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