HomeARC ML 2838
THE INAUGURATION!--The Times of Our Lives! 22/1/93 DFO 2838
1. This is January 22nd, 1993, two days after the great Bill Clinton inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C., as he was ushered in as the 42nd President of the U.S. I think I'm going to call this little talk, "The Inauguration!" or "The Times of Our Lives!", as I reflect on the great extravaganza of this latest presidential inauguration, the most lavish & expensive of all time! The Democrats are notorious for their expenditure of money, & they certainly did not save any on this one. They were determined to lavish the greatest inaugural ceremony of all time on their darling Bill Clinton, as a great triumph after many years of defeat at the hands of the Republicans, & very few Democratic administrations.
2. I guess the U.S. is going out with a bang! This may be their last inauguration. In fact, it might be their last president, considering the way things are going & the Hell on Earth that the U.S. is promoting throughout the World, & the policies--nearly all the wrong policies--for which Bill Clinton was elected, from killing babies to promoting Sodomites, so-called abortion & Gay liberation. For the first time in its history, a U.S. president has been elected primarily for his advocacy of these two horrible issues, & also because they hope that he can rescue the U.S. out of its terrible nosedive into what also could be the World's last great Depression!
3. But no man--especially not Bill Clinton--could possibly stop the judgements of God on a wicked World, no matter who he is or how hard he tries!--Not even the final great Antichrist World Dictator to come, whom Bill Clinton & his cohorts, the ACs, & wicked America are eagerly looking forward to & are preparing the World for.
4. After seeing the news clips of this greatest & most expensive & lavish presidential inauguration of all time, I thought how the World has changed since I was just a little boy & witnessed my first presidential inauguration in person, sitting on a rough little wooden, backless bench on the White House lawn. We watched the inauguration of the simple, humble, little-known 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, who became president after Warren G. Harding's sudden death in 1923.
5. My Mother, always concerned for her children's education & experience in life, as well as attendance at historical occasions & visits to famous scenic sights, had hustled us off one cold night in our little Model-T Ford to Washington, D.C., & the White House grounds. At that time we lived in the suburb of Virginia Highlands, just outside Washington, across the Virginia line, where my Father was pioneering a small church with a very small congregation in a very small local grade school, which we lived across the street from.
Dad's Birthplace & Aunt Ellen!
6. Some of you have already heard about some of the experiences of my childhood which led up to my Father's pastorate in Virginia Highlands near Washington.--From my birth on February 18th, 1919, in Oakland, California, by San Francisco Bay, in a small four-room, one-story, very humble little brown wooden bungalow in a very poor neighbourhood, now all Black, in the Melrose district of old Oakland.
7. I can remember the two huge Washingtonian palm trees in the front yard & the big wide screened front porch. As you entered from the porch, there was a small dining room on the left & a tiny living room on the right, all one great big room. Then came the kitchen behind the dining room, then the bathroom behind the living room, & off a little hall that led to the back was the only bedroom. It was a very cheap, one-bedroom cottage which my parents had apparently rented as the landing place for their coming new baby, as well as a home for my older brother & sister.
8. My Father had recently landed a fairly good paying job as a bookkeeper & sometimes a brakeman with the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco. He rode the famous ferry back & forth across San Francisco Bay to his work every day, my parents having temporarily left their new-found evangelistic work & my Mother's tours of giving her remarkable & miraculous testimony of her conversion from atheism, & supernatural healing "from deathbed to pulpit overnight"!
9. Due to her pregnancy they had apparently reached a lull in the number of invitations for her to tell her story & had come to visit my rich Aunt Ellen, my Father's oldest sister, who had a very lovely home there at 21 Westall Avenue near downtown Oakland, California, in a very nice section, which I remember well from later visits.
10. My Aunt had come to the United States as a poor immigrant from Sweden, preceding the rest of her family, which she brought over later. She had worked her way up in the business field, first in Oakland, Nebraska, then in Oakland, California, where one night she was asking a Ouija board how she should invest her money, & it spelled out the word "hats."--Inspired by the devilish forces behind this board, I'm sure. She immediately thought of a millinery store, a hat shop, which was for sale in downtown San Francisco, & on the strength of this prediction from the Ouija board, she bought it!
11. Due to her very skillful hard labours & Swedish ingenuity--which I now realise was partly Jewish ingenuity, since I found out my Swedish Grandfather's background--she worked her way up to a flourishing business there & was able to buy two more hat shops, which were all wiped out in the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906. But having been a very wise woman & having made sure they were all well insured, this was no great disaster for her, but rather a real boost on her road to economic success! She was able to not only rebuild & restock her three hat shops, but also invest in other lucrative properties all over San Francisco & Oakland, California, the Bay Area, until she was fairly rich by the time I came along, & quite contemptuous of the poor.
12. Having become a self-made woman herself, she figured that everybody could do it if they worked at it & tried, & she had nothing but contempt for those who didn't!--Which is how she thought of my Mother & Father with their little tiny family of two children at the time, who came to visit her between invitations & meetings. She berated my Father every time he ever visited her, telling him that he should "quit this Gospel gypsy begging routine" of being what she considered "Gospel bums," & go into some kind of promising business!--Or just plain get a job & earn some money to support his family instead of having to come & mooch off of her every once in awhile, which she seemingly resented.--Especially since she was jealous of my Mother's two children, having none herself, being barren all her life.
13. But she had taken care of & practically adopted my older brother during my Mother's illness for five years. She had taken my brother Hjalmer when he was but a baby, because my Father couldn't possibly take care of him & my Mother was flat on her back in bed, paralysed. So Aunt Ellen had undertaken to take him over & rear him for the first five years of his life, which just about shaped him for the rest of his life to be very materialistically-minded, educationally-minded & obsessed with a craving for popularity & position, etc. He later went into the field of education & was the vice president of three different San Francisco Bay area State colleges--San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose. Being vice president means he was the financial administrator, really, of the colleges. The presidents get all the glory & the vice presidents do all the work!
