This was the third time seeing it.
The first was on the big screen in the theater...in which one of the key scenes involving a semi-truck, was ruined for me, due to loud talkers coming out of the theater.
The second time was watching it on a tiny screen with a wide-eyed South African named Heidi.
I remember after one of the first scenes with a tornado in it, she turned to me and said,
"this movie, where does it take place?"
I answered, "Oklahoma."
to which she asked with a little bit of fear in her voice,
"and this, (insert South African accent) Ok-la-ho-ma?, How far is it from In-di-an-a?"
I could tell there were certain American experiences that she was hoping not to partake.
But I'll tell you, after watching it the third time and then watching just a couple months later the REAL live heartbreak and destruction that this force of nature can bring....I'm not sure if I'll ever want to watch the movie again.
Especially after learning via Facebook that my family was undergoing the threat of dark skies last weekend.
I THANK GOD no one was hurt.
I am sad to see the pictures tho, especially the trees and the landscape that we grow so fond of seeing and enjoying. (see Sister Susie's FB folder named "Storm")
I was in Indy and missed the storm, so I have no first hand story.
And I knew that some day I would post the following pictures, but never knew or imagined or wanted to be linking this Flashback Friday to a current event.
I went thru this storm, I think. But have no memory of it...or first hand story. I believe I must have been cradled in someone's arms...and whoever you were, I thank you.
So, I'll just post the pictures with the captions that were written by my parents and brothers and sisters and I'll let your comments and your memories tell the story of the:
It must have made quite an impression on these caption writers!
Directions to here:
What do you remember about the Storm of '65?
4 comments:
I think we were in the basement at the time. Don't remember if Dad was down there or not.
I also think that somewhere under the trees behind the store was a dog pen with a Pekinese (sp) with a litter of puppies that somehow survived it all!
I think the most notable thing about storms like that is how it changes the lasdscape.. Its like you are in a different place after you clean up.
The Elser "storm" was in 1967. It wrecked the house.
Here's all that I remember of the 1965 Storm.
Starting from the top with the walnut trees in the driveway. This is the view that Uncle Wayne saw when he came to work the morning after the storm. There was very little damage at his house so he was really shocked when he pulled in that morning. I will never forget the look of disbelief on his face when he pulled up that morning.
The other group with the tree on the tractor is the tree that earlier in the day Harry Schwimmer's telephone crew had bumped into with a trencher while burying an underground phone line. I remember Dad grumbling and giving Harry a hard time about them cutting through his driveway with the trencher. The tree that they bumped into had been hit many times in the past by cars but Dad wouldn't let Harry use that as an excuse for hitting it. He gave Harry quite a hard time about it and finally Harry said "Bob that tree has been there for a long time and I guarantee that me bumping into it isn't going to cause it to fall over tonight" Well it did. There was not much Dad could say as the tree was rotten and hollow inside but he still would not let Harry live that down. I think all it did to the tractor was break the steering wheel.
Now onto the car pictures. If you zoom in on the second one showing the back of the store, you can see the sandbox, a bike, an old cast iron peddle tractor and the handle bars of a tricycle and in the foreground the edge of the burn barrel. This was a popular area to leave our outdoor toys. My brand new Schwinn Stingray bike was laying under that tree also. I had ogled over that bike in the Firestone catalog for at least a year and saved all I could to buy it. I had just gotten it a couple days before the storm and of course was more worried about my bike than anything else. It was not damaged at all. I remember the amazing thing about the car also was that the only broken glass in it was the back window, which I remember Dad saying that he thought the only reason he thought it was broke was because of the air pressure from the inside when the roof was smashed in. It left a pretty deep V in the roof on the passenger side and that door wouldn't open but Dad never got it fixed. He bought another car for the family and saved the smashed one for Janet, Susie and me to share as we started driving.
I remember being in the basement and Dad coming down and giving us an update on the storm when the tree came over on the car.
Another interesting thought is that I'm pretty sure the storm came during fair week, late August, you can see the fair parking lot sticker in the window of the car. The funny thing about this is that the pictures weren't developed until October. those were the days when you would take a picture of something and then have to wait to relive that event until after you could get to town to drop the film off and then wait to get back to town to pick them up. Oh Happy Days!!
Mike - I remember you telling the story about being worried about your bike. but I also confuse it with a bike in the tree?? did I make that up?
Post a Comment