Image via Wikipedia | Current mood:  cheerful Category: Life The night Hurricane Frederic changed my life! by Floyd Clifton Wooley I. Thoughts of my mind set in the days leading to September 12, 1979 I had grown up on the water and had memories of hurricane Camille the night it made landfall on the Mississippi Coast in 1969. I was only three at the time but I remember being carried into our home on Bay road by my father at night fall as the winds howled and the rain fell after what I would find out later in life was a day he had spent trying to save as much of the contents of his night club and restaurant "the Bay Breeze" located at the time on the south side of Battleship Parkway about midway between where Oysterella's and my grandfather's old restaurant "The Silver King" stood. The old building had been torn down in the late 50's so that a new building for "The Silver King" could be constructed by my father after my grandfather's passing. The new building stood the force of Camille as did the building next door that housed "Stauter Boat Works". Mr. Stauter was a fine man that worked hard to build a fine business building & selling Stauter boats as well Evinrude engines and boat trailers as well the hardware needed to have a fine time on the Bay. He had a habit of using a word or words that I am sure has not hampered his life nor his life to come one bit. Mr. Stauter let me purchase my first outboard motor from him when I was 12 in weekly installments. I was paid fifty-cents per hour to wash windshields to begin with at my parents store and each week I would take the proceeds of my weeks earnings across the street to Mr. Stauter for a period of several weeks until the $200.00 I paid for the 4hp engine was paid. Mr. Stauter's success over the years would eventually lead me to open my own marine hardware business on "Battleship Parkway" but that would be many years into the future. To my parents credit I beleive may have received a raise that summer! I might also mention for my 12th birthday they had purchased and given me a new 14' Sears Aluminum Jon boat that was my pride and joy until the recent economic downturn that began as we are all aware with the terrorist attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. I recently sold that boat with regret trying to save my home for my wife and son at a yard sale. Back to the story on September 12, 1979 my parent's main or original Exxon convenience was located directly across from those two businesses I noted above. My parent's other Exxon Service Station and Camp Park located on the Causeway is on the location where Oysterella's is presently located to the west on the North side of the road. Our family's home with stood the fury of Camille with the water only reaching just below the top of the "bank" as we call it which is where the property on Hollinger's Island drops down to what once was a marshy but somewhat use able area for your "wharf ramp" as we all called it to begin and where we burned debris from the frequent but not all that worrisome storms that passed on occasion on there way to some other section of the coast. I guess the night Camille made landfall and being without lights and listening to the constant radio updates while making preparation for any possible change in the storms path even at such a young age is burned into my memory and would set me on a life-long obsession with the weather in the Gulf of Mexico, especially during hurricane season. I had no idea my parents life would be altered the night of Camille as it was nor mine. I remember the trips to Dauphin Island after Camille to see the damage wrought by that storm and I knew a new start for my parent's with the construction of their new Exxon Station- Enco at the time had been some result of the storm and I can almost see or envision the remants of the "Bay Breeze" in my memory but I can't be sure those memories are not just from my imagination as my father told of what he thought had caused it's destruction. A twister off the hurricane. I truly had thought the damage from Frederic would be minimal for some reason and that may have been from the fact I was so young and had seen Eloise in 1975 or 76 skirt the coast from the west toward the panhandle while I stayed with my grandparents- Nevin and Evelyn Sauce. Of course my Dad as he is owned a boat at Dog River Marina called the Mermaid and both he and my mother had stayed with the boat the night Eloise had passed to the south of Mobile. There is a story to tell about that night and hopefully I will get to add it to the story of our families love affair with the water and the sometimes difficult consequences that has wrought at some point in the future. |
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/fcliff/blog?page=33#ixzz0zvRNhqYH
No comments:
Post a Comment