14. So I'm sure Aunt Ellen must have berated my Father as usual & said: "Why don't you quit that silly foolishness of running around the country with this family of little children without a home & little or no income, never knowing where your next meal is coming from or your next booking! Why don't you quit this foolish business of being these poor beggar bums, Gospel gypsies, & get a good job, now that you have another baby on the way?"
15. So apparently under the pressure of my Aunt, & perhaps even my Mother too, my Father got this job with the railroad. My Mother was already "great with child" & knew that it was certainly going to be difficult to live with my Aunt, who constantly maligned her for having ruined her brother--my Father--& blamed her for his lack of success in holding jobs, succeeding in business or making money. So particularly with the pressure of the coming baby, my Mother apparently finally yielded to giving her consent to my Father getting a good job that paid fairly well.--That of course was found for him by my influential wealthy Aunt with the fairly substantial Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which was one of the leading railroads of the United States at that time, having been one of the first to cross the country from New York to San Francisco.
16. So my Father went to work & he was there long enough to take his vacation from his job as a brakeman on the railroad itself, which meant a paid vacation & a lot of outdoor exercise & travel across the West, which he enjoyed very much. Meanwhile my Mother was waiting for her baby.
17. And "I remember, I remember the house where I was born, the little window where the sun came peeking in at morn!" You may say, "That's ridiculous! Nobody remembers the day when they were born!" Well, I didn't write that little poem, but a poet named Thomas Hood did, so maybe he had the same experience as I did. I can remember the very bed in which I was born, in which I lay & my Mother nursed me. So if you think that's not possible, well, maybe the Lord just gave me an unusually good memory, because I've had to remember so many things, including a lot that I'm going to tell you about in this little talk.--Not just for my benefit, but for yours too, as well as that of the World.
18. Anyway, in due season I arrived on Tuesday afternoon at about two o'clock on February the 18th, 1919, just three months after World War I ended. I weighed 11 pounds, almost twice as much as most babies! My Mother had a bountiful supply of rich milk, thank the Lord, despite the fact that we both had the Spanish influenza, which was plaguing the entire World at the end of World War I, & from which about 20 million people died. But the Lord spared us from this initial attack of the Enemy to kill me, & we survived, thank the Lord!--And I was a good, healthy bouncing baby, a chubby little cherub, as you can see by those early photos of me when I was two years old, sitting on the armchair smiling at you! (See BOR Volume 1, page 125.)
What Happened in 1919?
19. Ofttimes we think of our lives in relation to the events of the World of the day, & we wonder, "Where was I when such-&-such happened?" Well, I was curious about this, so I got out my almanac to see just what was happening that year of my birth, & here are a few of the events which transpired that year, according to this old almanac.
20. Probably the most outstanding event of that year was the Versailles Treaty, supposedly settling the scores of World War I. I was born in February, 1919, just three months after the Armistice was signed on November 11th, 1918. This was followed by President Woodrow Wilson's draft of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which was signed by the Allies & their former enemy, Germany, but oddly enough, rejected by the U.S. Senate itself.
21. Another very outstanding event occurred that year, because that was the year in which the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, which brought prohibition of alcoholic beverages into effect throughout the United States. No more liquor was allowed to be sold in the United States from then on until FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democratic "liquor president" was elected at the depths of the Depression in 1932 on the promise that he would repeal Prohibition, as well as try to pull the U.S. out of its worst & greatest Depression in World history at that time.
22. So 1919 was a very eventful year! Where were you that year? Well, you were probably not even in your daddy's mind, if your daddy was even born by that time, which probably he was not, most of you being teenagers when the Family began. But often we wonder about some of these things, "Where was I when that happened in World history or my nation's history? How old was I? Where was I?--If I was at all!"
23. I remember some of the great events of history at that time very well, including the one that I attended, the inauguration of President Calvin Coolidge in 1925. I remember things earlier than that. I can remember our trips & treks back & forth across the primitive highways of the day, the main U.S. highways then being mere gravel roads. We travelled from California to Oklahoma, where my Mother & Father were invited to go to pastor some of Grandfather Brandt's churches.--And where he had participated in the famous Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, in the tempestuous throes of the history of the latter part of the 19th century, when my Mother was only three.
Events of My Grandfather's Lifetime!
24. That began to interest me when I thought back about my Mother's life, & I wondered what had happened during her life, after she was born in 1886. Then I went further & thought, let's see now, my Grandfather, her father, was born in 1860, the year before the Civil War began, on an old farm at Somerset, in Southern Ohio, of farming parents, & became a school teacher at the age of 19. By that time he had already lived through 19 years of very interesting history of the United States, including the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War in 1865.
25. This is also about the time of one of the saddest inventions of history besides the atom bomb, when the Swede, Alfred Nobel, invented dynamite in 1866, which helped the British to establish their great empire worldwide. This was also about the time in my Grandfather's early life when Marx wrote his "Das Kapital," the foundation Bible of Communism. There were a few nice things about those days, like Strauss's beautiful waltzes & the completion of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad in 1869 when my Grandfather was nine years old. Also in that year the Suez Canal opened, & the U.S. suffered one of its great "panics," as they called the recessions & depressions of those days.
