When I was growing up, I the pastor of my church (the one who baptized me) was preaching one Sabbath and mentioned that he was driving the big yellow truck from Eric B. Hare's story. Well I'd heard the recordings of that story, but we didn't have it in our home. I did sit up and take notice however. Our pastor was a celebrity. Well, years have gone by and I had the chance to talk with my former pastor this summer. If you're interested in reading any of his interview it's on the GC's Adventist Mission website. I especially like the clip of the pastor telling how his family first learned they were featured in that story. They had no idea when they bought the recording...
I just thought that would be of interest to other Canadians out there. (BTW when you're watching the video clip, look for the black squirrel. It wasn't until I moved to Maryland that I realized black squirrel's aren't everywhere. I saw some at the national zoo and they had a sign that the black squirrels there were originally brought in from Ontario.

Oh the web address is http://www.AdventistMission.org

--Rick Kajiura
Adventist Mission Communication

Thank you for this Canadian story.

Rick thanks for sharing the "behind the scenes" of the story.

Eric B. Hare, was quite the story teller, he really knew how to use his voice to create interest. He appears to have created his own version of the story for child appeal perhaps? Perhaps the story would be even closer to Pastor Juriansz's recollection, but maybe not as notable, if he had just stuck to the facts?

Back in 1958/9 Mr. *Rabbit*, as he also called himself, visited us and we took pictures of him with our children. Years later we still read his morning devotionals for the children. He was a great asset to our church.

Mr. Rabbit?

I wasn't a SDA back then.

I also was only about 11 years old.

The name Mr. Rabbit seems to ring a bell somewhere in the recesses of my mind.

Was he on both the American and Canadian TV Networks?

Eric B. Hare was, as far as I remember, originally from Australia, served as a missionary to Burma, from where some of his stories originated. It seems like he served for a number of years as a departmental director in the Sabbath School department of the General Conference, with children's Sabbath School as his specialty. It was in this capacity he traveled all over the world teaching and inspiring people to have better sabbath schools for children. He told and wrote so many fascinating stories from his own experiences, that he became a legend. I notice that a new edition of his stories has been published even this year.

I believe the medium that many heard Mr. Hares stories was the phonograph. It is possible that some radio stations played the records. My family didn't own any, so I must have heard him at SDA elementary school.

A step away from the big yellow truck - looking at your temperatures it seems like winter in Canada. We do have a little frost here in Southern Iceland once in a while, but lately it has been + 5 C. . .

Iceland is your closest European neighbor, and Icelandair will soon start regular flights to Canada, so we get even closer.