July 10, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ray Caldwell put on a Cleveland Indian uniform for the first time—and none of the 20,000 fans at League Park had any idea that they were about to see something that defies belief. This story comes to us from Nick Ragone, host of the popular YouTube Channel “This Date in History with Nick Ragone.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcasts, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our next story comes to us from Nick Regone, host
of the popular YouTube channel This Date in History with
(00:30):
Nick Ragone. Ray Caldwell put on a Cleveland Indian uniform
for the first time, and none of the twenty thousand
fans at League Park had any idea that they were
about to see something that defies belief. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
If you're a baseball fan, you're probably familiar with the
term electric stuff to describe a picture was on top
of his game. Growing up in the eighties, it seemed
like Dwight Good and Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and other
flamethrowers have their electric stuff every night. But what if
I told you that the term actually originated in the
early part of the twentieth century, that it wasn't really
used to describe a picture's throwing prowess, but rather traces
(01:10):
its origins to one of the strangest events in Major
League Baseball history. Heck one of the strangest events in
sports history. It was August twenty fourth, nineteen nineteen, by
all accounts, an uncomfortably muggy day at League Park in Cleveland,
the First Place Indians were hosting the Philadelphia Athletics in
front of twenty thousand fans. They were excited to see
their new picture, the journeyman Ray Caldwell, who was recently
(01:33):
let go by the Boston Red Sox. Once upon a time,
Cludwell had been regarded as a generational talent, one of
those guys with transcended stuff that screamed can't miss potential.
But years of hard drinking and erratic behavior had left
him a shell of his former self. By nineteen twenty one,
Caldwell was desperate for a last chance to show that
(01:54):
he could still play the game. He no longer had
his dominant fastball and nasty curve, but he did sport
one of the game's best spit balls, which in nineteen
nineteen was still egal. On this particular afternoon, he had
total command of his spidder. The Athletic players were flummixed
by the way it bobbed and weaved through the air
impervious to contact. A combination of the bright sunshine and
(02:17):
saliva ridden ball had resulted in just four base runners
for the A's to the first eight innings, given the
Indians a slim one run lead heading into the top
of the ninth inning, fans would later say that they
noticed dark clouds that seemingly materialize at a lake erie
and descend upon the stadium with alarming speed, practically enveloping it.
With droplets of rain beginning to sprinkle from the heavens,
(02:40):
called and worked extra fast, hoping to avoid a rain delay.
He quickly got ahead of the first batter and induced
a meek pop up to the shortstop for out number one.
A nasty spider resulted in a second infield pop up,
and Caldwell and the Indians were now won out from
putting the A's away. By this time, the wind was
howl It's as if the stadium was mired in a
(03:02):
total eclipse. Had become so dark some fans had already
scattered from League Park accommodation of the rain and sense
of forebode in chasing them away. So picture this. Caldwell
is towing the rubber and leaning in to get the
sign when a flash from the sky explodes into the
middle of the field. Indian shortstop Ray Chapman would later
(03:25):
say he felt a surge of electricity go down his
leg and the violence of the lightning strike causes the
players to dive for the ground. I took my metal
mask and threw it as far as I could, said
Cleveland's catcher Steve O'Neill after the game. I didn't want
to attract any bolts towards me. Seconds after the lightning
hit the ground, the players were still staring at each
(03:46):
other and disbelieve. On the mound lay Ray Caldwell, arms
spread wide, completely unconscious. The lightning bolt had struck him directly.
Players rushed to aid Cauldwell, but the first man who
touched them leapt into the air, saying he had been
zapped by Caldwell's prone body. The players and ump stared
over Caldwell, his chest smoldering from where the bult burned it.
(04:10):
Shortstop Ray Chapman blurted out to nobody in particular, is
he dead? The players were terrified to touch him, to
even take his pulse. Nobody knew what to do. Believe
it or not. They were ready to pronounce Caldwell dead.
When the thirty one year old pitcher started groaning and
crawled back to his knees and then his feet. His
teammates were thrilled to see him alive, but they kept
(04:33):
their distance from the guy whose chest was on fire
just minutes before. One of the umpires offered to assist
him off the field and take him to a hospital,
but Caldwell would have none of it. I have one
more out to get, he testedly barked at the ump
He argued the point with the Indians player manager, the
legendary Tris Speaker, and his intransigence won the day, as
(04:55):
Speaker reluctantly let him stay on the field to try
and record the final out. Give me the ball and
point me towards the plate, he commanded shortstop Ray Chapman,
who was still in semi disbelief that Caldwell was alive.
In pitching, the umpires lingered around the mound as the
players slowly took their positions. A shortstoped Joe Dugan, dug
(05:15):
into the batter's box, waiting for the umps to signal
play ball. The umps just look at each other for
an extra beat and shrug their shoulders. Play ball, one
of them says. By this time most of the fans
that scattered in the cast of the lightning strike, But
for the few hardy souls who's stuck around, they're about
to witness the conclusion of the strangest game in Major
(05:36):
League history. With the first pitch, Cordwell grows a fastball
to Dugan, who hits a screaming line drive to third
baseman Willie Gardner, who knocks it down with his chest
and rushes the throat at first just in time to
edge out Dugan, and with that Ray Caldwell, in his
first start as a Cleveland Indian, pitches a complete game victory,
(05:56):
which includes being struck by lightning. With the media after
the game, ray Caldwell was as curt as he was brief.
I just wanted to complete the game, he hurridly told
reporters as he rushed from the clubhouse, purportedly to hit
his favorite watering hole. As if this story isn't fascinating enough,
(06:17):
there's an interesting footnote, actually two footnotes. Seventeen days after
being struck by lightning, Ray Caldwell would pitch a no
hitter against one of his former teams, the New York Yankees.
Someone on his team jokingly told the media after game
that he had electric stuff that day and the term stuck.
His stuff would remain electric for the rest of the year,
(06:39):
as he went five to one with the Indians and
nearly led them past the White Sox, who would famously
go on to throw the World Series. The following year,
he matched a twenty win season. Sadly, that would be
the same year that the Indian shortstop Ray Chapman tragically
died after being beamed in ahead by the Yankees Karl Mays.
His death prompted several Wolves changes, including banning the spitball
(07:03):
and requiring dirty balls to come out of play. So
the next time you hear some pitcher has electric stop,
just remember he's no Ray Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Nick Ragone and he hosts the popular YouTube channel This
Date and History with Nick Ragone the story of Ray Caldwell.
