"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading."
Oswald Chambers
Norm's Daily Ramblins
PEARL HARBOR IN THE EYES AND MEMORY OF A SEVEN-YEAR OLD BOY
REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR! December 7, 1941!
I was seven years old on December 7, 1941 when the announcer's voice on our Philco radio reported there had been an enemy attack on an American military base in Hawaii.
The living room at 6726 Cedar Street in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin was always the gathering place for the family because of the cannel coal fire (huge chunks of bituminous coal for the hearth) we always had going on the weekend. That’s also where our 1937 Philco floor console radio, model 37-116x with a15 inch speaker and magnetic tuning was located. That beautiful machine was our information and entertainment center. (As an aside, there’s one sitting in my home right now that comforts my old bones at times.)
When the announcement was made, those who were not already in the living room came running to see what all the hollering was about. Dad and Uncle Haldane begin talking loudly yet seriously. “The Japs bombing Pearl Harbor means that we're definitely going to be in a war!"
"America will never be the same.”
It was Sunday, and I think it was afternoon. As reports came rolling in, Dad kept turning to a different network to hear all he could. NBC had a Red and a Blue Network; then there was Columbia and Mutual.
In Milwaukee you could get Chicago stations as clearly as local stations. You could hear WCFL “the voice of Labor,” WLS “the Prairie Farmer Station,” or WMBI “Moody Bible Institute” as clearly as Milwaukee's WTMJ or WISN. In just 15 years of broadcasting on the airwaves, radio stations had popped up from nearly no radio stations to a full offering of ground signals.
As I remember, reports were also coming in that some American Merchant ships were being attacked in their route through the Pacific. There had been a simultaneous Japanese raid on the Clark Army Air Force Base in the Philippines. Capt. Bill Moore, a friend I met in the 1960’s and a retired Eastern Airlines pilot, was in that raid. His fighter plane was strafed with all the others and without his weapon, he was told to grab an M-1 rifle, wherever he could find one, because he was now in the Infantry.
I really didn't completely understand what was going on at the time; had no clue that our nation would never be the same after this climatic period of war as I really didnt know what "the same" really was at the time. An entirely new society and culture was going to rise up out of this world-shaking event that happened 67 years ago. And what transpired took so many lives on both sides and ended the depression that had hung on for so long. It changed our life styles and the way our culture was organized. So many Families and hearts were broken but eventually we would be so proud of the Victory in Europe and the Pacific
I was the "dreamer" in our family and known for my wild imagination. (My older brothers used to tease me by calling me Joseph.) There had been enough family conversations and radio news about the war that was engulfing Europe for the past two years that I had an idea of what war was but had no clue as to how horrifying and personal. I was still a "cops and robbers" and "cowboys and Indians" boy. I distinctly remember looking into the cannel coal fire on that Sunday afternoon. Little flames were licking out of the cracks in the huge chuck of coal. It was getting dark and the reports kept coming in. I said melodramatically, ¨Some day our home will be burning like that.” I didn't even know where Hawaii was. The immediate response from my father and uncle was, ¨What’s the matter with you? Don’t talk like that!” I probably retreated back into my pretend world of adventure -- ”Shazam,” Captain Marvel! or “Gottem….dead center!” Straight Arrow.
Some time ago, The Atlanta Journal Constitution had interesting article on the bottom of the front page. It was written by reporter Jeffry Scott. Retired Lt. General Louis Truman, then a Captain in the U.S. Army, and an aide to Commanding General Walter Short when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
General Truman was living in the Buckhead area of Atlanta at the time of the interview. Scott points out in his article that Truman believes that Short and Admiral Kimmel were scape goats when there were accused of dereliction of dury for ignoring warnings that Japan was about to attack. Both men were forced to retire from military duty two months later.
95 year-old Truman is quoted by Jeffry Scott as saying, "General Short died (in 1949) of a broken heart!" About 6,000 are still alive who were at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked, and that number is shrinking rapidly. But none have the credibility that Lt. General Truman has. As an aide he was responsible for all the communiques between Washington and Hawaii -- as Short writes -- "as the winds of war blew between Japan and the United States in the summer and fall of 1941.
General Truman said, "In my mind Gen. Short and Adm. Kimmel were made scapegoats, blamed for not heeding warnings when, in his mind and recollection, they were only doing what they were told." And for a high level officer that means 'exactly' as they were told. Truman also expressed how badly done and inaccurate the "Pearl Harbor" movie was.
A CHILD'S VIEW OF THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK
Colorado Springs Man was 9 When He Witnessed Japanese Attack
In 2004, The Denver Post featured an article in it's Scene Section that stopped me cold.
Leslie Limbo, contributing writer for the POST, wrote a wonderful article of a nine year old boy who "WAS THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED" IN PEARL HARBOR. I can no longer link you to the Denver Post’s Web page that had this article so I must transcribe it for you as follows:.
Over sixty years later, he can still remember the sounds of aircraft on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Unlike many eyewitnesses to the Pearl Harbor attack, Colorado Springs resident Roy Warren wasn't a sailor or a soldier on duty in Hawaii that fateful day. He was a 9-year-old boy looking out his bedroom window as history began unfolding before him.
"I could see the Japanese torpedo bombers about 15-20 feet above our house; they were flying toward the harbor and battleship row. I ran to my parent's bedroom and yelled, 'I think the Japanese are bombing us.'"
Warren and his mother, Catherine, had joined his father Harold, a Navy ensign, on Hawaii in the summer of 1941. "It was common knowledge we were preparing for war." Warren said. "But we thought the war would be fought in the Phillipines or somewhere closer to Japan."
Even so, people were preparing. He recalled air raid drills in the months leading up to Dec. 7. During the drills, Marines in full battle dress would pick the children up from the Navy-run school about 100 yards from battleship row and take them to the administrative building, a concrete structure where they waited as the marines told the children to be quiet. It was like a junior boot camp.
On Dec. 7, while the raid was going on, his father told the family to stay inside as he headed toward headquarters to work at the communications center at Pearl Harbor. But like most children, Warren got restless, so he and a buddy
went exploring outside. "We found shrapnel and pieces of brass fuses that were still hot enough to burn our fingers." Warren says. "We put the stuff we found in a coffee can."
Though his Navy housing area was not a target, houses were damaged in the attack as shrapnel fell on some of the roofs, including his. Bullets went all the way through a bedroom in the house across the street as some of the Japanese torpedo bombers must have started their straffing fire early.
Warren's voice grew husky as he described the sailors in wet clothing who came up to the housing area after the attack looking for dry clothing and weapons. "They needed something to fight back with and didn't have anything. I vowed then that I'd always have something to protect my family with. There are so many people who have never been up against anything like that."
The Marines set up a machine gun nest next to the Warren house. A week later, when it became apparent Japan was not invading Hawaii, the sailors returned to Pearl Harbor. School was closed for nearly six months after the attack. Warren and his friends had plenty of time to go exploring.
"All the kids in the neighborhood scavenged for stuff. We found uniforms, bayonets, and other things. The Navy had gathered a lot of equipment and supplies that had been damaged and dumped it. There were complete wall lockers that had Christmas Cards inside them in the dump. I didn't read them; just saw them. Some of the weapons recovered from the ships were dumped because of the salt water or were covered in oil. I must have found a dozen rifles or more. We played soldiers and sailors or cowboys and Indians with all the stuff. Nobody cared about what we had done or were doing with it."
Warren and his family remained in Hawaii after the war. He received a degree in tropical agriculture from the University of Hawaii and later became a real estate broker. He also served in the US Army Reserves, retiring with the rank of major.
In the 1990's he and his wife Patricia moved to Colorado Springs.
In 1992 he and his mother received, on behalf of his father, a medal that the US Dept. of Defense awarded military members who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. About ten years ago, Warren contacted the Admiral Nimitz State Historical Site National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg, Texas and arranged to donate his Pearl Harbor artifacts. He also made a recording of his memoires of the the day of the attack for the museum.
Photographs of his father and the family form part of the exhibit. Warren's memorabilia provides visitors with a different look at World War II, explains Mike Lebens, associate curator of the museum. "It allows them to look at war through a child’s eyes and brings home the reality of war to Americans who have never seen war on their own soil."
While Warren's memorabilia of the Pearl Harbor attacks now rest in a Texas museum, Warren will always carry the memories of that terrible day on December 7, 1941.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt makes a final appeal to the Emperor of Japan for peace. There is no reply. Late this same day, the U.S. code-breaking service begins intercepting a 14-part Japanese message and deciphers the first 13 parts, passing them on to the President and Secretary of State. The Americans believe a Japanese attack is imminent, most likely somewhere in Southeast Asia.
Sunday, December 7 - Washington D.C.
The last part of the Japanese message, stating that diplomatic relations with the U.S. are to be broken off, reaches Washington in the morning and is decoded at approximately 9 a.m. About an hour later, another Japanese message is intercepted. It instructs the Japanese embassy to deliver the main message to the Americans at 1 p.m. The Americans realize this time corresponds with early morning time in Pearl Harbor, which is several hours behind. The U.S. War Department then sends out an alert but uses a commercial telegraph because radio contact with Hawaii is temporarily broken. Delays prevent the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until noontime (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack has already begun.
Sunday, December 7 - Islands of Hawaii, near Oahu
The Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo, consisting of six carriers with 423 planes, is about to attack. At 6 a.m., the first attack wave of 183 Japanese planes takes off from the carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and heads for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor - At 7:02 a.m. Oahu's northern shore radar station.
Two Army operators at detect the Japanese air attack approaching and contact a junior officer who disregards their reports, thinking they are American B-17 planes which are expected in from the U.S. west coast.
Pearl Harbor - At 7:15 a.m. Near Oahu
A second attack wave of 167 planes take off from the Japanese carriers and heads for Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is not on a state on high alert. Senior commanders have concluded, based on available intelligence, there is no reason to believe an attack is imminent. Aircraft are therefore left parked wing-tip to wing-tip on airfields, anti-aircraft guns are unmanned with many ammunition boxes kept locked in accordance with peacetime regulations. There are also no torpedo nets protecting the fleet anchorage. And since it is Sunday morning, many officers and crewmen are leisurely ashore.
At 7:53 a.m., the first Japanese assault wave, with 51 'Val' dive bombers, 40 'Kate' torpedo bombers, 50 high level bombers and 43 'Zero' fighters, commences the attack with flight commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, sounding the battle cry: "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!).
The Americans are taken completely by surprise. The first attack wave targets airfields and battleships. The second wave targets other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasts until 9:45 a.m. Eight battleships are damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels are lost along with 188 aircraft. The Japanese lose 27 planes and five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and launch torpedoes.
Escaping damage from the attack are the prime targets, the three U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga, which were not in the port. Also escaping damage are the base fuel tanks.
The casualty list includes 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, with 1,178 wounded. Included are 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.
In Washington, various delays prevent the Japanese diplomats from presenting their war message to Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, until 2:30 p.m. (Washington time) just as the first reports of the air raid at Pearl Harbor are being read by Hull.
News of the "sneak attack" is broadcast to the American public via radio bulletins, with many popular Sunday afternoon entertainment programs being interrupted. The news sends a shock-wave across the nation and results in a tremendous influx of young volunteers into the U.S. armed forces. The attack also unites the nation behind the President and effectively ends isolationist sentiment in the country.
Monday, December 8
The United States and Britain declare war on Japan with President Roosevelt calling December 7, "a date which will live in infamy..."
Thursday, December 11
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The European and Southeast Asian wars have now become a global conflict with the Axis powers; Japan, Germany and Italy, united against America, Britain, France, and their Allies.
Wednesday, December 17
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz becomes the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Both senior commanders at Pearl Harbor; Navy Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, and Army Lt. General Walter C. Short, were relieved of their duties following the attack. Subsequent investigations will fault the men for failing to adopt adequate defense measures.
The Arizona was one of many ships sunk in the attack.
A Portland, Oregon newspaper was the first to use the phrase, Remember Pearl Harbor! We never want to forget -- but the new generations will -- so now we have Sept. 11, 2001, Iraq, Afganistan, and Homeland Security to kept us alert to the enemies of freedom.
But we old guys will never forget Pearl and the heroes who responded and the lives that were sacrificed on the altar of such a noble cause. It thrust our nation into a world confligration that threatened the freedoms of all people.
