Well, Celeste tagged me…

The Rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog. or Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list. or Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old. Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

I’m going to do the 5 weird things… though some of these are more just “funny stories” I remember. If I listed all the “weird” things about me it would take the rest of my life.

1) I once got a friend to believe I was a merman prince from an underwater kingdom who had been sent to the surface for schooling. I had to be extremely careful never to get wet however, as that would turn me back into a merman. I tasked him to be my body guard and to help me watch for water. He was great at it… and I don’t know that I ever told him otherwise… though I’m sure he figured it out at some point. This was in 6th grade… when SPLASH had been released.

2) In 1978 my brother Jason and I got to go to the newly built North Town Mall in Springfield, MO to meet Darth Vader, the dark knight from the newly released “Star Wars” movie. I was 6 years old, Jason was 4, and though we hadn’t seen the movie, we already knew very, very well who Darth Vader was. We waited with great and growing anticipation to meet him. When it was our turn one of his t-shirt clad teenage lackeys led us through the rope, up to the platform on which he stood. We were then turned around to face the camera, and told to smile. My mom started squeezing my shoulder… really, really hard about this time… so I said, “Stop it mama!” And turned around to face her… only to see that she was still 10 feet away behind the ropes smiling and waving at us. I then realized, with a mix of fear and excitement, that it was Darth Vader who was squeezing my shoulder!

3) Celeste loves this story / fact… all through most of grade school and all of high school my mom baked Jason and I homemade cookies every morning for breakfast. One pan full a piece. We would wake up, eat our cookies, drink about 3 to 4 glasses of milk, get dressed and ready, then lie back down for about a half hour until it was time to catch the bus. No, believe it or not I’m not diabetic. We just really liked cookies… and my mom is just amazingly nice! During Jr. High I got up an hour before Jason and, for some reason, I enjoyed having freshly made sausage biscuits during those two years.

4) As many of you know I love to dress up. My costumes have varied in size, cost, and theme in the last few years. What many people don’t know is this isn’t a “new” fascination. I have made costumes, and my wonderful mom has helped, ever since before I was in kindergarten. A few of the things we (my brother Jason and I) have dressed up as through the years have been… Underdog, Bo & Luke Duke, Luke Skywalker & Han Solo, Aliens from “V”, Stormtroopers, Space Ace, Elf Quest elves, Vampires, Wonder Woman (yep… red boots and all), Superman, Spider-man, Stormshadow & COBRA characters, Indiana Jones & Satipo, Tarzan, Jawas, and many, many other things including made-up superheroes like, Smoke-Bomb Kid, Rainbow Kid, Vex, Space Troopers, and the Guardian Angels.

5) I come from a big family, 3 brothers, 2 sisters… but for a long, long time I thought I had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. My cousin Dee came to live with us and attend high school with my older brothers during high school because he was living with his grandmother before and there wasn’t a very good school in her area. This was around the time I was 4 years old. So, from about the age of 4 until I was 8 Dee lived in our house. Somehow I never questioned who he was and just believed he was one of my older brothers. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I found out otherwise. My mom was standing with me at church when someone asked, “How many brothers do you have?” “Four,” I said. “You don’t have four brothers,” my mom laughed. I looked at her and said, “Yes… Leland, Barry, Dee, and Jason…” “Dee is your cousin,” she said smiling. Well… he’s still like a brother to me.

Okay… presuming Facebook pages count as “blogs” I tag, Chris, Curtis, Jason, Jason Whaley, and Dan Lovejoy.

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If you visited Silver Dollar City between 1978 and 1984, then you may remember a ride called “Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell”. Located where the “Lost River of the Ozarks” is now, the Diving Bell was a simulation ride, that took passengers on an journey to the bottom of Lake Silver and back.

Far ahead of its time, the Diving Bell was first proposed to Disney World for construction. They told SDC it would be impossible to do… but IF it WAS done… couldn’t be done for under 6 million dollars. Silver Dollar City decided to go against the advice of the large amusement park and succeeded… finishing the Diving Bell for a mere 1.2 million!

The ride was comprised of a 20 minute “show” aboard a hydraulically controlled “submarine”. Guests watched as Junior Dugan (an actor), interact with Rube (a voice from above) as they were led on a race to find Grand-Pappy Dugan’s silver. The view screen allowed patrons to see what was believed to be the murky water in front of them… when in fact the boat never left the dock. This technology is now used on a much larger scale by Disney World, as well as other amusement parks around the country.

The Diving Bell was removed in 1984 to make room for The Lost River of the Ozarks… a ride that can move more guests through per hour. However, the Diving Bell was never forgotten by those who rode and loved it, but when I played Rube Dugan I learned many people would like to see the ride brought back!

If you would like to encourage Silver Dollar City to bring back the Diving Bell, then please contact to Silver Dollar City by clicking this link, or at the address below and would like to see the Diving Bell return.

On a related note, while Slim Pikens did the voice for Rube Dugan on the ride, I was the only person to ever play Rube Dugan in the flesh on park. The cool thing is, I didn’t add that information on Wikipedia.

Here’s a picture of me as Rube Dugan. I made the costume, and while SDC management wouldn’t let me carry a gun, they loved the idea of me carrying “dynamite”… dowel rods covered with red construction paper and dipped in wax… all with real fuses. I had some good times with that!

If you have any questions about this article, things I’ve said here, or the ride, email me or leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer. NOTE: I am not affiliated with SDC nor do I claim to be an expert on the ride.

Silver Dollar City
399 Indian Point Road
Branson, MO 65616

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I’ve just run across this photo album from the Nazi’s Auschwitz death camp during WWII. If you’ve not seen it have a look. It’s from the Nazi’s point of view… so instead of bodies and death you see happy friends smiling, laughing, and having a grand old time. It’s very scary… or disturbing… or maybe just weird. I’m not exactly sure what I think of it actually… but I do know it’s important.

I think it’s important to see that these people were… well… people. They weren’t the “bad-guys” from the movies. They were people who had flaws just like you and me and had fallen so far into evil that they didn’t even worry that skulls were part of their uniforms. They were the blind being led by the blind. But they were still people, people in need of God’s grace.

It puts me in mind of Nineveh. While Nineveh was arguably the worst civilization in history (as far as cruelty and general evil) they too were still people… and God still loved them and wanted to see them saved.

I (like 99.9% of the world) am glad the Nazi’s were defeated in WWII. I’m thankful to God that He saw fit to destroy yet another “empire” that was set against Him. However, I believe that one of the great graces of God was shown in their defeat as well… the grace to allow a people as a whole to be redeemed from themselves. To give these people another chance. To allow their children, and their children’s children, to live on… in spite of the atrocities and horrors committed by their parents and grandparents… and even, to find forgiveness by the children of those who were not smiling at Auschwitz.

What a great and merciful God we serve!

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