Here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
(07:34):
of Our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows will always be free
to listen to, but they're not free to me. If
you love what you hear, consider making a tax deductible
donation to our American Stories. Go to our American Stories
dot com. Give a little, give a lot. That's our
(07:56):
American Stories dot com. This is our American Stories and
we tell stories of all kinds here, folks, as you've
come to love and know, we're always trying to get
(08:17):
stories in the voice of the person telling them. We
try and get out of the way step as far
back as possible, and we love to get stories behind stories.
And Brett Farb's life we've been digging in deep and
this is the fourth part of a five part series,
Brett Farb's Life outside of the Goalposts, which is what
(08:37):
we're interested in here on this show. Not Brett Farv
the football star. That's interesting, but who's the man? What's
life like before and after? Who were his parents? Where
did he grow up? How did he deal with fame
and everything after? Here's Brett fav getting personal about his faith,
about humility and about aging.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Speak for other people, but we we we and I
s I say we more me, but we tend to
lean on God when we need him. Going to rehab,
spending time by myself, like opening a Bible. God, I
need some help. I can't do this alone. And I
remember asking people not and we s we We still
(09:25):
are active in the Catholic Church. In fact, my father, Tommy,
our priest, is one of our r We we take
him on vacations and do all kinds of stuff. But
but I like leaning on someone, and I I've had
enough adversity to walk me through the Bible. If you
(09:45):
go to rehab three times, you lose your dad. M
Beana lost her brother out here on a four wheel
er accident. Yeah he was nineteen years old. Yeah, on
my four wheeler. Oh he killed a helicopter tam out
of here to the hospital. But I mean it's bad,
(10:09):
you know. So there's enough things that you know, you
go God, I need some help here. And you do.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Well for a while, and you slip, and you do well,
and you slip.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But I think as I I've gotten older, I tend
to slip maybe less. Ye, I look at things differently.
I think at fifty, I'm a lot wiser than I
was at forty. But I'm sure if I make it
(10:46):
to sixty, I'll be saying you were a freaking idiot.
At fifty, you didn't know nothing. And I'm sure that's
the cycle that will always be. And I've been talking
about just life in general, what what we thought was
important at eighteen, At thirty we thought that what you know,
(11:07):
what were you thinking? And then at forty you thought
what were you thinking at thirty? And but you I
feel like you you narrow down as you get older
what matters and what it takes, you know, to achieve
whatever happiness.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And so I think that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
My faith has gotten gotten better and stronger, but it
needs a lot of work.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I'm not going to sit here and brag, but I.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Do I do know that that humility is uh.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I had to look it up. You know. I'm thinking,
I'm thinking one thing, and actually what I was thinking,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Know how to put it in words, and humility was
the word I was looking for. There was a time
I thought that it was all about me. But it's
like the Oakland game or my career. And you could
say the Oakland game was like my career. I was
(12:24):
just driving the car, you know. God was telling me
where to go, when to stop, when to pass, when
the park, And that took a while. I think that
I goes back to playing twenty years. At twenty one,
(12:47):
I thought once I got into play, I thought I
can be pretty damn good. And at nineteen twenty years,
you know, I'm like, that doesn't matter, really, y. You
need to be thankful that God gave you the opportunity.
And also, you know, the one thing that I I
(13:12):
I feel really good about is that I made the
most of it. You know, I let him down in
a lot of ways. That was one of 'em. I
didn't let him down. He's like, alright, I gave you
a gift. What are you gonna do with it? And
I actually told my daughter that today. I said, you
got a chance. Cause she didn't play very good last week.
(13:34):
They played Friday and Saturday. She played pretty good Friday,
not so good Saturday. She was really down and she
was beating herself up today and I gotta do this
my weight so I'm overweight. And I said, look, here's
the reality. And I said, this is the truth. You
(13:54):
got a chance next week to redeem yourself. And it
starts saying what are you gonna do with it? There's
gonna come time when it's over, and then what do
you do? So, and that's life in general. You know,
(14:14):
we have chances to In fact, I say we you know,
you never know when it ends. My dad died at
fifty six, and that was I was thirty two or three,
(14:35):
and I thought I was.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I thought I was really young. Now I now that,
I mean, I'm almost my dad's.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Age, and uh, it's kind of like, buddy, you know,
I do the physicals and do all the things I
need to do. And he didn't, in spite of me
trying to said Dad, you need to get a physical.
He didn't take really good care of himself. He just
(15:07):
thought he was gonna live forever.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
That mentality like that, you know, his age or definitely
before him other generations. I'm sure he's say you need
to go see a doctor. I ain't going to see
no doctor.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
That I don't care how tough you are when it's
your time.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
But he had apparently had had two other heart attacks
that no one knew. The autopsy showed that there was
a massive heart attack. He was driving down the road again.
He was fifty six, which is you know, I'm fifty now,
fifty six. Don't seem that I look up, you know,
(15:53):
there was a time in fifty he was like, he's
fifty sold. Now I'm like fifty six that you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Know, But.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You know, it's really unfair.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I look at it as when people are like that,
like my dad was, it's really unfair to everyone else
that you would be that selfish that you wouldn't take
care of yourself, you know, for do it for the kids,
your wife or whatever. If you think about me, you
(16:32):
with the kids, if you just neglected, you'd feel terrible. Well,
that's what you do when you don't take care of yourself,
if you just walk away from them. That's really kind
of the same thing. So, I mean, when it's your time,
(16:52):
it's your time. But I'm gonna try to hang on
as long as i can.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And you've been listening to Brett Favre, part four of
our five part series about so Much and My Goodness,
him talking about humility, having to look up the word
so that those words could approximate what he was thinking about.
Am I good looking back at our lives we can
all do that. If we're not, we're really not living
right how we looked and did things ten years ago.
(17:18):
Hopefully we're doing better now we have this five part
series from Brett fav and no one has anything like it.
