Any Ideas?

Okay I am working on an idea for a story for our kids for Christmas and I need your help.

I am trying to come up with a 21st century, Southeastern United States of America - version of a shepherd.

Any ideas?

I thought about using over-the-road tractor-trailer drivers:

"And there were in the same country - at a nearby rest area - over-the-road drivers, lying in their sleeper cabs, keeping watch over their freight by night...."

How's that?

I also thought of using deer-hunters in the place of shepherds:

"And there were in the woods nearby, deer hunters sitting in their tree stands, keeping watch over the woods by night - with a spotlight -oops, I think that's illegal!. . . "

No the whole thing just breaks down when you have them working at night.

I could use coon-hunters instead:

"...and suddenly there was with the Angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and yelling WHOOO-WEEEEEEEEEEE! Sic-em!..."

My only experience with working the graveyard shift for any extended period of time was during my stint as a short-order cook at the now defunct, Sambo's. Somehow 'keeping watch by night, over one's burgers, bacon, cakes and hash browns on the grill' - just doesn't seem to hold with the nurturing responsibility of shepherding.

Well, I am sure by now you have come up with something to grease the proverbial wheels of my twisted sense of creativity.

Please feel free to comment with the assurance that your ideas will be considered in the most non-judgmental ways.

While none of my ideas seem to quite measure up to the shadow cast by middle-eastern shepherds, they were just simple, common folks.

Isn't it amazing that God sought them out first to tell them the story of His Son's birth?
King Herod didn't find out for months and then he got his news from some distant travelers, not from personal couriers.

Perhaps He told the shepherds first because He always knew where He could find them. No matter what: day or night, rain or shine - they'd be out there with their sheep, watching over them.

Or maybe it was because this loyal fraternity had as their iconoclast - the noble shepherd king, King David - the "man after God's own heart"! Surely they would listen.

He may have just known the dedication of their hearts - that they were not men capable of just rolling over and going back to sleep when heaven spoke.

For whatever reason, God chose these "salt of the earth" types to be in on the secret and to be the first ambassadors for Christ.

He still musters those types into His service today - folks just doing their jobs day in and day out. Guys who don't throw up their hands and quit when things get mundane. Mom's who, when awakened in the night, don't wait around to see who will get up first to check on that calling child.

At times, I believe that in the middle of what seems to be absolutely unimportant. Heaven can come near and God can speak that which is eternally important.

No wonder it's hard to find the equivalent of a shepherd today.