Great Inspirational Story: Old Guy and a Bucket of Shrimp

Old Guy and a Bucket of ShrimpThis 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 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

Sent in by Darlene Quiring. Thank you Darlene God Bless you!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.