You can decide for yourself whether you’ll want to stay up or set your clock for this one. Tonight, early Wednesday morning, at two minutes and three seconds after 1 a.m., the time and date will be:

The clarion call rises up the Radio stairway, an urgent matronly ”Hen-reeeee! Henry Aldrich!”

When you heard the wavering, crackling adolescent reply, “Coming mother,” you knew the show had just begun.

And so began one of Radio’s most popular situation comedies of the 1940’s. In its peak seasons of 1941 and 42, The Aldrich Family commanded ratings that placed it in the elite company of such perennial favorites as Fibber McGee and Molly, The Jack Benny Program, and The Bob Hope Show.

The program centered on “Henry Aldrich” the family’s adolescent son, who unwittingly dispensed chaos and disaster wherever he went. Such ordinary and harmless things as the telephone, or a flat bicycle tire, in the accident-prone hands of young Henry became lethal weapons that could wreck havoc across an entire neighborhood.

The show was the creation of Clifford Goldsmith, adapted from his hit Broadway play called What a Life. For years Goldsmith had toiled in obscurity, writing piece after piece that had gone nowhere. In Clifford’s original conception of What a Life the play was to be a serious drama with “Henry” as only a minor character, then producer George Abbot convinced him to rewrite it as a comedy. At the time Goldsmith was so skeptical of his finished product that he considered selling half-interest in the play in return for a winter coat.

In 1938 after the great success of his play, radio personalities such as Rudy Valee and Kate Smith approached Goldsmith to adapt segments of the play into skits for their radio programs. Goldsmith gladly did so, and by 1939, was one of the highest paid writers in radio with an Aldrich Family show of his own. To collect ideas for the play and radio program, Goldsmith drew heavily from real-life experiences with his own teenage sons, who in return jokingly sent him bills for “services rendered” and charges of plagiarism.

Among the lead roles for The Aldrich Family were House Jameson playing “Sam Aldrich,” Henry’s father, Katharine Raht as “Alice,” Henry’s longsuffering mother, and Jackie Kelk as “Homer Brown,” Henry’s pal and partner in crime. The role of “Henry” was initially played by 16-year-old Ezra Stone, who had also lead as Henry in the Broadway play, but in 1942 Stone left for service in the military. His replacement Norman Tokar played the role for just a year before he left for the army as well. A Dickie Jones then filled the role until Stone returned from the service in 1945.

It was Ezra Stone’s portrayal of Henry that had the largest impact with listening audiences, and the seasons of 1941 and 1942 that marked the highpoint in the show’s popularity -though it remained a leading program with its sponsor General Mills/JELLO throughout the 1940s. The program lasted until 1953, but in 1951 (apparently seeing the “writing on the wall”) Stone left the show to begin a career as a Television director, one day leading such shows as Petticoat Juction, Lost in Space, and The Munsters. Later in life, Stone became a “director” of another sort, as head of the David Library of the American Revolution. But even as the illustrious chief of the David Library, Stone could still get his voice “up” on demand, into the crackling adolescent tones young Henry, echoing a bygone era. In 1993 Stone was inducted into the Old Time Radio Hall of Fame, and one year later died in an automobile accident.

After the close of radio’s Aldrich Family, writer/creator Clifford Goldsmith also found much demand for his talents in television. His mark can be seen on many shows of the 50’s and 60’s, including such classics as Dennis the Menace, Leave it to Beaver, Petticoat Junction, and The Donna Reed Show.

Chris Plunkett

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Today's Scripture:
We have moved into the book of Second John for out Lenten thoughts. These gifts of grace, mercy and peace, mention in this verse, come to us as an expression of God's true love for us in Jesus Christ. These gifts will come to us. There is no condition to this gift of the truth of God's love for us. No "ifs, ands or buts" -- these gifts will be with us.

Prayer:
Forbid that I would ever deceive myself, Lord, into thinking that somehow I am the author of truth and love... not You. Make me keenly aware that You give these to us along with the fruit of the Spirit.

Think About This:
The source of all truth and all love is God the Father through the Son.

Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins, Senior Pastor
University Park Methodist, Dallas, Texas

Long time freind and regular "Ramblin's" contributor, Harvey Nowland, had a nice 'remember' in his April Newsletter. No Foolin'. You can subscribe to his email newsletter using the link at the end of the article. There's no charge cause he ain't sellin nuttin. He's jus givin' away smiles and opening up some memory banks cause he's got nuttin else to do.

Those born after 1980 probably have no idea what the imposing order, “Do not fold, staple or mutilate” means. But you do—don’t you? Remember those key-punch cards?

In those early days, computers were pretty intimidating. In fact most of us (including myself) never saw one up close. They were massive, required huge amounts of cooling, and a regular feeding of stacks of keypunched cards that contained vital information. The computer then “read” the information and produced a printout. Even a small error in the printout might require a new card or set of cards to be keypunched—then repeat the cycle.

