I guess many people who commented here didn't bother to talk to the people.. Just because they don't follow the expected path that the majority of society expects them to walk, doesn't mean they're losers, or freaks.. Yeah, maybe they're weird to some people, but don't forget, this is LIFE, and life is what you make of it. Most of these people aren't really crazy, most aren't on meth.. Yeah, you get some methies and crazy folks, but those ARE EVERYWHERE, all around the world. Most of the folks there are just laid back, and tired of being told what to do and how to act. Some of the kindest, most wonderful people that I have met in life have been slabbers, and homeless folk from around the USA. They have this wonderfully charming humbled attitude that you just don't get from most of Americas spoiled rotten citizens. I'm not saying to trust every person you find who's roughing it, anyone can be a scum bag, but the majority I've met, especially in Slab City, are awesome folks.
Try talking to people next time, you'll find that the cover of a book doesn't always tell its story.
wondering about your facts
18-Sep-2009 11:17
WOW you really interviewed a lot of folks in Slab City to know their entire stories! How many welfare checks did you see cashed? How many slabbers watched you dig out the pool and do meth? Did you do meth with them? Why did they come out to the pool to do meth? How do their brains get fried from the 20 degree sun? I thought it was MUCH warmer out there. And the 3 species you identified; HOW MANY people did you interview to come up with this? Why did you find a common school so unique? You've been living under a rock? Sounds to me like you were high on bad drugs when you wrote this piece!
xfrogman
14-Aug-2007 05:49
Slab city is the proverbial last stop on the looser road of life. I am a former Navy SEAl and we have a training camp outside of Niland down gasline road which is the road that leads north out of slab city, past the siphon crossing on the Coachella Canal. I also worked as a firefighter/emt at NAF El Centro in Seely and we used to go on medical calls to slab city and North Beach and Boyton Beach on the "shores" of that stinking pit of a dead sea. One cool thing we did was dig out the deep end of the old base pool at slab city and skateboarded in it one day while the slabbers watched and did meth. We identified three subsbecies of human out there; slabbers, (loosers who broke down and just stayed there to have an address for their welfare checks,; scrappers, those who go out into the chocolate mountains aerial bombing range and crack open unexploded ordnance to use the explosives for fishing for carp in the canal and selling the steel for cash, and the weirdes subspecies, the slab city lizard people. These are the folks who have been here so long their brains are fried from the 20 degree sun, wear black long sleeve shirts in 120 degree weather,levis worn out cowboy boots and old tattered straw cowboy hats,( usually pink or green with remnants of feather boas), and just kind of dissapear into the desert and reappear with no seeming mission or knowledge of where or why theyd been. Weird place, scary freaks, and a school bus actually picks up an d drops off kids for school!!!
Guest
28-Jan-2007 19:42
I also visited Slab City. It was last year. We stayed in Brawley and bobtailed up to Niland to see Slab City and the Salton Sea. Will not go back. Would never stay in Slab City. Had to see it once. We are fulltimers since March 2004.
W.J. Mc Kinley
04-May-2005 11:03
Your photos of Slab City & The Salton Sea area are beautiful. We would love to visit that area SOMEDAY, SOMEHOW. It would be a looooong trip for us. I am retired at age 63. We live near BAXTER ONTARIO CANADA. We must keep on dreaming. Any other photos of Slab City would be much appreciated.