Yesterday, when I was walking from the tram stop to the gym, I saw a guy wearing a shirt that I put in the charity bin last year. I am 100% certain that it was my shirt. It was a red, Ralph Lauren, rugby shirt with yellow, green, and black stripes. My shirt had a little part that was frayed right next to the buttons on the front, and so did the shirt that this guy was wearing. It HAD to be my shirt...or, my ex-shirt.
It's funny because a few weeks ago I told Mrs. TBF that I thought it would be cool if I would see somebody wearing an article of my donated clothing in public. I even told her that I was thinking of taking some of my XXL Tommy Bahama shirts that are way too big for me now into Basel and just handing them out to people at the methadone clinic or the rare beggar one sees on the streets of Basel.
On second thought, most of the people I see at the methodone clinic when I go by it on the tram are skin and bones, so maybe I shouldn't be offering them XXL resort wear. Ummm...maybe it's not such a good idea afterall.
6 comments:
I remember seeing the methadone queue for the very first time in one of my local pharmacies in Melbourne- so depressing. I wondered why all these people were shuffling around, looking at the floor and just generally looking like death warmed up and then it hit me! See, you live in the Big Smoke and see these things, I had forgotten all about methadone clinics out here in my idyllic little village!
My Mom was an elementary school teacher, and she often told the story of this precious little girl (who was very poor) who came to school one day so proud of her new dress. Turns out that she (my Mom) had sewn the dress for ME when I was a little girl! It made my Mom so happy to see her hand-sewn dress making someone else smile.
Just curious, where is the methadone clinic in Basel?
Yeah I don't know what the methadone clinic is either.. But yeah it does feel good to know your old stuff goes to use.
One time I was out to the club and ran into a guy that was wearing the same shirt as I was.
I looked at him and said "OH my god, you must be so embarassed!"
Gretchen - There are two methadone clinics that I know of. One is close to Universitätspital. It was close to Mrs. TBF's temporary housing when she first moved to Basel in July, 2000.
The other one is next to the #10 tram line between Heuwaage and Zoo. I pass it on the tram all the time. It's right across the street from the Basel jail. I still think that it's strange that these two things are located right next to the zoo - something which is loaded with kids every day.
For those of you who don't know, almost 6 years ago I moved to Basel without TBF because he stayed back to finish the sale of our home and get us packed up for the move. So, I was alone for almost three months. Every Saturday I walked from my temporary apartment to the town center just for something to do. The very first Saturday I used my Basel map and went down the quickest path to Marktplatz and this took me past the meth clinic. Well, I was a little sheltered suburbanite...got scared and never walked that way again...until TBF came to register as a resident and visit me. I took him past the meth clinic just so he could see and believe that this seemingly conservative country was so progressive when it comes to drugs and drug treatment.
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