By: Frank Pierce
For those of you readers who are infatuated with hearing Christmas songs and stories every year around this time, you're in luck. This happens to be a small tale about a man that was shunned by society simply because of his occupation. However, the man indeed proves to those people that mock him that he is one of a kind.
John Dough was a man of very few words. This was mainly due to his lack of teeth. You see, in John's occupation, you don't have to dress nice or look decent. John is a carnie (a carnival worker).
It was approaching Christmas time. John and his co-workers had quit for the winter months due to the very cold and harsh weather. In fact, it had been the worst winter in years.
One night, while John was snuggly tucked away in his camper, he heard a yelp. It was coming from outside (note* he could hear the yelp through the extremely thin walls of the 1954, American-made, toaster-looking camper). As he flung the door open, he looked all around in search of where that yelp had come from.
Just as John was heading back inside of his cottage on wheels, he heard it again. He knew now that the sound was coming from the nearby pond. John immediately rushed to the pond in hopes to save what he knew was a drowning victim.
When John arrived there, he saw that, in the middle of pond, was a little boy screaming "Help!" John ran hurriedly across the partially frozen water and finally was within reach of the boy. Without hesitation or even the slightest worry, John grabbed the victim and drug him to safety.
Due to the very cold water, John knew that he must take the boy to his camper to warm him up. Just as he entered the camper, he saw several men with dogs and flashlights running towards him. As they edged closer, he recognized them to be police officers. The officers pushed John aside and saw the trembling boy. They handcuffed John after assuming that he had kidnapped the child. John kept telling them what really happened. The cops just laughed.
*This is where I originally planned to end the story, but since you people are such big fans of the "happily ever after" phrase, then I thought that I'd better keep on going. So I did.
However, after an hour or so of gaining energy, the boy finally told the officers that the scary carnie had indeed saved him from drowning and/or freezing. The cops let John go, but they did not apologize. For they still believed that carnies were dirty beggars.
On a good note, however, the boy's family took in the carnie since it was so very close to Christmas. On Christmas Day, John was so surprised and overwhelmed by the number of gifts that he had received. Some of his gifts included deodorant, a toothbrush, toothpaste, Q-tips, and several other things as well.
The moral of the story is that anybody can be confronted by danger, but it takes a real hero to do what John Dough did. Not many people think highly of carnies. This year, why don't you make a change and help or appreciate those less fortunate carnies? After all, they might just save your life.
