Ride Like The Wind

Boys shouldn't play in a tornado

Ride Like The Wind.

March 3, 1966, one of the most devastating tornadoes in Mississippi history occurred. This tornado would come to be known as the "Candlestick Park" tornado, named after a shopping center in south Jackson which was totally destroyed by the tornado. One of only two documented F5 (the most violent on the Fujita scale) tornadoes to strike Mississippi in the 20th century, this tornado carved a path of destruction across central and east central Mississippi. The worst damage occurred in parts of Hinds, Rankin, Scott, and Leake counties, where a total of 57 people were killed and over 500 were injured.

Howdy Folks,

We had some pretty rough weather here last night and it got me to thinking about the first time I ever experienced The true power of Old Mother Nature. There was a Shopping Center just two miles from my home That had an Electric Slot Car track set up on the walkway out front... This was a local hangout for kids back then.. I googled the little bit of information ya see up there.. If you want to read more about the actual event? Google the words CANDLESTICK PARK TORNADO.......Now I remember when Hurricane Camille Hit the Ms. Gulf Coast way back when.. Until Katrina this was known as the most powerful storm to ever hit the U S A. Well Let me tell ya! This little F-5 tornado on this March day, was no cake walk either.. If I remember correctly? There were 28 people killed at this one shopping center alone. Well folks I'm gonna tell ya a story about a Little 7 year old boy that will NEVER forget this day..................

RIDE LIKE THE WIND

"HEY BRUCE IT'S GETTING PRETTY DARK OUT HERE? MAYBE WE SHOULD GET ON HOME?".. OK, Just a couple more races and we are outta here..

It had been raining off and on for most of the day.. Bruce and I had been racing our Slot Cars since early morning.... We just loved doing this.. They had built a brand new shopping Center in our Neighborhood. The owner had put in an awesome Slot Car track for the kids to have something to do while the parents shopped... Some days we would stay here all day long.. Whenever some Older Lady would come out with a cart full of Groceries, Bruce and I would race to offer them help getting their stuff to their cars.. Now, Y'all are probably thinking "OH WHAT NICE LITTLE BOYS!"... NOPE!.. we did it for the money... Seems like some of the times we would help these folks and they would give us a Nickle or sometimes as much as a Quarter...(BIG BUCKS BACK THEN) Well anyway. It kept us in jaw breakers and Red Hots for a long time. .

It was starting to get late. The rain had pretty much stopped for now.. The sky was still very dark, so Bruce and I decided now would be a good time to make our 2 mile bike ride home... By the time we had made it a little over half way the bottom fell out... It was raining harder than I believe I can ever remember it raining. By now we were peddling just as fast as our 7 year old legs would take us. Lightning had gotten pretty bad by now and I do remember being pretty afraid... Now I would never let Bruce know this.. Because to him I was the most fearless kid he knew. We had been best buds for a couple of years by this time. My Mom always said that we were born attached at the hip..

Today since the weather was kinda bad and all, we decide to take the short cut home..

The short cut was a way that by simply lifting our bicycles over a couple of chain link fences and cutting through a few yards that we did not have permission to walk through, would cut out several blocks of riding time.. Only draw back to this was we had to run through Old Man Beasley's back yard....... Old Man Beasley was probably pushing around 150 years of age back then.. He was the meanest old man a kid could ever meet.. If you were playing ball and it would land in his yard. It was just GONE!. There wasn't a kid in all of South Jackson that would be willing to go up and knock on that fellas door to get it back.... Rumor had it, that a kid was never found after asking for permission to retrieve a wayward ball.

Also it was believed that this Old man was once married to a witch and her bones are buried somewhere on that mans Property... Now I didn't know if any of this was true or not? But being only 7 years old, I wasn't in any hurry to find out.

"MAN BRUCE!. IT'S REALLY BAD OUT HERE.. I DON'T THINK WE ARE GONNA MAKE IT?"... Dude! The short cuts just right up here?. It won't be long..........

Now we didn't know it at the time, but only a little over a mile away, an f-5 tornado was leveling the Shopping Center we had just left a few minutes earlier...

