Famous Ankles

Nowadays, Manhattan is wealthy and nicely appointed.  Union Square and 14th Street are nice and fashionable areas for the most part.  But only a few years ago they were horrid areas filled with wasted and wasting people.

But the Salvation Army was there for them.  The Army still has its headquarters on the spot.  It’s about 11 stories high and takes up a big chunk of the block near Fifth Avenue. 

At the front is a large entryway (not shown above) with a long quote from their founder General William Booth.

“While women weep, as they do now,
  I’ll fight;
While men go to prison, in and out,
In and out, as they do now,
  I’ll fight;
While there is a drunkard left,
While there is a poor lost girl
Upon the streets,
While there remains one dark soul,
Without the light of God,
  I’ll fight —
I’ll fight to the very end!”

Okay, now that I wrote it, I might as well show the picture.

I’ve seen the place a bunch of times before. I think extremely highly of the Salvation Army and I thank God that there are people there to reach down to areas of humanity that I’d have a tough time dealing with and treat them with compassion and love.

I met a few of the “soldiers” or whatever they call themselves as they were loading into a van.  One of them thought she recognized me.  She said “I know you.”  She looked pretty intently at me, as if she’d worked with me on occasion.  I’ve had some times in my life, but I’ve never had the need of the Salvation Army so I just smiled and said that I didn’t think so.  She then said that she thought I looked like one of her colleagues, but I think she was just embarrassed.

I did tell them that I admired them for their work and their dedication and that people really needed what they did.  I think they appreciated that.

-H

This entry was posted on November 16, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.