This Sunday, December 7, is the 67th anniversary and the men and women who experienced it have been having a reunion every five years. Most of them are in their 80's and 90's and a spokesperson for them said it has been a wonderful way to stay in contact with each other over the years as they "Remembered Pearl Harbor" -- BUT no plans were made for another reunion after the last one in 2006 when they said, "Goodbye!" to each other for the last time. They are a real part of the Greatest Generation and we are loosing them so very rapidly. How well I remember when this happened to the Civil War Veterans and the veterans of World War I.
Over the years of my remembering Pearl Harbor, I've found several wonderful web sites for those who want to seriously understand the attack on Pearl Harbor. They are excellent presentations of what happened on Dec. 7, 1941. You can link to them at the end of this article.
The National Geographic site is superb. Click the on the right to load the visual overview of the attack. Bottom right of the screen is an arrow to click after the narrator pauses. Note some of the pointer description boxes have a link that presents more information. The there's a scrapbook where you can read some of the stories of those who were there.
You won't regret visiting and spending time on the four sites I've posted. They present, in detail, more facts and information about this fateful day than you can absorb and completely understand in just one visit. For a few, visitig these sites will refresh the memory from "being old enough" and others from study. For most who would visit, it will teach them about something they never really knew about other that what Hollywood had tried to portray.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto headed up the attack, but did you know this about him? Isoroku Yamamoto studied at Harvard from 1919 to 1921, and returned to the United States in 1925 on a diplomatic mission. He didn't want to go to war with the United States, but when called upon by his country Yamamoto planned the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and then led the Japanese navy to its early victories in World War II. When the U.S. decoded a Japanese message in 1943 that included Admiral Yamamoto's itinerary, they ambushed his plane in the south Pacific and killed him.
The site even has excellent audio of all the main newscasts so there is no need for Ramblin's to add it to this article. Here is a sample of their written presentation:
Pearl Harbor, on the Island of O'ahu, Hawaii, (then a territory of the United States) was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy, at approximately 8:00 A.M., Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
The surprise attack had been conceived by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The strking force of 353 Japanese aircraft was led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. There had been no formal declaration of war.
Approximately 100 ships of the U.S. Navy were out to sea, which was American's salvation. Two destroyers, the USS Cassin (DD372) and the USS Downes (DD375) were in dry dock #1 (with the USS Pennsylvania) and the destroyer USS Shaw (DD373) was in floating dry dock #2, approximately two hundred yards to the west. The USS Ogala (CM-4) was moored next to the USS Helena (CL50) near the "1010" dock, Naval Ship yard. Two heavy cruisers, the USS New Orleans (CA32) and the San Francisco (CA38) were in the Navy Yard Repair Basin.
Present that morning in the harbor of Pearl were battleships, destroyers, cruisers and various support ships.
USS Arizona (BB39) Battleship
USS West Virginia (BB48) Battleship
USS California (BB44) Battleship
USS Oklahoma (BB37) Battleship
USS Nevada (BB36) Battleship
USS Pennsylvania (BB38) Battleship (in dry dock #1)
USS Tennessee (BB43) Battleship
USS Maryland (BB46) Battleship
USS Vestal (AR4) Repair ship
USS Neosho (AO23) Oiler
USS Detroit (CL8) Light cruiser
USS Raleigh (CL7) Light cruiser
USS Utah (AG16) Target Ship
USS Tangier (AV8) Seaplane Tender
Over half the U.S. Pacific fleet was out to sea, including the carriers. If they had not been.... who knows?
Simultaneously, nearby Hickam Field was also the victim of the surprise attack by the Japanese. 18 Army Aircorps aircraft including bombers and fighters and attack bombers were destroyed or damaged on the ground. A few U.S. fighters struggled into the air against the invaders and gave a good account of themselves.
A total of twenty-nine Japanese aircraft were shot down by ground fire and U.S pilots from various military installations on O'ahu.
The freedom we all enjoy today was bought with a serious price. Freeedom is not free. It never has been. And Pearl was just the beginning of a long, vicous and costly venture.
Wauwatosa High school frind, David Swanson, sent this incredible set of photos of Pearl Harbor that I had never seen before. If you are interested in history and a patriot, you will enjoy.
