Family makes trek, in rickety camper, to find a job

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/07/31/camper.work.search/index.html

# Story Highlights
# Florida man's pay is reduced until he can't support his family
# He fixes up rickety camper and with wife, baby and $1,000, sets off for Colorado
# They camp in woods until someone offers a reduced-rent house
# He finds a job at an auto parts store, but still fears for future

By Craig Johnson
Special to CNN
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(CNN) -- John Spieker stood on the back porch of his newly rented Bailey, Colorado, home, thankful for his Good Samaritan landlord and worried that his previous home, parked in the driveway, wouldn't get him to work the next day.

His 1977 Toyota Dolphin camper, which Spieker rescued from a salvage yard, had carried him, his wife, Katie, and 4-month-old son, Jacob, from Florida to Colorado earlier this summer, a cross-country sojourn in search of work.

He was uncertain it could handle the 14-mile commute the next morning, but he'd make do.

"I'm gonna get up extra early every morning like I have been, and if it doesn't get to work, I'm gonna hitchhike," Spieker said last week. "I have a wife and a son to support."

Spieker had been making $12 an hour plus commission at his information technology job in Trenton, Florida. Katie was working part-time in a candle shop, and between them they pulled in a little more than $2,500 a month.

But Katie, 21, quit to have the baby, and they moved into a bigger, more expensive house to accommodate their larger family.

As June approached, Spieker, 36, was told his hours and commission were being cut as Florida's economy sank.

"It got to the point where $6.50 an hour with a house just ain't gonna happen. I was trying to do good for my family, but what can I do?" he asked. His last day of work in Florida was June 30.

[Cleita]

1. You'd be surprised how many families out there live like this.

When my DH and I were Snowbirds, in the decade of the nineties, we ran into families living not only in trailers, but campers and even tents looking for seasonal jobs wherever they could find them hoping to finally get something permanent. This was when Clinton was Prez. I can only imagine how bad things have gotten now.

[kestrel91316]

2. That can't possibly be right. We live in The Greatest Country In The World (TM).

Those people are obviously just lazy slackers and welfare cheats.

:sarcasm:

[PA Democrat]

3. Modern day Grapes of Wrath,

[Orsino]

4. We will soon see a lot of hatred for these modern-day Okies...

...transients who will be mistrusted by established communities.

[timeforpeace]

5. Bailey is a beautiful mountain town and the auto parts industry is solid. Don't feel bad for this

guy, be happy for him. It's a good news story masquerading as bad news.