May 9, 2025 • 12 mins
For Shop Talk, Army member Charlotte Dance shares a beautiful tribute to her late dad that's titled, "On Being A Junkman". And how it relates to the Army.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Everybody, Bill Courtney, welcome to the shop. Welcome in, Alex,
How you doing? That's so weak? That was like my
little kids doing it. The other day it was George excep.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
If you're a grow.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
George, I I'm a grown up beer there, Welcome in?
How do you like? It didn't get better?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Do anythink I should believe that's where I heard?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We just said I want George back. Okay, Hey, George
is awesome. All right? Shop Talk number fifty one on
becoming a junk man. Charlotte Dance, a listener sent us
a really cool email, and I think it's worth talking
about right after these brief messages from our general sponsors. Everybody,
(00:50):
welcome back to shop Talk. Charlotte Dance is a listener,
and I will read this to you, and the topic
is on being a junk man Dance. I listened to
the podcast about the Whistler today. I loved it. Chris Olman,
Chris Olman, the whistle the.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Goat Whistler is Chris Vernon Golden Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I listened to the podcast about the Whistler day. I
loved it. It made me miss my dad. Although he
didn't really sing. He loved a whistle, and I always
wanted to whistle like he did. Ten years ago I
wrote this essay about my dad being a junk man.
I think you could do a shop talk on being
a junk man. So here we go. My dad is
(01:33):
a junk man. This is not an occupation that is
a life goal for many people. He chose to be
a junk man in every area of his life. I'm
sure that growing up on a farm during the Great
Depression played a big part in directing his life. True
junk men have to find great value in junk or
they can't survive in the business. My dad has excelled
(01:57):
in finding value in junk. Where everyone else saw junk, Sorry,
where everyone else saw junk, Dad saw physics lab equipment.
He used old bicycle tires to make gyroscopes and axle
helped students to learn the pulls of centrifugal force, and
(02:18):
even an old vacuum cleaner to make an air table
to teach frictionless motion. Where everyone else saw junk, Dad
saw an addition to our house so our family of
six didn't have to live in a two bedroom house. Windows, doors,
and lumber were all salvaged from houses being torn down
Where everyone else saw junk, Dad saw a solar greenhouse.
(02:42):
He researched it and then made it for two hundred
dollars plus lots of reclaimed parts. It's been working consistently
for thirty years now. Where everyone else saw junk meat,
Dad saw venison that could be made into sausage and
jerky and feed many people. It all starts when our
pastor gave us an antelope meat for our dog. Because
(03:03):
they couldn't even eat it in chili, he gave them
back sausage he made from it. They couldn't believe it
was the same meat, junk meat. Where everyone would say
that things in his past were junk, Dad used them
to make a difference for his family. His father was
extremely harsh and always used Dad's name and anger. Granddad
(03:27):
wouldn't have anything to do with him and didn't come
to his wedding. Dad decided that if he didn't forgive
his father, he would never be able to have a
good relationship with his children. He forgave him and worked
on making peace between them. Not only does he have
a good relationship with his biological children, he has had
others adopt him as their father. Where everyone would say
(03:50):
that a young boy could be annoying and was a
slow learner. Dad saw someone who was interested in everything
he did. This boy followed him as he worked on rentals.
Butchered set up science labs and worked on object lessons.
His family split up and moved away, but he remembered
those afternoons with my dad. He became a butcher, bought
(04:11):
a rental, and put himself through an engineering school. He
even went to law school. He came back to visit
saying I still use your abject lessons. Where everyone saw
a man with wasted life in prison, Dad saw an
opportunity to serve. He visited a man in prison for
six years and saw him growing to a man of
(04:32):
God after his sentence was over. Dad was the best
man in his wedding. Now this man is fixing junk
in the lives of juvenile offenders and helping them change
their future. Where everyone else would see junk in their
own lives, he saw an opportunity to serve or to listen.
