Chapter 11 ~ Hard Working Hands

(part 3)

One story that is often told about Carmon took place the winter we built our house on the mini-farm.  We were living in a small mobile home behind the construction site at the time.  The basement of the house was nearly finished and we were already spending time down there enjoying the fireplace.  We even put the Christmas tree in the unfinished basement that year. 

One evening, I came home from doing some visiting teaching.  I saw smoke rising from the chimney, so I knew that Carmon and the kids were probably downstairs.  As I started down, I was greeted – with a snarl – by a large dog that I had never seen before!  Thinking Carmon had dragged home another stray, I called out to him.  He met me on the stair and invited me down to meet his friends.  In the basement were three total strangers: two men, one woman, and the Hound of the Baskervilles!  Apparently, those folks had been on their way to California when their van broke down, stranding them on Van Buren Street in Phoenix.  The men were holding signs saying they would work for car parts.  Carmon was working at the Civic Plaza that afternoon and saw them.  He took them to the company warehouse and paid them out of his own pocket to do some custodial work.  Conveniently, the money they earned would be just enough to pay for the car part.              

When the work was finished, Carmon took them to Checker Auto, bought the car part and helped them put it on their van.  Then, because it was getting late and he knew they didn’t have a place to stay, he had them follow him home.  We fed them dinner that night, then Carmon gave them sleeping bags and told them they were welcome to camp out in the basement by the fireplace, which they did.  In the morning, he gave them money to gas their van and a bushel-sized laundry basket full of food for the trip.

Ironically, the strangest thing about all of this was that as far as Carmon was concerned, there was nothing strange about it at all.

© Gebara Education, 2001. No portion of this book may be copied by any method without the express written permission of the autho

Picture of Christmas tree from www.nclakecottage.com

Picture of large black dog from www.zuzutop.com

Picture of VW bus from from www.flickr.com