but in those days as long as the school was standing you better find a way to get there.
That reminded me of a time when the school was NOT standing...
or, at least it was not in any shape to have any more classes...
...the roof was caved in and the fields around it were LITTERED with papers and trash....
Oh, yeah...if there were any cupholders....they got scattered from there to Kingdom Come...
Let me back up a little....it must have been around April...16th 2011 and I was in the middle of helping a buddy build his garage...a quonset hut type building...and a storm was brewing up...
We stopped working for a while but the storm did not really affect us much...turns out that were were a few miles north of where a tornado/waterspout came up outta the York River and tore through Gloucester County, Virginia...
At first when I hear about the tornado...I told my buddy..."well, it looks like we dodged that bullet..."
A lot of people and houses...did not...
Now...I realize that you guys in the MidWest prob'ly see tornados all of the time...but in Gloucester...it is an almost-never thing...
Nobody was prepared for what was to come...it took a crazy path though the county...I saw the path later...because I rented a plane and pilot outta Williamsburg and flew over it to see the damage some time later...
People were astounded by the damage to the school...you could see it from the main road...traffic was backed up like nobodys business...
I imagine that most of the onlookers were locals...and the school that their kids went to...well...the county was gonna hafta come up with another option...
Something good seems to come out of bad things...what I noticed was how the community came together to clean up and try to cover up damaged houses and streets. It was like a disaster party of sorts...people brought water, food, grills, tarps, chainsaws, ropes, chains, trucks, people to help...activity was everywhere...to drive through it was like a horror show and tailgate party all rolled up into one.
If you are ever feeling like people are only self-interested...all that needs to happen is one event like that to set you straight.
A number of buses got trashed...and any cupholders they may have had...crying shame...
https://www.dailypress.com › 2017 › 03 › 20 › gloucesters-2011-tornado-and-aftermath-coverage