With insurance payment for roof damage didn't cover the cost
(04:54):
of shingles for an elderly woman's roof, he not only
did the roofing, but paid for the the rest of
the shingles. One man went through many rough times and
Dad listened to him through all of it. He said,
he has to talk through everything before he knows exactly
what to do. Never once did he complain about the
time or effort it took. Where everyone would say it
(05:16):
is a hopeless case of junk. Dad didn't give up.
He prayed for his sister for twenty eight years. His
brother in law told him to never talk about God again.
He didn't talk, but he prayed and he lived it.
His nephew's nieceus came to Christ, then his sister, and
finally his brother in law. Recently, he counted forty people
on his side of the family that were believers. He
(05:38):
was the first where everyone would see junk that all
we go through. Dad saw an opportunity to prepare several
years ago. He felt strongly impressed that he should prepare
to die. He was in good health, but he wanted
to have things ready. He bought cemetery plots in a gravestone. However,
his most important thing was to find people to pray
(05:59):
for his great grandchildren. Shortly after this, I was mourning
the loss of my friends in a canoe accident, and
I need something constructive to do. When I talk to Dad,
he suggested that I find people to pray for their grandchildren.
It has been an honor and privilege to do that.
I may not want my yard filled with recrming lumber
and other various treasures, but I think I want to
(06:22):
be a junk man, just like Dad. Looking past the
junken scars in people's live lives and seeing the treasure
that they truly are. Seems like a awful lot of
Army members are junk men. Thanks for having a great show, Charlotte.
Dance Charlotte. If my children speak about me one day
(06:46):
with twenty five percent of the reverence you speak about
your father, I will rest a very proud man. That
is a phenomenal tribute to your dad, and can certainly
see why you wrote it. There's a lesson there too.
(07:09):
The junk the homeless, the foster children who were aged
out of foster care at nineteen or twenty and are
living destructive lives. The kid who has never read a
lullaby or saying a lullaby or read a bedtime story,
(07:32):
who can't read on grade level now in seventh grade.
Who we know because he's not reading on grade level
by third grade, is more likely to be in prison
than he is to have a job one day. The
junk that your dad saw opportunity in is exactly what
the call to an army in normal folks is is
(07:54):
to see the junk and use it, see the junk
and fix it. You're right a lot of the members
of the army of normal folks that we highlight our
junk people. But the call and the inspiration is is
that you listeners out there see the value in the junk.
(08:16):
The power of an army of normal folks is that
is that we see areas of need and fill it,
which is effectively, as Charlotte points out, being a junk man.
So my question is, and maybe even my challenge is
when's the last time you drove by, pasted a polla
(08:36):
junk and thought, man, somebody had to clean something up,
but kept on going instead of getting down to your
car and cleaning up yourself. We are surrounded by junk,
and the cleanup is not going to happen by a
city crew coming, buying a tax paid for a truck
and throwing it in the back and dumping in the garbage.
(08:58):
It's going to happen by an army and normal folks.
Of course, all of that is metaphorical, but I think
you get what I'm saying. Alex, she gonni id is
some junk.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So I forgot to include this in your prep. She
actually wrote it before her dad died, and then she
read it at his funeral.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow is that cool? I bet there were I bet
there was was a dry in the place.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, a couple of junk thoughts. I mean, one thing
Christ says is I didn't come to heal the healthy, right,
I came here to heal the sick. And that's why
I was thinking out with tax collectors and prostitutes. You
when people challenge them on that and then like an
interesting business case for this too, or even just take
the army case first, Right, That's actually where a lot
(09:44):
of the fun is. Like you're grunning to grow something, right,
from from nothing into something you know, significant. That's that's
a lot more fun. I bet Charlotte's dad had a
blast making a what was it a solar garden or
something out of a bunch of johnt I mean, can
you imagine the satisfaction he felt growing stuff for thirty years?
