Just realized I forgot to tell y'all about Fridays football game.

Last Friday morning, the kids in Florence were in rare form. They told me during class that the controls on the schools computer system were down, and we could get YouTube. So, of course, I clicked on it and it came up. Then they started shouting out funny things for me to look up, and eventually turned me on to this little number. Enjoy.




Love the hell out of that. They also showed me the Village Sniper video that I posted last week. Part of me wanted to show them the Monkey Sex video, but didn't go there. Last thing I need right now is to get fired for that kind of crap. Hell, they've probably seen it anyway.

Anyway, Friday night, after eating our traditional Chinese dinner at Dynasty, Dad and I drove down I-35 to the town of Jerrel and watched the Academy Bees play the Jerrel... whatevers. I think Cougars. You may remember Jerrel from the nasty tornado that ripped them a new one, killing 30 people on May 27th, 1997.

I saw the whole thing happen. I was reluctantly going back to grad school then, needing 18 hours of credit in Government so I could begin teaching it. Only being qualified to teach History left my income in a sad state. Getting 18 hours of Government would double the course load and get me on the move. It took me a long time to get my mind around it, not wanting to go back to school, but eventually I bit the bullet and went down to San Marcos, south of Austin, and enrolled in the program at South West Texas State University.


I'd driven down that particular day to close the deal on an apartment and was driving back north towards Temple when I noticed that the traffic was being detoured off I-35 to the access road. Like a few others, I tried to drive north on the access road until the highway patrol came zipping over the grass to stop us. I drove back south to a Texaco that sits on a rise next to an overpass south of Jerrel. I got out of my Jeep and stood there, along with a lot of other folks, and looked North. All you could see was a huge slowly spinning cloud. It looked like it was about a half mile across and heading our direction. I'd never experienced anything like it. Stunning and fascinating to see.


We all watched that thing heading our way for a good 10 minutes, almost like it was driving down the interstate. Pretty soon the clockwise spinning started to visibly slow, and the cloud began to break up into lots of smaller ones. As it did, many of us onlookers decided that everything was over, got back in our cars and headed north along the access road.


Next thing I know a highway patrolman is driving across the grass to stop me. He says that the tornado is reforming and that I should take cover. I drove up, parked the jeep, and took shelter under the next underpass. I stood there with about 15 other people watching the tornado slowly break apart, and I was totally absorbed in how cool this experience was , until I saw insulation from someones house falling out of the sky. Seeing that woke me up to the tragedy I'd witnessed, and come very close to being part of.

There was a huge relief effort after that, and it came in handy that I was moving and could get rid of a lot of clothes and stuff by donating it all to the relief effort. They've rebuilt the place since then, and Dad and I were glad to see Friday that the folks down in Jerrel have recovered from that tragedy and built themselves, among other things, a nice new high school and football stadium.




Got a good shot of Dad while he watched the game. The wind was blowin' a bit and chilly, but we'd dressed dad in lined jeans and I brought a coat for him to put on. Still, he only lasted till half time. That's usually when he make our exit.



Florence did OK at first, but the score went back and forth. This Black kid on the left is a great punt returner/receiver who can run and make points, when they manage to get him the ball.



Unfortunately, their QB isn't the most accurate guy in the game. When we left, the score was in Jerrel's favor by one touchdown. I found out later that they'd eventually won the game in a dramatic way by the margin of one point. Maybe one of these days I'll get to watch the end of a game, but I don't want to think about what will need to happen to make that possible.



Oh, and when I went to the air show last Sunday I got Dad a new hat. I'll surprise him with it when we go out this Friday. The kids in Florence play Jerrel Friday, and I think Academy plays Rogers. We'll be there, and I'll tell ya how it went. Take care. Cheers.