Funny Panhandlilng Sign 8

This sign was one I thought was funny.  But in North Carolina it just confused people.  A couple seemed to think we were still fighting this war.  C'mon people, Google it.

Funny Panhandling Sign 7

If you live in the South, you know there's a fast food joint called Chick-Fil-A.  Their commercials have these amazing cows who have signs that say Eat Mor Chikn.  Or something like that.  The cows and rappel, parachute, and do all these crazy things, but somehow they can't spell.  So this was my funny take on that slogan.  This sign was AMAZINGLY popular with rednecks.  A couple yelled out of their trucks at me claiming that they'd actually eaten 'possum.  Luckily for me, none of them offered to share any.

Funny Panhandling Sign 6

This is another idea I got off the web.  Usually they say "alcohol research," but I don't drink.  Pizza is more my style.  Mmmmmmmmm... pizza.  Sounds good right about now.

Funny Panhandling Sign 1

To explain why this blog is called "Bum to Bankroll," I have to first admit to being a bum.  I'm not talking about a guy who sits on the couch and doesn't take showers for three days.  OK, I'm that kind of bum, too. Sometimes.  But in late 2007, I could no longer afford to keep driving a taxi in Orange County, California.  I walked away for both financial and health reasons.  For almost a year, I lived on the streets of Southern California, panhandling to survive.  The streets sound cool in gangsta rap songs.  But they are far from cool in reality.  How did I wind up homeless?  By working 80 to 100 hours a week as a taxi driver.  No booze.  No drugs.  Well, a lot of caffeine to work them crazy hours, but that was it.  I became completely homeless by working more hours a week than most people ever will.  The industry was dying, and I just couldn't scrape up enough money to escape. 

My panhandling sign usually read "Homeless and Hungry."  Simple, to the point, and effective.  But after a while I started putting funny slogans on the back of my signs.  If nobody responded to the front of the sign, I'd show the funny slogan.  It worked a fair amount of the time.  This is one of the slogans I actually used when I was a panhandler.