26. In 1870, Napoleon III finally surrendered & Paris declared the Third Republic. In 1871, Kaiser Wilhelm I was crowned as the King of Prussia. I believe it was his grandson who led the Germans in the First World War. Also in '71, Stanley met Livingstone in Africa, & in 1876, Custer & his men were massacred on Indian territory--where they were busy massacring the Indians, so it served him right! In 1877, the Russo-Turkish War began, Edison patented the first phonograph, & President Garfield was assassinated in 1881. Britain was on a grand empire-establishing course at the time, & the following year invaded & conquered Egypt. Germany, Austria & Italy formed an alliance against Britain, & in 1882 came the discovery of the tuberculosis germ, the discovery of germs becoming possible with new microscopes.
27. When my Grandfather was 19 in 1879 he had his first job as a school teacher, but soon was remarkably converted because of a near-fatal accident on stage during a stint as an actor. Afterwards he was desperate for Salvation, & he prayed the Sinner's Prayer on his knees with a Methodist preacher. Apparently the Methodists were not as particular about education in those days as they were about dedication, & enlisted my Grandfather about that time, when he was in his early 20's, to go to West Virginia, where the early Methodists were establishing new churches in the hillbilly hills of that famous bootlegging country. But that was in the days when liquor was legal, of course.
28. Having married my Grandmother, Nina Marquis, descendant of a noble family of France, he had gone to West Virginia with his new bride to pastor his new circuit of five small country churches. Each Sunday he rode on a horse over the mountains, visiting each church at least a couple of times a month. They lived in a large, old wooden two-story white house on a hill overlooking the small village of Ronceverte, West Virginia, near White Sulphur Springs, where my Mother was born in the year 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was also dedicated, & Geronimo, the Apache Indian chief, finally surrendered. The following year of '87, Queen Victoria was celebrating her Golden Jubilee, her 50-year anniversary as Queen of Great Britain & Empress of the British Empire, & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first "Sherlock Holmes" story.
29. In 1888, Eastman began marketing his first little box camera, called the Kodak, & Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire, the first tire that held air. Up until that time, all tires were solid rubber. I can even remember when I was a lad only five years old in Miami, trucks still running around there & in New York, thundering down the streets with their heavy loads with those solid rubber tires.--Which were at least better than the former iron-rimmed wagon wheels of the big beer wagons, which really thundered by when I was a lad!
30. In 1889 when my Mother was only three years old, two million acres of Oklahoma were opened to settlement. My Grandfather apparently decided to forsake the hazardous work of trying to establish five churches in the hills of West Virginia, to file a land claim during the Oklahoma Land Rush, the famous story told in a scenario which he wrote, in the famous motion picture, "Cimarron!" (See ML #1623:18.) Mark Twain was busy writing some of his tales, & just a couple of years later the diesel engine was invented. In 1894 when my Mother was only eight years old, Coxey's famous army of unemployed marched on Washington, Edison invented the first movie machine, & Marconi invented the first radio in 1896.
31. When Mother was only a young teenager of 13, my dashing Grandfather dashed off to South Africa during the Boer War between the British & the Dutch farmers there in 1899, as a war correspondent, having gotten quite successful in writing by this time, as well as pastoring & lecturing, being about 39.
32. I skipped over the many important things that happened during my Grandfather's lifetime or it would make this story entirely too lengthy, but such was the life of my forebears, as relates to the events of history.
20th Century Events!--And Mother's Life!
33. To rapidly summarise some of the events of the years at the beginning of this, the 20th Century: In the early 1900s there was the famous Galveston Hurricane that drowned 6,000 people; Freud began his demonic writings; Queen Victoria died, succeeded by her son, Edward VII; President McKinley began his second term, was shot, & Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as his successor; Caruso was beginning to make his first records on the first musical recording machines, the record players, of which we had one when I was a child, including some of Caruso's first records. They'd be worth a lot now if we still had them, but they were forsaken long ago in our many travels.
34. The Wright brothers pioneered their first flight in 1903 when Mother was a teenager, about 17, & Ford organised the Ford Motor Company. This was followed by the Russo-Japanese War, which the Russians lost to Japan, the first New York City subway was opened, & Einstein theorised his first theories about relativity. It was also at this time that my Mother's mother passed away as the result of a minor operation in which the surgeon's scalpel slipped, pierced the peritoneum, & her tummy swelled up until it nearly burst, & she died, looking up into Heaven & saying, "This is my Coronation Day!"--As she was such a good Christian & led so many Chinese to the Lord, having learned the language herself.
35. But my Uncle Mark, my Mother's older brother, as well as my Mother were embittered by her death, which they blamed on God, & my Uncle Mark, who figured a great deal later in my early life, ran away & was lost for many years, until he came back to us in Miami when I was just a little lad. And Mother virtually ran away too, or got away. Her father, who was wealthy by this time, paid for her to take a pleasure tour of Europe with other rich young women such as Olga Busch, daughter of Anhauser Busch of the Anhauser Busch breweries, & a number of others, where she spent my Grandfather's wealth in riotous living & said she never saw daylight for a number of weeks, simply going from one Paris nightclub to another all night long & sleeping all day!
36. She was advised to drink the French wine rather than the unsafe water, so she had quite a wild time! But eventually she got fed up with that life, particularly by the time she was gambling away her father's money in Monte Carlo, in Monaco, on the southern coast of the French Riviera. She went back to see her father, who by this time was pastoring a very large church in St. Louis, & because she was simply bored, she later took a job as an artist painting the colourful branding marks of the cattlemen of Texas under the famous general of the Mexican War, Winfield Scott.--After which an army post in San Francisco was named & which she used to point out to me as a little lad.
