The YMCA

 By Bruce Shawkey

Twenty-two-year-old George Williams, a farmer-turned-department store worker, founded the YMCA in London in 1844. He joined 11 friends to organize the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), a refuge for young men seeking escape from the hazards of life on the streets. The organization flourished, and traveled across the pond to America, where YMCA's were founded in most every major American city.

I was introduced to the the "Y" in Madison, Wis., by my mom, who was looking for a cheaper alternative to baby sitters during the summer months when I was off from school. The director's name was Jim Schomer, and he soon had me signed up for a variety of activities. I learned to swim at the "Y," and fire a bow and arrow, though I was never good at it. We took numerous field trips; I remember one in particular to the Cave of the Mounds, in Blue Mounds, Wis., where I bought my first pocket knife in the gift shop. We ate sack lunches in a large meeting room, and afterward listened to oral story telling. 

One afternoon, while waiting in the lobby, presumably for my mom to pick me up, I spied  a Coke bottle in a rack alongside a Coke machine with what I thought was a little bit of Coke left in it. I took a sip, only to find it was was tobacco juice spit into the bottle from the Y's janitor. It forever turned me off from experimenting with chaw or snuff.

The "Y" in Madison was a fairly large place, on West West Washington Ave., with five stories. The upper floors contained rooms to let. It has since been torn down to make way for apartments.

I ran across a 1919 booklet, "How We Won the War," from the Smithsonian archives, detailing the Y's role in assisting our troop's victory over the Axis powers during WWI. The "Y" provided everything from meals, to rooms, to cigarettes for our GIs.  The "Y" took over some of the finest hotels in France to house our doughboys.

I won't show every panel from the booklet, but here is one showing soldiers lining up at a canteen for supplies to make their lives a little easier.



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