The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-12-18
SAM WRITES HIS
BUDDY" ABOUT
DOINGS AT "Y"
Tells of Various Recrea-
tional Activities of
= Local Youths.

Dear Bud guess it's been
nearly two months since l wrote
you my last letter when I told you
was going to join the Boys "Y,"
and was going to let you know
what we do down here. Gee. I
didn't know it was so big or that
they do so many stunts-it keeps
fellow busy all the time. | got to
talking to some Of the secretaries
who run this building, and they
told me lot of interesting things
They have classes every day in the
gym and swimming pool. like I
told you in my last letter. The aft
ernoon classes are made up of boys
that go to school and in the even
ing they have classes something
like these for boys that work. I
was thinking one of these evening
classes would be pretty nice for
Johnny Smith, you know. because
he sells papers and couldn't come
in the afternoon.
I thought they only took boys in
who are over IL years old, but they
tell me that they have a class for
boys who are only 10 and IL years
old. They just have one class
each week for these boys. and that
is on Saturday afternoon. They
have the use of the games about 1
O'Clock, and then they go to gym
at o'clock and then after gym
they have a swim, and then after
the swim they have a club meet
ing and movies and lots Of interest
ing things. They have movies and
stunts like this all the time for the
other fellows.
I wish you'd hear about some OF
the big things they have had and
are planning to have still bigger
this year. In Octobcr they had
what they called their annual OPEN
tertainment that night. They had
singing and movies and stunts n
everything. And they had over $50
boys and their parents there. Then
they had so many fellows who
wanted to have Halloween
party that they had four parties in
stead of one. At one of these they
had over 400 boys. and say. it must
have been great time. They had
it in the boys gym. They had pea
nut scrambIes, apple bobbing, YOU
know. where you duck your head
into tub of water and try to get
an apple, and they had a regular
and gave prize to
the best "dressed-up" fellow. Then
they had n pie-eating contest and a
contest, and gee. 1t
was great, The fellows at the "Y"
talk about these things for nearly
a whole year
Every year on Thanksgiving Day
they have n big Marathon run and
a lot of fellows get prizes. And
then. in December. they have a
bang" Of a time, While the Christ
mas vacation i on they have some
thing doing every day up at the
'Y." They have games and stunts
in the gym. game tournaments in
the game room. movies, and a lot
OF things. A whole bunch of fell
lows are signing up now for the
game tournament this year, and
you can believe me, I'm one OF
them.
This is all I have time to write
at this time, but You take my ad-
vice and you ought to come down
and see what they do, because they
just have everything that kids want
to do all the time. and nobody cares
how much noise you make because
those men down there just expect
you to maxi noise and it's all right
Everything is fixed up for kids, and
you don't have to be careful that
you don't scratch this or that. be-
cause all the good things they have
down there you don't want to
scratch. and besides. you don't have
time to, because you can keep so
busy playing all those games that
are more than any one fellow can
do while he is there. and they have
enough for everybody.
II You want to try this, you
ought to do what / did. Come down
to the "Y'' and look it over, and IL
you tell the men there that YOU
would like to see what's doing thew
will even let you go in and try
swim. and it doesn't cost you a
cent. In this way you can really
see how things go and what they
do. II you think you want to do
this, let me know. and I will bring
you down and introduce you to
some of these men down here, for
they sure are great fellows to
know. Your friend,
SAM.