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Show Twisters . . . 106 needed to eat, (in flowered paper cups yet!) Mrs. / Smiley's "open house," which really was open to the sky, became a neighborhood gathering place. It was great to lie there in the shade of her cottonwoods for a minute when you needed to rest and gather your wits. Arthur and I and our dads did it several times. No wonder the Presbyterian men's club turned out full force that next weekend to start Mrs. Smiley's new roof. To tell you the truth, though, what tickled her most was having Arthur and me return her old screen door. Arthur found it unharmed exactly where he'd stashed it in his basement. With one of us at each end, we carried it from his place to hers. "It'll look wonderful on my new back porch!" Mrs. Smiley chortled gleefully, greeting the colorful patches like old friends. "I'm so glad you saved it for me." Even the President of the United States dropped by to see us mopping up. Even he_ became our neighbor! "You won't be forgotten," promised Jimmy Carter, speaking from a foundation in the midst of our Sand Crane rubble. And we weren't. By the middle of August, Arthur's family had a government-issued trailer to live in-rent free. A week later, ours arrived. Up and down the street, hook-ups were installed and families moved back to their properties. By the time school started, our neighborhood looked like trailer town, for sure. Mom's only complaint was that Ryan couldn't make it through his nap for all the hammering and sawing going on outside. Now an entire year has passed since that black-letter day in June. |
