EP341: The Angels of Bataan, Tempest Tours: A Stormy, Sightseeing Vacation and More Than Just a Summer Job

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Here's our regular contributor, Ann Claire, with the story of one of them. Bataan was not a career for a nice, unmarried girl in the 1930s. After all, it was dirty physical work, and it required learning far too much information about the opposite sex. However, it was also one of the few opportunities for a young woman who couldn't afford college to continue her education.

In the Depression-era United States, the 16 cents an hour a hospital paid wasn't bad either. Georgia-born Frances Nash was one of the many young women who ignored social stigma and joined the Army nurse corps. Nash was given the relative rank of lieutenant, meaning she didn't undergo military training and didn't rank a salute or full pay.

She didn't even have an official uniform, just insignia to wear on the collar of her white, civilian nurse's dress. However, she did have the opportunity to volunteer for service overseas. In 1940, Nash volunteered for a two-year tour in the Philippines. Stirrings of war on the horizon concerned her family and friends. Was now really a good time to go abroad? Nash responded to the effect that, if war were coming, the Philippines would be where nurses were needed.

She wasn't the only one who thought so. The United States preparations for war were slow and incomplete, but they had already begun increasing the medical staff of the six Philippine military hospitals, five Army and one Navy, doubling the complement of nursing staff. On Monday, December 8, 1941, which would be December 7, back in the United States on the other side of the international dateline, Nash and her fellow nurses awoke to news of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Three hours later, the first Japanese planes struck the Philippines.

Within two weeks, Japanese forces landed. General MacArthur removed to Corregidor, and the evacuation of U.S. and Filipino forces to the Bataan Peninsula began. On Christmas Eve, Lieutenant Nash's evacuation preparations were interrupted. Her commanding officer, Colonel J.W.

Duckworth, called her in. He told her that she would be expected to remain behind in Manila until all of the staff and supplies were evacuated from the hospital. She was also told to prepare herself to be taken prisoner. She spent her Christmas day working in surgery and burning documents.

That night, she was evacuated by boat, the waters lit by blazing buildings on the land and ships in the harbor. Eventually, after some time spent in foxholes and fleeing through the jungle, Nash arrived to serve in hospital number one on the Bataan Peninsula, the most forward of the hospitals. She and the other medical staff worked through the long, disheartening struggle to hold Bataan, struggling to save lives.

Not all of her patients were American or Filipino. At times, medics would bring wounded Japanese into the surgery, many of them were items they'd taken from American troops as spoils of war. The Japanese had not signed the Geneva Convention, which declared medical facilities off limits as military targets, and Nash's hospital suffered for it. After an attack on the 6th of April of 1,600 beds, only 65 were left standing. Three days later, the remaining defenders of Bataan surrendered.

A month later, General Wainwright surrendered Korgador. Along with the thousands of U.S. and Filipino troops who surrendered, more than 60 nurses, including Nash, were taken as prisoners of war. For years of captivity, Nash and the other nurses would continue to care for the wounded and for the sick. Nursing may not have been considered a nice profession in polite society, but as the monument on Korgador, which commemorates the service of Nash and her fellow nurses shows, in the eyes of some, they were far more than nice. They were angelic. The inscription reads, In honor of the valiant American military women who gave so much of themselves in the early days of World War II, they provided care and comfort to the gallant defenders of Bataan and Korgador. They lived on a starvation diet, shared the bombing, strafing, sniping, sickness and disease, while working endless hours of heartbreaking duty. These nurses always had a smile, a tender touch and a kind word for their patients. They truly earned the name, the Angels of Bataan and Korgador. Dedicated on this sixth day of May 2000.

And a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to Anne Claire for sharing with us the story of Frances Nash. She volunteered for service overseas, a two year tour of duty in the Philippines starting in 1940. There's probably no tougher place to be in the world than the place she ended up being in.

And by December of 1941, just hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked, in came the Japanese into Manila and into the Philippines. And from there, became a POW. And this is the work and the duty and the service that so many of our women showed during World War II. I want to showcase those stories, Frances Nash's story, The Angels of Bataan, here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button.