And that's what we do here in this show. And
whether it's the life of Brett or Henry Ford where
we talked to great historians about him, or the Steinway
family or my goodness, our dread Scott on Spike's story
by George will about Kurt Flood, it's just a beautiful story,
(17:43):
Brett Favre's story here on our American Stories, and we
(18:08):
continue with our American Stories. It up next to a
story about a founder, and we'd love to tell founder
stories here on the show. We love to tell stories
of people who turn nothing into something. And here the
storyteller is Horse Schultzi, who co founded the Rich Carlton
Hotels in nineteen eighty three here in America. And this
(18:32):
story has a lot to do with service. It has
a lot to do with customers, and it has to
do also with a fellow Atlanta founder, true At Kathy,
the founder of Chick fil A and where the phrase
my pleasure came from.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
We all talk about service. Let me define service for
a moment. It starts to instant you make contact. It
doesn't start a second later, in fact, within nine feet
Why because within nine feet you make decisions about somebody
and they make a decision about you. So it starts
(19:10):
with the creat welcome, welcome, and then it continues with
complying to the guest. Wisious, and that complying is very
simply that I'm in that moment. It's not about me anymore.
It's not about my company. It's about my customer. I'm
now here to help that customer to make it the
(19:31):
right decision for him or her. That's how I'm complying.
I'm here to be an assistant to that guest to
make a great decision for themselves. And then it ends
by saying farewell. That is service, welcome, comply, farewell now.
And people talk about the credit service, asking to define it.
(19:55):
You haven't even given the thoughts what it is. That's
why you don't receive it. They receive it if somebody
happens to if you happen to be lucky, you happen
to hit a nice person, not by the sign of
the organization, and that is wrong. It has to be
designed by the organization that there is service delivery that
(20:17):
means attention for the benefit of our customer. You know,
my relationship with Chick fil you know, and then Cathy,
who is of course checkfil is an exception exception company.
Exception people. Then ask me one day they have you.
(20:38):
He tells the story slightly different. I know that I'm
right how I tell it, but they're very close to
same the two stories. One day asked me, have you
been in Chick fil A? I said, sure, So what
do you think? I said, well, you're the best of
a lousy lot. And said, what, well, you're not great,
(20:58):
but you're better than the rest of And we discussed that,
and then of course he asked me to kind of
teach the people and deal with them, and we did
a lot of things together, and one thing was I
had a meeting with his managers, all his vice presidents
in the headquarters talking about verbal how do you talk
(21:21):
to a customer? And first of all, you should look
at them with ten nine feet and say hello, good morning, welcome,
so on. The behavioral analysts say that the person relates
to you with a mixed decision where they come, but
about three meters nine or ten feet that's when you
(21:42):
make a decision that instant, So you want to make
sure that that instant a positive decision. Goes into their subconscience.
In fact, we have an interesting study. In the very
beginning of Ittz Colum. We had comment cards, which is
not very scientific, but I had about four hundred thousand
(22:05):
when we were dealing with City Power. I knew Dave
Power the time very well. He said he was a
step out of the only automotive and we were the
first company that they actually did something with outside of automotive.
I said, well, if I have those four hundred thousand
cards here, I'm being told it's not very scientific study.
(22:25):
But when you said, we're given to me, we see
what we can find. He came back and said, something
very interesting here. Whenever the first conduct was good, that
means sales or reservation doorman, front desk, or bellman. When
that was good, never ever did a complain follow Never ever,
(22:51):
whenever there was one negative in the first conduct, always
other complaints followed. So with other words, you can put
people into a subconscious positive if the first contact immediately
it happens to be well. And nine feet is very
important because that's when the decision is being med subconsciously,
(23:11):
subconscious stronger than conscience. So it's a very important moment.
So we taught from there on, whatever you're doing within
nine feet you look at the customer and say, well,
come undone, and eliminate. In our case, we said eliminate
words like high, because I want to tell the customer
(23:33):
immediately you're important to us. If I say high, I'm
saying we are equal. If I'm saying welcome, sir, welcome,
I'm saying you're important to us. And I am very professional.
I'm giving two messages here, which creates trust. So and
then of course we taught our people to eliminate two
(23:54):
more words. Don't ever say folks, guys, et cetera, and
don't say okay in our case, say I'm delighted to
or it's my pleasure. So right away, this kid that
I hid from Inner City becomes a very elegant young
(24:17):
man that we put in the credit uniform credit because
if I hired that kid, he now the next day
is facing the chair of the board of the Bank
of England. I'm going to make sure that interaction happens.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Right.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
If elimited those three things high or whatever, dude, guys,
folks and okay, Now all of a sudden, there's a
very elegant young man there so I was explaining that
to Chick fil A and said, now you have to
eliminate it. Okay, we use my pleasure, and I guess,
(25:00):
and I think this is wrong for your market segment.
Let's find a different word. And we were everybody agreed
it was not the right word for Chick fil A.
My pleasure was too fancy, and we kind of discussed
it when suddenly in the back of the room somebody
raised their finger and said, I like my pleasure, which
(25:24):
was true. Who the owner, the founder, this great gentleman,
I like my pleasure? I said, yeah, yeah, but you know,
but it is too sophisticated for Chick fil A. Mister Kathy,
that was true, Kathy, it is too too sophisticated. You
(25:46):
should he said, I like it. That ended the discussion.
By the way, guess what they're saying. They're saying my pleasure,
you know. And and so and implemented some other criteria
of sir is Mitch Dan will tell anybody that I
was successful to help them with. Now, they didn't become
(26:07):
an exceptional company because of me, but those are the
little things that I helped them help them with, including
my pleasure thing, which it became famous for I was wrong,
and now I didn't tell them to use my pleasure.
I was against it, so anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And a terrific job on the editing and storytelling by
Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Horace Shultzy as
always for sharing his stories with us. And it's not
just a story we have a bunch by Horse, because
well what a storyteller he is, and what wisdom he has.
And by the way, what a thing to know that
it all starts in that very first contact. And if
(26:46):
you've ever been to a rich Carlton, it's different than
the other hotels, impeccably dressed, alert, they greet you from
far away, it's always welcome, and they're different in every
contact throughout the organization. And we can all be different,
and we can all be better versions of ourselves. And
what a story about my pleasure and where it came from?
(27:07):
Just beautiful storytelling. Go to more of Horse's work on
Ouramerican Stories dot com. His book is called Excellence Winds,
A no nonsense guide to becoming the best in a
world of compromise. The story of where my Pleasure came from?
Here on our American Stories. This is our American Stories
(27:42):
and this is the story of how a Florida couple
kept seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, ages twelve
to four together that were separated throughout four different foster homes.
Sophia and Deshaun Olds, both thirty three, got married in
two thousand and four, and they admit that is newly.
They were too busy with schooling and serving in the military,
(28:04):
both veterans who served overseas in Iraq to think about
starting a family. This is the story of how one childless,
married couple of thirteen years became a family of nine
literally overnight.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
We thought like we would never ever get adopted, but
I thought this was like a really good blessing for us.
