{"id":1601,"date":"2025-09-28T09:43:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=1601"},"modified":"2025-09-28T09:43:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:43:23","slug":"i-was-sitting-on-a-park-bench-next-to-a-homeless-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=1601","title":{"rendered":"I was sitting on a park bench next to a homeless man."},"content":{"rendered":"

Had It All.<\/h2>\n

This morning I was sitting on a park bench next to a homeless man.<\/p>\n

I started a conversation by asking him how he ended up this way.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cUp until last week, I still had it all. I had plenty to eat, my clothes were washed and pressed, I had a roof over my head, I had TV and Internet, and I went to the gym, the pool, and the library.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working on my MBA on-line. I had no bills and no debt. I even had full medical coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt sorry for him, so I asked, \u201cWhat happened? Drugs? A-l.c.ohol? Divorce?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no, nothing like that,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI was released from prison.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For two solid hours,<\/h2>\n

the lady sitting next to a man on an airplane had told him about her grandchildren. She had even produced a plastic-foldout photo album of all nine of the children.<\/p>\n

She finally realized that she had dominated the entire conversation on her grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019ve done all the talking, and I\u2019m so sorry. I know you certainly have something to say. Please, tell me\u2026\u00a0what do you think of my grandchildren?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi there. I\u2019m Bob. I\u2019m 80.<\/h2>\n

Every morning, I sit on the same park bench and chat to my friend, Jim, who\u2019s a full seven years older than me. I\u2019ve always wondered where he gets all his stamina from \u2013 he goes for a jog each day without fail, before meeting me. And, amazingly, he\u2019s never out of breath.<\/p>\n

One fine day, I plucked up the courage to ask him: \u201cHey Jim, how on earth do you have all that stamina at your age?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I eat Italian bread every day. It keeps your energy level high and you\u2019ll have great stamina with the ladies,\u201d Jim replied.<\/p>\n

Intrigued, I decided to visit the local bakery on my way home to find myself some Italian bread and hopefully get a vitality boost. As I looked around while trying to ensure that no-one caught on to what I was doing, the lady asked me if I needed any help.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have any Italian bread?\u201d I asked sheepishly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there\u2019s a whole shelf of it. Would you like some?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want five loaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goodness, five loaves?\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cBy the time you get to the fifth loaf, it\u2019ll be hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

I left as fast as my old legs could carry me!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Had It All. This morning I was sitting on a park bench next to a homeless man. I started a conversation by asking him how he ended up this way. He said, \u201cUp until last week, I still had it all. I had plenty to eat, my clothes were washed and pressed, I had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1602,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601\/revisions\/1602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}