My youngest son, Christopher Sean Plunkett, who is now the hydrologist for the Unita Wilderness and Flaming Gorge Reservoir in NE Utah and has always been our "mountain man," wrote this essay on "the Fruitcake" some time ago. Dad thinks it's "one of the best" and it's time to unwrap it again. Chris grew up in a "Claxton Fruitcake home" so we are all partial to that scrumptious little brick that is always found in our home every fall and totally destroys the accepted opinion of our culture regarding "fruitcake."
At one time, let's say 40 years ago, you could only find a Claxton Fruitcake in Georgia. Today, you can find them in your supermarket and drug stores... almost anywhere. The "Claxtons" are delicious, mainly because they are jammed full of Georgia pecans. If you can't find one and want to taste one, let me know. Chris writes about another really good fruit cake -- the Collin Street Bakery premium fruitcake that has been made in Corsicana, Texas since 1989. I just came across a nostalia website that listed the tim for a Collin Street Bakery fruitcake -- they wanted $15.00 for the empty 15 year old tin. Remember that when you purchase one. Collin Street is another favorite fruitcake of ours.
Four or so years ago the FAA made a decision to not permit the "Carry-On" of any fruitcake. It seems like the density of the product resembles gunpowder. Is that why most fruitcakes are stored on pantry shelves?
Now there's something to think about and pass on as one of your Christmas reality jokes. Here's Chris Plunkett's classic essay on Fruitcakes. Chris is now the Hydrologist for the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Unita Wilderness of Northeast Utah and a genuine gourmet and short story writer.
"Tis The Time For Fruitcake!"
Ah yes, tis the season for yet another holiday tradition! Just like good ole Saint Nick himself it's time for that long-lived and oft-maligned gastronomic wonder, the noble fruitcake, to rise from it's darkened celestial cupboard and set out on its holiday "gift given" rounds, spreading joy and good cheer the wide world over.
And to serve as a yuletide warning for all the headstrong and precocious children of the planet to behave themselves, ere the firm hands of justice should force them in punishment to actually eat a piece!
As far back as the gilded Christmas age of Charles Dickens’ England, the fruitcake has suffered the 'slings and arrows of outrageous' culinary reviews. It was Dickens himself who once referred to it as "a geological homemade cake," but it was under Johnny Carson's watch on "The Tonight Show" that fruitcakedom witnessed its public relations low-point with a series of vicious and slanderous chucklers, the best of which was: There's only one fruitcake in the entire U.S. and it's passed around year after year, from family to family!
Not laughing? Well I suppose we lack Ed McMahon's 'Ho-Ho'ing shotgun-backup for the full Carson effect.
There are a few among fruitcake's myriad fans (and those who just pretend to be for "image's sake" that trace its beginnings back to Egyptian times when cakes of dried fruit (in a tasteful dusting of natron) were prepared for the Pharaoh to take with him into the afterlife.
Still others cite the first fruitcakes occurring in Roman times, when a sumptuous m'lange of raisins, pine nuts, and pomegranate were set in a barley mash and baked to produce a dense, durable food stuff that could easily travel on long campaigns with the conquering legions.
During the Middle Ages in Europe honey became an essential ingredient of the cakes, as a flavoring and a preservative. With the advent of cheap sugar, brought by the colonial trade of the 1600's, fruitcake's shelf-life steadily increased as the nuts and fruity bits were soaked in greater and greater concentrations of sugar.
By the 1700's these cakes were used in various religious festivals, harvest celebrations, and weddings. In rural communities the harvest was marked by the baking of special cakes, which were stored until the following year to bring luck to the New Year's crop. Along a similar vein, in some parts of England the upper layer of wedding cakes (the bride's cake) is still made of fruitcake, which the newly wed couple keeps for the coming year(s).
No one seems to be certain why fruitcakes became associated with Christmas time, but one imaginative story involves a late 1700's English custom of handing out slices of cake to impoverished women who traveled door to door at Christmas, singing carols. Another possibility involves another English law from the 1700's, which restricts the use of plum cake (i.e. fruitcake) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. In any case most fruitcakes are eaten (or I should say, 'sold') at holiday time.
Here in America, the modern Christmas fruitcake comes in two basic varieties, typically formed into a dense ring-shaped loaf, often topped in pecans. One variety is the "light fruitcake"-- this uses sugar or corn syrup and a mixture of walnuts, almonds, pecans, golden raisins, pineapple, lemon rind, apricot, and cherry, bound in a sweet heavy dough.
