And now, we start off 2015 with another Inner Sunset installment of on-the-street portraits and brief interviews by our friend Dijon of Souls of Society. (For part one of Souls of the Inner Sunset, go here.)
“I moved here 20 years ago from Chicago and I like it because of the slow pace. I have the time to cook, make art, and be leisurely.”
“Do you have a high and low point of your time here?”
“I’d say the high is baking bread at my apartment. It’s always like fall here in the Inner Sunset but when I’m using my oven it feels like constant summer. The low ... I’d rather not remember.”
“I’ve lived here since the early 70s, the whole time out here in the Sunset. I’m retired now but most of my time was as a psychiatrist. I saw the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and this was before they had the cocktail so all you could do to help people was just to listen to them.”
“In your work, what’s one of the most common conditions you saw people dealing with?”
“PTSD. A lot of times in kids whose parents were drug addicts. The parents would prostitute themselves for drugs, or prostitute the kids so they could get money for drugs. I know the appropriate treatment may be medication, but it’s mostly talk. So that’s what we were doing, mostly talk.”
“I’m 82 years old and there was a column in the NY Times by Emanuel Rom that said 75 is check out time. That’s when he wanted to die and he was saying that’s when everyone should check out too. But then there was another article that said you don’t check out because if you talk to old people, by common consent, the years from 82-87 are reported to be the happiest of their lives. I’m 82.”
“Well you’re in for a treat it sounds like! Do you think about death a lot?”
“Yeah, but I keep myself healthy and my wish is that I maintain independence and have a sudden drop instead of a gradual decline.”
“I hear you. Do you think there’s life after death?”
“No, no ... this is it.”
“Things are not as bad here as other places, but black and brown people, especially black men, still get profiled more than anyone else.”
“Recently my son was coming out of basketball practice and he was wearing a hoodie and sweats. There had just been a robbery in the area and he “fit the description” so four cop cars swarmed him and questioned him.”
“Was that his first time having something like that happen?”
“Yeah, when we got home I had to sit him down so we could talk about how the world is and what he needs to be prepared for.”
Him - “We’ve been going out about two months-ish.”
Her - “We met in a pumpkin patch. We were picking out pumpkins and then took a break where they were serving hot apple cider…we started chatting…then we went out.”
“What kind of stuff do you like to do together?”
Him - “Drink.” Her - “A lot. We also like to draw comics.”
Him - “Yeah, we’re both illustrators.”
“What’s one of your favorite things about him?”
“Probably that he doesn’t talk about himself. He doesn’t really talk about his life, in a good way, so it’s a mysterious thing where I’m learning new things about him all the time. That’s good because I talk about myself all the time. Like…he probably knows everything about me and it’s been two months.”
“So out of that everything you know, what’s one of your favorite things?”
“Holly’s really funny. That’s probably my favorite thing.”
If you'd like more Souls of Society and can't wait for the next Hoodline installment, Dijon has recently released a free ebook of his work, which you can access right here.
