August 14, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Brent Timmons didn’t expect much when he took a summer job at the Fenwick Crab House. He figured he’d get just a paycheck and maybe a little work experience. What he got was something else entirely. Between steamed clams and daily prep, he learned how to lead, take correction, and push through exhaustion without giving up — but also about love, family, and the truth about coming of age.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories, and for many
of us, our first job is one of our most memorable,
which makes sense. First jobs helped 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 Timmins, with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
During my high school and college years, I worked at
a restaurant, the Fenwick Crab House in Femwick Island, Delaware.
The restaurant was owned by Casher and Mabel Evans from
nineteen sixty two to nineteen eighty three. In February of
two thousand and six, I sent this letter to Missus Evans.
(01:00):
Mister Evans had previously passed. Dear Missus 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 Crab House two or three times
a year. It is always a similar dream. I come
(01:22):
into the kitchen years after having worked there, and I
am expected to cook, but it has been so long
that I can't remember what to do. It isn't traumatic
or anything. I just realized 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 crab House. I became aware
(01:53):
of job openings through Michael. It was the spring after
we got our driver's license nineteen seventy seven. Mike came
to school one day and said he had gotten a
job at the crab House. 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,
(02:13):
and working with my best friend Mike would be ideal.
A nervous phone call to mister Evans ended with an
invitation to come to Sebieville to interview for a job.
He told me where he lived, a white house in
view of Ricks laundromat the only house with a picket fence.
(02:35):
I drove to Subeville to a house with a picket
fence in view of Ricks. No one came to the door.
A neighbor a learned me that I was at the
wrong house. You lived in the other only house with
the picket fence. I passed the interview and had landed
my first job. Perhaps it was my relation to my
(02:58):
grandfather Elias, good friend of mister 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 Craft House On
that first day of work. I drove down with Mike,
thinking the company would help with first day jitters. I
(03:20):
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.
(03:42):
He became one of my mentors at the Crab House.
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
ball and taught school. How did you find these guys?
(04:04):
Dave had been there thirteen years, in 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
(04:27):
what to find the proper relationship between US employees and
you and mister 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
(04:47):
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 coast law mixer. I was standing there one day
during cucumbers. It took no great skill cut both ends
(05:09):
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. Mister 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.
(05:30):
I responded. It was then I first learned about the
quick wit and intolerance for impertinence of mister 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
(05:54):
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.
(06:16):
Mister Townsend, a very very old man, would come in
to eat several times a week. I didn't really grasp
the significance of what mister Evans was doing for him
at the time, because I was young and self centered.
Mister Evans would hand prepare mister Townsend's dinner. It was
usually no make that always broiled chicken breast, no skin,
(06:41):
saltat asparagus, and boiled potatoes. Mister Evans viewed the task
of cooking for his old friend as a privilege. I
viewed it as just a chore. Sometimes mister 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 as I was one of the resident
(07:02):
chicken prep guys. By this time in my crab House 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 mister 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, mister Evans,
(07:25):
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 mister Townsend's dinners. I was too
young to have an old friend that I loved to serve.
(07:45):
I had my first serious relationship while working at the
crab House. She was a wonderful girl, and mister 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
(08:06):
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 crab House. She
was a wonderful girl as well, and mister Evans loved
her as well too. He did not warn me about
(08:28):
second relationships. His mistake was that he should have warned
the girls about me, not the other way around.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And you've been listening to Brent Timmins share it with
great detail, great emotional memory too, his first job at
the crab House from everything from his duties too 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
(08:59):
you spent together and the stress you suffer through together
and the slow times you get through together. When we
come back, more of Brent Timmins on his first job
at the crab House and the things he learned from
it and perhaps is still gleaning some wisdom from more
with Brent Timmins his first job here on our American Story,
(09:39):
and we continue with our American stories and Brent Timmins
story on his first job at the Fenwick Crab House
in Delaware, working for Casher and Mabel Evans. 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
(10:01):
he learned there from the Pitfalls of Young Love, for
how to cut a cucumber properly. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
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
(10:37):
hold its shell tightly together and it will make a
dull thud. It was legitimate instruction. I think you 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
(10:59):
me going 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 to dig
clam in the steamer. Mister Evans caught me doing this
early on. He asked why I was knocking the clams together,
and I told him not impertinently, mind you, that I
(11:21):
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 tea. Mister
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
(11:41):
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.