37. She eventually got fed up with all the high life of what she used to call the "froth & scum of society"--not the dregs like the bums, but the filthy rich--& contemplated suicide until she decided to give her life away, as her father advised, rather than throw it away, & she went into establishing the Florence Crittenden Homes of the United States, rescuing so-called "fallen" girls--girls who had gotten pregnant without being married, unwed mothers.--Until she met my Father, by this time a poor young singer who had gone into stage work. He won her heart by singing at her farewell reception as she was leaving the Florence Crittenden Homes, & married her on a whirlwind elopement in Utah, after she established her last Florence Crittenden Home in Reno, Nevada.
38. Then my Father went to work for my Grandfather as a singer in his great evangelistic meetings, & then finally volunteered for the Ministry--to my Mother's chagrin, who was by this time an atheist! Father went to the Christian Church Bible College in Des Moines, Iowa, to study for the Ministry, where Mother's first child, my brother Hjalmer, was born. This was after her wild Crittenden Home work, dangerous work in which she had to invade the opium dens of the Chinese & the clubs of the miners to rescue girls who had virtually been sold into White slavery. During this time she shot at least one man, & wore the uniform of the U.S. border patrol as she searched for these girls.
39. And then, as you know, after my brother's birth in Des Moines, her back was broken in an accident on the way home from the hospital & she was almost totally paralyzed for the next five years, in bed, an atheist, unsaved, & the wife of a poor Christian Church preacher, pastor of a small church in Ukiah, California.--At which time she was marvellously, wonderfully & miraculously converted & raised from her deathbed on a Saturday night to tell of her wonderful conversion & miraculous, supernatural healing the very next morning in her husband's church! Not having walked for nearly five years & been out of bed only very briefly, she walked to church! This accident occurred when she was 24, & her sickness lasted for five years until she was 29. My sister Virginia was born towards the end of her sickness, & I was born 4 years later, when she was 33.
40. Looking back to World history, many great things happened when Mother was a teen & in her 20's, including the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 when my Aunt lost her three hat stores, & the Panic of 1907 in the U.S., & the great earthquake in Sicily, Italy, that killed 150,000 people in 1908. The first explorers reached the North Pole in 1909, the Boy Scouts were founded in 1910, & in 1911 aircraft were first used as weapons in the Turkish-Italian War. The Chinese Empire was overthrown by Sun Yat-sen, & the Mexican Revolution occurred. Ragtime music became popular at this time, the first real departure from good music & the beginning of you might say bad music, wild music, the origin of jazz & later rock etc.
41. Perhaps you're not interested in the events of history, especially when you weren't yet here. But my Grandfather was, & my Mother was, & that's my background, so it means something to me, if not to you. But if I mean anything to you, then it should mean something to you too!
42. It was at this time in 1911 that the first explorers reached the South Pole. In 1912 the Balkan Wars occurred, & they're still going on to this very day between the same participants, Serbia & Montenegro & others. The "Titanic" sank, the great, fashionable, wealthy tourist ship of the rich, with a double hull that was praised as "unsinkable." But she struck an iceberg & sank on her maiden voyage, drowning 1,500 people, with its band playing "Nearer My God to Thee" as it went down.
43. In 1913 when Mother was 27, the Suffragettes (women who wanted the power to vote) were demonstrating, the Income Tax Amendment was passed & the Federal Reserve System became law, both of which were to eventually virtually destroy the U.S. economy.
44. In the years following that, the Mexican War & other interesting events occurred, including the opening of the Panama Canal, the Marine invasion of Mexico, & General Pershing's failed raids into Mexico. Then I was born in 1919, & I've already told you some of those early events.
45. Women's suffrage (voting) began in 1920, although I had nothing to do with it, so don't blame it on me! Ha! The Irish Free State was formed in 1921, for the first time independent from England, & Mussolini began his marches on Rome in '22. Hitler wrote his "Mein Kampf" in 1923, the Ku Klux Klan was operating in the South, & George Gershwin wrote his "Rhapsody in Blue!" The first woman governor was elected in Wyoming, & the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial" occurred in 1925 when I was just six, between William Jennings Bryan & the famous Clarence Darrow.
Calvin Coolidge's Inauguration!
46. Many things happened in those early years of my life, but the thing that I remember so well that has to do with the recent inauguration of the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton on January 20th of 1993, was when Mother rushed us to Calvin Coolidge's inauguration early in 1925. We sat out in the cold & even a gentle snow, nearly freezing, while the politicians made their long speeches, until finally they introduced dear quiet Calvin Coolidge, & he made a very brief speech after his oath of allegiance. This really put all the rest of the politicians to shame for keeping us poor people sitting out there on those log benches in the cold for a couple of hours waiting for the one we wanted to hear, Calvin Coolidge!
47. Anyhow, we braved it, we survived it, & Mother went home satisfied that she had taken her children to a great event of history, the inauguration of a president of the United States of America right on the White House lawn!--Even though in such inclement weather & on hard log benches! But I'll tell you one thing about it, it certainly impressed me enough that I've never forgotten it! I can remember it yet, sitting there cold & freezing between my Mother & Father trying to keep me warm, & my brother & sister on both sides of them, listening to every word & waiting, waiting, waiting for dear Coolidge to take his oath of office, &, thank God, make his very brief speech.--Which I don't remember anything about except that he did it! I can remember him standing there in his long frock coat & his tall silk hat, which was the diplomatic mode of attire during important governmental occasions in those days.
Dad's Life in Virginia Highlands!
48. So that was one of the times of my life! As I started to give the background a few moments ago, we'd gone there from Oklahoma, & my Father was now the pastor of a new pioneer church in Virginia Highlands, just outside of Washington, D.C. I was four & five there, & I can still remember some of the events that took place, such as falling off the see-saw & getting a bloody nose due to my sister's rough treatment, & nearly drowning in ice-covered water in the basement of a house under construction due to my brother's careless treatment.--Also riding my tricycle to my little girlfriend's house up the block over icy sidewalks & having the boldness to knock on her door. Then when her mother opened it, I raced in as fast as I could on my tricycle & hid under the dining room table because I was so shy! I wasn't too shy to initiate the event, but when I realised I'd actually gotten in & there she was, I was really shy & embarrassed & literally hid under the table.
