Gratitude on the Fourth

Yesterday was the 4th of July, Independence Day. I spent 5 hours volunteering in the kitchen of our local homeless shelter. As a result of me popping off at the mouth in Sunday school when Lynn requested kitchen help on Saturdays (note to self--check mouth).
I went in from 10:00am - 1:00pm and sliced watermelon, potatos for potato salad, pickles and onions. Lynn pretty much runs the kitchen from top to bottom even though it's someone else's job. She's in there 14 hours a day on weekends and that's too much. If she's not in there I won't know what to do next.
There's a large fellow Stan who is a resident, works the kitchen and he's friendly enough but he's not going to tell me what to do next. He just carries on like I'm not there. A black dude, Charles, resides there and does kitchen work but he won't speak to me at all. Another black dude, Terry, is really nice and compliments me but he doesn't stick around.
I dished out food for, I dunno, 50 men for lunch and there was a lot of gratitude there. I've been wanting to do that for a couple years and yesterday I did it.
Came home for awhile and went back in at 5. This time we had about 70 - 80 for dinner and they got chicken, corn on cob, beans, potato salad and bread. We were 20 minutes late but there was no hootinanny from the residents. They get some piddly portions and no complaints. They are allowed seconds though and maybe thirds. And dessert.
A couple of residents volunteer to wash dishes and seem content to do it.
I didn't see any sourpuss attitudes from any of these guys.
The sleeping quarters is adjacent to the kitchen and it's cramped. My church just built a larger wing to the building and 50 more bunks will be added later.
It was an experience. I learned a lot about gratefulness for what little I've got.