to, line it up with something else that I was looking at earlier. I think it was it was a different state. I don't wanna well, it was a different state. It wasn't Virginia, but they were, like, trying to criminalize homelessness. Alright? So, like, if it was a misdemeanor charge and then you get a $500 fine for being homeless, but you can't pay the fine, so then you go to jail. So Yeah. Now you have these, you know, the the folks who are homeless because, they've lost their house and, you know, they're below the poverty line. And, of course, they don't have the $500 and now they're just stuck in this cycle.
[00:14:31] Brodie:
Yeah. That's ridiculous too.
[00:14:33] Co:
Yeah.
[00:14:35] Brodie:
But in my mind 7,000 is means that we don't have a problem. But we clearly do. Yes. Right? So that number is too low. Yeah. Does that make sense how I said all that? Yes. Maybe I didn't say it right. So I looked up how many shelters there are in Virginia and I got 14,000 homeless shelters. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I was reading the site wrong though. It seems like there's a whole lot more shelters than homeless, if those numbers are right.
[00:15:21] Co:
Well, there I've read this article earlier, and it was they were talking about, like, how all of the shelter beds are at max capacity and, like, getting getting, like, a spot is a months long process.
[00:15:36] Brodie:
Right.
[00:15:38] Co:
Yeah. So I don't know. Let me see if I can see, like, how many beds are in this shelter.
[00:15:47] Brodie:
That makes sense. Yes. And
[00:15:50] Co:
Go ahead. Sorry about that. It says the twenty twenty four point in time report from the Greater Virginia Peninsula homeless Consortium found that while there were more than 1,400 shelter beds on the Peninsula, the transitional housing was at 111% capacity. Right. And then permanent supportive housing at 95% capacity and then other permanent housing options were 99% full.
[00:16:25] Brodie:
So if my number is right, that we got 14,000 homeless shelters and they're all full, then clearly the homeless number is more than 7,000.
[00:16:38] Co:
I think that's the number of beds, not the number of shelters.
[00:16:42] Brodie:
So the numbers are low. I'm wondering if we have any neighbors that know the real numbers or work with homeless or anything can kinda help us out with it. But let's just say that there's more than that and that there is a homeless problem. Because I know there is a Newport News, and I rode the bus last week with my boy, and it was there was a lot in Chesapeake. And I see them all over Virginia Beach. And I kinda wanted to ask you, do you give them money?
[00:17:19] Co:
Sometimes. Yeah? Not all not all the time.
[00:17:24] Brodie:
Do you see those signs that are like, don't give homeless money. We have this program for them.
[00:17:32] Co:
Yeah. Like, I think it's like the panhandlers that are, like, in the medians and stuff that they don't want you to give money to. Yeah. And I don't know if that's like a safety thing. You know, like just walking up to cars on busy roads and stuff. That makes sense. But I don't I'm sure there's probably other reasons too.
[00:17:53] Brodie:
Yeah. I don't usually do that, but I give I, tend to give him money. One time my boy so he does he has no concept of money, like, what money is. Mhmm. But he gets really excited about having it. And Mhmm. One time we gave him a penny and he's just excited that it's money. So even though it doesn't seem like it means anything, it's like his whole world. And he had seen me giving money to people on the sidewalk before, so we saw somebody and he ran over, well, wheeled over and gave this guy a penny. And it was Oh. The guy just looked at me like, are you serious? I'm like, just thinking, man, you better be appreciative because that is Yeah. His whole world. Something to him. Yeah. He just gave you everything that he has, You know?
Yeah. Like, everything about it. Like, that is really special to him, and he just gave that to you. So I, I don't know.
[00:19:06] Co:
Yeah. I've had a few instances like that where, like, there's in in, was it Spain or I don't know. Somewhere in Europe. But, like, this lady would just, like, come out and, like, start wiping your your window or begging for money at the window and all I had was, like, a bunch of change in the cup holder. And I gave it to her and it was probably mixed with euros and American money, but she just kind of looked at it like, what am I supposed to do with this? And I'm like, I'm sorry. That's all I have.
[00:19:42] Brodie:
Yeah. And
[00:19:44] Co:
then one time in in New Orleans, I gave someone money, and then I saw him buying drugs on my way out of the train station. So Oh, man. Yeah.
