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Monday, August 29, 2005

I hear ya, kids of New Orleans

Preface added on 8/30: Please note I wrote this blog before Katrina got all Tsunami-ish. Cat 4 and 5 hurricanes are obviously not the "fun" ones I'm describing from my childhood. Give me a Cat 3 like 1983's Hurricane Alicia. Okay, carry on:


Growing up near Galveston, TX meant that every year we faced the threat of a hurricane. On the news today you're seeing the scary side of a hurricane: flooding, destruction, even death. But to kids, hurricanes are a blast. When I was a kid they were definitely my natural disaster of choice.

Naming it:
At the beginning of hurricane season the newspaper puts out this brochure that lists all the names for the year. First things first, I would have to see if Elsa was on the list. And you only have a chance every other year because each letter alternates between boy names and girl names. I think Elsa would make a great hurricane name but it never made the cut. Luckily, neither did my sister's name, Kristin. And if you're name is, let's say, Sally...you're screwed. Even if they do name a hurricane after you, it's not likely that they're ever going to use it.


Preparing for it:
I guess technology wasn't as, well, hi-tech as it is now because there were a lot of hurricanes that we thought were going to hit but didn't. So you still get to go through all the fun of bracing for the hurricane like buying up water, can goods, batteries and then boarding up your house. Now this doesn't sound like much fun but remember when the lights would go out in school and everybody cheered? It's kinda like that. Which brings me to one of the biggest perks of being a hurricane kid.

Escaping it:
It's simple. Hurricanes = vacation. You get to miss school and go somewhere fun. My family always went to New Braunfels. Then we would sit in a hotel room and watch coverage of the hurricane. Now you may think we sound sick but as kids, we would hope that the hurricane would hit our area. Why? Because if it actually did hit, we didn't have to make up for the missed day of school. But if it didn't, there went our Labor Day or MLK day.


Returning to it:
When we would go back to our house after a hurricane, the electricity and the air conditioning would be out. Nightmare, right? No way. We'd all sleep in the living room, light some candles...throw in some s'mores and we've got a camping trip.

So hurricane Katrina may bring with it devastation and destruction...but that's for the grown-ups to deal with. The kids get to miss school, go on vacation and then have a camping adventure. Trust me, kids of Katrina, there are plenty of kids in Galveston who are way jealous right now. Well, except the ones named Sally.

3 comments:

ReadBecca said...

As a fellow coastal Texan, I'm feelin' ya. I grew up in Corpus Christi and the only hurricane we ever ran from was Allen. So my brother had his birthday party with family in San Antonio. Apparently, the drive to San Antonio was a nightmare, but we didn't notice. We were in my aunt and uncle's motor home with a fully stocked junk food fridge and television. We had a blast looking for ourselves on TV from the live helicopter shots of the refugees.

Don't discount the value of a good tropical storm. Good surfing!

Writinggal said...

Oh, I'm starting to realize a sad fact, disrespecca. We hurricane kids are really the same as white trash kids. Let's go have some breakfast for dinner.

ReadBecca said...

I love pancakes anytime. There's no shame in that.