Whatever happened to the promised “paperless” society? You know, that uncluttered office that was predicted back in the 1970s that assured us that just as soon as businesses got on board with office computers, paper would become all but obsolete.

Well, we’ve got the computers, and the paper industry must love us for printing the thousands of mostly ridiculous emails that get forwarded, re-forwarded, and then forwarded again on a daily basis. I remember when the ministry I used to write for first took us boldly to where no ministry had gone before—interoffice email. We discovered that interoffice email “saved so much time” that we almost didn’t have time to do what we were supposed to be doing.

Wow, we’ve come a long way baby (please excuse the familiarity). Now we have personal computers (PCs) with mysterious stuff like gigabytes. If anyone out there knows the use of every item on the toolbar of their PC, please help me out.

Now, “spell-check,” there’s something we do understand. The only problem is that my spell-checker isn’t always sure if I meant to write heir or air, buy or by, their or they’re. And, my spellchecker has never read the Bible—well at least not the New Testament—because it thinks that Colossians should be collusions, and it prefers Philippines over Philippians. However, it does seem to be familiar with Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and even Ecclesiastes and Habakkuk. So, I’m wondering . . . is there some sort of religious conspiracy thing going on with these computers?

And one final thing about the spelling and grammar check. I’ve discovered that I can’t expect spell-check to compensate for those English lectures I missed or slept through in college, especially the lectures that emphasized rules of grammar.

My wife has cyberphobia—the fear of computers. Now, I won’t go so far as to say that she has a pathological fear of computers and information technology, but she won’t even send an email without first checking with me to see if she has done everything correctly. You see, she thinks that somehow she’s going to create an error on our computer that will change the course of the modern world as we know it. What she doesn’t know is that she’s much better on the PC than I am (so please don’t tell her, because I enjoy being needed).

This whole computer thing once intimidated me. I thought that even my youngest grandchildren were all more computer savvy than I. But, do you know what I’ve discovered? The only thing they’re better at on the PC than I am is playing computer games. At least I use my PC for useful things such as taking the opportunity to write stuff like this, where I can complain and whine (or should that be wine?).

I’m not trying to make light of all this, but don’t worry. Because, even if you don’t understand all you’d like to know about your computer, at least we’ll probably never see the “Do not fold, staple or mutilate” warning again. Besides, God’s Word says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

-- Harvey Nowland, Gainesville, GA April 2006

For Harvey's Stone Trace Website, click here. You'll be glad you did



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On that day in Atlanta, Georgia, the forsythia, Lenten Rose, daffodils and red bud trees were in bloom; it was 69 degrees and a perfect day. We thought to ourselves, "It's a salute from the Lord to Mom for her life of faithfulness to Him.

Twenty four of her kin had one incredible day... and Mom was up to it to the very end. We had a delightful celebration with 24 family members here in Atlanta to help celebrate. Maude held up extremely well. The "Birthday Celebration" was held at the China Inn nearby. It's the first time she's eaten out at a restaurant in at least 15 years. A cake eating, coffee drinking, sparklin' cider toasting, card opening orgy was held at one of the homes with the whole gang. What a wit and controling factor as she had us all in rolling laughter with her sharp responses. The party broke up at about 10:30 pm. When she arrived back at her house she wanted to have more cake and coffee and wanted her daughter, Judy, to read the rest of the pile of birthday cards. Maude Elsie Plunkett was so hyped and excited that she stayed up until 2 a.m. She is an amazing lady.

She received well over a hundred cards of congratulation -- from the President and staff of Moody Bible Institute, four living United States Presidents, five of my childhood freinds, and scores and scores of beloved relatives and friends.

Maude was born in Claridge, PA, near Pittsburgh, on February 16, 1906. Her father was one of the first electricians in the area and was responsible for lighting and air pumps in the mines of the Westmoreland Coal Company – the first to export coal to Europe at the turn of the century.

Maude finished high school in West Park, Pittsburgh at age 16 and went to work for the Horne Department Store assigned to keep the 50 seamstresses supplied with sewing accessories and was being groomed as a buyer when she chose to go to Chicago and attend Moody Bible Institute in 1923. There she met and married Meredith Plunkett of Chicago. The Plunketts were one of the first caterers in Chicago and Maude became involved in the business until they moved to Milwaukee in the 1930’s where they co-pastored a small Bible church until 1962.

In the 1920’s, Maude was the featured actress in hundreds of commercials her husband filmed for the advertising dinners the family served in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Cleveland. After serving the meal that was basically free, the attendees were presented with a lecture about Kraft Foods, Pepsi Cola, Sealtest, Tenderoni Salad, Mickleberry sausage, Karo Syrup, Johnson & Johnson of Racine and scores of other products. Her husband spiffed up the lectures with 16mm movies of how the products were made and how they were to be prepared which is where Maude came in. She still uses many of these products.

