A
phenomenon encountered on
St. Mark's Place in
New York City and, I'm sure, in many other major metropolises all over the country.
The summer punk is the suburbanite and/or middle class white kid who decides it'd be a good idea or, at least, punk as fuck to go live on the street for the summer months and beg for change. The kid who wants to taste the "outlaw" life, but do so with the comfort of either an ATM card or daddy's Visa in his or her back pocket.
That they are constantly begging for change yet seem to have an inexhaustible supply of cigarettes makes them easily identifiable. That they claim to be destitute yet have several shiny new piercings makes them even more obvious.
One can only hope they're learning something valuable from the bona fide homeless people they encounter. Somehow I doubt it.