(12:02):
My favorite thing to do at the Crab House was
to cook out of Siberia two. Siberia was a long
stroll to the other end of the kitchen and was
given that name due to its remote location. Siberia two
was a smaller line in that kitchen. I like Siberia too,
because I would have just a couple of waitresses and
(12:23):
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 multitask person.
I don't do well trying to do a bunch of
stuff all at once. Thus my attraction to the small
line in Siberia. My next favorite job was Siberia One.
(12:44):
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 One normally meant you would be the
first to get on I don't know if everyone else
knew this about my abilities or not. If they did,
(13:06):
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
(13:27):
of the things I really enjoyed was the pre season work.
I enjoyed going with Will and mister Evans down to
the crab House 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 mister Evans. On a Saturday morning, after
(13:53):
the restaurant season had ended, mister 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 rose
and rose enough to feed everyone in our family who
(14:15):
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 into 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
(14:38):
so we could share in the free potatoes all winter,
and partly because pop Up couldn't do it alone. Today,
mister 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
(14:58):
go ahead to go to the game, but I dug
potatoes instead. I should have gone to the game with
you and mister 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
(15:22):
in front of Prince George's Chapel in Dagsborough. 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
(15:43):
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. Summer
Dorothy had a hernia repaired. You made a place for
(16:04):
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
(16:28):
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 Rehobeth Beach Yacht
and Country Club. It was a very classy affair, as
one would expect. The old folks did the jitterbug and
what not. We felt privileged to spend the evening with you.
(16:51):
I knew that we were much more than a couple
of kids who just worked for you, and that is
my whole point. You and mister Evans made us all
upon 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
(17:11):
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
twenty four years. I've often wondered if I could have
better spent my summers someplace other than the crab House.
(17:35):
At least one spring I was considering looking elsewhere for
a summer job. I waited until late spring to call
mister Evans and let him know I would like to
return to the Crab House that year. Mister Evans seemed
to know what I had been contemplating. He didn't say
much about it, but he said just enough to let
(17:56):
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
firsthand experience I shall be sure to try to relate
(18:17):
to my own children. 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 fifty years my senior, and to develop
(18:38):
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 some day to
have an opportunity to befriend young men and women fifty
years my junior and be able to influence their lives
(19:00):
as you and mister 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 mister
and missus Ethans.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And a terrific job on the production by Monte And
a special thanks to Brent Timmins 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. He and her husband Cash were the
owners of the Fenwick crab House, where young Brent did
(19:40):
so much learning working for a couple fifty 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
(20:02):
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
And we returned to our American stories, and for many
of us, our first job is one of our most memorable,
which makes sense. First jobs helped 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 Timmins, with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
During my high school and college years, I worked at
a restaurant, the Fenwick Crab House in Femwick Island, Delaware.
The restaurant was owned by Casher and Mabel Evans from
nineteen sixty two to nineteen eighty three. In February of
two thousand and six, I sent this letter to Missus Evans.
(01:00):
Mister Evans had previously passed. Dear Missus 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 Crab House two or three times
a year. It is always a similar dream. I come
(01:22):
into the kitchen years after having worked there, and I
am expected to cook, but it has been so long
that I can't remember what to do. It isn't traumatic
or anything. I just realized 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 crab House. I became aware
(01:53):
of job openings through Michael. It was the spring after
we got our driver's license nineteen seventy seven. Mike came
to school one day and said he had gotten a
job at the crab House. 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,
(02:13):
and working with my best friend Mike would be ideal.
A nervous phone call to mister Evans ended with an
invitation to come to Sebieville to interview for a job.
He told me where he lived, a white house in
view of Ricks laundromat the only house with a picket fence.
(02:35):
I drove to Subeville to a house with a picket
fence in view of Ricks. No one came to the door.
A neighbor a learned me that I was at the
wrong house. You lived in the other only house with
the picket fence. I passed the interview and had landed
my first job. Perhaps it was my relation to my
(02:58):
grandfather Elias, good friend of mister 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 Craft House On
that first day of work. I drove down with Mike,
thinking the company would help with first day jitters. I
(03:20):
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.
(03:42):
He became one of my mentors at the Crab House.
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
ball and taught school. How did you find these guys?
(04:04):
Dave had been there thirteen years, in 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
(04:27):
what to find the proper relationship between US employees and
you and mister 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
(04:47):
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 coast law mixer. I was standing there one day
during cucumbers. It took no great skill cut both ends
(05:09):
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. Mister 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.
(05:30):
I responded. It was then I first learned about the
quick wit and intolerance for impertinence of mister 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
(05:54):
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.