Give a little, give a lot. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthPlans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare.

Helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop. But for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.

And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Hey, you guys, this is Tori and Jenny with the 90210MG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTechODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTechODT Remedipant 75mg can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango? It's true! I had one that night and I took my NerdTechODT and I was present and had an amazing time.

Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTechODT Remedipant 75mg. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family.

But thankfully, NerdTechODT Remedipant 75mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. And we continue here on Our American Stories, and next we bring you the story of Martin Licious and his company, Tempest Tours, an unconventional Texas-based tour company. Storm chasers, those wild individuals who ride around in search of the weather most people try to avoid. What kind of person does it take to do this?

Well, let's find out with Martin Licious. I first became interested in severe weather growing up in North Texas where we have big storms on a regular basis. When I was a kid, probably about four or five years old, we would have storms that come through that the lightning would hit so close to our house that our whole house would shake. Also, right down the street from our house was a TV station called WBAP-TV. Harold Taft was the meteorologist on staff, and Harold is actually credited with creating the American weather cast, TV weather cast.

Before him, they would simply read the text, they would read the forecast off a piece of paper, and then he, being a full-blown meteorologist, decided to use maps to describe to the viewers what was happening. Believe me, we're going to. The computer will paint this on. Kind of fun to watch it, so let's just do that for a second.

See, all the color comes on, all the symbols. All right, still getting a little light freezing drizzle up here in Gage, Oklahoma. And so I'd watch him a lot, and they had this old-fashioned black and white radar, and he'd show that quite a bit as well. And I think that was kind of when I really became interested in weather. And then when I was about 12 years old, I asked my mom if I could build a weather station on top of our house.

She said, sure, just be careful. And I started plotting storms as they came through on a map, and I entered a science fair and won the competition. I built a 3D model of a supercell thunderstorm.

And the winner is... Eventually I got a car and decided that I'd go out and film storms. And then about the same time that I did that, I heard that there was these guys called storm chasers, and I met some of them. And then from there, that point on, I did it quite a bit. Martin eventually founded Tempest Tours, a company that lets you book storm-chasing expeditions like cruises. That came about in... We started it in 2000.

I'd say around 1999, I decided I was going to do it because I didn't think that... I didn't say to myself, let's start a storm-chasing tour company. I just was receiving a lot of requests from regular, normal people to go storm-chasing with me. And they were usually not able to go because of work. So I thought, what if we created tours and then we put out the schedule a year in advance?

People could get off work and actually go. And that's when Tempest Tours was born back around 2000. You know, storm-chasing is kind of like fishing. There's a good time of year to go fishing, right? But you go out and you go out several days fishing, and some days are good and some days are not good.

So it's a lot like that. On a tour, they're typically run 4 to 11 days on length. Of course, the longer the tour, the greater chance of seeing good storms, just like if you went on an 11-day fishing trip versus a 4-day fishing trip. Basically, they get up in the morning, we tell the guests when to meet us.

We stay at motels, of course. And we'll meet in the lobby or somewhere, and we'll do a little weather briefing. We show the maps and so forth, and we tell them why we're going there, what we can expect that day. Then we all load up, head to that target, wait for storms to develop, and then we track the one that we feel has the greatest potential of producing a tornado or just being a really good supercell. And sometimes you'll have three or four storms form in your target area, and you have to be very careful to pick the right one.

So we kind of sometimes hold back a little bit and wait until the best one, what we think will be the best one to form. We've been very successful at that, and then we track it, and if it's not moving too fast, we're able to stop several times and take pictures of it, including tornadoes and lightning and so forth, which you can see at our website. A common question that people ask is, how close do we get? And I say close enough to take great pictures, but far enough to be safe. So the best way to see how close we get is to go to our website or go to our Facebook page and just see the pictures that we've taken and some of our guests have taken, and you can get a good idea of how close we get. Now, while they're in the van, along the way, there's a screen in the van, and so they're watching what the tour director is doing, and they're seeing, you know, the models develop.

