Here Come Those Pesky Bunkers Again

   You all remember about those bunkers, right?

   Here is a typical bunker, built on a fairly level spot in the woods, a concrete structure with a mound of dirt covering, a vent in the top, and trees growing on it. Even though this bunker is easy to spot from  ground level, think how hard to find from above in a plane. The wooded area, green in the summer and brown in the winter, would appear a solid parcel of land to a pilot or bombardier. Widely separated in the woods, these bunkers would present a formidable wartime challenge to any enemy bomber.

   When we last left reporting our quest to photograph all 100 of the storage bunkers in the Enterprise Park, the count of completed tasks had reached 89. Only 11 more to go.

   The last remaining bunkers were situated on interior roads that were marked closed and prohibited to travel by unauthorized cars or pedestrians.

   I politely asked a ranger one day if I could go into that area, and he told me that permission would have to be granted by the proper person in charge. He also said that he was not that person, and, with the visitor center closed because of covid, he did not know exactly who to ask.

   One rainy afternoon, I decided any staff in the Park would not be very busy, I motored in and started looking. Coming upon a ranger vehicle sitting on a side road, I stopped and pulled my car in beside his so our driver's side windows would be close so as not to let too much rain into the cars. As I explained my quest, and the fact that there were only 11 more to be "documented", which to me sounded important, he got on his phone and found a person working in the visitor center. 

   Okay, here came the answer back: I should come back any day the park was open, between the hours of 7:00AM and 3:00PM, find a ranger on duty, and tell him to check for me if indeed it was a good day.

   The very next day, striking while the iron was still hot, I rolled into the Park. Not finding an authoritative person near the entrance, I moved toward the interior. Realizing that the road I needed to enter, sported a small sign indicating a Ranger station lay beyond the entrance, I turned onto the closed road, found a maintenance facility, and a parked ranger vehicle nearby, so I parked to look around.

   Walking into the maintenance barn, and finding no one, I noticed a light from a side door. Looking through the door window, I saw a hallway with various office doors. Pushing my way into the area, and moving down the hall toward an open door, I met a man coming toward me. He introduced himself, as James Breedwell, Director of Maintenance and asked me my business. After hearing my situation, he said sure, it was possible, and I could park there and walk at my leisure to find the 11 sites.

   Since this area is off limits to park visitors, the bunkers were not kept up as visitor sites, but only used for maintenance and storage.

   After I had found all the bunkers in this restricted area, I found that I had not only completed my self-imposed task, I had also knocked down all the spider webs that filled the roadways and paths around the bunkers.

   As it nearly always happens, at the end of a project, I was left with questions:

   1. My last bunker photographed was No. 15, the last stop on one closed road. It sported a solar panel on the roof. What was it used for?

   2. One of the Park employees asked if I knew about the bunker that sits in a mass of kudzu on the road leading out of the park area toward I-75. That was news to me, but I did spot it from the road. Now to find some more information on that one. Was it part of the first 100 bunkers built, with the second 100 being those inside the Park?

   

   3. Was this turkey, with three friends, looking for bunkers also?

   I'll be sure to fill you in on the answers, and any other worthwhile news I find while out roaming around.

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

    Sometimes we just don't know how to help. 

   We know there are hurting people all around us. We hear about it on the news. We read about it in various papers, magazines, and on the Internet. 

   We know of organizations that are doing good.

   But just how do we make the transition from knowing about situations and doing something.

   For Carolyn and I, it was through an invite from a couple who were on the ground serving through the contribution of their time and their hands.

   Let me explain:

      Larry and Linda Williams have been friends with us for a lot of years, blessing our lives with their friendship and wise counsel. So when they speak, we listen. They told us about a hands-on project they were involved with here in the area. 

   Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a non profit whose goal it is to provide a bed for children who, for one reason or another, do not have the opportunity to sleep in a real bed. Chattanooga is one of 250 chapters of this organization around the country.

   On June 12th, in a Lowe's parking lot, we joined a group of volunteers who were using their hands and time making bunk beds. There must have been 40 or so people working as we drove up to the build site.

   Henry Ford must have rejoiced to see his assembly line ideas being put into practice for a good cause.

   Pallets of precut lumber formed the raw material. Two assembly lines moved the raw lumber from the pallets to the finished project. One line furnished the head and foot boards, the other the mattress frame.

   First the lumber was all sanded. Then it was moved, by hand, down each line.

   Carolyn and I worked on the head and foot boards. By the time it reached us in the line each piece had been stamped with the schematic for the screws and bolts. Then the larger holes were drilled for the larger bolts. Next came us, with the smaller drills to put in the holes for the screws.

   We handled 3 sizes of lumber on our line. They had been precut at the warehouse, so after the sanding and hole drilling, they were ready for assembly. Our assembly line put the headboards and footboards together and line #2 did the side rails.

   Right in the middle of this construction work, a quick hard shower erupted over our area. By the time we got to the sanding tent, half of our two man team was soaked and the other was in the car. Couldn't get much wetter so I just went back to work. (I am pictured behind the man in the light blue shirt toward the right side of the shot, expertly drilling away).

