|
Ken Chapman & Assoc. |
||
|
Article
The Luck of Roaring Camp Roaring Camp was the meanest, loudest, orneriest mining camp in all the Nevada territory. It was a place where men worked hard and played even harder. But something happened in Roaring Camp one winter night that no one could have anticipated or predicted. Late on a winter’s night, a child was born to Cherokee Sal, the only woman in the mining camp. The bad news is that in giving birth, Cherokee Sal died. The good news is that the child, a baby girl, was perfectly healthy. So the men, thirty-seven in number, set about doing what they could do to take care of the baby. None of the men had cared for a baby before, so they took an old apple crate and some dirty rags and laid the baby in the apple crate. It did not look quite right to them, so they drew lots and sent one of their numbers down the mountain to San Francisco to buy a new cherry cradle for the baby. He returned and they took the baby out of the apple crate and placed the baby in the cherry cradle with the new white linens. And then they looked around the cabin and they said to themselves, “This place is filthy, not clean enough for a baby.” So they got busy and worked hard and scrubbed and cleaned the cabin until it was spotless. They even fashioned some curtains out of old flour bags. Looking at the job they had done, they were very satisfied that they had provided a clean environment for the baby. At the end of every day as they came out of the mine, they would stand in line outside the cabin waiting to take turns holding the baby. But it was their routine not to take a bath but once a week, and they decided that holding the baby while wearing dirty clothes and having dirty hands was not good. So they passed a rule by consensus that no one could hold or play with the baby until they had cleaned up. So it was not long until the general store sold out of soap for washing men and for washing clothes. After the men got cleaned up each day and took a turn with the baby, those who were not on duty to provide care for the night went back to their usual practice — they would cuss and fight and drink until late in the night. But they decided that the cussing and fighting and drinking were disturbing the baby. So they passed a rule by consensus, “No drinking, cussing, or fighting after seven o’clock at night. Little by little, the temperature of Roaring Camp came down, down, down. Until in the spring of the year, they took the baby outside to get some fresh air and noticed that the ground all around the cabin was scarred and torn. So they got busy and hauled in top soil, planted grass and flowers, bushes, and trees. They created a veritable “Garden of Eden” for the baby so that the baby would have a nice place whenever she was taken outside. The months passed and one July evening, in the middle of the week, the men are sitting outside the cabin about eight o’clock in the evening, clean and sober, talking civilly to each other, and being as quiet as they could so as not to disturb the baby. As they sat there, one of their numbers looks around and said, “Who would have ever imagined us clean, sober, and quiet in the middle of the evening. And another one said, “Yeah, it is quite amazing, isn’t it?” And a third one said, “What my grandmother said must be true.” It was one of those moments when everybody got quiet, listened intently, and leaned forward. “What did your grandmother say?” one of them asked. “My grandmother said that if you love the right things, they will change you for the better. For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com. <End> |
||
|
Copyright © .
All rights reserved. Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. |