Pete Black
/ GreyThoughts.InfoAs he had done countless times…
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…back to the worst day of his life, January 21, 1970. He was 100 yards away from the ammunition truck when it blew up, killing 12 of his Army buddies. He would never forget the gruesome scene, the dismembered and burning bodies. As he had done countless times, he touched the names…
By Pete Black
Tabitha was emptying the wastebasket...
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…when she found Stephen’s three wadded-up typewritten pages. After knocking off the cigarette ashes and smoothing out the pages, she began to read. It was good, and she wondered how the story ended. Tabitha was keenly aware that her…
By Pete Black
More than 300 people filled…
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…than 300 people filled the large auction hall at Sotheby’s Auction House. They had come for a huge sports memorabilia auction. Babe Ruth’s home run bat, which christened a brand new Yankee stadium in 1923, was the auction’s…
By Pete Black
When Laura started across…
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“You are to pay special attention to those who by accident of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with…
By Pete Black
When Moses Carver got word...
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…slave traders from Arkansas raided Moses Carver’s plantation at night. They burned the fields and the barn. And they kidnapped Mary, a slave who had lived and worked on the Carver farm for a decade, and her one-week-old…
By Pete Black
Scottish Commander Ernest Gordon lay dying…
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…lay dying in the infamous Japanese prison camp in a Thailand jungle on the bank of the Kwai River. He had been placed next to fellow prisoners of war on the muddy ground next to several corpses in the…
By Pete Black
As he had done countless times…
————
…back to the worst day of his life, January 21, 1970. He was 100 yards away from the ammunition truck when it blew up, killing 12 of his Army buddies. He would never forget the gruesome scene, the dismembered and burning bodies. As he had done countless times, he touched the names…
By Pete Black
Tabitha was emptying the wastebasket...
————
…when she found Stephen’s three wadded-up typewritten pages. After knocking off the cigarette ashes and smoothing out the pages, she began to read. It was good, and she wondered how the story ended. Tabitha was keenly aware that her…
By Pete Black
More than 300 people filled…
————
…than 300 people filled the large auction hall at Sotheby’s Auction House. They had come for a huge sports memorabilia auction. Babe Ruth’s home run bat, which christened a brand new Yankee stadium in 1923, was the auction’s…
By Pete Black
When Laura started across…
————
“You are to pay special attention to those who by accident of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with…
By Pete Black
When Moses Carver got word...
————
…slave traders from Arkansas raided Moses Carver’s plantation at night. They burned the fields and the barn. And they kidnapped Mary, a slave who had lived and worked on the Carver farm for a decade, and her one-week-old…
By Pete Black
Scottish Commander Ernest Gordon lay dying…
————
…lay dying in the infamous Japanese prison camp in a Thailand jungle on the bank of the Kwai River. He had been placed next to fellow prisoners of war on the muddy ground next to several corpses in the…
By Pete Black
Near the end of the 1965 college football…
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…to your grandmother?” asked SMU football coach Hayden Fry. Jerry LeVias responded, “The line was busy.” The game with TCU was 10 minutes from kickoff, but Fry had made a promise. He borrowed a quarter from a band member and the two of them placed a call on a payphone under the stands to Ella LeVias in…
By Pete Black
Colonel Hank Reed hated to abandon the horses, but…
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…hated to abandon the horses, but could he risk soldiers’ lives to save a herd of horses? The decision was above his pay grade. Reed knew his old Virginia polo buddy, George Patton, commander of the Third Army in Europe, was the only one…
By Pete Black
After years of looking over the convent…
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…years of looking over the wall at the filth and poverty in the streets beyond, she could no longer ignore what she saw. She resigned as principal of St. Mary’s High School for girls to work with the poor. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she had no idea just how difficult and discouraging the work would…
By Pete Black
Jackie, there's virtually nobody on our…
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…the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers was deeply concerned that there were no black players in major league baseball. He knew baseball needed to change, but he knew it would be challenging to break the color barrier. He was willing to take the risk. Rickey’s challenge: to find…
By Pete Black
It is 3 a.m. The campus is quiet and…
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…campus is quiet and deserted. Fred, the graveyard shift janitor, pushes his yellow cart carrying his mop, broom, and cleaning supplies from room to room. His job is monotonous and not real challenging, but it provides Fred…
By Pete Black
“Shots fired,” echoed across the Secret Service…
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…echoed across the Secret Service radios. Six shots rang out in less than two seconds. Jerry Parr, Secret Service Special Agent in charge of the president, shoved Ronald Reagan into the limousine and threw his body on top of…
By Pete Black
On the day that Richard Etheredge arrived at the Pea Island Station the five…
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…was created as one of 18 stations on the outer banks of North Carolina. Congress established the stations to help rescue passengers and cargo in the event of a shipwreck – a common occurrence at the…
By Pete Black
The morning after the bombing, Fred Shuttlesworth’s congregation begged him to cancel…