[00:19:58] Brodie:
What I do like to do though is so my mom knew this one of those guys I was talking about that, chose to be homeless and Mhmm. Asked him one time what, what he what would help him. And he wrote out a big letter about being a hobo. He said, yes. We call ourselves hobos. So that's not a derogatory term. I still hate to use it, but I call it a hobo bag that I put together. And me and my daughter went and got a whole bunch of stuff and made like 40 hobo bags. And we put in there, because he wrote out a bunch of stuff that he would want. And it was gum, jolly ranchers, slim jim's, granola bars, then a comb, socks, Tylenol, toothbrush and toothpaste, wet wipes, and lotion, a razor, deodorant, shampoo, lip balm, fingernail clippers.
And then we put all that into a big gallon baggy Mhmm. And carry it in the car and give those out. Sometimes we'll go looking for people to give them to you and then sometimes we'll just give those on the side of the road. That seems to work real well.
[00:21:26] Co:
Yeah. That's nice. There's people And that's nice that you that you got a firsthand list.
[00:21:32] Brodie:
Yeah. And it's nice to be able to do, and that means something to the kids too.
[00:21:39] Co:
And then most of the people are very appreciative of it. The one place that I went with, they had a whole lot of homeless, but, like, people treated the homeless well was, Portland.
[00:21:52] Brodie:
Really?
[00:21:54] Co:
Yeah. So my, son, like, he had this old red hoodie, and I was, like, telling him, you need to get another hoodie. I'm a go buy you another one. We're in the store, and, you know, he picks out one, and I go to pay for it. And I was like, now you could throw that thing away. And the person behind the cash register said, or you can just give it to one of the homeless.
[00:22:19] Brodie:
Oh, yeah. Good idea. Yeah. And did he? But you
[00:22:24] Co:
yeah. He did. But Cool. I'm just saying, like, they that's just, like, the culture there. Like, they just give to the homeless. Like, you'll see, like, the homeless under the bridge in Portland with, like, a tent and a cart full of stuff and a suitcase and, like, they just have stuff.
[00:22:42] Brodie:
I think they're I think we have less of a problem here than Portland, but there's still Oh, yeah. Quite a few.
[00:22:50] Co:
So I tried to, look this up real quick, and these numbers are even lower. Like, for Virginia Beach, it says in 02/2001, '3 hundred and '40 '8 people experiencing homelessness. See, that can't be right, can it? I don't know. You think the numbers are really that low?
[00:23:12] Brodie:
No. No way. 300 in a city of, what is it, 470,000?
[00:23:24] Co:
They must just not be able to Statistically,
[00:23:26] Brodie:
you're saying there is no problem here.
[00:23:31] Co:
Well, I guess when you count it that way, then you can ignore it.
[00:23:37] Brodie:
I guess. I mean, when when it's less than, like, point 01%, then what government program could help?
[00:23:48] Co:
That's what I'm saying. Right? So if if you report the numbers this way or you only report, you know, folks that you can document or however they get these numbers, then you don't really address the the problem in its entirety because you leave out a whole other part of the population.
[00:24:12] Brodie:
Right.
[00:24:14] Co:
And then more into it. Thus, you can't get all this big funding because your numbers aren't significant enough for it. Right.
[00:24:26] Brodie:
Yeah. There's something going on with those numbers. Hopefully, we have a neighbor that can help us out. Let's talk about weather. Oh. It is windy. Look at weather.
[00:24:43] Co:
You didn't say that in the list earlier. Oh,
[00:24:46] Brodie:
yeah. I did. Didn't I? Sorry. It's windy today. Man, I had to get gas on the way home, and I was like, I don't wanna stand out there in the wind. Well, it's breezy. High of 70 today, so it's warm enough. It's just windy. And should the wind should calm down a little bit tomorrow, and we'll have a high of 66, and then 68 on Thursday. And then we're warming up for the weekend. Seventy nine and eighty four on Saturday, but no rain until Monday. And out on the Chesapeake, there's a small craft advisory because the wind's up there. It's like 25 knots and seas are three to four feet.
Right now, we're at 70 degrees. You guys are 68.
[00:25:44] Co:
You're telling me because,
[00:25:46] Brodie:
I don't know right now. Winds gusting to 25 though.
[00:25:51] Co:
Yeah. It was a little bit breezy. I was outside right before we, got started.
[00:25:57] Brodie:
There was a gust of 36 over on Naval Station. Wow. Norfolk? Yeah. We're so delighted to do this podcast. I'm having so much fun with you. Thanks, Co.