By now it had started to Hail... BIG Golf Ball size hunks of ice were pelting me and Ole Bruce... Bruce got hit between the eyes so hard that it knocked him off his bike..... So, he's sitting in the middle of the road crying..... HELL! I was blubbering like an idiot myself....Trust me.. After being smacked on top of the head by chunks of ice traveling at God knows how many MPH? One tends to let out a whimper or two. The sky was pitch black, the wind had picked up also. Bruce and I knew we wasn't going to make it home...

Now folks, Bruce wasn't the sharpest tack in the box, but I have to give him his props this day...... Now all this was happening pretty fast. That hail storm was really starting to hurt...The only thing we worried about at this moment in time was Our heads.. Lucky for us today was trash day.... Because in front of the house we were stopped at was a big metal Trash can...Bruce grabbed it, dumped out what little trash was left inside.. We put that trash can over us. So just to draw ya a picture, We were both standing up inside that upside down can. The only thing you could see was probably from our ankles down to our feet... I still remember that horrible sound of the rain and hail hitting that can.. Being inside it only mad it louder.. It was dark and very smelly.. I remember every time it would lightning it would kinda light up in there like a cheap horror movie. We were both scared to freaking death by now... I will not lie.. Call it what you may, but I think Me and Ole Bruce was hugging each other for dear life at this moment... The wind was howling.. We were having a lot of trouble just standing there.. One time the wind snatched that can right outta our hands.. We chased it down and got right back under it.....

Next thing we know, the can just flew off us. Kinda like someone just snatched it away....You can imagine our surprise when we suddenly found ourselves face to face with Old Man Beasley...(Now that I think about it? Wonder what went through that old mans mind when he snatches off that trash can and found two little boys inside hugging like scared little girls?)

My first impulse was to RUN LIKE HELL! I think I would have much rather been killed by a storm than to come up missing at the hands of Old Man Beasley? But it was already to late...

Old Man Beasley grabbed both me and Bruce by the arms.. He pretty much drug us kicking and screaming into his house.. He forced us into his bathroom.. Told us to jump in the tub and then the Old Fool threw a freaking mattress on top of us.. Bruce and I were both frozen in fear at this time.

As fast as this all happened, It was over.

Turns out Old Man Beasley wasn't as mean as folks said he was.Until he told us, we never even knew about that Tornado. He had looked out his window and seen us under that can....I don't know if that man saved us that day or not?. The trash can was no where to be found when it was all said and done..He told us we better get on home because our Mommas were probably worried about us...

I remember leaving his house on my bicycle. I remember hearing lots of sirens. But what I'll never forget is the sound of worry in my Fathers voice.. Turns out that he was walking the neighborhood looking for us the whole time the storm was going on...He had known that we had been at That shopping center that day.. He had also heard on the news that it was no longer there. That man was walking the two miles to come and find us.

Now that I am grown and have children of my own. I can only imagine the horror he felt that day.... Maybe that's why he tore my butt up with a belt later that night for not being at home? I can in all Honesty say, that from that day forward.. Didn't matter where I was.. If there was ONE single cloud in the sky.. I was heading home.

My Dad was a Fireman back then... I didn't see him much for a few days after that storm.. Once I got a little older he told me a few horror stories about it...I will spare y'all from the details.. He did take Bruce and I a few days later to look at the damage. Up until this point I had only seen something that destructive in books.

I'll never forget seeing houses of people I knew just gone....There was one house that the storm picked strait up. Turned it upside down, and gently lay ed it right back down on the slab on it's roof. Also there was a Little White Church. Everything around that church was GONE....There wasn't a single tree left on that property... The Little White Church did not have a scratch on it.... WOW!

Y'ALL WEAR YA SMILES TODAY.....kuntry

 

Reviews

[hyancynthstofeedthysoul]

Well done sounds like something the old Rain, would have written. That my friend is the highest compliment I can give.

[Melanie Jane Boicourt S..]

Wow! That story totally brought tears to my eyes. So great. You told it in such good detail that I was right there with both of you boys hugging on for dear life under that trash can. I was petrified with you when that old man yanked it off and dragged you with him to his house.
I was also there with your dad as he walked the streets looking for his son and praying that he wasn't dead.
Brilliant.
Thanks for sharing.
Love All, Mejasha