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At the height of Abercrombie and Fitch's success. This was me being carefully manipulated. Being lied to, tricked, and traded like a commodity. Investigating allegations that would take me into a world of money, sex, and power.
This is World of Secrets, season one, the Abercrombie guys. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. It lets you right in the middle of the entertainment and the ability to pair seamlessly with your home theater sound systems that already have surround sound and booming bass. If all that sounds too good to be true, it'll sound even better on the new Roku Pro Series.
Your hearing isn't better, your TV is. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories and we tell stories about everything here on this show. From the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between.
Including your stories, send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And today we bring you a story from one of our listeners in the Twin Cities. We love telling you stories of redemption and Paul Kotz wrote the book on it. Well, he wrote a book, Something Happened Today, a collection of the unexpected. The book was initially conceived by Kotz's desire to leave something inspiring for his daughters to read. The title is a suggestion to look for a miracle every day and he's drawn from personal experience.
Here's Paul. Years ago, I was working at a center for the homeless in Kansas City. Each day we would receive donations from local markets and donors to feed 120 plus people in a place called The Family House. On a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning, a man yelled at me from across the street, hey, you. It was my turn to wash windows at the family center.
I would put the soapy water in the bucket, fill and rinse it out and use a squeegee to make the windows glisten. I turned around and there was this guy waving at me from the dumpster in plain sight. He had a salt and pepper colored beard and he motioned for me to come over. I dropped my cleaning supplies and ventured across the street to see the man. Got the time? He asked.
I gave him the time and he told me his name was Joe. Do you smoke? He asked.
No. I spoke to my dad who had an air of confidence when he puffed away, many times driving his Thunderbird convertible top down and listening to his 50s and 60s music. Joe was smoking a Marlboro with deep puffs, exhaling through his nose with a purpose. His expression didn't change, but his wrinkles around the eyes exuded wear and tear as well as his ability to smile.
I have to make sure I get my stuff out of here before they throw me away too. He laughed. I realized and fully understood what he was saying. Each Tuesday morning early, the trash compactor would come and hoist the industrial steel dumpster into the air and empty the garbage and refuse from the past week.
I thought about what we take for granted in our great country and how this type of life still exists. He went on to let me know a culinary tip too. He mentioned that he could not stand cauliflower. In addition to cleaning assignments at the shelter, we would venture to the downtown markets to catch some of the produce vendors throwing out strawberries, potatoes, onions, that dreaded cauliflower, and heads of lettuce with first signs of spoiling. A Christian brother named Louis explained to us as workers that 10%, that is, the top of the crate may be spoiled, but if cleared away, 90% of it is beautiful fruits and vegetables. We waste a lot of food around here, he told me. Well, store owners and shopkeepers were not always fond of us intercepting the crates before they were tossed in the trash, but many let us know the best times to stop by to pick up the edible food before it made its way there. I noticed in the dumpster he had a rickety blanket, two small kid sized chairs, and a makeshift table.
One week I watched him do it. The restaurant bar would throw empty bottles and trash and fill the dumpster most of the way. But Joe would time it perfectly, waiting for the trash truck to pick up the refuse, and then he proceeded to put his chairs and table back in for another week's worth of living.
Want to play some cards? he asked me. I was kind of mesmerized by this man, who seemed to just go about his business of living the streets so effortlessly. But this was a home to him, a place of comfort, protection, and possible peril if he forgot to wake up on a Tuesday.
Yeah, once I had a close call, but people check on me to make sure I get out in time. He hopped back in, arranged the chairs and table, and then so did I. We played part of a game of cribbage, with pegs of popcorn kernels.
You want a banana? he asked me. He pulled out what seemed like a fresh fruit, unpeeled it, and we each had a half.
Here is this guy, who barely had a place to live, sharing what he had with me, his new card playing buddy. It was early. Most of my colleagues were still asleep that morning, and I'm thinking to myself, why am I in a dumpster? I eventually returned to my window cleaning assignment.
Some of you are thinking, I will never have lunch or coffee with me again, and make sure I wash my hands. But for me, this was a moment of grace in my life, a wake up call, an awakening to another world that I never knew, nor previously wanted to see. I thought about what I would do if this were me, and how I would cope.
Would I be playing cribbage, possibly drinking to avoid the pain, or maybe dead because I didn't have the stamina or the resourcefulness of Joe? I will never forget that man's generosity, who offered his temporary home, part of his sustenance, a game to play, his creative adaptation of life, and his daily appreciation of the moment. And you've been listening to Paul Kotz, and what a terrific story about grace and about, well, learning to see what's unseen. And by the way, I love that he's written this book to inspire his daughters, because there's so little around to read to our kids that inspires them.
And they're yearning for it, and they're desperate for it, and we all are. And that's what we try and do on Our American Stories, Paul Kotz's story, and in the end, Joe's story too, here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories in America like we do, please go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's OurAmericanStories.com. Hello, I'm Dr. Michael Mosley, and I want to let you know about my new immersive BBC Radio 4 podcast series, Deep Calm. It's all about how to tap into and activate a remarkable system that we all have hardwired inside of us, our relaxation response. And it's been developed to be listened to at any time you want to really unwind. I hope you'll listen wherever you get your BBC podcast. If you're interested in a blazing fast refresh rate, it'll sure feel like it.
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