Wow, quite a night here in Rush County, Indiana. A series of thunderstorms has brought along with the rain, hail and damaging winds, lightning, and probably quite a bit of fear as well.
After finishing my work today in Rushville, I decided to make a trek to Carthage, a drive that takes one northwest of Rushville and north of Arlington, where I live. The reason for this drive was simple, gasoline at a cheaper price than Rushville! This isn't news of course, because, basically, Rushville is notorious for having the highest gas prices in all of east central Indiana most of the time. One need only drive a short distance away and gas is always cheaper! And since gasoline right now isn't cheap anywhere, the chance to save seven cents a gallon is worth a 7 mile drive!
I made the drive a scenic one, driving back county roads. Actually, this wouldn't be hard to do, mainly because there isn't a highway that runs into Carthage. The only way to get there is by driving county roads. However, I took a bizarre route there just to make the drive a fun one. I actually had no idea how exciting this little drive was going to become.
As I made my drive towards Carthage, I began to notice dark cloudy in the western sky, as far as you could see to the north and south. In the south the huge cumulus thunderheads looked ominous, while the clouds to the north looked dark but not as threatening. Oh, how deceiving things can be sometimes.
Upon arrivng at the convenience mart, first thing I noticed was that every pump was taken, so I pulled behind a lady filling up an SUV, and began my wait for the cheaper fuel. Apparently in a small town like Carthage, no one seems to mind making you wait your turn, because NO ONE was in a hurry to pull away from the pumps. Matter of fact, the fellow driving the pick up truck in front of the SUV disappeared in the store and I never did see him again before I left.
All the time I'm waiting for my turn, the sky is getting darker, the wind began to pick up, and the streaks of lightning grew in size and brightness, and the thunder started getting louder and louder. Finally, a lady who was driving a small compact car(smart woman, considering gas prices, too) came out and started up her vehicle. Before anyone else got the chance to pull off the main drag of this nice little town, I started up my mini SUV and turned around and backed into her space she had previously been occupying. By this time, the thunder is really getting loud and the first sprinkles of rain began falling. Nineteen dollars of precious gas later, I make my way into the mini-mart to pay for my gas and make a quick exit. And might I add, I still never did see the gentleman who had been sitting at the first pump nearly ten minutes now.
I got back into my truck and started back to the south to head home, when I saw a sign pointing to the east and advertising COLD BEER CARRYOUT! Now, I had been busy all day, and I knew the only beer I had at home was warm, so I quickly made the decision to drive a half block out of my way and pick up a cold six pack to take home. Had I not taken this detour, I would have missed the storm by a couple of minutes. But I'm not psychic, and I still thought I had time to miss the rain.
As I was driving towards home, only six miles away, the lightning really got wicked, the wind picked up even more sending up trails of dust everywhere, and you could see the rain falling a few miles away...and awesome sight, I might add. I drove thru sprinkles, downpours, light showers, then nothing, over and over again during a five mile drive. My wonderful wife had opened up my side of the garage, and as I pulled into the drive and waved at her as she stood on the backporch smiling, the rain began falling in buckets just as I pulled into the garage. I got the garage door shut and stood alone for a few minutes and waited for the rain to slack. It did for a few seconds.
Mother Nature can sure be a rude bitch sometimes. I had no more made the trip halfway from the garage to the house when the rain picked up in intensity and I got fairly soaked before acquiring safe-haven inside the house.
As I stood watching the weather radar on television and listening to the frightening list of tornado warnings and thunderstorm warnings and watching the pictures viewers had e-mailed in of hail on the ground, my memory drifted back some 25 years earlier.
Back in 1980, my good friend Kingfish and I worked for a local cable tv station, mainly on a freebie basis. Kingfish was a whiz with camera work while I simply enjoyed the challenge of talking on the mike and making like a big shot news reporter. Together, he and I were really a great team, at least in my mind we were. We rode around in his hot Trans-Am, finding different local newstories and filming and reporting on them. We had no idea what we would find, if anything, we had no script, but seemed to always manage to find something to videotape for the 6pm news.
One afternoon in particular, I remember a very similar storm moving thru the Rush County area, and believe it or not, before it ever became a popular thing to do, Kingfish and I are chasing storms. Literally driving all the area, finding the worst possible storm clouds and while he taped, I did my best with no idea what I was going to say, and we covered the storm as best as two young men could who had no idea whatsover of what they were doing. We were fearless, with Kingfish telling me over and over again that we just had to find that "Pulitzer Prize winning tornado video!" Regardless of our hopes to film such a thing, all we managed to get was some pretty awesome thunderstorm videos.
Two months later, late one night, however, two tornadoes ripped thru southern Rush County with such a force that miles and miles of destruction occurred. Even though the tornado itself was never filmed by Kingfish, the aftermath provided nearly twenty minutes of unbelievable footage of mayhem left behind. Unfortunately, because of my "paying" job, I was unable to be with him that day, and a much older and more experienced newsman provided the commentary as Kingfish videotaped the path of destruction. And I swear to you, if that older and experienced newsman used the expression "total devastation" once in that twenty minute tape, he had to have used it sixty times or more.
Thanks to Kingfish, however, I was able to get with him the following day and take a plane ride over the area that the tornadoes rampaged. That was my first plane ride ever, and the shock of what I saw below me far outweighed my fear of flying that first time. Truly I have never seen anything like it in my life, before or after. The debris left behind, the actual path the two tornadoes took before becoming one large tornado was mind-boggling.
It's amazing to me now that at one time, all those many years ago, Kingfish and I were so fearless that we literally drove into those thunderstorms, looking for the elusive tornado to film and report. The drive home tonight was not a drive of a fearless young man in his twenties. It was the drive of a 53 year old man hoping to get home and safely inside his home before the storm hit.
My how the years have changed me.
Something tells me that Kingfish is still as brave he ever was. I don't think the years have mellowed him as much as they have me.
Matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that he was out tonight in Decatur County chasing those storms down....
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