When she was 80 and still a beauty, we informed Kraft Foods that they could use a film of Maude making salad in her Los Angeles kitchen in 1928 and a current segment to show that Kraft Mayo is a great product of choice, but they were not interested. The family still has thousands of feet of film from the 1920’s through the 1940’s when the advertising dinners turned into catering.

During her “church years,” Maude conducted neighborhood Sunday Schools, Co-pastored the Church of the Open Bible near Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee, and was an accomplished musician – piano, marimba, and had (has) an operatic soprano voice that is as sweet as you couid imagine.

Maude has lived in the Dunwoody area since 1981 and is still “active” and fully in-charge! She has to deal with arthritis and macular degeneration but it has not slowed her down very much. Her eyesight was saved when The Emory Clinic needed a 94 year-old-eye for the experimental program that was developing photo-dynamic, low-power laser surgery for macular degeneration. This technique is now commonly used all over the world.

Her mind remains keen with perfect memory and reasoning. It’s more difficult for her to write but not much. She still writes notes on birthday and get-well cards and regularly sends notes of encouragement. Her daughter, Judy Kreklow, has been living with her for the past five years. Her presence has allowed Maude to maintain her independence. Maude still practices her “old-fashioned” to our present culture, Intercessory Prayer Ministry, praying for others, and is know to wake up in the middle of the night creating her own personal concert, singing the songs she has sung for so many years.

Two years ago she was hospitalized for the first time in her life when she fell and broke her hip. She had four of her six children in a hospital but this was the first time it was for illness or accident. At the ER of Northside Hospital a technician came rolling into the room with an EEG machine, made a big circle looking at Maude and then left. A few moments later she returned and asked if she was Maude Plunkett. “Oh, my goodness, I was looking for someone born in 1906 and knew it couldn’t be you!” Because of that accident she now uses a walker, but not all the time, especially when she’s washing and drying dishes, which brings a frown to Judy’s brow.

Maude Plunkett keeps up with politics and local issues being a frequent viewer of Fox Cable News, C-Span 1 & 2 when something is cooking in Congress, and is a daily listener to the Rush Limbaugh Show.

Her birthday party was held at the China Inn at Chamblee Plaze, her favorite restaurant, and was celebrated by 23 family members who had come in from Arizona, Wisconsin and Florida.

Maude has six children, (one who had lived in North Dekalb since 1963 and was an associate pastor of First Baptist Chamblee for 15 years before it chose to leave the area), 16 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, five great great-grandchildren, three step grandchildren and seven step great grandchildren and three step great great-grandchildren. What a legacy of life!

The last visit of Haley’s comet in 1986, Maude joined a group of celestial observers who had gathered on the front lawn of the First United Methodist Church of Chamblee on Chamblee Dunwoody Road. The group was thrilled when her son announced this was the second time Maude had seen it, though she was only four years old in 1910. She remembers everyone going outside to look up into the clear sky that was not diminished by electrical lighting and hearing her father say, “It looks like a street light in Pittsburgh!” An interesting side story is that her father was one of the first electricians in the country, becoming one in the late 1800’s. He made a set of electrical lights for their Christmas tree in 1898 and had the only “lit tree” in the neighborhood; maybe even the countryside for many years. The remarkable thing is that the family in Pennsylvania still uses that very string to light their Christmas tree today. Seems like Dad Parfitt could teach the Chinese a thing or two about Christmas lights.

Four years ago, Maude’s optimism and joy was interrupted by several family crises that impacted her loved ones. At a time of great stress she cried out to her Lord and asked why all of this was happening to grieve her so. Maude enjoys telling the story. “It was the first time I had gotten such a quick answer from the Lord. Clearly in my heart and mind the answer came loud and clear. 'Maude, you’re not supposed to still be here. I’m sorry you have to endure right now but there are some side benefits you can focus on.' ”

The family has been video taping her historical recollections and stories for several years and have many hours of amazing information that will not be lost. Maude recently went through all photographs putting date and names on all of them. It was astonishing to watch her identify photos she had not see for 40- 50 years.

“Conestoga Lady!” is what the family calls Maude -- who has been a pioneer woman in so many ways. She recently asked to have her clothes alterd to fit better because she has things to do. "This birthday is an amazing milestone for me and I realize, as never before there are a lot of things I still want to do. I plan to get to it."

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"If you aren't familiar with this site, check it out. It's pretty amazing. Try to find a hymn they don't have listed." Put it on your favorites for that time when there is a questions about "words."

Click Here to find the words to that hymn



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