Pyromaniacs and Hope

I made a hospital visit to Demopolis, Alabama one day several years ago.  As I stepped out of the pickup, the aroma of blossoms of Barrett pear trees flooded the air.  Being the global minded I was transported to a time long gone.  I could smell the burning of a field and I remember gathering sagebrush, setting it a fire, and slowly scattering the fire around the field surrounded by wild plums in full blossom.  I could see daddy on the 8N Ford tractor straddling the fire, breaking the freshly burned field, and I could smell the heavenly scent of fresh dirt mixed with smoke rising from burned sage, weeds, and stubs of long gone crops.

Momma always worried that would catch ourselves on fire.  Did I ever tell you that momma was a worrywart and daddy did not worry about anything?  Well anyway, my brothers and I were pyromaniacs, burning fields, burning trash, burning wood, and burning rubber.  Burning rubber was fun until I bought that first set of tires.

The old timers burned off the woods each year to help control undergrowth and bugs.  I do not remember having trouble with pine beetles when we burned the woods.  All we had to watch was the smut.

We burned all the clippings, limbs, and brush we cleared.  It was fun to tell tales by the fire after dark.  Once again all we had to do was watch out for the smut.  You ain’t lived until you see yourself in the mirror after standing around a smutty fire or using pine tops putting out wood fires or field fires started inexperienced pyrotechnical neighbors.

A fire is hypnotic.  It consumes, destroys, and eliminates where new growth can spring forth with new life.  Ain’t nuthin’ no prettier than new green sprouts shooting up in a smutty area.  It has an indescribable green hue.

When one burns a yard, field, or the woods, there is hope for new growth.  Life comes from that which was dead.  I think that is the reason the Resurrection was in the Spring.  That which was dead, comes forth living and vibrant.

As Ezekiel gazed upon a valley of dry bones God asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  Ezekiel answered, “O Lord God, thou knowest.”

I felt that way the first time I remember daddy burned the field.  Daddy knew it would produce a bountiful crop in due time.  Daddy gave me hope.  It reminds me of a story I used several years ago speaking on having hope.  It goes like this.

Several years ago, a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child.  She took the boy’s name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now.  I’d be grateful if you could help him in his homework so he doesn’t fall behind the others.” 

It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got inside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital’s burn unit.  No one prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain.  She felt that she couldn’t just turn around and walk out, so she awkwardly stammered, “I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with your nouns and adverbs.” 

The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy?”  Before she could finish a profusion of apologies, the nurse interrupted her:  “You don’t understand.  We’ve been very worried about him, but every since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed.  He’s decided to live.” 

The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw that teacher.  It all changed when he came to a simple realization.  With joyful tears, he expressed it this way:  “They would not send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?” 

 

Let’s celebrate hope in the Resurrection Jesus Christ our Lord!

So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.  And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army (Ezekiel 37: 7-10 KJV).

Big Ugly

 

Big Ugly was the nickname of the oiler who helped me operate the cement kilns in Calera.  Until the introduction of computers, kiln burning required keen eyesight, analytical thinking, and quick response by the burner.  It was one of the most pressured positions at a cement plant.  The oiler was critical to successful burning of the kilns.

The two kilns at Calera were 450 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. Each burned 3-6 tons of coal and 75-83 tons of raw mix per hour when operations were smooth.  This produced 40-45 tons of clinker.  Clinkers, mixed with gypsum, produces cement.  Kilns were basically 450 pipe bombs, very dangerous and potentially deadly.

I had been an oiler prior to becoming a burner.   An oiler’s responsibility is largely preventive maintenance.  He is the eyes and ears of the burner.  If an oiler can diagnosis a potential problem, a scheduled time of repair is much better than an emergency.

Once another burner was out taking a visual inspection of the burning process.  Burners did this on fifteen-minute intervals under normal operation.  Bad raw mix could make the inspections more frequent.  When the burner returned to the control room, fire blew from the inspection door and looked like a fire-breathing dragon.  Bumfuzzled, the burner tried to analyze the problem.

His alert oiler saw the fire and ran to the control room.  He told his burner that he saw an electrical trainee and a dufus engineer carrying on of the control modules to the electrical shop.  The control module was the control for one of the major vent fans that created airflow equilibrium in the kiln.  The imbalance created more fuel and air than the kiln could handle.  The burner quickly ran down two of the Three Stooges and returned the control for the burner to get control.  Larry and Curley did not think removing the module would hurt anything.

Another critical piece of equipment was the clinker breaker.  Clinkers are normally marvel sized, but they can be from a tiny speck to six feet balls.  I have shot a couple of four feet clinkers with the eight-gauge tripod gun used to shoot sulfur rings that form in the kiln.  Clinkers larger than 2-3 feet will choke the system and will not enter the clinker breaker.