49. That's also where my brother taught me to say the wrong poem for the Women's Missionary Society meeting! The poem I was supposed to recite was: "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow, & everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. I wish I had a lamb like Mary's, I'd shear the lamb & sell the wool & give it to the missionaries!" But my brother mischievously got me in trouble, as he often did, by teaching me a new version: "Mary had a little lamb, she put it on a shelf. And every time it wagged its tail, it spanked its little self!" And of course the Women's Missionary Society was somewhat shocked, although some had a sense of humour & laughed.
50. But they didn't laugh when my Mother bragged about my always saying "praise the Lord" no matter what happened, when I slipped on the ice & fell in the snow in our front yard during another Women's Missionary Society quilting bee or something in our home. My Mother was going to show them what a wonderful sample I was, such a good Christian little boy. She said I always got up & would just dust off my pants & say, "Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus!" Instead of that, my worldly Uncle Enoch Trollinger had been around on a visit, & when I got up, I dusted my pants off all right, but I said, "Dad burn it! Dad burn it!"--Something I'd learned from my dear worldly Uncle. And the poor Missionary Society ladies were shocked again!
51. I was shocked, I remember, when my brother & sister took me to the Smithsonian Institute while in Washington, & I was dutifully impressed by the gem exhibit of all the gorgeous diamonds & rubies & sapphires etc., in big glass cases, but horrified when I saw a little shrunken head of an Indian from South America, shrunk by the head hunters of the South American Indians down to not much bigger than a golf ball, hanging in one of the exhibits with its long hair. They'd learned to do that somehow, something that science was never able to discover.
52. But then even worse than that--& I carried this image with me for many years--they led me around to a case to show me a little lamb being torn asunder, flesh ripped off & blood pouring out, being eaten alive by two voracious eagles! After that, I never thought very much of the so-called national symbol of the American eagle. What a horrible, vicious creature to be a symbol of the U.S.A.! But as I later learned, it's very much like the U.S.A. & some of its vicious wars & slaughter of millions!
53. That was also the place where Mother insisted we attend the lighting of the new Christmas tree, which was set up for the first time in the White House garden. This ceremony still takes place, by the way, 70 years later, & every Christmas they decorate a tree with Christmas lights. At least it used to take place, I don't know about now. Perhaps they forbid the lights now since Christmas is a religious celebration. I hope they haven't forbidden the tree!
54. I think this was the Christmas after Coolidge's inauguration or the Christmas following, I don't remember which. I just remember how after another couple of long-winded political speeches by local politicians, they introduced him & said: "Now the President of the United States is going to give the official acceptance speech of this tree!" And he got up in his long-tailed coat & tall silk hat, walked very stiffly forward, formally, looked at the tree & simply said: "I accept this tree," & then looking down & pushing the button which lit the tree, said, "And now I light it." And he turned around & sat down.--Which we who were again sitting out in the cold & the snow were very thankful for, after all the other long-winded speeches, that he was so brief!
More Events in the Times of Our Lives!
55. Well, I could tell you lots of other stories about my life & its association with history & the historical events which have occurred during my life & my Mother's. One of the outstanding ones which I have not already related was Lindbergh's first successful solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927, when I was just eight years old. I'll never forget, I came down from my nap in the boarding house we were staying in at Gainesville, Florida, & the whole boarding house dining room was abuzz with excitement over the safe landing of Lindbergh in Paris, which they'd just heard on the radio! Radio was now becoming known & used, particularly by establishments which could afford one, so that their customers could listen to the news & music etc.
56. This was also the time when the first talking motion picture was shown, with Al Jolson as "The Jazz Singer." Penicillin was discovered, & Admiral Byrd went to the South Pole. I can remember one of his expeditions there when I was just a young 14-year-old teenager at Wheaton College at the Wheaton Academy in Wheaton, Illinois, which was a little later.
57. Then of course came the great Stock Market Crash, Black Monday of October 1929, beginning the Great Depression of those years of the '30s, which were also punctuated by Gangland massacres & activities in the big cities of the U.S. The gangs were making money on bootleg liquor during Prohibition, before the days of FDR's Repeal. Al Capone was finally caught & sent to prison. Spain became a republic in 1931 with the overthrow of King Alfonso, & Germany was encouraging a growing, almost million-man-strong Nazi party. Japan was beginning its march through the Orient with the seizure of Manchuria.--And I was in my teens.
58. In 1932 the Nazis took over the German Parliament, when I was just a young teenager. Then during the Depression a lot of World War I veterans had a march on Washington, like "Coxey's Army" of years gone by, but they were chased away by MacArthur & Eisenhower. Lindbergh's little baby son was kidnapped, I think at the age of two, & my Mother wrote a poem about it called "L'Aiglan," "The Little Eaglet."
59. In 1933, Hitler rose to power & Nazi terror began. Germany & Japan withdrew from the League of Nations & there was an attempted assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the new president elected in 1932, who promised to not only repeal Prohibition, but to start a new economic plan called "The New Deal"--which he did, & which did help to pull the U.S. out of the Depression by spending billions of Dollars of borrowed money.
60. In 1934 the famous Dionne quintuplets were born in Canada & were the first quintuplets to ever survive beyond infancy. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 & Huey Long, the long-time governor of Louisiana, was assassinated. Hitler began to invade various portions of Europe & take them over one after the other without a shot, the citizens hailing him as a saviour come to rescue them from the horrors of the Depression & the economic vicissitudes which they were suffering.
