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Discover Mid-America — October 2005

What would you quickly save?

My eldest son and his wife live a short distance from New Orleans. Without foresight, when they were house hunting my daughter-in-law told our son that they must select a house on higher ground, even though they liked some that were nearer Lake Ponchartrain. Now that Katrina has left so much in its wake that choice has relieved them of one terrible concern.

Before Katrina was even close, my son’s company told them that they would have to relocate. There was not a luxury of time in deciding what would be put up for sale and what family treasurers must be kept for the children and the grand children. All this escalated as news of the hurricane’s path was announced. It had to be a mutual decision, the familiar things of one’s childhood, the inherited things from grandparents — choices had to be made in a matter of hours as to what was a non-necessity. Saving themselves became prime.

As many who have gone through a fire know, pictures are not replaceable. So that was first on the list. Albums, framed and unframed, the completed scrapbooks, these were boxed and put in the pickup. After that, it was anniversary gifts, precious smalls that had been in family for several generations and then, though the sun was shining brightly and there was not a cloud in the sky, they had to evacuate to Baton Rouge to stay with friends.

As they traveled, they thought of other things they felt they should have boxed. But by then it was too late — the thick traffic and the announcements of Katrina’s path left them no choice but to go forward.

Now that they are safe in Missouri with family, we are being told of what they will try to recover when they return to Louisiana. This time, family heirlooms and mementoes will be coming to southwest Missouri for the duration of the job, which will end up with them in the Middle East for several years.

Have you ever thought just what you would save if you were given the luxury of time in which to choose? Since this catastrophe has hit so many people near and dear to us, it is time for us to make plans, to organize, to place in locations these things that we would rescue in case of an emergency. How many times I have heard people after a fire say, “If only I had put all those old pictures in ONE box.” Pictures are always mentioned.

As we are antiquers, we know that there are items in our homes that we want to leave our children. Maybe the time is now to write that little family history, pack it in a box, label it and take it to the proper home.

Let us all think on this one. My family’s experience really affected me to the point that I must do as I preach. And do it now.

Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families.

Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO.

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