I never actually had about want to dad on Lucadians,
but it feels great. It's like the book, like a
half of something like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'm deshaon Os.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
And I'm Sophia Os, and we would like to tell
you about our process, our story of adoption.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
We have always wanted to adopt.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
We've been married for about thirteen years now, and it
had always been in our plans to adopt and to
have biological children. We actually took the classes in two
thousand and six and were preparing to adopt a child. However,
we couldn't agree upon an age, so we postponed it.
(29:20):
Got busy with life, enjoying life, continuing in our careers
in college, military, US, traveling.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
We just were enjoying life.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
We were having a wonderful time together with family, with friends.
I know a lot of people probably wondering question, why
is it that they don't have biological children.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
It just never happened for us. In twenty thirteen.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
I took a pregnancy test and the test came back positive,
and it was the scariest thing to me.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I cried and I cried, and I cried.
Speaker 8 (30:03):
Because I wasn't ready to be a mother. I know
that being a mother is one of the most important jobs,
number one in this world, and I guess I felt
like I wasn't ready to do that, that I couldn't
be that yet. And a couple days later, I miscarried.
(30:27):
It was confirmed by the doctors and I had miscarried.
And again I felt another form of sadness, because you know,
a child that we would have, we no longer would have.
Even though we were early on in our pregnancy it was.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
It was still devastating for me.
Speaker 8 (30:49):
No, I hadn't felt the baby kick, I hadn't felt
the baby move.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
But it was devastating. But again we continued life.
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Also, we're very active in our local church, so we
were active in My husband is the youth pastor children's
church ages.
Speaker 9 (31:08):
What four to twelve always been a part of my life,
just to help our children.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
In the church.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
And I guess one thing what we always did is
that every time we gave our offering, we had on
the back of it adopted child on there. And then
it was just no surprise that this story came out
the day after Thanksgiving, and the day on Thanksgiving, what
most people.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Doing is shopping.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
How we are shopping and we saw the story on Facebook,
these seven children who needed a home. It was home
for the holidays. And one scripture just came to my
mind is that in my father's house there's many rooms,
and I go, prepare a place for you and glow's prayer.
We do things on earth as it is in heaven.
(31:59):
So we had as to truly be to open a
home for seven children.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
And we knew that we had everything that these children needed.
They needed a mother, a father. They needed stability, structure,
discipline with us having military, they needed love, they needed care.
My husband being a teacher, me and being in social work,
having those skills, the spiritual background, everything, we were just
(32:26):
putting our whole hope and our whole trust in all
of our dreams and our ambitions in our life in
his hands. We were surrendering all when we decided to
adopt our seven children, and.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Once we put out faith out there, it's amazing how
God works it out. These stills I've been serving at
rout of our high school, that parents came together that
what can we do?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
What can we do?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
They did everything for bringing.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Furniture, to build bump bess, to donate sports equipment, to
donate groceries. One parent is a farmer and truly just
slaughter pig for us. So we have sauces, bacon and
everything else.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And also our families.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
A day hasn't gone by that they haven't asked us
or given to us, whether it be snacks for the
children to take to school, whether it be cooking up
a big pot of Llama beans, helping out cooking food,
getting the children off the bus when we both have
to work picking oranges, whatever it is, any extra that
(33:29):
they have had, anything that they could give, whether it
be five dollars. We have had that outpouring from our families,
from both sides. We have had that from complete strangers
that live thousands and thousands of miles away. It has
been no stress, no struggle at all. And I do
believe that that goes back to us doing the will
(33:52):
of God to help build his kingdom, to provide a
home for as the Bible calls them orphans. You know
that is something that the Bible states we should.
Speaker 9 (34:02):
Do, yes, and James one twenty seven, it's a true
religion is to take care of the.
Speaker 8 (34:09):
Orphans, and we all know that it's more blessed to
give them to receive. If we were allowed to adopt
these seven children, we would do it. We would work
every day of our lives to make sure that they
are cared for. And I think what's most important too,
is for them to see and to have an example
(34:30):
of what it's like to have a father who is
the head of the household, who has a strong faith
and belief in God, and who can teach them, who.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Can lead the family. And I know that they enjoy that.
Speaker 8 (34:43):
I know that they feel privileged and proud to know
that their dad is up there teaching them. You can
see the smiles on their face, and they enjoy talking
about it.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Afterwards.
Speaker 8 (34:55):
They ask lots of questions, so that whole aspect has
been wonderful to have him up front teaching our children
about God, about the things that they should do in life,
to be saints, to be good children, to grow up
to be successful.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yep.
Speaker 9 (35:16):
And I like to just think for my spiritual fathers,
because I do not have a biological father involved in
my life, but my special fathers from my pastors, to
different men of my church to help show me the
way right there. And I could just use that to
impart only to my children, but all the children I
minister to on a weekly basis.
Speaker 8 (35:39):
So I think it's important to know that in this
story of adoption, I am not called to be a minister,
to be behind a pool pit, to preach out a church,
to be a pastor. But I know that this is
my calling that God has placed in my life, and.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I am embracing it. I am enjoying it.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
And that's why I can say that I am not
stressed because it is something that we are doing that
we are supposed to do, so.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
It makes it so much easier.
Speaker 8 (36:10):
Does it require a lot from us, a lot of time,
a lot of correction that we have to do, but
it is also worth it, every part of it.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
This is what we're supposed to do in life.
Speaker 8 (36:24):
These seven children are our calling to be their mother
and their father, and we take it just as serious
as if it was a pastor over a church, or
a CEO or a business.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
This is us, a manager over a team. This is us.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
This is what we are called to do. And we
give him all the praise, to glory and the honor
for it because without him, we would not be able
to do this.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
And we are doing it. And that is our story.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And what a story it was. And thanks Greg for
doing that, and thank you Sophia and Deshon Olds for
recording that and for doing what you did. It's an
inspiration and it was their faith. Of course, the fruits
are their faith. And by the way, NBC's Today Show,
ABC News, Inside Edition, Miami Heraldparents dot Com and people
they all did this story, but they somehow managed to
(37:22):
leave the faith walk of this couple out of the story.
And just a few things they said, And it was
Sophia who said this. Once you put your faith out there,
it's amazing how God works it out. And in came
the food, and in came the help from the family members.
