Notes from the Rue morgue

12/23/85

Jim Rue
529 A North Tustin Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92705

Reverend Robert Crilley
Fort Street Presbyterian Church
631 West Fort Street
Detroit, MI 48226

Dear Reverend Crilley,

It has been a very very long time. While I was in the Navy, serving on river boats in Vietnam, you wrote to me several times, and I received a Christmas package from you filled with food, cookies and gifts that I was very grateful to receive. I responded to your letters, but I suspect that I never thanked you for the 'care' package, because I was wounded shortly after Christmas, and spent the next few months shuttling from one hospital to another. One thing led to another, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge.

I went to Michigan State University on a disabled veterans program upon leaving the service, got married and had two children, a boy, now five, and a girl, two. Sorry to say, my marriage has gone astray in the last few months, and I am on my own for the first time in ten years. That happens a lot in Southern California, as everywhere else. I sell electronic gear for a living, and have been in LA since 1976.

My parents were longtime members of Fort Street Church, and many of my early childhood memories of the holidays are wrapped up with Fort Street. I was a member of Scout troop #2, with Mr. Richter presiding, as were all three of my brothers, all much older than I. Although we were 'commuters' during the entire time that I attended Fort Street, it was at one time a neighborhood church for my parents and brothers, and my parents loved the place with a passion. My father, Arthur Rue, passed away after a long bout with Parkinson's Disease, in 1973, and my mother succumbed to leukemia in 1978. I wonder if there are any members remaining that remember my Dad. I expect some would. He was a very large deaf man with a bald head, a heavy supporter of your scouting program.

I have many times wondered what has happened to the people I knew at Fort Street. The only person I have had contact with in the last fifteen years was Wade Briggs, who was managing the radio station WCHB in Inkster in the early seventies. I have not talked with him since 1973. Do you still have Clear Lake Camp? I certainly hope so. All three of my brothers, Bill, Bob and Bud were counselors there at one time or another. I have thought about the Souder family... Here is what brought me to the point of writing you this letter. I saw the PBS special 'Miracle on Fort Street' on TV a few days ago. I was surprised and pleased to see your face on the screen. You have become the pastor, I see, and I am glad. You always showed a caring spirit that I am sure holds the church in good stead.

When they went through the old church, showed the sanctuary and the enormous organ that stretches all the way across the front of the church, they showed a view that I remember as spooky, looking into the sanctuary from the far left, darkened except for the altar area. I was very affected, and could almost hear the hissing and clanking below the floor that disturbed me as a child. I had almost forgotten until seeing that show, how thoroughly wrapped up with Fort Street my childhood was. I was baptized there, and remember getting up to receive scout awards, and hearing the bell choir. When they started talking with and showing the Fort Street Chorale, I recognized a face or two from my childhood.

When they related the problems and joys of creating the Messiah in inner city Detroit, it was very inspiring. I have rarely felt sorry for having left the Detroit area, but watching 'Miracle on Fort Street' I caught a glimpse of what I have missed, and the next time I visit Detroit, I look forward to attending church there once again. I am sure that many other memories will be stirred up, and I will be happy to see you again.

The producers really pointed up the capability of the church to lift spirits in the face of all of the squalor and hopelessness that inner city industrial life engenders. I can see that the choral director is demanding, but when they performed the hallelujah chorus to a packed church, it was beautiful. I made another revelation then, which is that I have become enamored of that music over the years, never knowing what I was hearing. The bass notes on that organ shook the sidewalks outside the church, I recall, when I was a kid.

The show really touched me, and made me think of events that haven't passed through my mind in years and years, such as being good-naturedly teased at Easter breakfast by the old cook, Rachael, who had once been a neighbor of my parents when they lived in the inner city, before that phrase was coined, and Vespers at camp, lighting candles for a cross to float into the lake, and many other moments of joy.

TV is an integral part of our lives, like it or not, and has the capability to set lots of agendas for us, for better or worse. I am trying to learn that, without becoming a couch potato. I am not a heavy TV buff, and have held a very negative attitude toward the tube for a long time. Yet, without TV, I would never see such things as I saw tonight, or many of the other great performances that have been screened over the years. It seems that we are no longer really literate without some exposure to the electronic waves. Anyways, I was jazzed, and touched to see the good news about Fort Street Church.

Thanks for the care package, back in 1969. Enclosed is a check for $5. I wish it could be more. Someday I would like to make a more substantial tithe, but in the meantime, I hope you and yours are doing well, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for the uplift.

Love,
Jim

Fort St. Church Chorale
The Detroit News
Michigan State University
PBS On-Line
VietNam Veterans home page (mirror)

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