Monday, August 13, 2012

Bucket Of Shrimp


 “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll 

 
 
Old Eddie

It happens every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembles a giant orange and is starting to dip into the blue ocean.  Old Ed comes strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched  in his bony hand is a bucket of shrimp.

Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the  world  to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's  gone,  except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts....and his bucket of shrimp.


 
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. 
Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you  listen  closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place. Invariably, one of the gulls lands on his sea-bleached, weather-beaten hat - an old military hat he's been wearing for years. When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a  few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy that's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant....maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.  Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida.


 
That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better. His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and  his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived,  crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker  and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a  miracle.
That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.

Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning  his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they  caught  fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle continued.

 With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea).

 Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.


 
The story about the plane crash and the seagull is true and is an excerpt from a book by popular minister and inspirational author Max Lucado.  The book is titled, "In the Eye of the Storm."

Rickenbacker tells the story of the sea gulls in his autobiography.  Rickenbacker
was a pilot during WW I who became an ace and was presented with
The Medal of Honor.   The crash at sea took place in 1942 when he was
sent by the U.S. government on a tour of the Pacific theater. 
The four-engine B-17 bomber on which he was a passenger went off course
and ran out of fuel at sea. 

He went on to be a race car driver, an aviation consultant, and airline executive.   Rickenbacker was not the founder of Eastern Airlines but was very influential in the General Motors acquisition of Eastern Air Transport, a
compilation of North American Aviation and Pitcair Aviation Company that was owned by Clement Keyes.   When General Motors acquired the company from Keys they renamed it to Eastern Air Lines.  In January of 1934 Rickenbacker began his term  general manager for Eastern Air Lines and later served also as the company's president.
               
       
 

   
Does anyone besides me remember 
those short silent films?
   
I only vaguely recall some of the episodes showed in theaters.

  
 


What ever happened to those kids?



In case you forgot who was who.



Well, here are some on them....


Our Gang Actors


Alfalfa --

 
 
Carl Switzer was shot to death at age 31.







Chubby --

 
 
300-pound Norman Chaney died at age 22 following an operation.







Buckwheat --

 
 
William Thomas died at age 49 of a heart attack. (wow I never knew that buckwheat was played by a black boy!)







Darla Hood --

 
 
The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47.







Brisbane -- 

 
 
Kendall McCormas, known as Breezy Brisbane, committed suicide at age 64.






Froggy -- 

 
 
William Robert Laughline was killed in
a motor scooter accident at age 16.





Mickey Daniels –

 
 
He died of liver disease at age 55.




Stymie --

 
 
 Mathew Bear became addicted to drugs,
especially heroin & spent much of his young
adult years in & out of jail. In the 80's got off
the drugs & went back into acting & traveling around the country doing drug abuse lectures, before dying of pneumonia. 

 




Scotty Beckett --

 
 
He checked into a Hollywood nursing home on May 8, 1968, needing medical attention after suffering a serious beating & died two days later.





Wheezer --

 
 
Robert Hutchins was killed in
an airplane accident at age 19.





Butch --

 
 
Thomas Bond died of complications from heart disease, in Los Angeles at age 79.









Spanky....

 
 
George McFarland went on to become a Fort Worth, Texas Businessman before his death
of a heart attack in 1993.
 
  

  

 
The Rest Of The Budweiser Story
 

(not a joke)


 
 

This May Not Be A TRUE Story,

But Is Still A Good Story, 

Besides It Has Great Graphics! 
~   ~   ~   ~   ~
How Budweiser handled those who laughed at those
 

who died on the 11th of September,
2001...
 

Thought you might like to know what happened
 
in a little town north of Bakersfield , California
 

After you finish reading this,
 
 
please forward this story on to others
 

so that our nation and people around the world
 

will know about those who laughed
 

when they found out about the tragic events

 

in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon.
 

On September 11th,
 
A Budweiser employee was making a delivery
 
to a convenience store in a California town
 
named McFarland.


He knew of the tragedy that had occurred
 
in New York when he entered the business
 

to find the two Arabs, who owned the business,
 whooping and hollering to show their approval and support of this treacherous attack. 

The Budweiser employee went to his truck,
 
called his boss and told him
 
of the very upsetting event!
 

He didn't feel he could be in that store with
those
horrible people. His boss asked him,
"Do you think you could go in there long enough
 
to pull every Budweiser product and item
 
our beverage company sells there?
 
We'll never deliver to them again."


The employee walked in,
 
proceeded to pull every single product his
 
beverage company provided and left
with an incredible grin on his face.
 

He told them never to bother to call for
 
a delivery again.
 

Budweiser happens to be the beer of choice
 
for that community.
 

 
Just letting you know how Kern County 

handled this situation. And Now --
 

The Rest Of The Story!
 

It seems that the Bud driver and the Pepsi man
 
are neighbors. Bud called Pepsi and told him.
 
Pepsi called his boss who told him to
 
pull all Pepsi products as well!

That would include Frito Lay, etc.
 

Furthermore, word spread and
 
all vendors followed suit! At last report,
on June 26, 2009,
 
Fareed Katib closed the store and filed bankruptcy!
 

Good old American
 
Passive-Aggressive A$$ Whoopin!
 

Pass this along, America needs to know
 
that we're all working together!
 

If you can read this.
 
Thank a teacher!
 

If you are reading it in English ...


THANK A SOLDIER! 

 


If you do not send this
 
you have no soul!