Valley Chronicle : College Student Gets Unwelcome Education About Life on the Streets

UCLA student Eric Sonders, 19, of Van Nuys decided to try an experiment.

He thought he would pretend to be homeless for a day and write about his experiences in a paper for his sociology class.

It was Saturday.

It was sunny.

It seemed like such a good idea.

He put on his grungies, made a sign that said “Will Work for Food,” and stood on the corner of Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards.

He says people yelled at him and made rude gestures. Most of the people who gave him money looked as if they needed it more than he did.

Sonders says one person spit at him, and another person’s dog used him for a fire hydrant.

Then a real homeless person appeared.

“The guy said it was his corner and that he was going to beat the crap out of me if I didn’t move away.”

Sonders says he gave the $7 he collected to another homeless guy on his way home.

Doing Good Is Doing Well

Donations to, and purchases from, the Canoga Park Salvation Army Thrift Shop at Canoga Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard provide the funds for the rehabilitation program the Army runs on site for men recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.

Glen and Mary Doss, who run the program and the thrift shop, hope members of the community will come to the open house May 15, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., so that they can say a personal “thank you,” and show everyone how the operation works.

“Because of the community’s generosity, we are able to offer the live-in, six-month recovery program free to 54 men in various stages of recovery,” said Lt. Glen Doss, who served for 20 years in the Air Force and Navy before becoming an officer in the Salvation Army.

He adds that anyone who has been sober for 72 hours may apply for admission to the facility. After that, he says, it’s a question of available beds, how well the man will fit in with the others in recovery, and how receptive the person will be to the highly structured work and counseling program that includes several 12-step meetings a week.

According to his wife, Mary Doss, who holds a master’s degree in counseling, “The men are given jobs in the shop, warehouse or as a truck assistant where they must show up on time, follow the orders of the staff person in charge and learn how to behave in a work environment.”

She says that many of the men became addicted to drugs in their childhood and have never acquired the discipline to hold a job. Learning to set an alarm, get up, dress and shave for work every morning is a major accomplishment.

Mary Doss, 51, is a lifelong soldier.

“My mother was in the Salvation Army evangelical church when I was growing up in Wyoming and I felt very comfortable marrying someone in the church and going into the officers’ corps.

“After my husband and I divorced, I dropped out of service and went and got my master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado. I came back as a single officer and met Glen when I lectured to his class at the Army’s officers’ training school in Palos Verdes.

“We married several months later and have been posted in Seattle and San Francisco, before coming here about six months ago.”

Glen Doss, 48, didn’t know anything about the Salvation Army in the mid-’80s, when he was being mustered out of the Navy. “I had been in Vietnam, seen bad things. I was suffering from clinical depression. I needed to find something useful to do with my life,” he said.

“I looked at a number of churches, but I settled on the Salvation Army because it was really out there. The officers in the Salvation Army are just ordinary people who want to be useful in the community working to help people in need.”

The Dosses say the Army provides them with a house and car and about $425 cash every two weeks. They say they never know where they are going to be posted or for how long, but that they do get to see people turning their lives around.

They add that if anyone in the community might be thinking of helping with the literacy program, teaching computer skills or otherwise volunteering, the open house would be a good time to check the program out.

The Man Who Time Forgot

Bill Reale goes to the gym once a week and works out on his home punching bag daily.

The West Hills man drives a car, cooks his own food and keeps up a busy social life, visiting with family and friends.

The thing that makes this unusual is that he is a senior citizen.

We’re talking very senior: He was born in Italy in 1896 and is almost 97 years old.

“Yeah, but I watch my diet and I take care of myself,” says the World War I veteran. “I lift weights, keep up with my legwork and don’t eat bad things that are fatty or salty.”

When pressed for the real secret of his longevity, he says: “I don’t worry about anything. Worry will kill you. I don’t worry about anything at all.”

Elephant Care Is a Heavy Subject

Well, you missed the Learning Tree University in Chatsworth’s class in the care and feeding of elephants. But don’t worry, it will be offered again.

Ralph Helfer’s one-day classes on animals have become a popular series at the university. The most recent class, on elephants, included practical experience in giving a pachyderm a bath.

Helfer takes his students to nearby animal compounds and presents one-day, hands-on workshops. The classes are for fun, not future employment. But they allow adults to hang out with various wild and not-so-wild species, which is good for people, he says.

Helfer, who also leads camera safaris to Kenya, says that, “because human life is so frenetic, it’s good for people to spend time with animals. After a few minutes with one of these majestic creatures, human anxiety seems to dissolve.”

His next class, he says, will be on cats, of the tiger and leopard variety.

In the interest of safety, it will not be as hands-on as Saturday’s elephant extravaganza, Helfer adds.

Overheard

“The situation at work is so bad it has really gotten to me. My wife and kids are worried. My friends are worried. What’s worse, it’s affecting my golf game.”

One stockbroker to another at Milano’s in Woodland Hills over lunch.