Ice Storm 94'

If you've lived here long enough you know that West Tennessee weather is not consistent and can change at the drop of a dime. I will never forget the winter of 1994 when my mom. brother, and I were watching TV in the living room. All of the sudden we heard this massive fall of precipitation. It was like nothing I had ever heard. It wasn't like a gentle rain that crescendoed into a down poor, or a light wind that blew into a tornado. It was an unpronounced dumping of sleet and ice that seemed to last a good half hour to an hour. Once it had let up we all walked outside to see the aftermath. The ground and roads sparkled in glistening white ice. Immediately you could hear branches of trees breaking from the sudden impact. Nevertheless, the forecast of my week changed from school and test to snow days and fun.

All throughout the night I could hear branches snapping. It sounded like a war zone outside my bedroom window. The next morning proved to be a different story. Once dad finally made it home from the fire station we all piled in the truck to see if we could help move branches or clear roads. It was by far the worst ice storm I had ever seen, and proved to be deadly throughout the mid-south. Thousands were without power for days, and some even weeks. Trees were bent over at the trunk from the weight of the ice, branches covered the roads, power lines were down, transformers were blackened from the blowouts, and a few houses in Lucy got it the worse as massive trees fell on them.

Once the Lucy community had regrouped and all was well, we kids took advantage of the wintry conditions. Disney's Mighty Ducks was a popular movie at the time, so we all traded in our baseballs and bats for hockey pucks and sticks. About eight of us boys played hockey on the roads as we tried to perfect our knuckle-pucks and triple deeks. We had a chocolate lab at the time named Hershey. I was able to harness a sled up to Hershey and have him pull my 9 year old brother Will around the yard. Looking back, as a kid I could've spent all day in the snow and never get tired. These days after a good hour of snow play I'm ready to call it a day.

Much fun was had those few days we were out, however that ice storm would go down in Memphis and Mid-South history of being one of the worse Ice Storms this portion of the country had ever seen. Many mid-southerns lost their lives due to hypothermia and fallen trees and power lines. It is times like these though when communities pull together for the greater good. Neighbors helping neighbors, Memphians helping Memphians, and outside municipalities coming to our rescue to get the power turned on faster. Through tragedy comes compassion for your fellow man.

-Steve Childress

BIRD!!!!

One of my family's favorite movies is Christmas Vacation. In a strange way our family resembled the Grizwalds and we would often found ourselves quoting this movie in any given situation. At prayer time one would say "Grace, she passed away years ago" or the classic "Save the neck for me Clark" at every chicken dinner. One particular scene from Christmas Vacation set the perfect script for what happened one winter's evening.

At one time the Childress manor had an ajoining covered breezeway that joined the garage to the house. It had two screen doors and every now and then birds will fly in and make a nest or simply get caught inside the breezeway. This particular evening a cardinal had done just that. We were eating dinner and heard a rucus come from the breezeway. Sure enough we saw a cardinal fly from one end to the other looking for an escape. The bird purched itself on one of the rafters to get a good lay of the terrain and plan his escape. He saw his opportunity and took it. The cardinal leaped from the rafters swooping down over our heads and right into the open door leading into the living room. At that very moment mom yelled BIRD!!!!! as Clark senior yelled SQUIRRLE!!!!! in Christmas Vacation. All of the sudden our little home was turned into a funhouse for the said bird and his new captures.

I immediately went to the garage and retrieved my fishing net. Mom had a blanket trying to move the bird out the door as done by Chris Farley in Black Sheep. Instead the clevor bird went deeper into the house and ended up in our bathroom. Purched on the window seal the bird was cornored and his persuers were closing in. At that very moment the cardinal charged his persuers as we hit the deck and the bird proceeded its way throughout the house. Knocking over lamps and leaving little bird droppings the bird was getting the best of the Childress clan. Eventually we caught the trapped cardinal with the net and released it outside, but not before my little brother could utter the words "Save the neck for me Clark".

-Steve Childress