Ok, im going to do a rant today (what else is new?) but this is a #ThrowbackThursday version of my #FacebookRantOfTheDay It was on January 15, 2009, six years ago today I can rant about where I was and what I had to do and the dumb asses I had to deal with. At the same time there was a major event in the news and I was a few miles from it. And I spent the day with the best friend anyone could ever have and I have had for almost 34 years. That friend, brother and all around great human being is the one and only David Felson and yes I just tagged him for this story, excuse me rant. Now here is the rant.... One reason I will never support THE SALVATION ARMY is because of what I had to experience 6 years ago today. It all started with with my late grandmothers furniture that I had in storage in one of those expensive storage rental units. And 6 years ago I was fed up with with paying New York style rent for furniture in storage. The cost of actually moving the stuff south to my home in Georgia was astronomical so I decided to donate the former contents of my grandmothers apartment to charity. And thats where the Salvation Army comes in. IN many cities both Goodwill and the Salvation Army have a service that you can call and they send out a truck to pick up whatever you wished to give away. And I had a lot of good stuff to give away. So I thought I would call the Salvation Army truck to pick up the stuff. That was a challenge to do from far away. Their telephone number to call to schedule pick up was next to impossible to reach especially if you were out of town. And when I finally reached a human being I was told that I dont get to set up appointments on MY schedule, they would take my information and THEY will tell me when they will come out and I have to be ready on THEIR schedule. I was at least given the option to deny the date they told me and hope for a later date. And I chose that option for a later date so I could plan my trip to New York. That date happened to be January 15th. And just like meeting the cable guy the time they offered was between 9am and 3pm and I knew I could not miss that time window. So I rented a minivan in Georgia and drove up to New York to arrive the day before my appointment with the Salvation Army truck. I was sure that I was finally getting rid of that storage unit. So on January 15th at 7am I woke up to find it was snowing and the temperature was 10 degrees! This meant I was going to wait between 9 am and 3 pm either freezing my ass off in a climate controlled storage unit, or hanging out in the office at the storage facility (and deal with their asshole staff) or sitting in the rented minivan running the engine to stay warm. I did all of that for several hours. My dear friend David who lived nearby came over to hang out with me. He wouldnt be able to stay all day because he had to go to work and he worked in Manhattan so he needed a couple hours traveling time. So we really hoped that truck would arrive before 2pm instead of by 3. We were lucky. Or so I thought! As the truck arrived just after 12:00 noon. Its still snowing but the snow accumulation was only a few inches.But temperature never got higher than 15. Anyway, we met the two guys on the Salvation Army Truck. All seemed well. We went to the storage unit which was on a 3rd floor in a warehouse. The two men from the truck took one look at the contents of the storage room and quickly said We aint taking any of that stuff. I was shocked and asked why. They told me that my grandmothers furniture was too old and that their clients preferred only modern contemporary stuff. Those guys didnt even really LOOK at what I had. My grandmother kept a pristine household, her furniture frequently polished. She was a housekeeper for most her life and worked more than 25 years for the same wealthy family from Long Island and maintained their home with antiques and high end furnishings to a great standard. My grandmother was used to polishing silver and wood furniture in her homes had the kind of polishing quality that made her dressers look almost mirror like. That furniture would have been a GREAT addition to any home. But those two Salvation Army representatives turned down my donation flat. And I found myself in a very calm anger but told them I had traveled to New York specifically for this donation and had nothing else to do and their response was . just take them down the dumpster, somebody will pick some of it out and they simply left. I was speechless but had to think quickly as by now it was fast approaching the time when David had to leave for work. So then I went downstairs at the storage facility and they rented U-Haul Trucks there. David and I decided to rent a truck and take the stuff to his house and leave everything in the driveway and on trash day he would put the stuff out to the curb and people from the neighborhood would probably get what looks good. When I got downstairs something that pissed me off was the sight of those two men from the Salvation Army truck driving away..with one of them laid back with his feet up on the dashboard! That had me steaming mad! I called the salvation army and got the brush off, either put on hold or transferred to a fake manager. I say fake because all I got was voice mail. And when I tried to call again and demanded to speak to someone immediately the person I spoke to told me whatever they pick up was the descresion of the men on the truck and that was it. End of conversation. There was nothing I could do but have David and I load a truck and get it over to his house quickly so he can go to work. And we moved as fast as we could leaving David with just minutes to get to work. I decided to drive him to work so he didnt have to deal with his usual ritual of finding parking in Manhattan. And so during that time I recorded some video and made a few YouTube clips out of it. Doing that took some of the steam out of my anger with the Salvation Army. And this rant ends with this...since that experience I have not stepped foot inside any salvation army thrift store, not donated anything in any way and certainly have never put a cent in a Salvation Army red kettle. And this is before my fellow LGBT citizens began to boycott the Salvation Army for their anti-gay policies. I was already on board as boycotting that organization. I had my real personal reasons and had heard of similar issues with them whenever I shared my story. Well 6 years ago I had things to be angry about but I also have a video to give a little chuckle. Because I know a few liked it over the years including Davids daughter who I heard found it funny watching her father in the video. So here it is in three parts. My 6th anniversary contribution to the #TBT Here is David driving me to get my rented minivan after we took a loaded UHaul truck to his house. We didnt have time to unload the truck because David had to go to work. After he drove me to get the minivan we took his car back home and I immediately drove David to work in Manhattan. youtu.be/T7USa5vB9CI
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 07:56:45 +0000
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