In came all that love. True religion is to take
(37:45):
care of the orphans. And if more Christians in this
great country did what this young couple did, my goodness,
we could solve a lot of problems in our country.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
This is our American
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Story, Sophia and deshon Olds' story, and those seven kids
they adopted their stories too.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcasts, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our next story comes to us from Nick Regone, host
of the popular YouTube channel This Date in History with
(00:30):
Nick Ragone. Ray Caldwell put on a Cleveland Indian uniform
for the first time, and none of the twenty thousand
fans at League Park had any idea that they were
about to see something that defies belief. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
If you're a baseball fan, you're probably familiar with the
term electric stuff to describe a picture was on top
of his game. Growing up in the eighties, it seemed
like Dwight Good and Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and other
flamethrowers have their electric stuff every night. But what if
I told you that the term actually originated in the
early part of the twentieth century, that it wasn't really
used to describe a picture's throwing prowess, but rather traces
(01:10):
its origins to one of the strangest events in Major
League Baseball history. Heck one of the strangest events in
sports history. It was August twenty fourth, nineteen nineteen, by
all accounts, an uncomfortably muggy day at League Park in Cleveland,
the First Place Indians were hosting the Philadelphia Athletics in
front of twenty thousand fans. They were excited to see
their new picture, the journeyman Ray Caldwell, who was recently
(01:33):
let go by the Boston Red Sox. Once upon a time,
Cludwell had been regarded as a generational talent, one of
those guys with transcended stuff that screamed can't miss potential.
But years of hard drinking and erratic behavior had left
him a shell of his former self. By nineteen twenty one,
Caldwell was desperate for a last chance to show that
(01:54):
he could still play the game. He no longer had
his dominant fastball and nasty curve, but he did sport
one of the game's best spit balls, which in nineteen
nineteen was still egal. On this particular afternoon, he had
total command of his spidder. The Athletic players were flummixed
by the way it bobbed and weaved through the air
impervious to contact. A combination of the bright sunshine and
(02:17):
saliva ridden ball had resulted in just four base runners
for the A's to the first eight innings, given the
Indians a slim one run lead heading into the top
of the ninth inning, fans would later say that they
noticed dark clouds that seemingly materialize at a lake erie
and descend upon the stadium with alarming speed, practically enveloping it.
With droplets of rain beginning to sprinkle from the heavens,
(02:40):
called and worked extra fast, hoping to avoid a rain delay.
He quickly got ahead of the first batter and induced
a meek pop up to the shortstop for out number one.
A nasty spider resulted in a second infield pop up,
and Caldwell and the Indians were now won out from
putting the A's away. By this time, the wind was
howl It's as if the stadium was mired in a
(03:02):
total eclipse. Had become so dark some fans had already
scattered from League Park accommodation of the rain and sense
of forebode in chasing them away. So picture this. Caldwell
is towing the rubber and leaning in to get the
sign when a flash from the sky explodes into the
middle of the field. Indian shortstop Ray Chapman would later
(03:25):
say he felt a surge of electricity go down his
leg and the violence of the lightning strike causes the
players to dive for the ground. I took my metal
mask and threw it as far as I could, said
Cleveland's catcher Steve O'Neill after the game. I didn't want
to attract any bolts towards me. Seconds after the lightning
hit the ground, the players were still staring at each
(03:46):
other and disbelieve. On the mound lay Ray Caldwell, arms
spread wide, completely unconscious. The lightning bolt had struck him directly.
Players rushed to aid Cauldwell, but the first man who
touched them leapt into the air, saying he had been
zapped by Caldwell's prone body. The players and ump stared
over Caldwell, his chest smoldering from where the bult burned it.
(04:10):
Shortstop Ray Chapman blurted out to nobody in particular, is
he dead? The players were terrified to touch him, to
even take his pulse. Nobody knew what to do. Believe
it or not. They were ready to pronounce Caldwell dead.
When the thirty one year old pitcher started groaning and
crawled back to his knees and then his feet. His
teammates were thrilled to see him alive, but they kept
(04:33):
their distance from the guy whose chest was on fire
just minutes before. One of the umpires offered to assist
him off the field and take him to a hospital,
but Caldwell would have none of it. I have one
more out to get, he testedly barked at the ump
He argued the point with the Indians player manager, the
legendary Tris Speaker, and his intransigence won the day, as
(04:55):
Speaker reluctantly let him stay on the field to try
and record the final out. Give me the ball and
point me towards the plate, he commanded shortstop Ray Chapman,
who was still in semi disbelief that Caldwell was alive.
In pitching, the umpires lingered around the mound as the
players slowly took their positions. A shortstoped Joe Dugan, dug
(05:15):
into the batter's box, waiting for the umps to signal
play ball. The umps just look at each other for
an extra beat and shrug their shoulders. Play ball, one
of them says. By this time most of the fans
that scattered in the cast of the lightning strike, But
for the few hardy souls who's stuck around, they're about
to witness the conclusion of the strangest game in Major
(05:36):
League history. With the first pitch, Cordwell grows a fastball
to Dugan, who hits a screaming line drive to third
baseman Willie Gardner, who knocks it down with his chest
and rushes the throat at first just in time to
edge out Dugan, and with that Ray Caldwell, in his
first start as a Cleveland Indian, pitches a complete game victory,
(05:56):
which includes being struck by lightning. With the media after
the game, ray Caldwell was as curt as he was brief.
I just wanted to complete the game, he hurridly told
reporters as he rushed from the clubhouse, purportedly to hit
his favorite watering hole. As if this story isn't fascinating enough,
(06:17):
there's an interesting footnote, actually two footnotes. Seventeen days after
being struck by lightning, Ray Caldwell would pitch a no
hitter against one of his former teams, the New York Yankees.
Someone on his team jokingly told the media after game
that he had electric stuff that day and the term stuck.
His stuff would remain electric for the rest of the year,
(06:39):
as he went five to one with the Indians and
nearly led them past the White Sox, who would famously
go on to throw the World Series. The following year,
he matched a twenty win season. Sadly, that would be
the same year that the Indian shortstop Ray Chapman tragically
died after being beamed in ahead by the Yankees Karl Mays.
His death prompted several Wolves changes, including banning the spitball
(07:03):
and requiring dirty balls to come out of play. So
the next time you hear some pitcher has electric stop,
just remember he's no Ray Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Nick Ragone and he hosts the popular YouTube channel This
Date and History with Nick Ragone the story of Ray Caldwell.