Clinker breakers are large hammers that break clinkers into manageable sizes.  Even though they are hardened steel, they wear and constant inspections of the belts, a total of six, that drive the hammers are vital.  Should a clinker breaker choke, the belts could burn into and the breaker stop.  If this happens, an oiler has a mess and a burner must start the process of slowing the kiln or possibly a shutdown if the belts are not replaced quickly.

I was working overtime on another shift when the oiler told me that one belt had worked loose.  It did not pose a threat, but he wanted me to know.  Three evening later, my oiler run into the control room in a panic.  He was frantic.  He said that we had a belt loose and we need to call in maintenance men to fix it. 

I told him that I knew it and that it had been loose for three days.  He assured me that he checked it a dozen or more times each shift.  I said that he looked at it without seeing it.  I told him the Bible talked about seeing but not seeing.

I told Big Ugly that I had done it too as an oiler.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive (Matthew 13:14 KJV).

*And he (John) stooping down, and looking in, saw (blepi-casual glance) the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.  Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth (theori-thoughtful and calculated look) the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.  Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw (eiden-conveys belief), and believed (John 20:8-5KJV).

* From Doctrine that Dances, Dr. Robert Smith Jr. (pp. 20-21)

Unemployment

 When I was a kid, I went with my daddy to Calera, Alabama to the unemployment agency to “draw his pennies.”  I had a hard time imagining why pennies.  Why not nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, or dollars?  The first time I went with him I had images of him bringing out large sacks of pennies.  He said that when you are unemployed you got to draw pennies, which was money you paid to the state that you could get when you were on layoff.  Of course, I asked him why he did not pay the state dollars where he could draw dollars when out of work.

Daddy drew his pennies a whole lot when we moved back to Alabama from Illinois.  Having moved back to the South, unemployment was something that we grew accustomed to experiencing.  Dad was often the low man on the totem pole where he was employed.  With many younger men in the employment pole, daddy had difficulty finding a job.  When he did, at the first economic downturn, daddy got to draw his pennies.  When Christmas season approached, we knew that daddy would be on layoff.  When the weather was inclement, daddy would be sent home.  When the mill quit taking logs, daddy got to stay at home.  When the lime stockpile was overstocked, the plant sent daddy home for a few weeks.  Layoff became a way of life.

I would watch daddy during these layoffs.  He would get depressed.  He did not suffer depression, which I am thankful.  If he had, he would have been suicidal.  When times were hard, he would talk of it since his dad had committed suicide due to a crippling injury.  Daddy did have many days that he would mope around and have feeling of hopelessness.

In order to draw his pennies, he had to be actively seeking employment.  I have watched him on many occasions return home discouraged.  Place after place would turn him down because of his age, repeated unemployment, and dozens of other reasons.  During these times, we never received food stamps or government assistance.  Daddy did not want the government to control him by funding him.  When we farmed, he would not take government assistance saying he wanted to plant what he wanted and not controlled by Uncle Sam.

I was in the sixth grade before daddy had a job where he did not have to worry with a layoff.  He worked at this plant for more sixteen years as a heavy equipment mechanic.  Diagnosed with cancer in 1982, he had to take disability.

I experienced my first layoff while working with Hiwassee Land Company.  We were ahead of schedule one summer and the supervisor gave us a few “Moon Days” off.  It was when Neil Armstrong and crew landed on the moon.

My second layoff came in 1973 from Keystone Metal Moulding when there was the “Oil Crisis.”  I had survived several layoffs by Keystone, which made chrome moulding for automobiles, but new car sells were down and unemployment was up.  I was a die-setter. 

My third time off came in 1976 from Linefast Corporation working as a machinist.  I was beginning to think that I was following in my daddy’s steps.  Times were harder.

The real hard layoff was 1982 from Martin Marietta Cement.  I was an oiler with a new house, a new truck, and two babies, Andy and Angel, it was very hard.  This was the first layoff in the history of the plant.  It was a corporate takeover of Martin Marietta by the Bendx Corporation.

This had nothing to do with an economic turndown, my job performance, or my work record, but I, as did everyone on layoff, took it personal.  I remember as dozens of us went to the unemployment agency.  We felt abandoned, dirty, guilty, and ashamed.  We told it horrible to draw our pennies and then told to apply for food stamps.

With that in mind, my thoughts and prayers go out to all the men and women who are suffering layoff in our area.  Join with me as I pray for them.  I have been there and had it not been for the help of the Lord I would not have made it.  My family and I struggled during that five-year layoff.

 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.

 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever (Psalm 73:21-26 KJV).

Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes (Haggai 1:6 KJV).

PS Aaron came at the end of that five-year layoff.