(06:16):
Mister Townsend, a very very old man, would come in
to eat several times a week. I didn't really grasp
the significance of what mister Evans was doing for him
at the time, because I was young and self centered.
Mister Evans would hand prepare mister Townsend's dinner. It was
usually no make that always broiled chicken breast, no skin,
(06:41):
saltat asparagus, and boiled potatoes. Mister Evans viewed the task
of cooking for his old friend as a privilege. I
viewed it as just a chore. Sometimes mister 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 as I was one of the resident
(07:02):
chicken prep guys. By this time in my crab House 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 mister 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, mister Evans,
(07:25):
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 mister Townsend's dinners. I was too
young to have an old friend that I loved to serve.
(07:45):
I had my first serious relationship while working at the
crab House. She was a wonderful girl, and mister 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
(08:06):
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 crab House. She
was a wonderful girl as well, and mister Evans loved
her as well too. He did not warn me about
(08:28):
second relationships. His mistake was that he should have warned
the girls about me, not the other way around.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And you've been listening to Brent Timmins share it with
great detail, great emotional memory too, his first job at
the crab House from everything from his duties too 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
(08:59):
you spent together and the stress you suffer through together
and the slow times you get through together. When we
come back, more of Brent Timmins on his first job
at the crab House and the things he learned from
it and perhaps is still gleaning some wisdom from more
with Brent Timmins his first job here on our American Story,
(09:39):
and we continue with our American stories and Brent Timmins
story on his first job at the Fenwick Crab House
in Delaware, working for Casher and Mabel Evans. 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
(10:01):
he learned there from the Pitfalls of Young Love, for
how to cut a cucumber properly. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
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
(10:37):
hold its shell tightly together and it will make a
dull thud. It was legitimate instruction. I think you 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
(10:59):
me going 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 to dig
clam in the steamer. Mister Evans caught me doing this
early on. He asked why I was knocking the clams together,
and I told him not impertinently, mind you, that I
(11:21):
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 tea. Mister
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
(11:41):
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.
(12:02):
My favorite thing to do at the Crab House was
to cook out of Siberia two. Siberia was a long
stroll to the other end of the kitchen and was
given that name due to its remote location. Siberia two
was a smaller line in that kitchen. I like Siberia too,
because I would have just a couple of waitresses and
(12:23):
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 multitask person.
I don't do well trying to do a bunch of
stuff all at once. Thus my attraction to the small
line in Siberia. My next favorite job was Siberia One.
(12:44):
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 One normally meant you would be the
first to get on I don't know if everyone else
knew this about my abilities or not. If they did,
(13:06):
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
(13:27):
of the things I really enjoyed was the pre season work.
I enjoyed going with Will and mister Evans down to
the crab House 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 mister Evans. On a Saturday morning, after
(13:53):
the restaurant season had ended, mister 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 rose
and rose enough to feed everyone in our family who
(14:15):
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 into 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
(14:38):
so we could share in the free potatoes all winter,
and partly because pop Up couldn't do it alone. Today,
mister 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
(14:58):
go ahead to go to the game, but I dug
potatoes instead. I should have gone to the game with
you and mister 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
(15:22):
in front of Prince George's Chapel in Dagsborough. 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
(15:43):
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. Summer
Dorothy had a hernia repaired. You made a place for
(16:04):
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
(16:28):
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 Rehobeth Beach Yacht
and Country Club. It was a very classy affair, as
one would expect. The old folks did the jitterbug and
what not. We felt privileged to spend the evening with you.
(16:51):
I knew that we were much more than a couple
of kids who just worked for you, and that is
my whole point. You and mister Evans made us all
upon 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
(17:11):
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
twenty four years. I've often wondered if I could have
better spent my summers someplace other than the crab House.
(17:35):
At least one spring I was considering looking elsewhere for
a summer job. I waited until late spring to call
mister Evans and let him know I would like to
return to the Crab House that year. Mister Evans seemed
to know what I had been contemplating. He didn't say
much about it, but he said just enough to let
(17:56):
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
firsthand experience I shall be sure to try to relate
(18:17):
to my own children. 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 fifty years my senior, and to develop
(18:38):
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 some day to
have an opportunity to befriend young men and women fifty
years my junior and be able to influence their lives
(19:00):
as you and mister 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 mister
and missus Ethans.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And a terrific job on the production by Monte And
a special thanks to Brent Timmins 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. He and her husband Cash were the
owners of the Fenwick crab House, where young Brent did
(19:40):
so much learning working for a couple fifty 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
(20:02):
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
Host
Lee Habeeb
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