Here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
(07:34):
of Our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows will always be free
to listen to, but they're not free to me. If
you love what you hear, consider making a tax deductible
donation to our American Stories. Go to our American Stories
dot com. Give a little, give a lot. That's our
(07:56):
American Stories dot com. This is our American Stories and
we tell stories of all kinds here, folks, as you've
come to love and know, we're always trying to get
(08:17):
stories in the voice of the person telling them. We
try and get out of the way step as far
back as possible, and we love to get stories behind stories.
And Brett Farb's life we've been digging in deep and
this is the fourth part of a five part series,
Brett Farb's Life outside of the Goalposts, which is what
(08:37):
we're interested in here on this show. Not Brett Farv
the football star. That's interesting, but who's the man? What's
life like before and after? Who were his parents? Where
did he grow up? How did he deal with fame
and everything after? Here's Brett fav getting personal about his faith,
about humility and about aging.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Speak for other people, but we we we and I
s I say we more me, but we tend to
lean on God when we need him. Going to rehab,
spending time by myself, like opening a Bible. God, I
need some help. I can't do this alone. And I
remember asking people not and we s we We still
(09:25):
are active in the Catholic Church. In fact, my father, Tommy,
our priest, is one of our r We we take
him on vacations and do all kinds of stuff. But
but I like leaning on someone, and I I've had
enough adversity to walk me through the Bible. If you
(09:45):
go to rehab three times, you lose your dad. M
Beana lost her brother out here on a four wheel
er accident. Yeah he was nineteen years old. Yeah, on
my four wheeler. Oh he killed a helicopter tam out
of here to the hospital. But I mean it's bad,
(10:09):
you know. So there's enough things that you know, you
go God, I need some help here. And you do.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Well for a while, and you slip, and you do well,
and you slip.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But I think as I I've gotten older, I tend
to slip maybe less. Ye, I look at things differently.
I think at fifty, I'm a lot wiser than I
was at forty. But I'm sure if I make it
(10:46):
to sixty, I'll be saying you were a freaking idiot.
At fifty, you didn't know nothing. And I'm sure that's
the cycle that will always be. And I've been talking
about just life in general, what what we thought was
important at eighteen, At thirty we thought that what you know,
(11:07):
what were you thinking? And then at forty you thought
what were you thinking at thirty? And but you I
feel like you you narrow down as you get older
what matters and what it takes, you know, to achieve
whatever happiness.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And so I think that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
My faith has gotten gotten better and stronger, but it
needs a lot of work.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I'm not going to sit here and brag, but I.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Do I do know that that humility is uh.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I had to look it up. You know. I'm thinking,
I'm thinking one thing, and actually what I was thinking,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Know how to put it in words, and humility was
the word I was looking for. There was a time
I thought that it was all about me. But it's
like the Oakland game or my career. And you could
say the Oakland game was like my career. I was
(12:24):
just driving the car, you know. God was telling me
where to go, when to stop, when to pass, when
the park, And that took a while. I think that
I goes back to playing twenty years. At twenty one,
(12:47):
I thought once I got into play, I thought I
can be pretty damn good. And at nineteen twenty years,
you know, I'm like, that doesn't matter, really, y. You
need to be thankful that God gave you the opportunity.
And also, you know, the one thing that I I
(13:12):
I feel really good about is that I made the
most of it. You know, I let him down in
a lot of ways. That was one of 'em. I
didn't let him down. He's like, alright, I gave you
a gift. What are you gonna do with it? And
I actually told my daughter that today. I said, you
got a chance. Cause she didn't play very good last week.
(13:34):
They played Friday and Saturday. She played pretty good Friday,
not so good Saturday. She was really down and she
was beating herself up today and I gotta do this
my weight so I'm overweight. And I said, look, here's
the reality. And I said, this is the truth. You
(13:54):
got a chance next week to redeem yourself. And it
starts saying what are you gonna do with it? There's
gonna come time when it's over, and then what do
you do? So, and that's life in general. You know,
(14:14):
we have chances to In fact, I say we you know,
you never know when it ends. My dad died at
fifty six, and that was I was thirty two or three,
(14:35):
and I thought I was.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I thought I was really young. Now I now that,
I mean, I'm almost my dad's.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Age, and uh, it's kind of like, buddy, you know,
I do the physicals and do all the things I
need to do. And he didn't, in spite of me
trying to said Dad, you need to get a physical.
He didn't take really good care of himself. He just
(15:07):
thought he was gonna live forever.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
That mentality like that, you know, his age or definitely
before him other generations. I'm sure he's say you need
to go see a doctor. I ain't going to see
no doctor.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
That I don't care how tough you are when it's
your time.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
But he had apparently had had two other heart attacks
that no one knew. The autopsy showed that there was
a massive heart attack. He was driving down the road again.
He was fifty six, which is you know, I'm fifty now,
fifty six. Don't seem that I look up, you know,
(15:53):
there was a time in fifty he was like, he's
fifty sold. Now I'm like fifty six that you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Know, But.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You know, it's really unfair.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I look at it as when people are like that,
like my dad was, it's really unfair to everyone else
that you would be that selfish that you wouldn't take
care of yourself, you know, for do it for the kids,
your wife or whatever. If you think about me, you
(16:32):
with the kids, if you just neglected, you'd feel terrible. Well,
that's what you do when you don't take care of yourself,
if you just walk away from them. That's really kind
of the same thing. So, I mean, when it's your time,
(16:52):
it's your time. But I'm gonna try to hang on
as long as i can.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And you've been listening to Brett Favre, part four of
our five part series about so Much and My Goodness,
him talking about humility, having to look up the word
so that those words could approximate what he was thinking about.
Am I good looking back at our lives we can
all do that. If we're not, we're really not living
right how we looked and did things ten years ago.
(17:18):
Hopefully we're doing better now we have this five part
series from Brett fav and no one has anything like it.
And that's what we do here in this show. And
whether it's the life of Brett or Henry Ford where
we talked to great historians about him, or the Steinway
family or my goodness, our dread Scott on Spike's story
by George will about Kurt Flood, it's just a beautiful story,
(17:43):
Brett Favre's story here on our American Stories, and we
(18:08):
continue with our American Stories. It up next to a
story about a founder, and we'd love to tell founder
stories here on the show. We love to tell stories
of people who turn nothing into something. And here the
storyteller is Horse Schultzi, who co founded the Rich Carlton
Hotels in nineteen eighty three here in America. And this
(18:32):
story has a lot to do with service. It has
a lot to do with customers, and it has to
do also with a fellow Atlanta founder, true At Kathy,
the founder of Chick fil A and where the phrase
my pleasure came from.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
We all talk about service. Let me define service for
a moment. It starts to instant you make contact. It
doesn't start a second later, in fact, within nine feet
Why because within nine feet you make decisions about somebody
and they make a decision about you. So it starts
(19:10):
with the creat welcome, welcome, and then it continues with
complying to the guest. Wisious, and that complying is very
simply that I'm in that moment. It's not about me anymore.
