This is a wonderful true story. You will be glad that you read it, and I hope you will pass it on.
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 Millennials.
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 then 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. 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 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.
Reference: (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 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.
As you can see, I chose to pass this story along as it was passed to me from my father. It is a great story that many don’t know…I think it exemplifies a couple of life’s lessons to be remembered. You’ve got to be careful with old guys, you just never know what they have done during their lifetime. It also speaks to me about how we never know what we adversity we might face, but when we put our talent both mentally and physically together, we can overcome, but we must never forget what we learned and to remember to thank those that helped pull us through even if it was as something seemingly meaningless as a seagull and to pay it forward.
This man has balls!
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Maybe he is the ‘laughing’ stock of the pack?
Something to think about when you sit around the table with your family and friends this Thanksgiving.
Abraham Lincoln’s
1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.Abraham A. Lincoln
October 3, 1863Interesting Day in Congress!
Dear friends and loved ones, forgive me if I seem a bit irate and down in the dumps. Watch this video. Understand this filthy program of open borders is the beginning of the end unless we rise up in support of common sense behavior leading to the expulsion of the illegals. We cannot sit on the couch and let someone else do it. We need to bury our elected officers with demands of immediate action. If you believe as I do that the last election was rife with fraud and deceit then you will have a heart attack when you view the devastation of allowing illegals to vote. They cannot read or write our language and will bend to the graft offered them which will spell disaster for our nation. If you are in doubt, get on your knees and beg God above for hope, clarity and inspiration. This is a call to action, immediate action! May God forgive us of our apathy and give us strength to carry on. love, Dave
Worth the watch, about time someone called them out!
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 Ken Jacksteit, EditorMattos Mail Bag!
 Hello all,This month’s meeting had 62 attendees; thank you all!
Returning members: Jim Carlton, Mike Fehr, Louie Hill, Heinz Koenig, Steve Melo, Curt Reeves, Mike Richmond, Tony Rodriquez, Dave Tozer Condolences to the families of Sgt Justin Jantz #4031, and retirees: Sgts. Jim Guido #1065, John Boyles #1550 (wife Patricia Ann Mahan), Ofc. Louis Borges #2293 (wife Andrea Lisa), Assoc. member Mike Fox (father Michael Fox) New member(s): Retired Lt. Rich Saito #1876
November Birthdays
(Dates to the right are the retirement dates) Active 1 Alvares, Mark (2019) $25 birthday gift card winners: December Birthdays
(Dates to the right are the retirement dates) Active 1 Allen, Bryan (Chaplain)
Raffle prizes donated by: Anonymous Member, Darrell Cortez, Ernie Hernandez, Paul Gardner,
Upcoming events: The San Jose POA’s Holiday Open House at the POA Hall on December 14th from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm. PBA Valentine’s Dinner/Dance at the POA Hall on February 10, 2024. More information to follow. Will Rendler #1669 provided the following:
Ted Vasquez #1725 shared a group photo of a breakfast gathering at a local Bill’s Diner on Monday the 13th.
Active Lt. Mario Brasil #3513 submitted this flyer.
Please ensure the PBA has your correct contact information. Address updates may be sent to: Ernie Alcantar
PBA President |
Ernie Alcantar, President 
Curtis Jackson, Vice President
Larry Lundberg, Treasurer 
Cindy Buell, Sgt. at Arms
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C’ya
LRPyle#1621
Thanks for all the pictures with the names identifying the old timers. Brings back a lot of great memories from SJPD in the 60’s & 70’s.
Bruce Fair Sgt #
Yes, and it is a good thing for you and I that we cannot attend. Notice those in attendance seem to be getting old?
“-)