That's Kim George, Tempest Tour's customer relations manager. So he will be explaining those along the way, saying this is what the storm is doing, this is where we need to be. And so he will constantly keep them updated as they are going towards the target. And so they will wait, but when they actually get to visually see the storm, you know, coming up in the foreground, everybody gets very excited. So we get closer to the storm, we track it. Sometimes you have to wait a little while, but most of the time you're going straight towards the storm. Most storms develop in the afternoon. And once you are on the storm, then depending on how the storm is moving, you position and you reposition and you reposition again, because storms don't stand still most of the time. When we're chasing a storm, we follow it until it's in or until you lose the light, and sometimes that'll happen.

And if you can't chase it when it's dark, sometimes they do. It depends on the storm. If it's developing tornadoes, sometimes we have, we did this past year, chase a storm even after dark and they actually saw some nighttime tornadoes, which was very good for the group. They thought that was amazing. And the only reason you can see them is because of the lightning.

When it strikes, you can actually see the tornadoes below the storm. So that's basically a typical day, and then we get lodging nearby and they stay somewhere for the night. And then they also are developing a plan to, you know, begin that all over again the next day. We are not a luxury tour company. We have to tell them that, honestly, you know, when you're out chasing and anybody who does it would know, you'll be in Podunkies, America somewhere. And there's not a lot of options when it comes to places to stay, and sometimes there's not an option of places to eat. And so you do the best you can with the environment that you're in, and we are very good about finding places that you can stay. But every once in a while, you know, at Motel 6, it may be the only place that you can stay for the night. So you do, because the important thing is not the luxury of what we do, it's the chasing itself. And our guests do realize that, but you can't always be in, you know, a really swanky hotel.

But that's not why you go to Chase with us. You just need a bed, you need a place to get some rest, and then you can start the next day fresh. On a down day, we will head towards the next day's target.

So a down day may be followed by a severe weather potential day, so we'll head towards that target. And on the way, stop at places that are interesting. Things that, you know, I've seen since I've been with the company that I never knew existed. There is a place in Kansas that's called Monument Rock, and it's just this sandstone formation in the middle of nowhere. And you go on it, and it's just crazy.

It could be the Badlands in South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. Or you might stop at a weather service office and take a tour. So we're always doing something interesting every single day. We know this is our guests' vacation time.

They want to see something interesting. We try to make it special when we're not on a storm. I mean, they're all coming for the storms. I mean, they don't really care about the other ones if they have a storm to follow. So, but yeah, we try to make the times that we're not, you know, in a hard chase for the storm, we try to make those times as memorable as we can. And you are listening to Martin Licious and Kim George, and Martin is the founder of Tempest Tours.

His story here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthPlans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop. But for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.

And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Hey you guys, this is Tori and Jenni with the 902.1 OMG Podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th Poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant, 75 milligrams, can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango? It's true! I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time.

Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant, 75 milligrams. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family.

But thankfully NerdTech ODT Remedipant, 75 milligrams, is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. And we return to our American stories. And for many of us, our first job is one of our most memorable.

Which makes sense. First jobs help shape people and, for many of us, become our first taste in real adult responsibility. Up next, a story about a first job. Here's our regular contributor from Delaware, Brent Timmons, with his story. During my high school and college years, I worked at a restaurant, the Fenwick Crabhouse in Fenwick Island, Delaware. The restaurant was owned by Kasher and Mabel Evans from 1962 to 1983. In February of 2006, I sent this letter to Mrs. Evans.

Mr. Evans had previously passed. Dear Mrs. Evans, this correspondence is long overdue. There were a few things I've been meaning to tell you.

This is no exaggeration. I have a dream about the Crabhouse two or three times a year. It is always a similar dream. I come into the kitchen, years after having worked there, and I'm expected to cook. But it has been so long that I can't remember what to do.

I'm not traumatic or anything. I just realize that time has passed and I need to relearn the job. Those years in the kitchen must have made quite an impression for me to still be dreaming about the Crabhouse. I became aware of job openings through Michael.

