Shortly before 11am, Susan informed me that the two of us had lunch plans today. Susan brought some of our old winter coats along with her today, and wanted to take them downtown to City Rescue Mission of Oklahoma City. The other reason she wanted to go downtown was to see if this place was safe enough to bring Mason with us next time. We have been working with Mason especially around the holiday season and explaining to him about less fortunate people. Every time one of the local charities calls us, we always round up a few things to donate. Mason also contributes and picks out a toy that he no longer plays with and donates it as well.
Well let’s just say that Mason won’t be going down to the City Rescue Mission anytime soon. When we pulled up to the building we found 20-25 rough looking people standing outside on the front porch. As we walked up to the door we were immediately approached by one man asking us for money. Then, another approached us with flyers for some local church-sponsored rehab. Susan carried the coats while I worked “security” and kept a close eye on the situation. Once inside it only took us a minute to drop the coats into a big, empty donation bin. The guy in charge came over, thanked us, and wished us a Merry Christmas.
On the way out I put Susan ahead of me so I could watch behind us. I don’t think that poor people are necessarily bad people, but I do think that desperate people can be unpredictable and so I did not let my guard down until we were back in our car.
Afterwards, we ate lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Parking next door is $3. It was odd thinking that most of the people we had just seen probably couldn’t even afford to park there — that is, even if they owned a car or could afford a meal there. We thought and talked a lot about those people as we sat inside running up a $30 lunch tab. On our way back to work we passed back by the mission and saw the same people still standing outside in the freezing weather.