(10:05):
Out of something people left on the curb. Yeah, well,
that metaphorically is the satisfaction you can feel by seeing
junk in your life and fixing.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
It and then like a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I mean, this isn't so normal, but I think people
can do it in a more normal way. There's a
guy who once interviewed who basically had a bunch of
energy exploration projects, but there were a bunch of things
that Exon Mobil was trying to get rid of, like
it wasn't interesting enough for Exon Mobile, and so he
collected a munch of these things, built up the business,
and he made five hundred million dollars when he sold
it one day. But it's an interesting case, like there's
(10:38):
a lot of things out there that aren't interesting enough
to the big players, but for you, you can actually
build a really interesting business off it. Obviously you don't
have to sell for five hundred million, even if you
you know, make a one hundred thousand, you make five
hundred thousand, you make a million whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's actually a really interesting business thing to think about too.
What does everybody else see as junk that actually could
be an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Which could be a business. It could be in society,
it could be wherever. Yeah, Charlotte Dance. That is an
incredible tribute to your father and it is a beautiful
illustration of exactly what we're talking about. And I can't
tell you how much we appreciate you sharing it. If
(11:20):
you have any ideas for shop talk, would you please
Emily Bill at normal folks dot Us. I'll always respond
and hopefully like Charlotte stuff here, we we can comment
it because we think others will want to hear the.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Story and beautiful pieces of writing like this if anybody
else has Actually, that's a good idea of letters you're
read like World War two letters and that's letters like
the writing back in the day is I mean, obviously
it'd be real selling beautiful today. Send it to us too,
But especially back in the day, all those kind of
love letters were so much better than the way we
text each other's.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
So it's so true. I think it's a lost start.
Send us, send us that stuff. If you enjoyed the episode,
rate review it, join the army at normal folks dot us, subscribe,
become a premium member there and what else you goofed
it up? Again?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
You can't subscribe on the website. But it's okay.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Whatever you do, just people know you're a goofball. Then
now follow us, you know, listen, tell people about us,
and help us grow the army because the more members,
the more impact we can have. That's shop TALP number
fifty one. Is that it.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I'll see you next week.
Everybody, Bill Courtney, welcome to the shop. Welcome in, Alex,
How you doing? That's so weak? That was like my
little kids doing it. The other day it was George excep.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
If you're a grow.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
George, I I'm a grown up beer there, Welcome in?
How do you like? It didn't get better?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Do anythink I should believe that's where I heard?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We just said I want George back. Okay, Hey, George
is awesome. All right? Shop Talk number fifty one on
becoming a junk man. Charlotte Dance, a listener sent us
a really cool email, and I think it's worth talking
about right after these brief messages from our general sponsors. Everybody,
(00:50):
welcome back to shop Talk. Charlotte Dance is a listener,
and I will read this to you, and the topic
is on being a junk man Dance. I listened to
the podcast about the Whistler today. I loved it. Chris Olman,
Chris Olman, the whistle the.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Goat Whistler is Chris Vernon Golden Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I listened to the podcast about the Whistler day. I
loved it. It made me miss my dad. Although he
didn't really sing. He loved a whistle, and I always
wanted to whistle like he did. Ten years ago I
wrote this essay about my dad being a junk man.
I think you could do a shop talk on being
a junk man. So here we go. My dad is
(01:33):
a junk man. This is not an occupation that is
a life goal for many people. He chose to be
a junk man in every area of his life. I'm
sure that growing up on a farm during the Great
Depression played a big part in directing his life. True
junk men have to find great value in junk or
they can't survive in the business. My dad has excelled
(01:57):
in finding value in junk. Where everyone else saw junk, Sorry,
where everyone else saw junk, Dad saw physics lab equipment.
He used old bicycle tires to make gyroscopes and axle
helped students to learn the pulls of centrifugal force, and
(02:18):
even an old vacuum cleaner to make an air table
to teach frictionless motion. Where everyone else saw junk, Dad
saw an addition to our house so our family of
six didn't have to live in a two bedroom house. Windows, doors,
and lumber were all salvaged from houses being torn down
Where everyone else saw junk, Dad saw a solar greenhouse.
