The Busker

“Missoula is all tramped out.”
So says Ken Renen.
And Ken should know. He was just there recently.
Ken has been a lot of places, including Salida, Colorado, where I met him one fine morning outside the McDonalds there. He has also been to places all over the midwest and west. He is a traveller, to put it in terms that sound innocent. By his own account, he is a panhandler, albeit one with a gimmick: an Epiphone 6 string guitar. “The greatest friend a panhandler can have, “ he says with a laugh. Guys who can play a little can make a decent income setting up on sidewalks and leaving their case open for coins. When I remark that the British call it “busking” Ken says, “I call it panhandling with a guitar.” He does tell it like it is.
I spoke of my travels and the places I have been or will be. When I mentioned Salt Lake City, Utah, where I will be in a week and a half or so, he tells me, “You can make a load of money in Salt Lake. The Mormons won’t give you a cent when you are playing, but the other half of Salt Lake can’t stand the Mormons and they will give you a lot of money just to piss the Mornons off.”
Sounds like a good gig to me.
At the moment, Ken isn’t playing the guitar. He had taken up with a “friend” who is stationed by the river a few miles east of Salida, panning for gold. I’ve seen a few of these desperate souls, thinking that they will strike it rich, but the odds are greatly against them. Still, Ken tells me, after I express my doubts, that these folks do find gold and do make about 4 or 5 bucks an hour with what that they do find. Still, he says tha it is more of a hobby than a job for a lot of them . As for himself, he got tired of lugging buckets of dirt for his friend and walked away, about 15 miles back. And he came to Salida, probably hoping that there were no Mormons around.
He comes from Wisconsin, and is travelling to see his mother on the east coast. “I keep getting sidetracked, though” he says.
I talked to him for a few minutes, and he explained that he plays the guitar in the populated areas of towns and cities and by that method makes a few bucks for food and other needs. In fact, he offered to buy me a sandwich, but I deferred, having already eaten for the day. A kind gesture, though, and appreciated.
As for Missoula, Montana: as Ken says, it is all tramped out. Every traveller worth their salt passes through there either on foot or by rail, and as a result, there isn’t enough charity to go around any more. Too many tramps, I guess you could say.
Maybe Salida looked more inviting. At any rate, maybe someday soon Ken will come to your town. Or someone else might throw a few tunes your way. Give them a buck. Their life is pretty hard, and they do try to entertain. And they are human beings with families and some of them even are pretty good. Make their day. Good karma comes back at you when you least expect it.