"Dark fruitcakes" employ brown sugar or molasses as the main sweetener, and often use additional fruits such as dark raisins, prunes, and dates. Both varieties are often available with bourbon, brandy, or some other eau de vie as an added flavoring.
Despite all the jokes and their bad image, fruitcakes can be big business. The two largest fruitcake companies hail from the rural South, where traditionally fruit and nutmeats were available at bargain prices. The top-selling fruitcake company is the Claxton Bakery out of Claxton, Georgia -- you've seen it with it's two inch square loaf that is about eight inches long and chucked full of Georgia pecans. The rival to Claxton is the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. The Claxton Bakery does not readily disclose exactly how many of their unusual brick shaped 'beauties' are foisted upon humanity each year, but in one article they mention that a single government commissary once placed an order for 65,000 cakes. Oddly enough, a surprisingly large portion of all fruitcakes produced go to Japan!
For those brave few souls who feel inspired to actually do some fruitcake nibbling this holiday season, I can offer but a scant few tips. Sadly, “perhaps I mean happily" - my experience has been limited to only a few mass-produced examples of the fruitcake baker's art. I suppose I should also warn you that my opinion is further handicapped by a hatred of maraschino cherries!
Most of the fruitcakes I've eaten have struck me as quite dry and bland, but find that the Claxton fruitcakes (while still bland compared to fruit breads like German stollen, Italian panetone, and French kougelhof) …the Claxton cakes have a wet dense texture that I find a bit more palatable than other options I've sampled -including the fruit-flavored CLIF and Powerbars that mountainbikers and "outdoorsy types" so often rave about. I've never had a Collin Street fruitcake, but know those who swear by them -- one of them is my Dad. (Or was it "at them?") I hear that the dark variety of fruitcake has a bolder flavor and that all of them are much improved if they've been baked with a little bourbon or some other liqueur.
Fruitcakes also improve with time; a good three months are required for the flavors from the fruits to fully blend and meld into the sweet doughy binder. Carefully stored, a fruitcake can last for years! The first thing to "go" on them will be the nuts.
Though I've never tried them, I hear that Trappist monks can make some pretty good fruitcakes! Two 'orders' renowned for their bourbon-laced cakes are the Abbey of Gethsemane near Louisville, Kentucky and the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia. See the links at the end of the article.
For those curious to have a look at the operations of the top-producing Claxton Bakery see the link at the end of the article. And in the interest of granting equal billing for our "Texas friends" the Collin Street Bakery's site is also listed.
And if, at the end of your holiday, all the fruitcakes you've bought have been "tried and found wanting", they needn't go to waste; you could take a little trip to the town of Manitou Springs, Colorado for their annual 'Fruitcake Toss'. Here participants throw, 'tee-off', and catapult fruitcakes of all varieties and ilks. (I hear for reasons of 'ballistics', the brick shaped Claxton cakes do quite well!) The coming year's toss will be held the first week of January, and if you don't have a fruitcake of your own, one can be rented.
ChrisP (Christopher Sean Plunkett's signature since Second Grade.)
Just before Thanksgiving I drove by Lennx Square on Peachtree Street and the Pink Pig was already in operation bringing joy to kids and parents and making new memories.... but this pig has tires and was running on the asphalt parking lot instead of riding on the old Rich's monorail that was on the ceiling of the downtown store. Rich's is now call Macy's and has restored (partially) the Pink Pig and now operate it at their Lennox Square store since the area is the new "downtown Atlanta." WXIA-TV11, KICK's-FM, also sponsors the retro renewed Christmas ride for children. I understand that a considerable amount of the profits now go to the Children's Egleston Hospitals. I've got to run this article again as it really fits the season, is about a dear friend of mine, Ron Buchanan who is now retired. It's a wonderful Jean Shepherd type story. Enjoy! N.Plunkett
The Pink Pig is a fond memory for every child who grew up in Atlanta in the 1950's through the 1970's.
"Who or what's the Pink Pig?" you ask. It's not the steady girl-friend of Kermit the Frog, or that great barbeque place on just off the expressway that serves great 'pulled' pork on light bread. "The Pink Pig" I'm referring to was once the main Christmas attraction at THE finest department store that once was called Rich's after its founder, Richard Rich and was an Atlanta institution for over a hundred years.
