My Goodwill Job: Meeting Mr. Dennson

            Sadly I have no photos to document my 1970 stint, doing Alternative Service as a Conscientious Objector, assigned to work for two years in the Indianapolis Goodwill Store.   In this blog, Mrs. Carnes, who will be my Supervisor,  gives me a tour of the Goodwill plant, and introduces me to Mr. Dennson, who will become one of the most memorable characters in my life.

    As I was surveying the chaotic mixture of furnishings spread out before me, Mrs. Carnes told me that part of my job would be to help price the furniture and electrical goods.   Then she directed my attention to the left, where an older, ginger-headed man probably in his mid-fifties, with a ruddy complexion and a big nose, stood beside a wheeled pedestal desk.  He was holding a price tag down against the flat surface of pedestal desk with the heel of his right hand, while using the same hand, he wrote out the price tag.

    Once done, he took the tag and stuck it in the arm pit of his left arm, which only consisted of a 9 inch stump.  Then, while still holding the price tag in his left arm pit, he tore off a bit of masking tape from the pedestal desktop with his right hand, and stuck it to the dangling string of the price tag in his armpit.  This being done, he grabbed the price tag with his right hand and taped it to the flat surface of a headboard of a bed.

    Mrs. Carnes guided me toward the man and introduced me.  “This is Mr. Dennson,  you will be working with him and he’ll be showing you what to do.”

    “Hi,” I said holding out my right hand, then suddenly I panicked, remembering that Dennson only had one arm, but fortunately it was his left hand that was missing, and he gave my extended hand a firm shake, as he joked about me choosing such a crazy place to work in.

    Mrs Carnes then ushered me down passed the furniture shop, where the old donated furniture was repaired and refinished, and after a cursory inspection, she led me to the electrical shop where old toasters, alarm clocks, radios, stoves, fridges, and other electrical appliances were being repaired.  

    She directed me to the left, and we walked down a long hallway to the loading dock, where donated items were trucked in, and the newly repaired and cleaned items were shipped out to the 7 different Goodwill stores in Indianapolis.

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