ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WINDSOR (AP)
SOURCE: LINDA McNATT THE (NORFOLK) VIRGINIAN-PILOT
`RAMBO' HARMON found out who his friends were in the very instant that he narrowly escaped death in a farm accident.
Charles R. ``Randy'' Harmon's first year in farming could have been a disaster.
But on a recent day, as he leaned against a trailer load of peanuts in a dusty field near here, he realized it was time to count more than the harvest. It was time to count other blessings, too.
He's been around farming since he was 6 years old and has worked in agriculture most of his life. But this year, at 27, he went out on his own for the first time, leasing more than 600 acres. In the spring, he planted corn, soybeans and peanuts.
On a rainy August day, when Harmon had nothing to do but cut and haul firewood, the man who sometimes works from dawn until well after midnight had an accident that could have taken his life.
When he tried to dump the 5,000 pounds of firewood, the truck bed stuck before the full load fell to the ground. So Harmon, with his 6-foot-2, 290-pound bulk bracing against the truck cab, tried to push the bed up with his legs.
One leg hit the lever that lowers the bed, and it fell, pinning Harmon's upper body, head and arms against the cab.
``I don't think I ever lost consciousness,'' he said, as he watched three friends working one of his peanut fields. ``The good Lord was with me that day. I finally got my head out, but my wrist was pinned in.''
Harmon had deep cuts and bruises on his head and chest. His left arm was broken, and the flesh was torn from his right thumb.
He is grateful now that he wasn't working alone that day. As soon as the telephone started ringing in his hospital room at Louise Obici Memorial Hospital in Suffolk that very night, he was grateful for his friends.
``People started calling right away,'' he said. ``Everybody wanted to know what they could do.''
Harmon, whose friends call him ``Rambo,'' was in the hospital for six days and unable to work at one of the worst times for farmers - harvest time.
He need not have worried. In the spirit of old-fashioned barn raising, friends, family and neighbors united to help the young farmer.
``I can't tell you '' he said, shaking his head and squinting into the sunshine as he watched another tractor make a round of the peanut field. ``This started the night I got hurt, and they've kept it up. It's so good to have friends. They've helped me out a whole lot.''
Harmon still moves a little slower than he did before the accident. He hasn't regained full use of his right hand and left arm.
But he knows what he has to be thankful for, and he knows why he loves farming.
``It's the kind of people you're involved with,'' he said. ``When somebody needs help, everybody tries to help out the best they can. I'll never forget this.''
Once all of the crops have been harvested, Harmon said, he'll probably throw an appreciation party, maybe around Thanksgiving.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Randy `Rambo' Harmon works a field of peanuts duringby CNBthe mid-October harvest on his farm near Windsor.