[00:26:13] Co:
Thank you, Brodie.
[00:26:15] Brodie:
We're delighted to do it for to know our community better and then to know our neighbors better. Do it for on a value for value system. So if you get any value out of this, you get any tips or news stories that you wanna share with us and your neighbors, then let us know. We call you neighbors, not listeners, because we wanna know, what's going on and what else we can share with everybody. Become more even more of a friendly community. So if you get any value, just give that value back. Whether that's in news tips or stories.
And if you have any art for the show or any other skills for us, let us know. You can send tips to [email protected] and or you can give monetary value. So give a tip give a donation at tidewater talk dot com. And we wanna follow-up. Last week we asked, where do you take your pets? And we wanted to get a mobile groomer, but I didn't hear from anybody on mobile groomers. I don't know if you looked that up or anything. I didn't.
[00:27:47] Co:
No. I didn't. I forgot about it, actually. Oh. I didn't know we were gonna.
[00:27:57] Brodie:
So I got one tip of Preppy Pooch as a groomer. It's, in Virginia Beach, and it's a groomer for dogs, but they pamper your dog and give them a massage and a spa treatment and it comes away smelling real good and their coat looks real fine and it's really nice. Makes your makes your pet happy.
[00:28:31] Co:
Make me happy.
[00:28:33] Brodie:
Yeah. I wanna spa day like this. Queen. Says they have state of the art grooming facilities, and they have lots of experience.
[00:28:45] Co:
Okay. And Preppy pooch.
[00:28:48] Brodie:
Yeah. And I like to take my dog to Home Depot, actually. To Home Depot? Yeah. They allow dogs in there, so it's fun going in there with the dog. Kinda it's a good place for exposing him to other dogs too instead of on the side of the road. I can hold him better. So I don't take him if I'm gonna have a whole bunch of stuff in my cart and won't be able to hold him. But But
[00:29:23] Co:
Yeah. Only take my dog to, like, the vent and the dog park at the Chesapeake City Park.
[00:29:31] Brodie:
And what's the leash rules at the park dog park?
[00:29:35] Co:
You can. It's in in a fence. You could take them off inside of the fence and let them run around. Really?
[00:29:42] Brodie:
Mhmm. Is there many dog fights?
[00:29:45] Co:
Sometimes. Yeah. I have sometimes.
[00:29:48] Brodie:
I've never done that. I should take him to a dog park.
[00:29:52] Co:
Yeah. I don't know about, for where you live, but we had to go and take, like, shot records and stuff to the what's the name of the one of the city offices so that you can get, like, the little permit to be able to take your dog to the city park.
[00:30:10] Brodie:
Oh, really? Mhmm. I'll have to look into that. Question for next week. And I have two of them. Help me choose which one's better. Wanted to ask if you do shift work because I heard I was listening to another Tidewater podcast about, sleep. It was the TPMG,
[00:30:38] Co:
the Tidewater Physician. Oh, the medical one. Yeah.
[00:30:42] Brodie:
And they were saying that there's more shift work in this area than most areas. And I'd have to look into that. I don't know that that's true, but it made sense when I first heard it that, because we have so many, like, shipyards and construction and, things going on here, but there's no way it could be more than, like, Las Vegas or New York or something, could it? I don't know.
[00:31:20] Co:
Not something I've thought of. So that's one question. In comparison to, like, the country as a whole. Like, there might be some hot spots like that, but, like, for this size of city, maybe.
[00:31:36] Brodie:
Yeah. Maybe.
[00:31:37] Co:
Maybe. I'm just guessing.
[00:31:40] Brodie:
So that would be my question is, do you do shift work? And if so, like, how do you deal with it? Like, do you sleep okay? Do you have to blackout your windows? That kind of stuff. Or the other question I was thinking is what is the best ice cream in Tidewater? Where do you get the best ice cream?
[00:32:02] Co:
Well, I wouldn't have an answer for the second question.
[00:32:06] Brodie:
But you'd have a week to find out. No. You gotta go try all the oh, you don't like ice cream?
[00:32:13] Co:
It's not that I don't like it. I just don't like me back. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. My wife's just Yeah. And even with, like, the dairy pills, like, it just doesn't help with ice cream in particular. So Really? I just I just don't eat it.
[00:32:29] Brodie:
Man, I eat enough for both of us.