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…late-night explosion reduced the small house to shambles and rattled windows a mile away. Ku Klux Klan members had placed 15 sticks of dynamite beneath the home of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church. Neighbors and police arrived to find Shuttlesworth, his wife, and children…
By Pete Black
Elvis responded, “I drive a truck for the Crown Electric Company.” Bond…
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…sat nervously sipping a coke at a corner table with his girlfriend. He was excited to have a chance to audition as a singer with the band playing on stage. For a moment, Elvis was back in eighth grade, failing music. The only class he ever failed. His teacher told him he did not have an aptitude for singing…
By Pete Black
The tail-section of the plane broke off on impact and resurfaced about 30 yards…
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…not many Americans who remember the name Arland Williams. Air Florida Flight 90 crewmember Kelly Duncan, and passengers Patricia Felch, Priscilla Tirado, Joseph Stiley and Bert Hamilton will never forget his name, nor the sacrifices he made…
By Pete Black
In an era of no female civil engineers, Emily led the world's largest suspension bridge…
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…tears in his eyes, Washington Roebling watched through his telescope as his wife Emily rode in a carriage across the newly completed Brooklyn Bridge. On her lap was a rooster, a symbol of…
By Pete Black
The 15,000 people who crowded into Madison Square Garden that night…
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…than 30,000 people packed into The Garden that evening. In living rooms across America, millions more sat glued to their radios. James J. “Jimmy” Braddock was fighting reigning heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer for the world…
By Pete Black
With Thomas Edison's industrial complex in flames, he told his 24 year old son, Charles, "Son, go get your mother. Tell her to get her friends. They will never see another fire like this one."
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…started in building 41 on the Edison complex, which housed the chemicals for making film. By 6:30 p.m. it…
By Pete Black
Captain Ernest Shackleton made the gut-wrenching decision. They would eat their 70 sled…
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…gut-wrenching decision. They would eat their 70 sled dogs. With their food stores almost gone, the 28-man crew had been expecting the decision. Some were disgusted by the idea – many of the dogs had become pets – but…
By Pete Black
Nobody was sure why the gruff football coach Harold Jones took a liking to the…
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… overlooking the McCants Junior High football practice field. From a safe distance, he watched the team practice each afternoon. After a week, Coach Harold Jones invited the young man to attend…
By Pete Black
The morning 10-year-old John Foppe had to get dressed for school by himself was the turning point in his young life. It was the day he got his wings.
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…was tough love time. Carol Foppe called a meeting with her husband and seven of her eight sons. Ten-year-old John wasn’t invited. Carol told the boys not to help John get dressed the next…
By Pete Black
Aaron Ralston, a 27-year-old seasoned mountain climber had planned to be back at his truck…
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…hiked seven miles into Blue John Canyon and was climbing over an eight-foot boulder when the 1,000-pound rock suddenly shifted, pinning his right wrist between the rock and the canyon wall. He struggled…
By Pete Black
Ted Geisel was at the end of his rope. As he walked down Madison Avenue...
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…he made a decision. He would burn the manuscript in his apartment incinerator – 27 rejections were enough – his book would not be turned down…
By Pete Black
If ever a boy was destined to become a coal miner it was Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. His father was the…
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…about the Russians launching Sputnik, the first satellite into orbit, in the Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph. For the next several nights, the 14-year-old stood in the yard with his mother to watch…
By Pete Black
After one semester, Roxanne dropped out of college to follow her hippy…
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…to the San Francisco Art Institute to become an artist. Her father had expected Roxanne to get her…
By Pete Black
…has no talent at all, that boy,” said Edouard Manet. “You who are his friend, please tell him to give up painting!” The comment was made to Claude Monet about 33-year-old struggling artist Pierre Renoir. Monet failed to pass along the message to his…
By Pete Black
Robben Island Prison - it was the closest thing to hell on this earth. He spent 27 longs years there in a 7' by 9' cell before becoming the country's President. Life's challenges make us bitter or better. It is our choice.
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…said to be closest thing to hell in this world. The small three square mile island, located a few miles off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, had been a prison for political dissidents since the 17th century. The prison was…
By Pete Black
With winter setting in, and Julia Hill up in the tree for a month, Earth First leaders instructed her to…
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…Julia Hill arrived at the Earth First camp, the focal point of the protest was a 1,000-year-old redwood tree, which Earth First had named “Luna.” The 200-foot giant sat high on the peak of a clear-cut hill where it was visible for…
By Pete Black
The flea infestation was so severe the prison guards refused to enter the building giving Betsie and Corrie the opportunity to conduct their secret Bible studies…
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…they had miraculously smuggled into the prison. After rising at 4:30 a.m. that morning, they had worked for 11 hours at a Siemens factory loading steel, before returning to the barracks to find hope…
By Pete Black