Wednesday, August 22, 2007

What to take?


By PAT MURPHY

High on the list of the most pitiable victims of nature's wrath are families tearfully sifting through the ashes of what's left of their homes and their lifelong collection of sentimental belongings after fire swept through their neighborhoods. They had no time to grab possessions and run.

When my daughter and son-in-law were asked to evacuate their Hulen Meadows home on Sunday, without any sense of when they would return or whether their home would be engulfed in flames, they had to hurriedly decide what to take. As I helped cart boxes and bags with just a smidgen of their belongings to their cars, I wondered what I would take from nearly 54 years of marriage, memorabilia and awards from a half century of journalism in peace and war, sentimental trinkets of two baby daughters grown into adult women, thousands of photos, favorite furniture, computer equipment around which so much business and personal activity is built.

My first inclination would be to refuse to evacuate, to stay in the house and take my chances with the Castle Rock fire, which as I write is still no threat to where I live.

That stubbornness probably stems from growing up in South Florida and living through some of the worst hurricanes in a small home built in 1925 and that never lost as much as one of the roof's barrel tiles. Of course, electric power failed. But we had plenty of kerosene lamps and candles, cans of Sterno to cook on, the bathtub filled with water for drinking and cooking. Once the power failed and our one radio was useless, we had no earthly idea where the hurricane was, how strong, when it would pass.

But I've decided there's a difference between forest fires that consume everything in their path and hurricanes, which can be defied in sound buildings.

So, a mental checklist of what to grab and run if a fire threatens is taking shape.

The problem is I'm a natural packrat, saving stuff over the years I believed I'd someday need (but haven't looked at in years). Naturally, the list of what to take when evacuating for a fire is that hoard, stuff I can't live without, rather than what I really need.

So a benefit to this has emerged. I need to get into the garage and begin tossing those forgotten files, clothes that don't fit and fading sentimental souvenirs I thought I needed, but actually have forgotten about over the years, and surely would never grab to save in an emergency.




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