An Old Guy and a Bucket of Shrimp
This is a wonderful story, and it is true. You
will be
pleased that
you read it,
and I believe you will pass it on. It is an
important
piece of
American
history.
It happened every Friday evening, almost
without fail,
when the sun
resembled a
giant orange
and was
starting to
dip into the
blue ocean.
Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his
favorite
pier..
Clutched in
his bony hand
was 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.
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, 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 in
World War I,
and now he was
in WWII. 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 and
thirst. 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 or
even if they
were alive.
Every day
across America
millions
wondered and
prayed that
Eddie
Rickenbacker
might somehow
be found
alive.
The men adrift 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
on. All he
could hear was
the slap of
the waves
against the
raft..
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top
of his cap.
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 of
it - a very
slight meal
for eight men.
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
life-saving
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.
(Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm",
pp..221,
225-226)
PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of
Eastern
Airlines.
Before WWI he
was a race car
driver. In WWI
he was a pilot
and became
America 's
first ace. In
WWII he was an
instructor and
military
adviser, and
he flew
missions with
the combat
pilots.
Eddie
Rickenbacker
is a true
American
hero. And
now you know
another story
about the
trials and
sacrifices
that brave men
have endured
for your
freedom.
This is a special story, Clay . Eddie Rickenbacker was born in Columbus Ohio and the Rickenbacker Air Base south of the city is his namesake. He led a truly dangerous mission as the first bombing over Tokyo. The movie "Thirty seconds Over Tokyo" was that story.
Much less of an add-on to your story is that I was in a staged play at Franklin Ave. Methodist Church in Portsmouth, Ohio, probably about 1942 during the war. A few of us Cubs were on a raft on stage. My pal, Pal Bertram was in the audience. He pushed his tongue up over his top row of teeth and made a monkey sign, rolling his eyes up to distract me from my minor role in the play. This un-thinking kid, me, made the action right back at him. It more or less mortified my sweet mother, Mary Kegley, but got a laugh at a serious moment.
As an adult, I would never want to detract from the heroics of the truly great Eddie Rickenbacker. May he always receive the respect true American heroes deserve. What a vivid answer to prayer! Thanks good friend!
