A POSITIVE HURRICANE EXPERIENCE FROM MY CHILDHOOD

Seeing hurricane reports always reminds me of being in Hurricane Celia in Corpus Christi TX in 1970. I was about to turn 7 years old.
My cousins Steven and Debbie and I were staying with our grandparents while our parents went somewhere. Steven was 5 and I was 6. All we knew was that it was raining and we weren’t allowed to change the channel on the TV. My cousin Debbie was 15 and was crying the entire time.
One thing that sticks in my memory is how quiet it became outside when we were in the eye. My grandfather went outside to check boards on windows, Steven and I stood on the back porch and stared in wonder at the millions of insects trapped in the eye. The sun was shining in it and the rainbow effect from the millions of iridescent wings was stunning.
Long story short, we lived. The entire neighborhood was all electric. So nobody had power. My grandparents’ travel trailer had a propane stove. The trailer remained unscathed. Everybody knew their neighbors back then. Even without facebook. As meat started thawing everybody brought it down and we had an enormous pot luck dinner in the back yard. Somebody had a TV with a 6 inch screen that could be plugged into a cigarette lighter on a car.
There were fifty or sixty people in the back yard drinking cokes and beer at room temperature and eating hot food.
I fell asleep during Johnny Carson. I remember the adults laughing uproariously at jokes that I didn’t understand.
The next day everyone started clearing debris. But we all pitched in together. No matter whose yard had fifteen u-haul trailers dumped in it.
If shouldn’t take a disaster to get to know your neighbors.
Everybody pray for Tampa Florida.

James Monkres

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