This Is Where Mr. Lao Lives

This is from the first issue (Volume 1, No. 1) of Yellow Seeds in Philadelphia April, 1972
A brief history of Yellow Seeds will soon appear.

posted 7/28/07

It is dark; it is cold; and it smells like human feces, urine and vomit. It is dark because there are no lights.  It is cold because there is only an  open flame heater. It smells because  Mr. Lao is over 80 and too sick to  walk down the two flights of stairs to   He is to weak to walk  one hour down the four flight stairs to eat his only meal of the day.

After 50 years of working in San Francisco, New York and Phila. as a waiter, cook and laundryman; he has finally reached retirement. He has no relatives and no friends. He can barely walk when healthy, and when we found him he was on the sidewalk, unable to-move in freezing weather.

After Yellow Seeds found Mr. Lao, many people have taken an interest in him. Some have tried to help him. Others are trying to put him in an old age home. They want to put him where he will be poorly treated, won't meet anyone who speaks Chinese and will not have Chinese food.

We at Yellow Seeds were told that this was the best that could be done. We were even asked to help put the "old man" away. Be we opposed and still oppose any effort to get rid of Mr. Lao. We cleaned out ten bushels of garbage; threw away the soiled mattress and scrubbed the apt. clean. We have cleaned his clothes and through donations gotten him a mattress, clothes and a portable chemical toilet. Everyday at 4 and 11P.M. we bring him food donated by Mayflower restaurant. He is new much healthier and happier.

We need physical volunteering and money far a medical check-up, a weekly cleanup and a new ap'tment for Mr. Lao who although old is still a human being.

Mr. Lao in a fictitious name for a very real person who can not be left to die.

Donations of money, linens, etc.
Yellow Seeds, 1006 Winter St.

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