1979 – Life after Terrible Tuesday

I don’t know if we knew anyone personally that lost their life in the tornado. All of the people making up the limited world in which I lived were present and accounted for. Mom was understandably a bit clingy for the next few days. Dad let me help him on the roof of our house as he replaced shingles that had been sucked off the roof in the storm. Our neighbors across the street were not as lucky. The roof of their house had literally been lifted, turned, and set back down. The entire thing had to be taken down and then replaced. Debris was eventually cleaned out of the streets. Leaves eventually returned to the stripped trees. The drumming of Army Huey Choppers surveying the damage from the skies and delivering supplies where needed was eventually replaced by the constant sound of hammering. That too eventually dissipated but it took far longer. Life eventually returned to normal as far as anyone could tell by looking, but stories of surviving that day are still told to this day. 
The Cowboys ended that season beating the Giants, the Eagles, and the Redskins in order. The man named Staubach my Dad followed so closely retired at the end of the season. The man that had served his country as a Navy Sailor and then became one of the first sports names I truly knew, retired. The Cowboys provide so many

of the memories of my youth. It was one of those things that could be considered a tradition even though I didn’t quite understand what we were celebrating. Whether it was sitting in the living room at Grandmama and Grandbob’s house watching a game on the TV; watching one live in the seats at old Texas Stadium; or rushing home from church on Sunday mornings to catch the kickoff, the Cowboys have always been a part of my family. In that part of the country, they are part of a lot of families. The tornado had taken so much from so many, but life was getting back to normal as we prepared for what Texans like to call ‘winter’.  That spring and summer pretty much flew by. The tornado had wiped out the sanctuary at Faith Baptist Church, so we spent the summer meeting under tents. I remember thinking how cool it was to be outside, but in church at the same time. The oppressive heat was just a minor detail for a kid. I believe the thermostats in kids have entirely different settings than the ones in adults. I don’t remember ever being as hot as a kid as I feel now when I’m in Texas during the summer. For some reason, I remember the setting of our tent-church being in a park somewhere. I’m picturing flowers and trees, but there’s a good chance that’s just a coping mechanism of some sort. Wichita Falls, Texas would not have had green grass and flowing streams in the summer months!
The news that year was somehow distant. The world around Wichita Falls had been crushed and had required all the attention of the community. We didn’t have the same kind of time to lend the news outside of our small community as we had previously been able to give. The rebuilding process was painful, yet cleansing in a way. I remember hearing news of a hairy little man in the dessert ascending to power and executing people at an alarming rate. I had never heard of Iraq, or Iran before that summer. I believe Iraq was once called Mesopotamia. At least that’s what they said in Church. That’s where the Garden of Eden was. Now; some of the stories in the Bible seemed a bit far-fetched to me as a kid but it wasn’t the kind of far-fetched that has you believing you know better. It was more like a sense that I must be stupid if I’m not getting this. It’s in the Bible, it has to be true. The things I didn’t quite grasp I just chalked up to lack of experience. I assumed that they would make sense to me at some point. With that thought in mind, I couldn’t fathom the garden, as described in the Bible, being set in a place like the disgusting, dusty, hellhole that they kept showing on the news. When the news broke that sixty-three Americans had been taken hostage in that part of the world, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around that one.  So much of what I had learned in Sunday School was based on an image of peace, in an almost tranquil, fertile land. Sure, there was mention of the dessert, but to a young kid hearing about the miraculous events of the Bible while possessing a shockingly vivid imagination, these stories took place in a paradise. The men and women discussed were regal and clean. These images they kept showing on the news of angry mobs seizing control of the US Embassy just didn’t make sense. Why would Jesus have chosen to live in such a place? Was it because that seemed to be where help was needed the most? Was it because that was pretty much as far as exploration had taken mankind to that point? Where were the dinosaurs? I had a feeling Sunday School was going to make mention of Jesus fighting a dinosaur if I just hung in there. I may have had a few chronological misunderstandings, but you see my point. My belief system; so much of what my parents had worked so hard to instill in me was being questioned by the lunacy unfolding in that part of the modern world. Then you toss in the complete ineptitude of a President that was causing Americans to lose not only their global credibility, but a few of their lives and it was time for a change. My world needed to be revitalized. Too much had happened in 1979. Too many confusing emotions to deal with. It was time for something to come along and clear out the fog that seemed to be embracing America. It was time to find a legitimate reason to celebrate.
That reason was right around the corner.

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