Occupy Ogden, Black Friday, 2011

Occupy Ogden Black Friday, 2011

“Yeah, looks like we’re marching on Wal-Mart at eleven,” said the grizzled dude into his microphone.

I looked at my watch and said, “It’s eleven now!”

“It’s already eleven,” the dude grunted into the mike.

There was a burst of static on the speaker, then a scratchy voice saying, “Okay, they’re getting the vans.”

The grizzly one said he expected about a hundred people to show up for the protest. “They call it Black Friday, but for us every day is Black Friday.”

I told them I worked at the library and we wondered if the Unitarians let them use their facilities for washing and cooking. The wheelchair person turned to get a look at me and I could she it was a woman.

“We have porta-potties,” said the grizzled guy.

“There are some people letting us use their homes,” said the woman.

“I know some Unitarians, but I don’t know if they’ll let you get in to use their facilities,” I said. “Too bad you don’t have any Mormon connections. You’d be home free.”

“They’re the one-percent,” said the old guy. “We’re the ninety-nine percent.”

There were about twenty colorful tents around the Unitarian Church and inside the main white plastic shelter an old grizzled dude was talking via two-way radio powered by a car battery. Next to him a young fellow was eating a sandwich and, in a electric wheelchair, a third person huddled under blankets.