  Two more line spots finished the work for this morning. Next the assembled parts were coated with a liquid and passed on to be loaded on a trailer that would take them to the warehouse where they would be stored . 

   As needed, a delivery crew comes to the warehouse, gathers up the components, beds and linens, takes them to the recipient family, puts the bed together in the child's room, and the floor loses an inhabitant.

   This well-organized project put together the components for 106 bunk beds, and that many children will be smiling with their own bed and fixings before long. 

   Makes you feel good...

Don't Mess Around With Mother Nature

    This phrase, "Don't Mess Around With Mother Nature". was associated with a TV commercial some years back, further back than my memory now, but it fit in with this weekend's project.

   Sitting on the porch yesterday morning, enjoying the cool air and breeze, we noticed a grayish object nestled down in the uncut grass beside the front turnaround.

   A turtle had wandered into the side yard and was working furiously. My nature loving wife speculated that she was digging a hole to use for an egg depository, and that seemed to fit her actions.

   She soon finished her project and left using the driveway in front of the house, working her way across the road and into the yard across the street. She was headed for the lake, but don't know her ultimate destination. Carolyn made the observation that she had done her duty and was off to somewhere else. Apparently, never to see the nest or hatchlings again.

   All the time she had been digging and laying, there were several crows standing around her area, watching. Perhaps they envisioned lunch whenever the female turtle left the nest.

   A couple of loud claps drove the crows away, and, after the turtled traveled on, we went out to inspect.

   Sure enough, there was the hole filled in. 

   We felt like the crows would remember the location, and had already determined what had been deposited there. We gave some thought to protecting the site and giving the eggs a chance to hatch in their time.

   Our plan was to put some sort of structure over the site, either anchoring it to the ground or putting a heavy rock on top to keep it from being moved aside.

  

   Let's see those pesky crows get in that!

   Next morning before breakfast, we went back to the porch and saw the result of our work.

   An upside down plastic container with no sign of the stone. No way the crows could have accomplished that job, but, we didn't count on the four legged night roamers. Racoons or something had somehow gotten the rock off the top and just took the container off the site.

   And, yes, they had cleaned out the hole and left the egg remnants scattered around the outside.

   Regardless of our efforts in the conservation field, the natural food chain had held up, and someone, or something, perhaps plural, was now napping on a full stomach.

   One of my kids, back when a small kiddo, had an expression:

   "I'm sad about that."

   The mother turtle had moved on and would never know what happened, so why was I so sad?

   Seems as though we took this happening as a major catastrophe. How about the plight of millions of people around the world who are hungry, hurting, marginalized, and lost? 

   Do we mourn over them?

   We know that God takes care of the birds of the air and flowers of the field. 

   We also know that, as Americans, we have so much. Do we mourn more over turtle eggs than human hearts and needs?

   Do I sit and feel sad, and look for a larger rock, or do I look for ways to help in the crises of people's lives around me?

   Please God help us...

   

The Goal Is In Sight (almost)

   For several months, from the time we first hiked in the Enterprise South Nature Park, we had stalked the 100 bunkers built here during the time of World War II.

      The map we used is shown above. The large circles with single digits in black on a gold background show designated parking areas, and the smaller green circles show the location of all the bunkers.

We had found and photographed No. 1.

   And No. 100, plus most of those between these bookends.

   But, and it is a large BUT,  the remaining 11 bunkers are located in areas where the roads are closed and non-authorized vehicles are prohibited.

   With the end in sight, we search for a way to get these.

   Stay tuned.

Confluence of Celebrations

    Yesterday morning a word popped up in my mind, one that I seldom use and had to look up the meaning in a dictionary before writing. 

   CONFLUENCE

   "A meeting of two separate entities, such as two rivers meeting to form a larger one."

   Hot Dog, here was the word for my blog post and I could look good using it.

   My streams would be Caroline's graduation from Blacksburg High on May 22, 2021 and my 85th birthday on that day. They would merge together to form the events of the weekend.

   As is the case for these confluent streams, one would be the important one and the other an opportunist.

   The Graduate and future Freshman at University of Central Florida.

   

   

   Caroline dressing for the occasion with her sister Laken working on the hair.

   

   Everyone in the family was excited and glad to celebrate.

   BHS Football stadium was ready, with plenty of extra chairs.   

   Proud Parents thinking "Only Three More to Go"

   The celebrating continued on through the day with games galore.

   Corn Hole and Pickleball were favorites and helped us work off all the good food.

   Lucy and David were eager to play and show off their skills.

   There were other decorations around the table as the whole family, 2 sets of grandparents, 5 kiddos and the 2 proud parents, sat down for a meal. It was a birthday celebration tacked on to the graduation.

   Dawn's dad, Golan, takes notes on how an 85th birthday ought to be celebrated. (Token no. of candles, birthday glass, funny glasses that lit up, and a balloon.)

   There was a special present from my charming wife.

   For Pickleball people the shirt reads in small print:

      What's the Score?

      Who Just Served?

      Were You 1 or 2?

   All joking aside, a good time was had by all. We were all glad to have two occasions to celebrate, and celebrate we did!

   Lucy will be the next to graduate, then Laken and David. 

