As the Thursday night wears on, some of the homeless men join in a boisterous card game with the teen-agers, who have brought their sleeping bags. They will be spending all night on the wet ground of Goebel Park to show their solidarity with these strangers. Turns out he's pretty good at cards. He's also hilarious, says Theresa, a member of the youth group at St. William's Church in Grant County. That's the best part about this evening.
Homelessness sands away the pretense from a person.
Not everyone follows it all the time, of course. They are far from angels. But if nothing else, street people are generally honest about their shortcomings, and this is a quality that cannot be understood from a distance. Experiencing it up close is the great gift of Welcome House's annual rally. When I arrive around 7 p.m., the sky is barely spitting rain, and I shiver.