On April 12, Street Children Day, my mind grappled with the statistic. An unbelievable 100 million youngsters in the world, living in the shadows, now stand in the light for all to see. Not just the rising toll of Syrian orphans who have lost their parents in war, but those waifs who eke out an […]
Tag Archives: orphan train
The upcoming workshop on America’s Prostituted Children led by Linda Smith caught my eye. On January 17, 2014, Smith will be at the Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan talking about a subject that most people avoid. I bought her book, Renting Lacey, and read it in a day. A whole […]
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The gift shop shelves heaved with books covered by grainy photos of children huddled around coal driven steam engines. Dressed in turn of the century clothes, some ragamuffins carried grief like luggage, but others appeared wide-eyed with adventure. “Orphan trains,” my brother explained. “Those children were adopted here in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area. They […]
When Garth Brooks belted out his signature song and the audience sang along with him during a recently televised concert, my mind pictured an 1890 pub in Five Points with the whistle of the orphan train in the background. The words of Brooks’ song, “I Have Friends in Low Places”, bring his audience back to […]