There was no charge for joining a Boy’s Club back then...any difference today?
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We live in an area in N. Calif where the minority population is mostly Hispanic rather than black, so that’s where I’m coming from. In “the city” (San Francisco) I’m going to guess there’s more programs for city youth. Here in our smaller city, however, there’s not much going on in terms of serving poorer youth. For instance, I heard of a free program teaching Hispanic kids to swim (since we have a problem here with H. kids who can’t swim). It turned out to be ONE free lesson. Big whoop. Also in our city, there are no free or cheap public pools. The public pool closest to us charges $5 for an adult and $4 for a kid. So if you have a parent who wants to take one or two kids to swim and learn, that adds up quickly (for someone who doesn’t have a lot of money).