MrVicchio
2002-12-23, 09:10 AM
Couple of days ago, me and a few of the guys went down to the Soup Kitchen in Portland (maine not Oregon) anyhoots, we got there and I helped out by running the grille. They were serving breakfast, I punched out over 200 fried eggs in less then 45 min.
That was the most, depressing thing I think I have ever done. How can people do that, work there on a regular basis? Seriously?
Most of the older.. guests, all had the same, haunted look of hopelessness. That unnerved me striaght off the bat. Then the younger crowd started to come through... more then a few looked perfectly healthy and fit, I wanted to go over, slap them and ask "WTF are you doing in a soup kitchen Get a job man!" But something held me back...
Partially it was, maybe they ARE on hard times, and are just trying to get back on thier feet... but it was a darker thought that stopped me, what if I fll under hard times, what if I made mistakes and suddenly was out of the job and eating here....
But the thing that really took the cake, the children. Parents, many of them looking not much younger or older then I am, bringing their kids to a soup kitchen, this close to christmas... It took every ounce of self control I had not to break down and cry.. Cause I saw in this one little girls eyes.. that same look my little girl gives me........
I told my wife all this, and see, I learned something then, about bravery and courage. My wife is a CNA. She works in nursing homes, and has a side job atm taking care of a man that is paralyzed from the neck down. Happened to him 2 weeks after he graduated HS... in 1965. I Could never do that. I couldn't handle it, the injustice of it....
But she pointed out, she knows that if tomorrow, I was on a battlfeid, handed a rifle and told to go charge that hill, I would do it. She couldn't do that, not in a million years... so whose more brave....
Bah at least I helped feed em...
That was the most, depressing thing I think I have ever done. How can people do that, work there on a regular basis? Seriously?
Most of the older.. guests, all had the same, haunted look of hopelessness. That unnerved me striaght off the bat. Then the younger crowd started to come through... more then a few looked perfectly healthy and fit, I wanted to go over, slap them and ask "WTF are you doing in a soup kitchen Get a job man!" But something held me back...
Partially it was, maybe they ARE on hard times, and are just trying to get back on thier feet... but it was a darker thought that stopped me, what if I fll under hard times, what if I made mistakes and suddenly was out of the job and eating here....
But the thing that really took the cake, the children. Parents, many of them looking not much younger or older then I am, bringing their kids to a soup kitchen, this close to christmas... It took every ounce of self control I had not to break down and cry.. Cause I saw in this one little girls eyes.. that same look my little girl gives me........
I told my wife all this, and see, I learned something then, about bravery and courage. My wife is a CNA. She works in nursing homes, and has a side job atm taking care of a man that is paralyzed from the neck down. Happened to him 2 weeks after he graduated HS... in 1965. I Could never do that. I couldn't handle it, the injustice of it....
But she pointed out, she knows that if tomorrow, I was on a battlfeid, handed a rifle and told to go charge that hill, I would do it. She couldn't do that, not in a million years... so whose more brave....
Bah at least I helped feed em...