It's not about my company. It's about my customer. I'm
now here to help that customer to make it the
(19:31):
right decision for him or her. That's how I'm complying.
I'm here to be an assistant to that guest to
make a great decision for themselves. And then it ends
by saying farewell. That is service, welcome, comply, farewell now.
And people talk about the credit service, asking to define it.
(19:55):
You haven't even given the thoughts what it is. That's
why you don't receive it. They receive it if somebody
happens to if you happen to be lucky, you happen
to hit a nice person, not by the sign of
the organization, and that is wrong. It has to be
designed by the organization that there is service delivery that
(20:17):
means attention for the benefit of our customer. You know,
my relationship with Chick fil you know, and then Cathy,
who is of course checkfil is an exception exception company.
Exception people. Then ask me one day they have you.
(20:38):
He tells the story slightly different. I know that I'm
right how I tell it, but they're very close to
same the two stories. One day asked me, have you
been in Chick fil A? I said, sure, So what
do you think? I said, well, you're the best of
a lousy lot. And said, what, well, you're not great,
(20:58):
but you're better than the rest of And we discussed that,
and then of course he asked me to kind of
teach the people and deal with them, and we did
a lot of things together, and one thing was I
had a meeting with his managers, all his vice presidents
in the headquarters talking about verbal how do you talk
(21:21):
to a customer? And first of all, you should look
at them with ten nine feet and say hello, good morning, welcome,
so on. The behavioral analysts say that the person relates
to you with a mixed decision where they come, but
about three meters nine or ten feet that's when you
(21:42):
make a decision that instant, So you want to make
sure that that instant a positive decision. Goes into their subconscience.
In fact, we have an interesting study. In the very
beginning of Ittz Colum. We had comment cards, which is
not very scientific, but I had about four hundred thousand
(22:05):
when we were dealing with City Power. I knew Dave
Power the time very well. He said he was a
step out of the only automotive and we were the
first company that they actually did something with outside of automotive.
I said, well, if I have those four hundred thousand
cards here, I'm being told it's not very scientific study.
(22:25):
But when you said, we're given to me, we see
what we can find. He came back and said, something
very interesting here. Whenever the first conduct was good, that
means sales or reservation doorman, front desk, or bellman. When
that was good, never ever did a complain follow Never ever,
(22:51):
whenever there was one negative in the first conduct, always
other complaints followed. So with other words, you can put
people into a subconscious positive if the first contact immediately
it happens to be well. And nine feet is very
important because that's when the decision is being med subconsciously,
(23:11):
subconscious stronger than conscience. So it's a very important moment.
So we taught from there on, whatever you're doing within
nine feet you look at the customer and say, well,
come undone, and eliminate. In our case, we said eliminate
words like high, because I want to tell the customer
(23:33):
immediately you're important to us. If I say high, I'm
saying we are equal. If I'm saying welcome, sir, welcome,
I'm saying you're important to us. And I am very professional.
I'm giving two messages here, which creates trust. So and
then of course we taught our people to eliminate two
(23:54):
more words. Don't ever say folks, guys, et cetera, and
don't say okay in our case, say I'm delighted to
or it's my pleasure. So right away, this kid that
I hid from Inner City becomes a very elegant young
(24:17):
man that we put in the credit uniform credit because
if I hired that kid, he now the next day
is facing the chair of the board of the Bank
of England. I'm going to make sure that interaction happens.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Right.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
If elimited those three things high or whatever, dude, guys,
folks and okay, Now all of a sudden, there's a
very elegant young man there so I was explaining that
to Chick fil A and said, now you have to
eliminate it. Okay, we use my pleasure, and I guess,
(25:00):
and I think this is wrong for your market segment.
Let's find a different word. And we were everybody agreed
it was not the right word for Chick fil A.
My pleasure was too fancy, and we kind of discussed
it when suddenly in the back of the room somebody
raised their finger and said, I like my pleasure, which
(25:24):
was true. Who the owner, the founder, this great gentleman,
I like my pleasure? I said, yeah, yeah, but you know,
but it is too sophisticated for Chick fil A. Mister Kathy,
that was true, Kathy, it is too too sophisticated. You
(25:46):
should he said, I like it. That ended the discussion.
By the way, guess what they're saying. They're saying my pleasure,
you know. And and so and implemented some other criteria
of sir is Mitch Dan will tell anybody that I
was successful to help them with. Now, they didn't become
(26:07):
an exceptional company because of me, but those are the
little things that I helped them help them with, including
my pleasure thing, which it became famous for I was wrong,
and now I didn't tell them to use my pleasure.
I was against it, so anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And a terrific job on the editing and storytelling by
Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Horace Shultzy as
always for sharing his stories with us. And it's not
just a story we have a bunch by Horse, because
well what a storyteller he is, and what wisdom he has.
And by the way, what a thing to know that
it all starts in that very first contact. And if
(26:46):
you've ever been to a rich Carlton, it's different than
the other hotels, impeccably dressed, alert, they greet you from
far away, it's always welcome, and they're different in every
contact throughout the organization. And we can all be different,
and we can all be better versions of ourselves. And
what a story about my pleasure and where it came from?
(27:07):
Just beautiful storytelling. Go to more of Horse's work on
Ouramerican Stories dot com. His book is called Excellence Winds,
A no nonsense guide to becoming the best in a
world of compromise. The story of where my Pleasure came from?
Here on our American Stories. This is our American Stories
(27:42):
and this is the story of how a Florida couple
kept seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, ages twelve
to four together that were separated throughout four different foster homes.
Sophia and Deshaun Olds, both thirty three, got married in
two thousand and four, and they admit that is newly.
They were too busy with schooling and serving in the military,
(28:04):
both veterans who served overseas in Iraq to think about
starting a family. This is the story of how one childless,
married couple of thirteen years became a family of nine
literally overnight.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
We thought like we would never ever get adopted, but
I thought this was like a really good blessing for us.