   I believe there are at least 3 more times to make this dual event happen again. Can't Wait.

   

It Happened One Thursday..

   Thursday is Pickleball day. Along with Tuesday, they are my days to play at the BX.

   Since my charming wife has joined the exercise class at the BX, which meets at 10AM, I have changed my playing times on those two days to 10-12. This means we can drive in together, she can exercise from 10-11, and still have time to play in the last hour, or walk the track.

   One recent Thursday morning we showed up at the facility a little before 10. While she went upstairs to join her class, I walked into the gym to get ready to play. Passing by the first 3 courts, I noticed a new player. This was a tall lady, perhaps a former college basketball player, I thought.

   Looking back from the player waiting area, I thought she looked somewhat familiar, but with my memory the way it is, I dismissed the thought and got ready to play. 

   Soon the games began to finish, and the players from court 2 retreated into the waiting area to hydrate and wait for their next chance to play. 

   The tall, rather athletic looking woman was coming my way. Stopping in front of me, she put out her hand and asked, "Don Bowman?".

   Then it all came together. "Sally Thornton", I replied. 

   Sally had worked for me after I took over the management of the family produce brokerage business my Dad had begun back in 1946. After my college days, and a stint in the finance office of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Mayre and I had moved back to Chattanooga to work.

   Sally's dad had gone to work for Wayne L. Bowman Co. when my dad retired.  Jim had been a representative for the Washington State Apple Commission in the Southeast. 

   As business continued to increase, Jim suggested we hire his son Van, to join the sales team, and the Bowman-Thornton connection gathered in a new employee. 

   I don't remember the dates, but Sally, Jim's daughter came along after finishing her college basketball career at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. She was such a good addition to our team that several years later we hired Jim's other son, Paul, to the sales staff.

   That is the back story on the picture. 

   I had not seen Sally since the early 90s, when I sold the business to the Thornton family, and left to teach school at CSAS.

   I found this picture of the Bowman Company, taken in the 80s. 

   Sally is on the far right and I am on the far left. Others on the front row left to right were: Cindy Kelley, my wife Mayre, my dad Wayne, and Carolyn Brown, ..Back row Van Thornton, Jessie Broadnax, Curtis Carroll, Jim Thornton.

   It was a good reunion. Some catching up on family and their lives, plus the opportunity to play some Pickleball with a good athletic lady and friend. I look forward to more games with her as my partner. 

   She is Good...

   Yes, Pickleball at the BX is the place to be. 

   You just never know what might happen or who might show up.

Who Do You Say That I Am?

   My plan this morning was to write a short blog about a reunion I had last week with a former employee of mine. I had a couple of pictures I planned on using to review our past association, but I need to put that post aside for a couple of days to focus on some things I want to highlight now.

   Don't worry, I will get to the reunion, and also back to more tales from my childhood and growing up years. 

   But first, I need to talk about something that is much more important.

   When I first went on Facebook, they wanted a profile picture. My choice was:

   Some may not know, but this is a Sorry piece from the board game of the same name. It was a game played often as my kids grew up. They made me use the yellow piece for my "man" because he was broken, but I chose the green one for Fb. A "whole piece" seemed somehow more mature. But inside a lot of the time I was broken and, indeed, a "sorry piece of work".

   Some 1100+ blog posts ago, I chose the moniker "Pilgrim" to post under, because I felt myself a man on a journey. I still am, and will be until I die.

   If you are up for a challenge, go ahead and read all the posts, and you can see where I came from and how I have traveled.

   BUT FIRST:

   For the past several weeks, Carolyn and I have been following a new series relating to the life of Jesus called The Chosen. I challenge you to go to the App Store and download it for yourself. The whole series project will be comprised of 8 seasons. Two seasons have already been shot, and the 8 episodes of season one and three episodes of season two are available to watch now on the app. Using the app on your phone, you can project the episodes on your TV. New episodes are posted as they are finished. Episode 4 of Season 2 will be posted this coming Tuesday night.

   Now I have been in church since nursery days. I have heard the stories of Jesus and His Disciples, and seen pictures and even films of the events of His days. In The Chosen, Jesus, whom the Bible shows as wholly human and wholly divine, is portrayed in His earthly ministry in a humanistic fashion that is very believable and authentic.

   The disciples, too, are men just like us. They have been given a plausible back story, and follow The Master with all the attitudes and feelings that we might have if we had been there with them. 

   In short, the characters are believably real, and I see myself in them as I watch. When Jesus says to Matthew, "Follow Me", and to the paralytic, "Take up your bed and walk", he is looking at me and asking me to do the same. It is powerful.

   These stories and characters are not made up. It appears to me, as a layman, that they are from The Bible with the authority of Scripture. Others that I have asked say the same.

   If you have become bored with the same old, same old, or if you have been turned off by others Christian or not, it is time for a new look and a new perspective.

   I was challenged to "Look and See" and I did.

   You should also.

   Then you can answer the more important question:

   Not, "Who Do You Say That I (Don) Am?", 

   But, "Who Do You Say That He (Jesus) Is?"...

   Peter answered this second question "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God"

      and I echo his answer. 

      How about you?