Why Do Old Men Do Such Strange Things?

Thanks to the listeners who send me these things, so I can share them with others.

n Old Man and a Bucket of Shrimp – a true story

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 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)

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.

You've got to be careful with old guys, you just never know
what they have done during their lifetime.