Turns out the tornado did hit, about twenty miles north. Another maybe fifty miles further up. Have not heard much more about the storms, yet. I have seen a few tornados before, and remember the one in 2001 that ripped the shit out of Country Bob's place west of town. Did a lotta chain saw work after that one. Fact is, after he died last year there was still about ten years of firewood left. Storms are like that... the big ones, the 'Oh, My God' ones, you tend to remember. My divorce was quite a storm... if I remember. And there still is a whole buncha firewood left over from that one..
Well, anyway, about Uncle Curley. His funeral is tomorrow. Would have been a hundred years old this coming December. He liked his 'year-marks'. Remembered all of them. He married my mother's older sister seventy five years ago and they had 73 pretty decent years before she passed away a couple of years ago. That was about when he finally gave up his apartment and moved into an assisted living community. Now old Curley was not a typical 'Old" guy. Last time I saw him he would tell how he still walked a mile around the home, sometimes two, "in good weather". He remembered EVERYTHING!! And did not mind telling
you, often to your dismay. But the thing with Curley is he never mentioned anything unpleasant, or at least never talked about it. His stories were more like the time he went goose hunting, back in 54, and what the weather was like then, who he was with, what kind of booze they were sipping from pint bottles, and precisely what time of the early dawn it was when that big Canadian honker came gliding out of the mist and how he led it just so, bagged it on the first shot. He would then go on to tell you what kind of vegetables that they served when they cooked that sucker up. Also, who was sitting at the table when to help eat it, how he knew them, how old they were then, and what has happened to them since the occasion of that glorious feast. Of course that would also launch him into the story of the mallard some one gave him back in 62 and how they didn't get all the pellets out and he chipped a tooth on one and how he had to go to a dentist to get it fixed and how that same dentist had been on Iwo Jima and had just missed being in that famous flag raising photo. That was Curley.
He and my Aunt Cecelia only had one daughter and when that daughter's husband split and left that daughter with five little kids, why it was Curley and Ceil that raised those grand children. And those expanded to great-great grandchildren.... and even a couple of great-great-greats. They held off the funeral for a week to make sure they could all show up. And they will. When they still had an apartment there used to be a list on the refrigerator... reminding them of which kid would show up which day to take them to church, the doctor, the store, the birthday party... the whatever. And Curley remembered all the birthdays, graduations, accomplishments, wedding dates...... you never wanted to ask to much about any of it cause the answers could last forever.
So, anyways, the Ex and I are going to the funeral tomorrow. Cheryl always like Curley. And I did too. He was great. See, it didn't matter to him how bad a storm was for Curley, in his opinion, "cause see, Jimmy, that's how we get rainbows!"
Well, the news is shitty these days, Liars and Cheats in politics, climate change, bad storms, pollution, discrimination, racism.... just plain old nastiness. I need to think a little more about Curley.... all those long stories, and how each one was wrapped with chuckles, eye twinkles, grins.... and a lotta love.
oh, about that goose feast..... they had yams, mashed potatoes, wild rice, gravy and creamed peas. He told me so...... a few times.
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