CHRISTMAS LETTER 2009

by
Fred McCaleb



I don’t understand many big events today because many TV announcers are sounding like machine guns shooting to me. Just catch something once in a while and so I will try to recall some of the exciting things that happened during my near 100 years of living. The first was a one teacher school across Boxes creek from where we lived taught by Alma Kizzire that made an example out of me and her boy. The 2nd another one teacher school at clover hill. Third was Shannon High School in Miss. Where all grades were taught and I failed 3rd grade under Mrs. Carter. There I read the Memphis commercial appeal about Charles A Lindberg crossing the Atlantic Ocean in his airplane, and in 1927 we honored Thomas Alva Edison’ s death by turning out lights for 3 minutes. You blew out a coal oil lamp at our house and thousands at others for many more years. Transportation had gone from wooden wheeled T model fords to Iron wheeled coupes. We got rides some times when rainy in an enclosed car. What a luxury. Soon my dad got tired of Miss. And we moved back to west part of Fayette County and in a better house. There I went to Kirkland Junior High and from there on to Winfield High. Couldn’t play foot ball, miss bus, and walk 12 miles home. They ran short of funds and I had to finish senior year 6 weeks at Fayette. Harry Hodge’s , one of the better off of Fayette, owned a car and his two boys brought me home from graduation.

I applied and was finally accepted to work my way through Berry College in December. Miss Berry had famous aviator Amelia Earhart speak at Joint Chapel and she left on her trip around the world soon and went down in the Pacific ocean and never returned. I saw Henry Ford 3 times while at Berry. One of his sayings was if a man thinks he can he can if he thinks he can’t he can’t. He was paying the highest wage of $5 per day earlier. He built the rock college for girls and their recreation hall for girls. Many other famous people like Emily Vanderbelt Hammond visited with money and philosophy. Soon I was gone from Berry to the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Co in Birmingham Al. at the big salary of 90$ Per month. My folks thought I was well to do. My brother, Hubert McCaleb had a job at Radford Arsenal near Radford, Va at $150 per month. This was nearly 1 yr. before Pearl Harbor and he told me to come there for a better job. I went and was accepted. I was at the Blacksburg Drug Store about 6 months later when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese war planes. War was declared right soon. I worked about 9 mos. Longer at Radford and Glen Wilkes TNT plant taken over from Russia until it exploded one night while I was home sleeping. Two buildings were completely destroyed. Spent two more months taking inventory and Then back to Radford. While at Glen Wilkes I took a Trip to New York and saw the Empire State Building, rode Trolleys for 5cts and did many other things. Got drafted from Radford. They let me stay home one month then thru Ft. McClellan, Atlanta, an hour or two in Washington, D.C. where I visited Congress in session and on to Aberdeen Proving Grounds for winter basic and then Texas where it was hot, then assigned to 428 Tire Company. From there to POE at Seattle, Wa. Then to Pearl Harbor for 6 months. I was driving a truck there and got ahead of the Franklin D Roosevelt convertible and stayed in front being waved on till I was back at Parking lot on side of road in Honolulu. I stopped beside road and watched Roosevelt go by with 2 motorcycles ahead and two behind. They had picked all cocoanuts off trees in Waikike Beach where he was lodging in the fancy hotel. I helped assemble weapon carriers on Sand Island across harbor from my truck lot for a week or two. We had hardest part dashboard to put on. A German POW camp was at our back. They got excited when all the big guns started trying to down a plane without friend or foe id that was missing. Truck drivers rode a small boat across the harbor to work each day. We finally caught a steamship to Saipan in a 7 boat convoy. Tokio Rose said we wouldn’t make it. That sort of tightened us up. We Closed ranks and zig zagged all night. Nothing happened. Finally on Saipan. There the B 29 bomber pilots told us at an out door movie how much of Tokio had been destroyed each day. One showed me thru one of the B 29 planes. They could shoot you down from every direction but one and that a military secret. I was on Saipan when atom bomb was dropped, the greatest event of modern times. Caught a ship back to San Francisco in November and got back home Dec. 21st in time for Christmas. Had Just finished 10000 miles of traveling. I helped my dad build a 2 car garage. He wanted me to stay home. In a month or so I wrote my old employment place about a job and they said I could come back. There I worked about a year until laid off. By that time I had already got married to a nice girl. I was pleased at being talked nice to and not to do or die. We lived together for 60 years until she died 3 years ago. I built a house at Ripplemead, Va. She cried when she had to leave it 11 years later. She was good about taking care of children while I was on shift work at Celanese plant near Pearisburg, Va. My next job was Thiokol Chemical at Huntsville, Al. I blew up an oven the first night after boss had told me to see if I could melt a sample of solid propellant. It would have disabled me if I had been there. I was there eating lunch in a parking lot when President John F Kennedy was shot in Texas. I was terminated when I got adhesion of liner from 5 to 45lbs to sq.in. Six months of un-employment and job was obtained at Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, DC. As chemist. There a $20 bill had to be folded thousands of times before breaking down. Linseed oil was mixed with ink and called special intaglio ink vehicle for printing. Printing couldn’t fade out. Saw cart loads of $100 bills. Saw them burning taken in old scrapped money. Went to counter fitting agent where they were catching counter fitters. One in Birmingham. Al. had never been caught making 1 $20 bill occasionally. Saw them loading big trucks with tons of money and machine gun officers guarding. We went to church one Sunday at a Washington Christian Church and Lindon B Johnson and family came in and sat 2 benches ahead of us with his armed guards. Some time along then I saw the remains of Herbert Hoover at white house. I was on the side walk and saw President Carter walk up Pa avenue unprotected for inauguration. Only recent one to do that. They got in an older new guy to be head guy of my department. I regretted that and got a job with more pay at Ft. Belvoir. There I analyzed gas samples from presidents helicopter that had fallen. Had to be sure but found nothing wrong. Next I analyzed gasoline from Russia. My boss was a Russian Jew. During all my time in Washington I attended ham radio shows. I was a licensed radio operator extra n4eb. I was only genealogist after retiring and getting lightning struck on radio tower and losing good transmitter-receiver. My wife attended my retirement at 63 years of age. I will be retired 30 years the last of December. May I after all this foolishness wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The best to all. Fred McCaleb