Now For The Rest of the Story...

Now for the rest of the story.

I was in a small market getting a coke (pepsi)right after Clarence and I had spread fertilizer under a very large orange grove. It was so big we had to use three loads of fertilizer. That meant loading it, (it was loaded with a bucket loader) driving to the orchard, spreading the load by hand and doing it all over again twice more. It had been a long, hot day.

I got my pepsi and was standing a ways away from the counter, waiting for Clarence to get his so we could leave.

Right then a man came into the market and stood by Clarence while waiting his turn. He was a middle aged man, well dressed and nice looking.

Just then the clerk asked Clarence how his day went and Clarence answered it had gone very well, that we had been busy. He looked at me and grinned. I added I thought we might be doing something a bit more important than spreading manure under orange trees.

The man who was waiting for Clarence said, "Pardon me, are you fellows the ones who just fertilized the orchard down the road?" I said we were and he reached out his hand and said he wanted to shake my hand. I looked a question at him and took his hand and he said he owned that grove and thought we did a good job on it.
He said, "I don't know what I'd do if it weren't for you boys. I used to do that myself but lately I've kept myself so busy I just can't get around to doing the job myself. I really appreciate the job you boys do."

Then he turned to the clerk and told him to give us a case of pepsis on him.

He asked if we had lived here for long and I told him I was just here for this year to help my brother-in-law. I told him I was from Modesto, california.

To make a long story short, I felt very important for a while there.
Later,around Christmas time, after I had gone back to Modesto, I came into the house one day and my Mother said, "James Cameron, there's a letter here for you." I didn't get letters of my own very often (except from a pen pal girl from Germany when I was in the eight grade)and I got a little rush looking at it.
I took the letter and saw it was postmarked Phoenix, Arizona. I thought it must be from Clarence or some relative of his I had met there. I opened it and it was a twenty dollar bill folded into a sheet of paper. On the paper was written, "Merry Christmas for a job well done. I appreciate your taking care of my orchard." And it was signed by the man who owned the orange grove, to whom Clarence and I had spoken in the market.

I wrote to Clarence and told him about it and he sent me a note back saying he got one, too.

So you see, even spreading fertilizer is just as important to some as any job there is!

Later...