Randy Benson tackles disability

Twain Harte fixture Randy Benson is known around town for his big smile and friendly wave. The Summerville High School football player suffered life-altering injuries in a 1972 car accident. Maggie Beck/The Union Democrat, copyright 2009

Benson, 54, was a football player at Summerville High School until October 1972.

He and a buddy were drinking and decided to see how fast they could drive around Twain Harte Lake, explained Ruth McIntyre, his supported living instructor from WATCH Resources, which provides services for the developmentally disabled.

Benson was a passenger in the 1956 Chevy, which hit a cedar tree, throwing him through the windshield. He was left with numerous permanent physical ailments, including brain damage.

“Of course there were no seat belts in those days,” McIntyre said. “They didn’t think Randy would survive. The fact that he was so buff may have helped him pull through.”

Benson said he spent the next eight months at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.

“I worked out every day,” he said. “It was something I had to do then and I still have to do it. If you say you can’t, you can’t. I am never sick except for the problem from the wreck. I don’t even get the flu or a cold.”

His happy demeanor is part of Benson’s charm, say those who know him.

“He’s always pleasant and compliments the ladies,” said Twain Harte Market Manager Jack Leamon. “Everybody knows him.”

McIntyre said she takes him shopping every Friday after sitting down with him to plan meals and make a grocery list.

Twain Harte Fire Capt. Mark Slater said Benson is kind of an unofficial mayor of Twain Harte.

“He’s a real fixture in town,” he said. “You can often see him in the triangle across from 7-Eleven, waving to everybody who goes by. He changes where he sits from time to time, but he always has that big smile and wave.”

McIntyre supervises Benson’s care and helps him with shopping, appointments and such. WATCH also provides a live-in roommate to care for his daily needs.

Most of his time, however, is spent tooling around town, and sometimes further, in his electric wheelchair. He often gets up at 2 a.m. and starts his travels around 5 a.m. with coffee at 7-Eleven in Twain Harte.

“I got up at 2 to milk cows when I was a kid,” he said. “That’s a habit that’s hard to get over.”

He said after his coffee, he goes to Eproson Park or Twain Harte Lake to see who’s there. He sometimes takes his chair to Pinecrest for the day. “I know every shortcut there is,” he said.

Benson’s mobility recently was hampered when someone cut the electrical cables that supply power to his wheelchair. It is scheduled for repair, however, within a couple of weeks.
 

Benson has made many friends over the years.

“I’m amazed at the number of people who know Randy and help him out,” McIntyre said. “He takes that wheelchair everywhere, and if he has a problem, someone always helps him get home.

“Unfortunately there are those who hang around him for what they can get. Sometimes I have to play policeman and kick someone out who tries to move in with him. I think that’s why some people think he still does drugs or drinks. He likes everybody, and his symptoms can make him look drunk, but I would know if that were true.”

Benson is the son of Willa May Barber, now of Hawaii, and stepson of the late artist Joel Barber, an instructor at Columbia College who died in 1994 at age 55 of leukemia.

Benson said the first thing he did when he got an insurance settlement from his accident was buy the house where he still lives. “It cost $11,500 when I was 17,” he said. “Nowadays, you can’t get a car for that. That was pretty smart, huh?”

He said he could have had a new car for the price of the electric wheelchair his mother bought for him. “I told her I could have had a BMW,” he said, “but I can’t drive that.”

He sometimes visits his mother in Hawaii, but doesn’t want to live there.

“It’s kind of hot, and it rains every day,” he said. “I love it here. I know everybody. ... I’ll bet I can hitchhike to Sonora and you can drive, and I’ll beat you there.”

McIntyre agrees.

“If Randy hasn’t been out for a while, people come up to me asking if he’s OK,” she said.

“One time when his chair was broken down, he hobbled to Twain Harte Market; then he was so tired, he couldn’t get home. The people at the store let him take one of their electric carts home with a bag-boy following behind to return it. That says something about the community Randy lives in.”

She said it also says something about Randy.

“He is a wonderful guy with a huge heart,” she said. “He is just a sweetheart.”