It was the spring after we got our driver's license, 1977. Mike came to school one day and said he had gotten a job at the Crabhouse. I asked what he would be doing.

Washing dishes and peeling potatoes are the only two chores I can recall. I could do that, I thought, and working with my best friend Mike would be ideal. A nervous phone call to Mr. Evans ended with an invitation to come to Selbyville to interview for a job. He told me where he lived, a white house in view of Rick's laundromat, the only house with a picket fence. I drove to Selbyville to a house with a picket fence in view of Rick's.

No one came to the door. A neighbor alerted me that I was at the wrong house. You lived in the other only house with a picket fence. I passed the interview and had landed my first job. Perhaps it was my relation to my grandfather Elias, a good friend of Mr. Evans, that made him feel obligated to give me a chance.

Well, that and how hard could it be anyway? Despite my inability to find your house, I did find the Crabhouse on that first day of work. I drove down with Mike thinking the company would help with first day jitters.

I had known a few people who had worked there, my older brother Buddy included. He lasted about a week. My first day on the job, I came under the instruction of Will Daisy. Will was only a couple of years older than I, but seemed much more mature and wise. He became one of my mentors at the Crabhouse. He seemed flawless in his job. He was universally accepted as our peer leader. While Will was our peer leader, we also had our teacher leader, Dave Baker, who coached basketball and taught school.

How did you find these guys? Dave had been there 13 years and Will about five by the time I came. They were wholeheartedly devoted to the restaurant, but most of all devoted to the Crabhouse family.

I had great respect for both of them. You know as well as I that the Crabhouse would have been a very different place without them. I learned from them what to find the proper relationship between us employees and you and Mr. Evans, the owners. That first summer, I washed dishes and did occasionally peel potatoes, although you had that nifty potato peeler. I learned that if you left the potatoes in too long, you ended up with potatoes the size of golf balls and cherry tomatoes. And I also learned, or actually relearned, to make salad. We made salad on that table on the back porch next to the coleslaw mixer. I was standing there one day during cucumbers.

It took no great skill. Cut both ends off and feed them through the slicer. But I managed to fumble on step one. I was cutting the ends back to where the seeds started. Mr. Evans came strolling in to see what we were up to. Why are you cutting so much off the end of the cucumber, he questioned. Well, that's the way my mother does it, I responded. It was then I first learned about the quick wit and intolerance for impertinence of Mr. Evans. How long has your mother been in the restaurant business, he bellowed.

I don't think I intentionally determined to cut the cucumbers in a way that was different from how I was told to. But I did learn that day the importance of paying close attention to instructions. We've gotten many a laugh recalling that story. My mother especially enjoyed it. It may have been about my second year when my impertinence reared its ugly head again.

I was a slow learner. Mr. Townsend, a very, very old man, would come in to eat several times a week. I couldn't really grasp the significance of what Mr. Evans was doing for him at the time because I was young and self-centered. Mr. Evans would hand prepare Mr. Townsend's dinner. It was usually, no, make that always, broiled chicken breast, no skin, sauteed asparagus, and boiled potatoes. Mr. Evans viewed the task of cooking for his old friend as a privilege.

I viewed it as just a chore. Sometimes Mr. Evans would cut up the chicken himself. But often he would come to me and ask that I go get a chicken and do the honors, as I was one of the resident chicken prep guys.

By this time in my crabhouse career, I had advanced to clam man, a job I took over from Rex Palmer. I thought that I was very busy one night when Mr. Evans requested that I cut up two chicken breasts for him. A little exasperated and wondering why he couldn't do it himself, I said, Mr. Evans, I'm really busy right now.

Wrong answer. You're not too busy to work for me, he shouted. I had missed the whole point of Mr. Townsend's dinners. I was too young to have an old friend that I loved to serve. I had my first serious relationship while working at the crabhouse.