61. 1936, when I was 17, King George V died, succeeded by his son Edward VIII, who soon abdicated to marry the woman he loved.--Which compelled his poor, sick brother George VI to take the throne. The Spanish Civil War began, with Franco's forces defeating the Socialist government by 1939. There was war again between China & Japan, which was to continue on through World War II. In 1937 Hitler repudiated the war guilt & debts of the Versailles Treaty & continued to build up German power, Italy withdrew from the League of Nations & Japan invaded China. As a high school teen by then, I was reading the newspapers & keeping a news scrapbook.
62. 1938, Hitler marched into Austria & helped to partition Czechoslovakia under the Munich Pact, in which Britain, France & Italy agreed to more or less let Hitler have his way. In '39 Hitler occupied Bohemia, Moravia & country after country. Also in 1939 the New York World's Fair opened in New York, which I attended with Mother as a young man of 20.
63. 1940, Trotsky was assassinated, & Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania were invaded & annexed by Russia. The draft law was passed in the United States in preparation for the war, & I had to register for the draft. Any able-bodied male over 18 was required to register & to report for duty as their number was called up, & mine was called up very soon. I can remember in '41 when I was only 22, driving from Los Angeles to Miami in our big old Buick limo. We had a new portable radio, for which I was very happy, because I could listen to the news & music while I drove, something very new in those days. And as we were crossing Texas on a Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, we heard about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in which thousands were killed.
64. Right away after this, FDR declared war on both Japan & Germany. The United Nations declaration was signed as the Allies began to get together against both Germany & Japan, & we began to go through World War II with its freezes of prices, salaries & wages, & its rationing of various foods & tires etc. Before the war I had finished most of high school in Miami, & then I had gone on driving my Mother in evangelistic work for two years. We stopped off a few months in Carmel, California, to visit my brother, where I finished my last year of high school in 1939 in Monterey. Then I went on in fulltime evangelistic work with my Mother for a couple of years again, until I was drafted in Miami on Christmas in '41, at the age of 22.
65. So we were actually crossing the United States at that time, to go back to my draft board in Miami to report for military duty, when we heard about Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7th, 1941. I learned belatedly that I had been drafted, & they were already announcing on the radio those who were branded as draft-dodgers, including me, although I hadn't even known I was drafted. I didn't get the draft notice because I was travelling. But anyhow, I was drafted & went into the army, & was sent back up North to the home of the U.S. Army Engineers in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.--familiar territory--where I froze both my heels, contracted double pneumonia & nearly died in the U.S. Army Hospital, until the Lord answered prayer! My Mother, who came to visit me, prayed for me & I was raised up miraculously in answer to my promise to spend the rest of my life serving the Lord. Praise the Lord!
66. Such were the times of my life, at least, & your life was soon to begin, probably in the late '40s & early '50s, & the Lord began to prepare you for the Family!--Which, of course, did not really originate until 1969. But in the meantime, between my survival of the army & launching into fulltime evangelistic work again with my Mother, the various final conferences to settle the dividing of the spoils of World War II were held. In '45 there was one at Yalta which Roosevelt attended when he was sick, & died shortly afterwards, & then Potsdam, which the new President Truman attended, in which they gave away most of the gains to Stalin.--And I was married to Eve in an elopement to Palm Springs, California in '44 & had Deb in '45.
67. 1946 was a very memorable year because the U.N. first met in San Francisco, then met again in London, which began a very historical event & period in World history. Only a couple of years later in '48, Gandhi was assassinated--not Mrs. Gandhi, but the Gandhi, Mahatma. The State of Israel was also proclaimed. The Jews having fought a guerrilla war with the Arabs & the occupying English, finally drove the English out & managed to defeat the Arabs & proclaimed the nation of Israel, on May 14, 1948.--Which all the Christians who believed in the doctrines of the restoration of Israel, proclaimed by the Scofield Bible, jubilantly celebrated as a fulfilment of Bible prophecy.--And I preached it on radio in Santa Barbara, California!
68. Many other outstanding events occurred during my lifetime before the beginning of the Family. The Communists took over China after WW II, despite the fact that U.S. forces had tried to support the Christian president of China, Chiang Kai-Shek, but lost, & Mao & his Communists took over instead. The Korean War broke out & lasted for three years, 1950-'53, while I continued college on the G.I. Bill, built the church in Valley Farms, Arizona, had Ho & Faith, taught Junior High in L.A. & received the "Call of David" in '53.
69. 1951, colour television was first introduced in the U.S. I remember I saw a prototype of some of the first black & white sets at the New York World's Fair in '39, but it was a pretty shady business then. But it finally became practical & viable, & very expensive fancy television sets in huge cabinets--designed only for the rich who could afford the three or four thousand Dollars a set--began to appear in some of the better showrooms of the U.S. Meanwhile, we went to Fred Jordan's Soul Clinic in L.A., & TSC in Texas.
70. Then in '52 came the first test blast of the atom bomb on the islands of the Pacific, & Eisenhower was inaugurated president in 1953. Also in '53 Stalin died, Dag Hammarskjold took over the U.N., Mount Everest was climbed, & Egypt became a republic. In '54 the first atomic submarine was launched, the "Nautilus," & North Vietnam fell to the Vietnamese Communists. The struggle against Black segregation began in the Southern U.S., as well as the Algerian War for independence against France, which carried on for nearly ten years until France freed Algeria in '62. In the meantime, in '55 we established the Florida Soul Clinic in Miami & sent missionaries all over the Caribbean!
