THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610190230
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: 67 lines
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 lostconsciousness,'' he said, as he watched three friends working one of his peanut fields Thursday. ``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, and, as soon as his 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 still hasn't regained full use of his right hand and left arm.
But he knows now 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.''
On Thursday, Clarence Newsom, a Union Camp worker, Willie B. Copeland, a local businessman and chief of the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department, and James Edwards, a neighbor, drove tractors while Harmon took a break.
``He's just a good boy, a hard working boy,'' Copeland said later. ``We're all glad to help him when we can.''
Once all of the crops have been harvested, Harmon said, he'll probably throw an appreciation party, maybe around Thanksgiving.
Said his father, Charles G. Harmon - who recently had surgery and was unable to help his son this year: ``The Lord has really blessed us. We have a lot to be thankful for.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
Friends have helped Charles R. ``Randy'' Harmon with his farm after
he suffered a near-fatal accident. by CNB