Winter at Bronson Park

I love camping. I enjoy being outside as long as I’m dressed for the weather. There have been times however, I thought I was dressed warm enough and was not. The fire pit was blazing, I had my hammock lined with 2 thick comforters and yet my teeth were chattering. On that occasion I retreated to my Jeep, rolled down my passenger side window, and plugged in the little electric heater my mom bought me to use in my new apartment. It was not only fortunate that I had the little heater still in my vehicle, but also that my campsite had electric hook up available.

Being anemic I feel that I am often cold. I layer my clothing when I’m out and about and I even more so give attention to this when I plan on being outside overnight. So when I arrived at Bronson Park and saw a young lady with no gloves or mask on in 20 degree weather trying to install a new serpentine belt.... without tools I knew she was in trouble.

I could tell from the clutter in her car that she was living out of her vehicle. I saw kids toys in the back window and there was another young lady in the passenger seat balled up with her knees to her chest under a thin blue blanket. Countless families were walking by the struggling young lady. In December the city equips Bronson Park with all kinds of holiday decorations, every tree is lit, there are candy cane walk ways that line the entrances to the park, there are smoking snow men and a nativity scene.

COVID-19 is taking a grip in our city of Kalamazoo. I thought perhaps because the young lady didn’t have a mask on that people were avoiding her. One would think that during the holiday people would be eager to help. After about about 15 mins of pondering rather to go busking with my saxophone or try to assist the young lady, my humanity won out and I tried to assist the lady with her vehicle issues.

At first my head was befuddled with thoughts that I couldn’t really help her. I was thinking she needed a tow. She confirmed she was homeless and didn’t have money to get the vehicle fixed. Someone had given her just enough money to go purchase the serpentine belt. She was bewildered and frustrated because this was her and her sisters first day without heat, and she was supposed to pick up her kids from her mom the following day. As she told me all her woes I leaned over the hood and tried to snaked the new serpentine belt around the pulleys. I was cognizant and uncomfortable about her being so close to me without a mask on, I was cold, and then I remembered that you needed some kind of tool to move the tensioner which I didn’t have. I told her I needed to warm up and I went back to my Jeep. She continued leaning over the hood gloveless to work at the serpentine belt.

I’m receiving unemployment like millions of other Americans during this pandemic. I didn’t feel that I had extra cash to share. I thought to myself what would I do if I was in her situation. If I had no money to get my vehicle fixed and no money for a tow and was outside overnight. Then like a bolt of lightning it hit me. That situation to me is what I call camping and what I love. Then I knew what to do help this young lady. I exit my vehicle and I tell her that I go camping a lot. I tell her that I have everything in my vehicle to help her and her sister get through the night. Her eyes get big as I walk to my Jeep and hand her my thick comforters. She takes the comforter to her sister. I remember I have some snow pants in my Jeep. I hand her those. She immediately puts them on. Those pants fitted me like a glove, but with her being significantly shorter than me the pants were more like a onsie on her. They resembled some strapless overalls that came to her chest. Seeing how immediate she put on those pants really drove home to me how cold they both were. Thinking about that made me remember about the little heater my mom gave me. I still had that in the back of the Jeep. I reasoned that if the situation was desperate enough for this young lady and her sister, she could go unplug some Christmas lights that were on the trees and plug in that heater. “Thank you thank you thank you,” she kept saying. Hearing that made me remember one of my friends who works on vehicles. I called him up and told him the situation. He was willing to help, but wasn’t able to get there until the following morning. I gave her this reassurance and she thanked me yet again and told me that she would return my blankets and heater in the morning when my friend came to help her out. I then proceeded to continue my original goal of busking.

The next morning I head to the Park expecting to see the white car broken down still. It wasn’t there. At first I thought to myself, “oh crap my camping gear is gone. I’m never going to see this girl again.” Then my more reasonable inner self said to me, “isn’t it awesome this young lady got her vehicle up and going. You didn’t inconvenience your friend. You initiated the help and someone else finalized it. You got the snowball rolling Tyree. You made some smiles happen. You have a roof over your head. You initially thought no one was looking out for this lady, but she was blessed all day.” The scripture at Luke 12:7 came to mind. Indeed this lady is worth more than many sparrows.

I’m content with making those smiles, however I haven’t been camping since. I mean.... I don’t have my blankets.