Help! I've Fallen ...

I don't normally blog twice in one day, but I can't help myself.  I just have to tell you what happened on my way home from work today.

As I'm walking down the stairs from the train station, I come to the turnstiles and there, under the turnstile, is a man laying down.  I'm not sure if he's alive or dead, but I get on the other side and ask him if he needs help.  No answer.  I yell to the token booth clerk to get help.

A gentleman comes over and also asks the man if he needs help.  He must have said yes because the man tries to help him up.  Another man comes up and also helps the fallen man up.  I ask the men to ask the fallen man if he needs an ambulance, my phone at the ready, but the man says no (I think that's what he said).  The two men help him up to his knees, then they help him to his feet.  When the fallen man is finally standing, he salutes the two men who helped him up and he holds up a button.

So here's what happened: the fallen man is homeless and drunk.  He was wearing a knit hat with buttons on it and one fell off.  He got down to retrieve the button that landed on the other side of the turnstile, decided to crawl under the it to retrieve said button, but when he got down he fell asleep.

Clearly he was homeless, and I doubt he had needle and thread to sew the button back on his hat, but he held up the errant button and gave us all a triumphant toothless grin.

The moral of the story is: if you are too drunk to stand do no crawl under the turnstile.