She was a wonderful girl, and Mr. Evans loved her. But he felt it was important to constantly tell me the hazards of first relationships. He warned me over and over about these hazards. I ignored him, and finally figured out on my own that maybe these should not occur, your senior year of high school. I had my second serious relationship right after ending the relationship with my first, also a waitress at the crabhouse. She was a wonderful girl as well, and Mr. Evans loved her as well too. He did not warn me about second relationships.

His mistake was that he should have warned the girls about me, not the other way around. And you've been listening to Brent Timmons share with great detail, great emotional memory too, his first job at the crabhouse. From everything from his duties to, well, his loves, his first two loves, springing from that employment. And there's nothing like working to get to know people, especially in a business like that.

The amount of time you spend together, and the stress you suffer through together, and the slow times you get through together. When we come back, more of Brent Timmons on his first job at the crabhouse and the things he learned from it, and perhaps is still gleaning some wisdom from. More with Brent Timmons, his first job here on Our American Story. Music Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. Music I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Hey you guys, this is Tori and Jenny with the 90210MG Podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th Poll Event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango? It's true! I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg.

Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. And we continue with Our American Stories and Brent Timmons' story on his first job at the Fenwick Crab House in Delaware working for Kasher and Mabel Evans. I might point out that this story is actually a reading of a letter he wrote to Mabel Evans. When we last left off, Brent was telling us about some of the lessons he learned there from the pitfalls of young love to how to cut a cucumber properly.

Let's continue with the story. I mentioned that I had taken over the job of clam man for Rex. Rex had a way of joking and kidding that I really enjoyed. One day, while training me on the clam steamer, he mentioned that if you aren't sure if a clam is good or not, you can tap two together. If they make a solid clicking sound, they are both good. If one is dead, it won't hold its shell tightly together, and it will make a dull thud. It was legitimate instruction, I think.

I never knew about Rex. He may have over-emphasized the necessity of this task, because I took him to mean that you should do this on every clam you put in the bucket for steaming. So if you were to observe me doing clams, you would have heard an incessant tapping. I can be a little compulsive, and it became a compulsion to tap clams together.

I didn't want a dead clam in the steamer. Mr. Evans caught me doing this early on. I was knocking the clams together, and I told him, not impertinently, mind you, that I was checking to see if they were good.

Rex told me to do it, I added. I had learned from the cucumber episode to follow instructions to the T. Mr. Evans roared in laughter. From that day on, he referred to me as Knock-Knock.

It makes me laugh just thinking about it. The following spring, working some before the season started, he had forgotten what nickname he had given me. I reminded him, and Knock-Knock stuck for the rest of my time at the crab house. Eventually, I moved up to line cook. It wasn't until recently that I realized I wasn't really cut out to be a line cook. My favorite thing to do at the crab house was to cook out of Siberia II. Siberia was a long stroll to the other end of the kitchen and was given that name due to its remote location. Siberia II was the smaller line in that kitchen. I like Siberia II because I would have just a couple of waitresses and would be able to work on one or two orders at a time. What I realized just a few years ago is that I am not a great multi-task person.

I don't do well trying to do a bunch of stuff all at once. This is my attraction to the small line in Siberia. My next favorite job was Siberia I. It was not as busy as the main kitchen and much less chaotic. So even when it did get busy down there, there were fewer things to distract me from cooking. Plus, working in Siberia I normally meant you would be the first to get off work. I don't know if everyone else knew this about my abilities or not.

If they did, they were sensitive enough not to make a big deal out of it. But my guess is that you all understood our strengths and weaknesses and put us where we would work the best. It was wise on your part.

And as I look back, much appreciated on mine. One of the things I really enjoyed was the pre-season work. I enjoyed going with Will and Mr. Evans down to the Crabhouse before we opened for the season. I liked being in that select group of people who could be on the inside.

Perhaps I was really seeking to be a right hand. I wanted to be a go-to guy for Mr. Evans. On a Saturday morning after the restaurant season had ended, Mr. Evans called me at home.

