Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 October 2005 08:28:11
I have a good feeling that if I asked the UK readers where they were / what they were doing 18 years ago this weekend just gone they'd be able to tell me, in a similar way to these people who can describe it .
The reason it is 18 years since the "Great Storm", which was by international standards a bit gusty, but by UK standards was one of the most extreme pieces of weather in living memory.
My personal memory of this is not much during the storm itself, I woke up in the night and thought it was a train going past and then went back to sleep, but more of afterwards. I remember because of the powercables blowing in the wind in our street my dad would not let me out the house for a few hours and the number of trees that had blown down, including one nearby which had blocked the road.
However, because it is a date I find easy to remember (due to it's proximity to significanant birthdays, etc), that is part of the national psyche it also makes it easier to remember the rest of what was happening in my life at that time, including:
I was on work experience at the local electricity board offices (and only now do I fully appreciate the pain that must of been for them when they were in the middle of an emergency).
It was the time that I had my first experience of Southern Baptists, who had come over to do a mission at our church (and only now do I fully appreciate what they were trying to sell us).