I never actually had about want to dad on Lucadians,
but it feels great. It's like the book, like a
half of something like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'm deshaon Os.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
And I'm Sophia Os, and we would like to tell
you about our process, our story of adoption.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
We have always wanted to adopt.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
We've been married for about thirteen years now, and it
had always been in our plans to adopt and to
have biological children. We actually took the classes in two
thousand and six and were preparing to adopt a child. However,
we couldn't agree upon an age, so we postponed it.
(29:20):
Got busy with life, enjoying life, continuing in our careers
in college, military, US, traveling.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
We just were enjoying life.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
We were having a wonderful time together with family, with friends.
I know a lot of people probably wondering question, why
is it that they don't have biological children.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
It just never happened for us. In twenty thirteen.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
I took a pregnancy test and the test came back positive,
and it was the scariest thing to me.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I cried and I cried, and I cried.
Speaker 8 (30:03):
Because I wasn't ready to be a mother. I know
that being a mother is one of the most important jobs,
number one in this world, and I guess I felt
like I wasn't ready to do that, that I couldn't
be that yet. And a couple days later, I miscarried.
(30:27):
It was confirmed by the doctors and I had miscarried.
And again I felt another form of sadness, because you know,
a child that we would have, we no longer would have.
Even though we were early on in our pregnancy it was.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
It was still devastating for me.
Speaker 8 (30:49):
No, I hadn't felt the baby kick, I hadn't felt
the baby move.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
But it was devastating. But again we continued life.
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Also, we're very active in our local church, so we
were active in My husband is the youth pastor children's
church ages.
Speaker 9 (31:08):
What four to twelve always been a part of my life,
just to help our children.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
In the church.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
And I guess one thing what we always did is
that every time we gave our offering, we had on
the back of it adopted child on there. And then
it was just no surprise that this story came out
the day after Thanksgiving, and the day on Thanksgiving, what
most people.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Doing is shopping.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
How we are shopping and we saw the story on Facebook,
these seven children who needed a home. It was home
for the holidays. And one scripture just came to my
mind is that in my father's house there's many rooms,
and I go, prepare a place for you and glow's prayer.
We do things on earth as it is in heaven.
(31:59):
So we had as to truly be to open a
home for seven children.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
And we knew that we had everything that these children needed.
They needed a mother, a father. They needed stability, structure,
discipline with us having military, they needed love, they needed care.
My husband being a teacher, me and being in social work,
having those skills, the spiritual background, everything, we were just
(32:26):
putting our whole hope and our whole trust in all
of our dreams and our ambitions in our life in
his hands. We were surrendering all when we decided to
adopt our seven children, and.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Once we put out faith out there, it's amazing how
God works it out. These stills I've been serving at
rout of our high school, that parents came together that
what can we do?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
What can we do?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
They did everything for bringing.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Furniture, to build bump bess, to donate sports equipment, to
donate groceries. One parent is a farmer and truly just
slaughter pig for us. So we have sauces, bacon and
everything else.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And also our families.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
A day hasn't gone by that they haven't asked us
or given to us, whether it be snacks for the
children to take to school, whether it be cooking up
a big pot of Llama beans, helping out cooking food,
getting the children off the bus when we both have
to work picking oranges, whatever it is, any extra that
(33:29):
they have had, anything that they could give, whether it
be five dollars. We have had that outpouring from our families,
from both sides. We have had that from complete strangers
that live thousands and thousands of miles away. It has
been no stress, no struggle at all. And I do
believe that that goes back to us doing the will
(33:52):
of God to help build his kingdom, to provide a
home for as the Bible calls them orphans. You know
that is something that the Bible states we should.
Speaker 9 (34:02):
Do, yes, and James one twenty seven, it's a true
religion is to take care of the.
Speaker 8 (34:09):
Orphans, and we all know that it's more blessed to
give them to receive. If we were allowed to adopt
these seven children, we would do it. We would work
every day of our lives to make sure that they
are cared for. And I think what's most important too,
is for them to see and to have an example
(34:30):
of what it's like to have a father who is
the head of the household, who has a strong faith
and belief in God, and who can teach them, who.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Can lead the family. And I know that they enjoy that.
Speaker 8 (34:43):
I know that they feel privileged and proud to know
that their dad is up there teaching them. You can
see the smiles on their face, and they enjoy talking
about it.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Afterwards.
Speaker 8 (34:55):
They ask lots of questions, so that whole aspect has
been wonderful to have him up front teaching our children
about God, about the things that they should do in life,
to be saints, to be good children, to grow up
to be successful.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yep.
Speaker 9 (35:16):
And I like to just think for my spiritual fathers,
because I do not have a biological father involved in
my life, but my special fathers from my pastors, to
different men of my church to help show me the
way right there. And I could just use that to
impart only to my children, but all the children I
minister to on a weekly basis.
Speaker 8 (35:39):
So I think it's important to know that in this
story of adoption, I am not called to be a minister,
to be behind a pool pit, to preach out a church,
to be a pastor. But I know that this is
my calling that God has placed in my life, and.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I am embracing it. I am enjoying it.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
And that's why I can say that I am not
stressed because it is something that we are doing that
we are supposed to do, so.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
It makes it so much easier.
Speaker 8 (36:10):
Does it require a lot from us, a lot of time,
a lot of correction that we have to do, but
it is also worth it, every part of it.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
This is what we're supposed to do in life.
Speaker 8 (36:24):
These seven children are our calling to be their mother
and their father, and we take it just as serious
as if it was a pastor over a church, or
a CEO or a business.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
This is us, a manager over a team. This is us.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
This is what we are called to do. And we
give him all the praise, to glory and the honor
for it because without him, we would not be able
to do this.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
And we are doing it. And that is our story.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And what a story it was. And thanks Greg for
doing that, and thank you Sophia and Deshon Olds for
recording that and for doing what you did. It's an
inspiration and it was their faith. Of course, the fruits
are their faith. And by the way, NBC's Today Show,
ABC News, Inside Edition, Miami Heraldparents dot Com and people
they all did this story, but they somehow managed to
(37:22):
leave the faith walk of this couple out of the story.
And just a few things they said, And it was
Sophia who said this. Once you put your faith out there,
it's amazing how God works it out. And in came
the food, and in came the help from the family members.
In came all that love. True religion is to take
(37:45):
care of the orphans. And if more Christians in this
great country did what this young couple did, my goodness,
we could solve a lot of problems in our country.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
This is our American
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Story, Sophia and deshon Olds' story, and those seven kids
they adopted their stories too.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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