Thursday, January 21, 2010
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Thursday, January 21, 2010 |
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Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery |
| Close to Nowhere If my house burned down... I apparently was born what one of the elderly ladies in my church called a “crepehanger.” Bettye (she added the “e” herself as she felt plain ole Betty was too plain) Sloan was one of those elderly women that I hope I can be. A tireless worker in our church and for the entire community, she was devoted to her family, both blood and just because she loved you. She was also a “crepehanger,” as was Inez, my granddaughters’ great-grandmother on their dad’s side of the family. Inez and Bettye would have gotten along like a house afire! The three of us would have made quite a combination -- both of those ladies in their 80s and me, well never mind that! Perhaps with such good training from those ladies, I manage to worry about many things that are completely beyond my control. Like earthquakes... When we were children, my oldest brother and I were playing with a big red ball in our stairwell, throwing it (hard) back and forth, up and down the stairs. At one point, plaster rumbled out of the walls and made round holes, where apparently nails were. Dennis and I were in huge trouble! Playing ball on the stairs was not one of those things we were allowed to do. We found out later that there had been a minor earthquake and that had caused the plaster to crumble. Whew! It didn’t get us out of trouble though. When I was a new mom, Dana was barely walking and she and the daughter of my best friend growing up were playing in Dana’s room, while Brenda and I were in the living room. The bricks around the fireplace began to crumble and rumble and Brenda and I jumped up and grabbed each other and held on. Our baby girls didn’t even notice. I love Reelfoot Lake and am fascinated with the idea that an earthquake caused the Mississippi River to run backwards, I think for something like 24 hours, and made the lake. I am also terrified at the thought. During the ’90s, when some scientist was predicting a major earthquake, one of the joke precautions here at the office was to throw our bodies over the computers. All this is just to say that all the horrors of the earthquake in Haiti are not beyond my crepehanging thoughts. It has happened here before. It’s possible again. We will give Haiti all the help our country is famous for -- and pray we don’t need it ourselves anytime soon! |
     
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