A "Wow!" from the YMCA in SF Takes Me Back to France, 1919

I might have done what was on my To-Do list today if I hadn't found a thank you note from the YMCA saying, "Wow!" and thanking me for my two-cents worth about the Y, now celebrating its 160th year in San Francisco.  I had writing the Y sort of in the middle of my To-Do list--one of many things.  It could very well be that their "Wow!" is part of their form letter, which ended with "Love," something I don't expect to get in a form letter but which clearly was not meant just for me.  All I wrote was this:

My Y story goes all the way back to when my grandfather, Perry Robison, was working for the Y at the end of World War I in Paris on the Rue de Provence.  At that time the United States military hadn't fought wars in other countries and didn't have experience distributing supplies for the soldiers, so they needed help from the YMCA, which had done peace-related work abroad.  Now I go to the Stonestown Y at 5:00 am every other day and think of my grandfather, who felt so good about his work (not workout) at the Y.

But grateful for a response, I found a renewed interest in sharing more.  (Watch out for me!)  So I found this picture and caption, which I know can't be read here.  It says,"Just an ordinary Y.M.C.A. secretary who is trying to do his bit in France.   For many of our soldier boys need more help in the battle of Paris than they needed in the Arregon (Argonne?) or at St. Michael.  April 26, 1919.  Perry W. Robison.

This picture of the "canal side" of the Y also interested me.  Apparently there was an American warehouse and a French one.  But what canal is this?  I spent hours sharing this in English and then in French.  

I wrote not only to the SF YMCA but to the one in France as well.