71. 1955, Churchill was getting old & resigned, & Sir Anthony Eden took his place. West Germany was allowed to become a sovereign country again, & Argentina ousted its Christian president Juan Peron with the excuse that he'd become a Protestant. The rich who backed the navy, where their sons were, used that as an excuse to send navy planes to bomb his palace & throw him out as president. Also in '55, Martin Luther King was beginning to lead the revolutionary Blacks in the U.S. In '56 I began booking "Church in the Home" on TV all over the U.S. on 300 TV stations & 1,100 radio stations, pioneered "Sharon Colony" Key Largo, Florida, along with the Louisville, Kentucky, & Miami Beach Soul Clinics.
72. 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin, the H-bomb was tested over Bikini atoll in the South Pacific, Egypt took control of the Suez Canal, the British & French invaded Egypt, & Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to create forced integration of the schools. The Russians launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite, "Sputnik," in '57, & the U.S. fired their first satellite the next year, in '58, which, however, only flew a few miles before it descended. Khrushchev then became premier of Russia & Charles DeGaulle became leader of France for the next 11 years.
73. Eisenhower sent U.S. Marines into Lebanon to support its president against a Communist take-over, & Castro took over Cuba in '59. The following year in '60 the famous Nazi war villain to the Jews, Eichmann, was captured by Israelis in Argentina, kidnapped illegally, & spirited away to Israel. China & Russia split over policy differences, & Cuba began the confiscation of U.S. property there to give it back to the Cubans. The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in '61 & inaugurated Kennedy that year.
74. Yuri Gagarin was the first man put into orbit around the Earth in 1961, & Kennedy sponsored the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, which failed. The first U.S. spaceman was put in flight that same year; however, only flying a short 116 miles up in a 302-mile trip. Then the next American astronaut went 118 miles high in a 303-mile flight. They had to wait for the Soviet astronaut Titov to really circle the globe many times, 17-1/2 orbits that year of '61, the same year that Russia began the building of the Berlin Wall. The U.S.S.R. detonated a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb, the biggest explosion in history, that nearly scared the U.S. out of its socks! Finally in '62 the U.S. put up its first American to orbit the Earth with John Glenn, who went three times around the Earth, compared to the Russians' 17. And the Cuban missile crisis occurred, during which Kennedy forced Russia to take its missiles out of Cuba.
75. In '62 & '63, the [EDITED: "ACs"] drove us out of Miami for fighting Evolution in the public schools, so we all six moved to the TSC Ranch in Texas while I continued to book the Gospel on TV. 1963, Pope John XXIII died. Most of my life up to that time had been lived during the reign of Pope Pius XII. When he died, John XXIII had taken over, succeeded by Pope Paul VI. The Supreme Court banished the reading of the Bible & prayer from the public schools in the fateful year of 1963, the same year in which John Kennedy was shot & killed & Lyndon Johnson became President. In '64 & '65, my kids ran our Exhibit at the New York World's Fair.
76. I'm getting up now near the founding of the Family & World events in relation to it. Praise the Lord! It shouldn't be much longer now. The U.S. in the '60s was going through the agonized throes of desegregation & the Hippie Revolution. Malcolm X was shot in 1965 & the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic to settle a rebellion there. Medicare originated, the Watts riots burned down South Los Angeles, & the famous Northeastern Blackout occurred over eight U.S. states & two provinces of Canada. In 1966 the first artificial heart was implanted at a Houston hospital, & "Teens for Christ" began with Grandmother's "10,000 Miles of Miracles" to Canada & the Bahamas, & the first Warning Tract was published!
77. 1967, the Six-Day War occurred in Israel, during which Israel grabbed most of the now-occupied territories. This was the same year in which Dr. Christian Barnard performed the World's first successful human heart transplant. The following year of '68, Martin Luther King was assassinated, along with Robert Kennedy that same year, & the rebellion in Czechoslovakia was quelled by Soviet invasion. We moved to Huntington Beach, California, to join my Mom in her ministry to Hippies, & the Family began!
The Founding of the Family & World Events!
78. Now we're getting to the year 1969, the first real year of the Family, when Nixon was inaugurated & Man made his first walk on the Moon! My Mother died in '68 & Maria joined in '69, & our great "Gypsy Caravan" trekked across the U.S. up to Canada & back down to TSC!--From which Maria & I travelled to Europe & Israel & back to the U.S. in '70, '71 & '72.
79. In 1970 Rhodesia severed its ties with the British empire rather than submit to integration, & the Kent State massacre occurred, when National Guardsmen shot & killed four students demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Integration busing began the following year in '71, & there were huge gatherings of anti-war militants in Washington, D.C., of which thousands were arrested. The U.N. seated Communist China & kicked out Nationalist China, or Taiwan. In '72, Nixon made his eight-day visit to China, George Wallace of Alabama was shot, & the Watergate scandal occurred.
80. In '73 the Yom Kippur war occurred, Israel grabbed the rest of the Arab territories it occupies, & things turned out pretty much as they still stand today. In '74, due to the Watergate scandal, president Nixon resigned his job, the first president ever to do so, & vice president Gerald Ford was sworn in instead. In '75, the Vietnamese Communists won the Vietnam War & the first U.S. & Soviet link-up occurred in space. In '76, the Entebbe airport hostage rescue took place by the Israelis in Uganda, & Carter was elected U.S. president. In '77, Carter pardoned the Vietnam draft evaders & Deng Xiaoping took over China. During the first half of the '70s, Maria & I published the first MLs, went to Tenerife where Dito & the Family of Love were born, starting the FF Revolution! Fled Tenerife in '77 to ... Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Malta, Italy & France, where Techi was born in '79.
