puddington Wrote:
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> Gosh. If the public really knew why.
>
> [
tolucantimes.info]
Here's a post by 'Sarge' from approximately five years ago, regarding the origin of the Christmas truck:
Posted by: TheSarge
Date: December 13, 2015 12:20AMIn reading Lorena's quote, to be fair, she didn't say she helped create the Christmas truck. The musicians were sitting around, getting drunk, thinking about JRS, and went out. No planning, no thinking of anything in ministering to the neighborhood. In fact, they just said they were from That Studio and never mentioned The Living Word. It stayed that way. Just a bunch of "friends" doing a "thing." And it grew as the neighborhoods contacted That Studio. Then it went commercial, as all things Christmas tends to do when people are about glory to themselves. There are those who participate that have a heart of the season and genuinely care about the people who are starry eyed with the glitz as part of their celebration. But make no mistake: this has never been about the community. Eventually the route was made to accommodate celebrities like Denzel Washington. The truck would stay in front of his house upwards to 15 minutes. No was allowed to talk to him except who Rick said could. Then they started doing community Christmas parades in Sherman Oaks and Burbank. They always contacted the news to come film and do a bit. It made it a staple. Lorena's involvement probably started as an elf or a dancer. I was involved behind the scenes for years. But after a couple of years, I was told if I walked next to the truck, I wasn't allowed to talk to the people -- only designated people were allowed so the same thing was being said. Heavily controlled media spectacle! When folks in Shiloh wanted to do the same thing, Rick shut it down.