He invited me to go to a University of Delaware football game with you. It was the same day that my grandfather chose to dig out his potatoes, a yearly task for one Saturday in the fall. He would plant rows and rows, enough to feed everyone in our family who wanted them, for the entire winter. We would all go and dig them out after he turned over the dirt with the tractor.

It was an all-day affair of digging, loading them in the baskets, and transporting them to the pump house for storage. I enjoyed it to a degree, but I also viewed it as sort of an obligation, partly so we could share in the free potatoes all winter, and partly because Pop-Pop couldn't do it alone. Today Mr. Evans called. I can't really say I was totally thrilled about going to the game. I had never been to a college game, and there were the potatoes. Looking back, I am sure my family would have given me the go-ahead to go to the game, but I dug potatoes instead. I should have gone to the game with you and Mr. Evans. I should have taken advantage of your generosity.

It was a great privilege to have been invited to spend the day with you, and in my short-sightedness, I missed it. There is a brick wall in front of Prince George's Chapel in Dagsboro. Sections of it have been replaced over the years due to cars driving through it. Some of those bricks were due to Kendra West driving her car through it late one night after work. She fell asleep on her way home. I don't exactly know what you did, but I recall hearing that you either loaned her the money to buy a new car or gave her some money towards a new car. Either way, it was a very generous and caring thing for you to do, and I took note of it. It was completely in character for both of you.

One summer, Dorothy had a hernia repaired. You made a place for her out front, seating customers while she recovered. Perhaps it was a wise move on your part, as she was so cheerful and chatty and cute. But I was very aware that you were taking care of her until she was well enough to go back to waiting tables. While I was dating Sherry, you invited us to a New Year's Eve party in Rehoboth, the old landing country club, I think. Or perhaps it was the Rehoboth Beach Yacht and Country Club. It was a very classy affair, as one would expect.

The old folks did the jitterbug and whatnot. We felt privileged to spend the evening with you. I knew that we were much more than a couple of kids who just work for you, and that is my whole point. You and Mr. Evans made us all a part of your lives. We were not just employees. You loved us, and we loved you back, because you earned it by investing yourselves in our lives. I learned in those five years that life isn't just about work.

It is more about people. And when you do it right, some of us end up dreaming about it for the next 24 years. I've often wondered if I could have better spent my summers someplace other than the Crab House. At least one spring, I was considering looking elsewhere for a summer job. I waited until late spring to call Mr. Evans and let him know I would like to return to the Crab House that year. Mr. Evans seemed to know what I had been contemplating.

He didn't say much about it, but he said just enough to let me know it bothered him that I had felt the need to consider going someplace else. I could only recall thinking about not returning that one year. If I had, in fact, done something else with my summers, I would not have learned about the pitfalls of young relationships.

A first-hand experience, I shall be sure to try to relate to my own children. I would have missed the opportunities I had had. I would have missed the opportunity to work with a wide variety of young kids of all kinds of backgrounds. The Crab House was a training ground for relationships.

I would have missed all of that. And I would not have had the opportunity to work with a couple 50 years my senior and to develop a friendship with that couple that went far beyond an employee-employer relationship. I don't think the fruit of that experience is over yet. I fully expect someday to have an opportunity to befriend young men and women 50 years my junior and be able to influence their lives as you and Mr. Evans did mine. And at that time, I expect to hear an almost audible bell go off in my head, and I'll say to myself, now this is why I spent five of the most impressionable years of my life at the Crab House with Mr. and Mrs. Evans. And a terrific job on the production by Monty, and a special thanks to Brent Timmons for sharing his story of his first summer job. And by the way, he did that by reading a letter that he had written to Mabel Evans.

She and her husband, Cash, were the owners of the Fenwick Company. They were the owners of the Fenwick Crab House, where young Brent did so much learning. Working for a couple 50 years older than him, well, that memory still burns in him because he's now hoping to transfer his knowledge to a generation or two generations behind him. And that's how so much of our learning happens. It gets passed along from generation to generation. And we love sharing these intergenerational stories because old and young have a lot to give each other. The story of Brent Timmons, the story of a first job, of first loves, and so much more here on Our American Story.