Where was I when my mind jumped over the fence? Back in July, just home from a visit with George….the days were filled with work, chores at home, church activities and sewing. On the 19th we loaded mom and all our luggage in the car and headed for Vicksburg to visit Bob and Mary…..Barbara’s parents. It was so easy to love those people. They were the world’s best hosts and no one short of heaven was as generous as they were. Mary was an excellent cook and a Southern cook at that….her tables came right out of Southern Living.

Barbara’s dad worked for R.G. LaTourneau and their primary function was building deep sea rigs for oil drilling. Their finished products were so huge they were taken by barge in several sections down the Mississippi to the Gulf. There they went to all points around the world. The one they were building at the time of our visit would soon be on it’s way to the north Atlantic.

Bob took us to see where he worked, and the Rowan-Gorilla 1V which was their present project. It was an amazing concoction of metal and steel…..the men who worked on it looked like ants in proportion. Bob was foreman of the job and Mary worked in the office of the company.

R.G.LaTourneau came to our church one time, in Shawnee, Kansas. He had been asked to speak at a dinner and give his testimony. He had been raised poor and came through a lot of hard times. He quit school at the age of fourteen and went to work in an iron works factory shoveling sand and gravel. Even then he was thinking how to make the work go faster and easier. He had a Christian upbringing but the rowdy bunch he worked with got his mind away from his faith.

One time at a week-long crusade in Portland, OR., he gave his heart to the Lord and said he didn’t see lightening or hear thunder but he knew a presence was there. He continued on a financial spiral, ending up in debt, married and lost their first baby. He was able to borrow money and he never looked back. He often said God was his partner and he gave 90% of his income to God, operating and living on the remaining 10%.

When the allies landed on Normandy Beach in June 1944 an impressive display of equipment from the R.G. LaTourneau company was amassed to begin landing supplies on the beaches. Earth movers, transporters, missile launchers and portable off-shore drilling rigs emerged as time went on. He was a big man with a big heart for God.

He spent time going around the country talking to churches and students, often telling them….“I’m just a mechanic God has blessed and it seems He wants me to go around telling how He will bless you too.” He believed there were no big jobs…just small machines and small thinking. He died in 1969. (Information partially taken from the R.G.LaTourneau website.)

Bob and all the men who worked in the Vicksburg plant were giants as well and I wrote a poem in their honor after the tour.

THE ROWAN-GORILLA IV

Once men dreamed of islands and brave men went to find
Land rising from the sea of every shape and kind.
Never would they dare to make a giant thing of steel
To walk across an earthen path and float her christened keel.

Hail to the men who dream and light the mists and plan,
Who fire the ore and make a shape like the Rowan IV-Gorilla Man.
Earth-born of men and sweat, baptized in water far from sea,
She rises like the Ancient Ark to mock the doubters plea.

Gray island of hostile waters, magnificent creature of the deep,
We say goodbye to Gorilla-Man, your tender cargo, keep.
We say farewell with loving pride, few men have touched her span,
The bond of those who made you will not forget…Gorilla-Man.

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther