The Unwritten Code

Blessings come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and times of life. !

Having had a very dramatic and tumultuous childhood filled with unimaginable occurences ( that is a book in the making ) I ended up leaving home at a very early age and eventually hit the streets of Toronto.

When I left that night - I took with my a little burgundy purse containing only my Monday to Sunday skivvies and a comb. At fourteen it was pretty simple to pack that little purse ! I had no money and did not know where mother kept hers. I hopped the fence between our countryside property and the #401 Hwy and hitched a ride with a trucker. Truck drivers were very familiar to me as we had a CB in the house and my brother and I chatted with them constantly... they seemed like family.

I was dropped off in Toronto and given a few bucks by the driver to get a bite to eat . When my feet hit the ground I immediately felt totally out of place. I had grown up in a tiny rural community where my nearest neighbour was a mile away !! I was confused and lost and scared. Toronto can be pretty big in a small girl's eyes. I knew it was better than being at home with the abuse but still, I did not know where to start.

I decided to just keep walking and eventually after a few days I realized that I had not eaten. Sleeping on the benches did not allot me too much peace as I was only ever half asleep and seemingly with one eye open.

Time went by and I adjusted to street life and I learned to go with the flow and found scraps of food here and there . Others on the street helped me out and once in a while under unpleasant circumstances - I got to sleep in a hostel if someone felt so bad for me that they would make "arrangements" on my behalf.

It did not take too long for me to pick up on the fact that there was a strange code among some of the store owners who had outside tables where they sold their vegies etc. Occassionally there would be a store on my walking route that would have a little table off to the side and on it were random items of basic foods like fruit and bread and juices.

I watched from the side one day to see who would purchase from that little table. To my surprise - homeless people would stop by that little dilapidated table and take an item and keep going. I thought that they were steeling but when I went over to the table I saw a little handwritten note that had fallen to one side. The note read " If you have -then share ... If you need then take "

To my delight - as I wandered further down the sidewalk - I took note of many stores that had the same deal. On some there were no notes but I watched the same things transpire. Homeless being fed without begging or feeling impish or embarrassed by needing to eat and not having money. It was an unwritten code of the streets.

I am not sure that this is still a "thing " in Toronto or major cities as I am now 58 years of age and not anywhere near being homeless and needing that silent service of the wonderful stores.

How blessed we are to have people looking out for us. Sometimes we go through life not knowing the little things that people do to help us along the way. Whether it is providing food or someone moving something we did not see from a chair before we sit down ... a person saying something positive about us to build us up - when we are not even near them... paying the bill of someone behind us at the drive through,,,

I think that deep down that many live by that code and are not acknowledged for it neither do they seek that acknowledgement.. it is the code of love. The code of " do unto others as you would have them do unto you" kind of thing.

I am grateful that I made it through that leg of my journey on the streets being homeless. I know for certain that I would have taken longer to get through it and starved more often than I did had it not been for those who not only put the table out but also for people who were generous in their giving of basic foods for us homeless... ( if it had not been for those who live their lives by the Unwritten Code)

Catherine Summerfield

January 13, 2021