(02:42):
He researched it and then made it for two hundred
dollars plus lots of reclaimed parts. It's been working consistently
for thirty years now. Where everyone else saw junk meat,
Dad saw venison that could be made into sausage and
jerky and feed many people. It all starts when our
pastor gave us an antelope meat for our dog. Because
(03:03):
they couldn't even eat it in chili, he gave them
back sausage he made from it. They couldn't believe it
was the same meat, junk meat. Where everyone would say
that things in his past were junk, Dad used them
to make a difference for his family. His father was
extremely harsh and always used Dad's name and anger. Granddad
(03:27):
wouldn't have anything to do with him and didn't come
to his wedding. Dad decided that if he didn't forgive
his father, he would never be able to have a
good relationship with his children. He forgave him and worked
on making peace between them. Not only does he have
a good relationship with his biological children, he has had
others adopt him as their father. Where everyone would say
(03:50):
that a young boy could be annoying and was a
slow learner. Dad saw someone who was interested in everything
he did. This boy followed him as he worked on rentals.
Butchered set up science labs and worked on object lessons.
His family split up and moved away, but he remembered
those afternoons with my dad. He became a butcher, bought
(04:11):
a rental, and put himself through an engineering school. He
even went to law school. He came back to visit
saying I still use your abject lessons. Where everyone saw
a man with wasted life in prison, Dad saw an
opportunity to serve. He visited a man in prison for
six years and saw him growing to a man of
(04:32):
God after his sentence was over. Dad was the best
man in his wedding. Now this man is fixing junk
in the lives of juvenile offenders and helping them change
their future. Where everyone else would see junk in their
own lives, he saw an opportunity to serve or to listen.
With insurance payment for roof damage didn't cover the cost
(04:54):
of shingles for an elderly woman's roof, he not only
did the roofing, but paid for the the rest of
the shingles. One man went through many rough times and
Dad listened to him through all of it. He said,
he has to talk through everything before he knows exactly
what to do. Never once did he complain about the
time or effort it took. Where everyone would say it
(05:16):
is a hopeless case of junk. Dad didn't give up.
He prayed for his sister for twenty eight years. His
brother in law told him to never talk about God again.
He didn't talk, but he prayed and he lived it.
His nephew's nieceus came to Christ, then his sister, and
finally his brother in law. Recently, he counted forty people
on his side of the family that were believers. He
(05:38):
was the first where everyone would see junk that all
we go through. Dad saw an opportunity to prepare several
years ago. He felt strongly impressed that he should prepare
to die. He was in good health, but he wanted
to have things ready. He bought cemetery plots in a gravestone. However,
his most important thing was to find people to pray
(05:59):
for his great grandchildren. Shortly after this, I was mourning
the loss of my friends in a canoe accident, and
I need something constructive to do. When I talk to Dad,
he suggested that I find people to pray for their grandchildren.
It has been an honor and privilege to do that.
I may not want my yard filled with recrming lumber
and other various treasures, but I think I want to
(06:22):
be a junk man, just like Dad. Looking past the
junken scars in people's live lives and seeing the treasure
that they truly are. Seems like a awful lot of
Army members are junk men. Thanks for having a great show, Charlotte.
Dance Charlotte. If my children speak about me one day
(06:46):
with twenty five percent of the reverence you speak about
your father, I will rest a very proud man. That
is a phenomenal tribute to your dad, and can certainly
see why you wrote it. There's a lesson there too.
(07:09):
The junk the homeless, the foster children who were aged
out of foster care at nineteen or twenty and are
living destructive lives. The kid who has never read a
lullaby or saying a lullaby or read a bedtime story,
(07:32):
who can't read on grade level now in seventh grade.