[00:32:33] Co:
Yeah. My husband too.
[00:32:35] Brodie:
I eat a lot of ice cream. Love it. So see, you could get his answer for that one.
[00:32:42] Co:
That's true. I'd ask
[00:32:46] Brodie:
him. So which question do you wanna go with? We can go with the ice cream. Alrighty. So if anybody has their favorite place to get ice cream in Tidewater, let us know. That brings us to tips. Do you have a tip? Alright.
[00:33:06] Co:
I actually have a couple of, volunteer spots since we're talking about homelessness today. So the love Love the Tree of Life Clinic, is faith based, but it's a local medical ministry. And you don't have to be a medical professional, but they're always, accepting volunteers. So they're out there. There's also let's see. I know H E L P stands for something, but I'm not seeing it right now in front of me. But they're, also looking for volunteers. You can be it could be a group or just a person, just for a day or on a regular basis. They say they have many ways to volunteer. So that's help inc.
There's also hold on. Page has to reload now. The Salvation Army, in the Hampton Roads area. So it's the food pantry, and they are in need, preferably, of a regular returning volunteer to help out in the food pantry in order to provide food assistance, for the Hampton Roads community. What was that one called? And that and that one's that's the food pantry. It's by the Salvation Army. Yep. So if anyone was looking to help. No. I did one of those.
[00:34:43] Brodie:
It was a men's shelter. It was kind of it was really eye opening, actually.
[00:34:51] Co:
Yeah. I think this is what this one is. They need, like, a a day monitor in the, like, the soup kitchen.
[00:34:59] Brodie:
Yeah.
[00:35:01] Co:
Yeah. It's the men's center of hope.
[00:35:04] Brodie:
Yeah. It's really eye opening to work at one of those. There's all kinds of different reasons that people are homeless and just people going through some rough stuff, and it's really neat to interact with them and help them out.
[00:35:22] Co:
Do you ever have like, you just walk up to folks you don't know and start conversations?
[00:35:29] Brodie:
Yeah. Definitely with the homeless. Yeah. So I don't do that as much with, like, at the mall or something. I'm not I am not very outgoing. Mhmm. But I try to force myself to be when when it can be helpful to people. Like I was saying, Margo, that I would push her in her wheelchair because, you know, you just see a lady sitting there, and she's obviously spent the night on that corner in her wheelchair. And it's like, how are you doing? And what's your name? And and that seems to just help them to smile and, you know, like somebody cares about them.
So I try really hard to be outgoing for that when I can. But, no, I'm not usually an outgoing kind of person.
[00:36:21] Co:
But, you know, now that now that you say it, I I do the same thing. Yeah. If I I see someone sitting there, you know, I'll compliment them or Yeah. Just say hello or just smile or try to help where I can. But I'm not very outgoing in regular life even. Right.
[00:36:42] Brodie:
Working with homeless is really eye opening and cool though. I got to when I worked at Newport News, I was always talking to them and got to know there's like five of them that I was known pretty well. Margo and Tony was, like Margo, she used to be a horse trainer, and now she's in a wheelchair living on the corner.
[00:37:09] Co:
It's just crazy. Was it a horse accident?
[00:37:12] Brodie:
No. She just No? Okay. I think she got a divorce, and then she just kinda, I don't know, a bunch of stuff happened to where she is now homeless. I think it was a bad surgery that put her in a wheelchair.
[00:37:31] Co:
Well, I feel like we should tell a joke or something.
[00:37:34] Brodie:
Oh, yeah.
[00:37:36] Co:
Because it ended so Lighten it up a little bit. It's a bad joke, but, what do you call a cow that walks into an electric fence? What? Beef jerky.
[00:37:51] Brodie:
And with that
[00:37:53] Co:
And that wraps up another week's edition of Tidewater Talk. Thanks for hanging out with us, and don't forget to check us out at tidewatertalk.com. Have a fantastic week, and we'll catch you all next time.
[00:38:07] Brodie:
Try and top that for a killer show.
Welcome to Tidewater Talk
Easter Traditions and Reflections
Podcast Format Changes and Updates
Community Projects and Personal Updates
Easter and Community Charity
Discussing Homelessness in Virginia
Personal Experiences with Homelessness
Weather Update
Community Engagement and Pet Tips
Listener Questions and Ice Cream Debate
Volunteer Opportunities and Community Support
Closing Thoughts and Humor
