Unforgettable, is What I Saw #MFRWAuthor #BlogHop

Hello, all!

Welcome back for Week 45 of the MFRW Author Blog 52-Week Blog Challenge, and today the topic is An Unforgettable Day in My Life.

I've been thinking about how to answer this one all week, and to be honest, I still don't know what to write.

The problem is, I don't want to go the generic route and respond with the obvious: birth of child, wedding day, 18th birthday, etc.

Except for the two live births, NONE of the obvious and generic responses were Unforgettable (not from a positive perspective, anyway).

I am truly sorry to have to say that a MAJORITY of my generic memories, life moments, and what-not are on the negative, bad side.

So, I do hope what I finally chose to share is worth your while and interesting enough to qualify as Unforgettable.

August, 1981

I went to a friend's house, and while I waited for him to get ready (for what, I don't recall), he had turned on the TV, and I sat down to stare at it while I waited.

What I saw for the first time EVER (for everyone, not just me) was a channel called MTV.

I listened to an 80s song in video format, with the musicians performing the song (not live) and was blown away...

not by the music video, but by the awesome fact that when the video ended, a commercial started, and it was MUTED.

Freaking muted!

3 commercials in a row, no sound, and then another music video starts, and there is sound again.

I laughed, I got excited, and I thought it was probably the coolest thing I'd ever witnessed in the history of television.

June, 1978

I do tend to go downtown (Detroit) every summer for the annual Freedom Festival Fireworks display, but my very first visit had to have been the most amazing and memorable experience ever.

So many people, I'm in another country (Windsor, Canada), sitting about as close to the Detroit River as I'd ever been in my life, and there are 5 barges set up in the center of the waterway.

FIVE (not down to three as they are now).

It was the loudest, biggest, most spectacular 40 minutes I'd ever spent watching things explode in the dark night sky.

July, 1980

How I grew to love summer storms occurred on this date, and it is a day I will likely never forget.

The National Weather Service actually has a web page dedicated to this event titled: The July 16th, 1980, Derecho - Nice and Bright to Black as Night.

(Derecho -  thunderstorm induced straight-line winds as an analog to the word tornado.)

There have been a total of three weather-related events in my life, but this was the first.

It was muggy and sunny that morning, but as I left the house and walked down the driveway to the street, I glanced to my right (the west) and saw something that literally took my breath away.

A BLACK horizon.

No exaggeration there, it was black... not deep purple or dark blue, but pitch black.

Found on Pinterest, but it is pretty Close to what I saw that morning

In a panic, I scurried back into the house to YELL that something really awful was on its way.

I also owned a beautiful Malamute at that time, named Yukon.

Strange thing about that big puppy was, he acted all jittery, whiny, and crazy inside the house, but as we filed out the back door to watch whatever it was that approached, he joined us and became as calm as you please.

I think most every animal I owned was on the weird side 😏

If you've ever experienced a total solar eclipse, you'll get some idea of how the mid-morning day went to after midnight dark within a few minutes.

I remember my brother took a picture (which I'm sad to say I can't share here because it was a Polaroid (I think) and I have no idea where it is today) that only showed a dim reflection of his car's red tail light and nothing else... at around 9:30 a.m.

Street lights came on, and things got soupy green right before the torrential rains struck and wind speeds in excess of 75mph.

Again, to put this into perspective, 98lb Yukon refused to come back inside and instead pranced around the yard like some excited ballerina about to go on stage.

Until he was lifted off the ground, oh, about four or five feet up, slowly turned about 180 degrees, and then slammed down with his four paws flailing wildly -- all within a matter of seconds.

THEN he got the idea to head back indoors, charging for the back door and barely giving me time to open it before he barreled inside and hid under my bed for a few hours.

LOL

True story.

So, the rains came down hard enough to make it impossible to see the houses across the street (downbursts), the winds destroyed property and knocked out power (some were without for up to two WEEKS), and after about 40 minutes it was all over.

The sun returned, and it was deathly QUIET.

That storm caused a few changes in the way weather is forecast, and Doppler radar became a thing, along with interrupting any program in progress (including the Democratic National Convention held in Detroit on that day) to warn us of impending doom weather-wise.


Over the years, I'd seen a few more amazing weather situations, including a drive home from the East Side during a bad storm.

I drove slowly along a 55mph rural highway when a small tree quickly slid across the road a few hundred yards ahead.

... then a bright flash of lightning, and there it was...

a F0 tornado wobbling in a tall, thin string after the tree.

(not my video or state, but this is close enough to what I saw)

I hit the brakes and just stared in shock.

Lucky for me, the rain was coming down too hard and no one else was on the road, so I was 'safe' as it were.

I'll never forget it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post!

Please scroll down to the LinkyLink tool and click on the next person in line to continue the Hop and discover what others had to say about their Most Unforgettable Day was all about.