Who we know because he's not reading on grade level
by third grade, is more likely to be in prison
than he is to have a job one day. The
junk that your dad saw opportunity in is exactly what
the call to an army in normal folks is is
(07:54):
to see the junk and use it, see the junk
and fix it. You're right a lot of the members
of the army of normal folks that we highlight our
junk people. But the call and the inspiration is is
that you listeners out there see the value in the junk.
(08:16):
The power of an army of normal folks is that
is that we see areas of need and fill it,
which is effectively, as Charlotte points out, being a junk man.
So my question is, and maybe even my challenge is
when's the last time you drove by, pasted a polla
(08:36):
junk and thought, man, somebody had to clean something up,
but kept on going instead of getting down to your
car and cleaning up yourself. We are surrounded by junk,
and the cleanup is not going to happen by a
city crew coming, buying a tax paid for a truck
and throwing it in the back and dumping in the garbage.
(08:58):
It's going to happen by an army and normal folks.
Of course, all of that is metaphorical, but I think
you get what I'm saying. Alex, she gonni id is
some junk.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So I forgot to include this in your prep. She
actually wrote it before her dad died, and then she
read it at his funeral.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow is that cool? I bet there were I bet
there was was a dry in the place.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, a couple of junk thoughts. I mean, one thing
Christ says is I didn't come to heal the healthy, right,
I came here to heal the sick. And that's why
I was thinking out with tax collectors and prostitutes. You
when people challenge them on that and then like an
interesting business case for this too, or even just take
the army case first, Right, That's actually where a lot
(09:44):
of the fun is. Like you're grunning to grow something, right,
from from nothing into something you know, significant. That's that's
a lot more fun. I bet Charlotte's dad had a
blast making a what was it a solar garden or
something out of a bunch of johnt I mean, can
you imagine the satisfaction he felt growing stuff for thirty years?
(10:05):
Out of something people left on the curb. Yeah, well,
that metaphorically is the satisfaction you can feel by seeing
junk in your life and fixing.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
It and then like a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I mean, this isn't so normal, but I think people
can do it in a more normal way. There's a
guy who once interviewed who basically had a bunch of
energy exploration projects, but there were a bunch of things
that Exon Mobil was trying to get rid of, like
it wasn't interesting enough for Exon Mobile, and so he
collected a munch of these things, built up the business,
and he made five hundred million dollars when he sold
it one day. But it's an interesting case, like there's
(10:38):
a lot of things out there that aren't interesting enough
to the big players, but for you, you can actually
build a really interesting business off it. Obviously you don't
have to sell for five hundred million, even if you
you know, make a one hundred thousand, you make five
hundred thousand, you make a million whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's actually a really interesting business thing to think about too.
What does everybody else see as junk that actually could
be an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Which could be a business. It could be in society,
it could be wherever. Yeah, Charlotte Dance. That is an
incredible tribute to your father and it is a beautiful
illustration of exactly what we're talking about. And I can't
tell you how much we appreciate you sharing it. If
(11:20):
you have any ideas for shop talk, would you please
Emily Bill at normal folks dot Us. I'll always respond
and hopefully like Charlotte stuff here, we we can comment
it because we think others will want to hear the.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Story and beautiful pieces of writing like this if anybody
else has Actually, that's a good idea of letters you're
read like World War two letters and that's letters like
the writing back in the day is I mean, obviously
it'd be real selling beautiful today. Send it to us too,
But especially back in the day, all those kind of
love letters were so much better than the way we
text each other's.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
So it's so true. I think it's a lost start.
Send us, send us that stuff. If you enjoyed the episode,
rate review it, join the army at normal folks dot us, subscribe,
become a premium member there and what else you goofed
it up? Again?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
You can't subscribe on the website. But it's okay.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Whatever you do, just people know you're a goofball. Then
now follow us, you know, listen, tell people about us,
and help us grow the army because the more members,
the more impact we can have. That's shop TALP number
fifty one. Is that it.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I'll see you next week.
Host
Bill Courtney
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