Natural Disasters - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Natural Disasters. I grew up on the South Carolina coast so we always had tropical storms and hurricanes to deal with during "the season". Even after being gone for many years, every June 1st I feel the need to stock up on batteries and bottle water!! I won a trivia contest (at a bar) for knowing that hurricane season goes from June 1st to November 30th.

After dodging all the big storms and dealing with the minor hurricanes, Charleston's luck ran out in 1989. Hurricane Hugo hit 21-22 September 1989 as a Category 4 storm. He hit at night. For years I couldn't sleep at night when it rained. We lucked out in that we had minor damage. Got a new roof. For weeks we were without power. That I learned to accept. Being without water for ONE WEEK was killer. You'd go to wash your hands after cleaning up debris and nothing!! We had a rain storm a few days after the storm hit. My sister and I went to the backyard and let Mother Nature be our shower!! Washed the hair, cleaned the body, felt good!!

I guess that's why seeing the whole mess with Hurricane Katrina got to me. That could have been Charleston, Savannah or any city on the East Coast. A hurricane that hits at high tide is the worst. New Orleans had double whammies with being at or below sea level and the levies.

But hurricanes are a fact of life on any coast and have been for years. The photo below was taken less than a month after Hurricane Hugo hit in front of the Slave Market. I think that sums up not only Hugo but all hurricanes!!

Toys - 52 Weeks of Genealogy and Personal History

My all time favorite toy growing up was the Mrs. Beasley doll. I loved that doll more than I loved my baby sister!! After several years of my sister tearing Mrs. Beasley's arms off and my poor Mother repairing them as long as she could. One day, Mrs. Beasley wasn't there. The only thing that remained was her apron (which I still have today). My Mother's response to my questions of where the doll was "she's on vacation and we'll see her soon".......and I bought it. So naive :)

Cars - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

When I saw the posting about CARS, I had to smile. My late father's "hobby" was CARS!! Specifically, old cars. So no big surprise that my first car was a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda. Dad borrowed a battery to get it home and work on it (purchased for $100.00). So for my junior & senior years of high school, I drove a tri-color car to school and loved it!! For graduation, my car was painted...and again I loved it!! Saddest day was when I "upgraded" to air conditioning after college.

Fixup Time:

High School Years:

College Years:

I am STILL in the process of finding and organizing my photos so in the future I will post pictures of some of the great (didn't always think so at the time) cars we had.