The Pink Pig was a train for children that traveled as a monorail on the ceiling of Rich's toy department and then burst out of the building onto the roof and around the massive Christmas tree that stood so proudly on the bridge over Forsyth Street between the store's two buildings just south of the famous Five Points in downtown Atlanta. It was a small train -- even small and confining for the children who rode the Pig. This incredible memory-maker carried hundreds of thousands of children from 1953 until 1991 when downtown Rich's closed and the building was demolished.
But none of those stories can come close to the one Ron Buchanan told me many years ago. Ron had been hired as a part of the Christmas staff at Rich's while a student in college. He was given the assignment of being one of Santa's Elves who would escort children who were to ride on The Pink Pig. He would walk them down a darkened and beautifully decorated tunnel that led from the parents to the entrance platform for The Pig. The presence of hundreds of black lights illuminated the specially chosen graphics on the wall and enhanced the mood and the fine Christmas decorations.
Ron really enjoyed his job. It was so much fun to see the excitement of the kids. How they responded to him and the other Elves.
One afternoon, everything changed. As he would lead the children down the "blacklight illuminated tunnel," the children would suddenly pull away from him and didn't want him to get anywhere close to them let alone hold their hand. Some of the children would look at his face and express extreme terror in their expressions -- fear even to the point of breaking into tears and screams. The children were having this reaction in the darkened tunnel that led from "the parents" out onto the "Pink Pig platform" train loading area.
The reaction of the children was disturbing Ron. He had never experienced anything like this before and didn't know what to do about it. "What's goin on?" He sure didn't want to be the reason some child would have a trauma they would never forget. Leading more child passengers through the tunnel didn't change anything. One after another, Ron was getting the same reaction.
On one of his Elf trips thought the blacklight lit tunnel he happened to look over at one of the decorations that had a mirror in it.
RON WAS HORRIFIED AT WHAT HE SAW! His eyes were luminous and glowing like a demon from hell! Why his reflection scared him! It was terrifying.
Ron put it all together immediately. He came to work right from an appointment at the optometrist's office where he had an eye checkup. The drops used to dilate his eyes reacted to the black light which filled the darkened tunnel. As Ron walked the children through the tunnel, the black light turned his eyes into glowing orbs of horror terrifying the children!
Needless to say, Ron immediately explained to his boss what was happening and asked to be excused from work for the rest of the evening. I'm sure there were children that night who rode The Pink Pig for the first time -- and then vowed NEVER to ride it again.
I borrowed two of the Atlanta Journal Constitution file photos of the Pink Pig to show 'out of towners' and people born after 1991 what the original "Pink Pig" looked like. Three years ago, The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran some excellent news and human interest articles about the Pig's resurrection.
God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling -- and the warm, personal counsel we find in Scripture to come to characterize us. These two things will keep us alert for whatever God will do next in our life. (As we allow him to control and guide us.)
Then our lives will be a choir -- not just our voices only, but our LIVES singing in harmony! It will be a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Romans 15:4-6 The Message Bible, Nav Press
This is such a significant passage. It's one of my favorites. Read it a couple of times. It just "sings." (Sorry about that but had to say it.) We need to understand afresh that using Scripture daily in our lives is essential to good spiritual health.
How many read God's word once a week, let alone get into it for a few moments every day. But the morning newspaper and our receipe book or our current reading project seem to get all our "reading time." Scripture, written so long ago, was intended to show us the mind of God and to teach us patience and encourage us to look forward expectantly to the time God conquers sin and death. You know -- helping us get the "Big Picture" and realize that this life is only the beginning. But maybe you have a different view of Scripture and don't see it as speaking to your life today. If that's the case, I wish it were otherwise... you would see such joy and have such peace in the "middle of it all.
Exposing ourselves to Scripture influences our attitude toward our present life and the future. Singing (living) in harmony with God means we are sharing his perspective and values. Just as we take Jesus' view of the authority of Scripture, the nature of heaven and his resurrection, we also have his attitude of love toward others and grow in our faith and knowledge of him. Only by reading Scripture and spending time with God in prayer will we deepen our intimacy with our Lord. Philippians chapter 2 has some wonderful thoughts about Christ's attitude. NP