81. 1978, the U.S. made a treaty with Panama promising them the canal by the year 2000. Pope Paul VI died & Pope John Paul I, the new Pope, died only 34 days afterwards. Then the first Pole was elected Pope, John Paul II. Also in '78, Sadat & Begin signed the so-called Middle East "peace treaty" under Carter at Camp David in the United States, but still there's no peace.
82. The following year of '79, the horrible, vicious, violent, murderous, bloodthirsty regime of Pol Pot collapsed in Cambodia, the Shah left Iran, Khomeini took it over, & Margaret Thatcher became the new Prime Minister of Britain. After a 50-year reign of his family in Nicaragua, Somoza fled & the Sandinistas took over, & the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began. The following year, '80, the U.S. broke diplomatic ties with Iran, & boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow, the Shah of Iran died, & Somoza was assassinated. Reagan was elected president & John Lennon of the Beatles was shot.
83. In 1981, Reagan took the oath of office as 40th president & was later wounded by a gunman, the same year in which Pope John Paul II was also wounded, but both survived. Israeli planes destroyed the Iraqi atomic reactor in an act of war, although they were not at war, & the first woman was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor. The wedding of Prince Charles & Diana occurred in Britain, while we ourselves were in South Africa. We'd camped out in France in '80, & flew to South Africa in '81, back to Europe, then to the Tropix in '82.
84. That year, '82, the Falklands War occurred between Britain & Argentina. Israel invaded Lebanon to drive out the PLO, & the Princess of Wales gave birth to a baby boy. Princess Grace of Monaco died in a car accident, & Soviet leader Brezhnev died, all in '82, including the first flight of a space shuttle, the Columbia.--While we continued to help the Family pioneer the Tropix.
85. 1983, Benigno Aquino, husband of Cory Aquino, was assassinated in the Philippines. Cory later ran for president, with Cardinal Sin's help & mob rule, & won. The famous Korean flight 007 was shot down over Soviet territory for spying, which I firmly believe it was doing for the U.S. The U.S. retreated from Beirut & invaded Grenada, & in '84 the first "test-tube" quadruplets were born, & for the first time in 116 years the U.S. & the Vatican exchanged diplomats. The U.S. recognised the Vatican hierarchy of the Catholic church. The U.S. & China signed significant agreements, & George Orwell's book "1984" became a best seller, foretelling the future of the World, really. Andropov died & Chernenko took over Russia, all in 1984, the "'84" of Orwell.
86. Also in '84, the Indian army offended the Sikhs by occupying their Golden Temple, which later resulted in the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Reagan was re-elected along with vice president Bush, in a landslide election. The Bhopal, India, chemical disaster occurred, & in '85, New Zealand bravely barred a U.S. ship carrying nuclear arms, & therefore was let out of its treaty with Australia & the U.S. The Reformed Jews approved of women in their clergy.
87. Mikhail Gorbachev finally came into power in '85, & it's a wonder he remained there as long as he did. '85 was also the 300th anniversary of Bach's birthday, & Reagan was the target of wide criticism by the Jews for some of the stunts he pulled at that time, & he soon underwent surgery. The great Mexico City earthquake occurred, killing & injuring thousands, & Israel bombed the PLO headquarters in Tunis. It was an act of war, although Tunisia & Israel were not at war.--No matter to the Israelis! Reagan & Gorbachev met, & the U.S. drove the Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh out of Oregon, who died not too long afterwards in India, poor fellow!
88. 1986!--My Mother would have been a hundred years old. The "Voyager 2" spacecraft was launched & the space shuttle "Challenger" exploded. Duvalier fled Haiti, Marcos fled the Philippines, & the Prime Minister of Sweden was shot. Halley's Comet passed over, Chernobyl exploded & the Supreme Court continued to support abortion. Reagan & Gorbachev had a Summit Arms Control conference & the Democrats won a Senate majority.
89. 1987, the Iran-Contra affair blew up, & Reagan changed his Chief of Staff from Regan to Baker. A lot happened during those years of the '80s! Reagan imposed a 100% retaliatory tariff on Japanese products, & the U.S. banned the former head of the U.N., Kurt Waldheim, under Jewish pressure. The attacks on shipping began in the Persian Gulf & poor televangelist Jimmy Bakker was imprisoned on trumped-up charges by the Federal Government. Thatcher won a rare third term, Oliver North was scandalised because of the Iran-Contra affair, & Portugal finally got a majority government. Iran & Iraq resumed their tanker war while jewels were retrieved from the wreckage of the "Titanic." The 200th year of the U.S. Constitution was celebrated & Pope John Paul II made his first visit to North America. There was a big earthquake in Los Angeles & a big stock plunge on Wall Street, a drop of 508 points, the worst Stock Market drop in history!
90. That's as far as my almanac goes, & I think that's enough--maybe too much--for today, since it's been about two & a half hours! But anyway, that's how our lives have related to World History, "The Times of Our Lives," & which was all brought to mind by the recent lavish extravaganza inauguration of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, as compared to the 1925 inauguration of Calvin Coolidge, & correlating the events of history throughout the lives of my Grandfather, Mother, myself & the Family.
91. So praise the Lord! Let's hope for the best for the future, & expect the worst, because according to God's Word, we know what's going to happen. Clinton is starting off with a very positive, optimistic view, but with a lot of big problems which no man can solve, no matter how hard he tries, & which are leading up to the doom of the U.S. & the World under the judgements of God for its wickedness.
92. But praise God, there are lights shining throughout the World today, all the Christians who are serving the Lord & doing their best to counteract the influence of the Enemy, especially our Family, who are doing a terrific job of fighting Satan & his cohorts & standing up for the Truth & the Faith till death do us part! Praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! God bless & keep us all & continue to make us a blessing, in Jesus' name, amen!--Are you?
Copyright (c) 1997 by The Family
