Salvation Army

Shades of 1937! (Salvation Army Lt. Col. David P. Riley’s letter, Dec. 12.)

Riley, representing one of the most self-effacingly low-profile charitable organizations I know, thanks so many people who have given so much in supplies and money to lighten the load of the North California quake.

The “Sally” (as we 1937 Depression freight-trainers, hitchhikers, and other assorted peripatetic poor called the Salvation Army) always had put a hand out, not to receive, but to help the hungry, bed down the weary, and clothe the cold and/or ragged.

I can’t forget the wholesome food coming out of those wonderful “Sally” cooking pots . . . and dished out without even one single arbitrary request in return.

I can’t--won’t--ever stop at a “Sally” Christmas pot on the street without a deep memory of the Salvation Army’s quiet and brotherly work in all corners of America.

My best wishes to you, Colonel; your people have given all of us Christmas--all yearlong.

SID POSNER

Palm Springs