Looking back: In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit Atmore
Published 12:01 am Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Twenty-five years ago, in 1992, it seems we were concerned over another hurricane. Hurricane Andrew had hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast and Swift Supply of Atmore, along with others, were getting together building supplies to take to Morgan City to help out with the recovery process.
It makes one think about all the storms that seem to come our way. Thank goodness they spread out somewhat and don’t all take the same route into the Gulf. It makes me think about this year. We have just missed every one of them that formed this year. Houston got Harvey. ..Florida got Irma and then Maria went to the west of us and we got by with not too much wind and rain. Of course, we may not be through yet. The weather channel said we could still get hurricanes into November.
Members of the Escambia County Middle School donated canned goods to be sent to the storm victims in Louisiana.
A new restaurant had opened north of Atmore. The name was to be Crazy Bob’s and the owner called it that because everybody kept telling him that he was crazy, so he just decided to name it Crazy Bob’s. I don’t know if it is still there, but they sure did have some crazy prices, and by that I mean, cheap.
People do the craziest things. A woman didn’t think (I mean she really didn’t think) when she lost her cool and drove by the Escambia County Jail and got off three shots toward the jail sending at least one inmate to the hospital. Of course the shooter did not get away with it. Didn’t she know that? People do the strangest things.
First National Bank had been working hard to spruce up the old bank in time for William’s Station Day.
Winn Dixie had ground chuck for $1.78 a pound and a box of salt was only 10 cents. Foodfair had Charmin bathroom tissue costing 78 cents for a 4-roll package.
There were a lot of people who lived in the rural sections of our county that were very upset because of the rural cable service. One storm knocked it out and just about the time they got around to fixing it, another storm came along and the people had to go without their cable again.
I understand why they were upset. When Hurricane Ivan paid us a little visit a few years ago, we in this area lost our cable. I was loyal to my cable company and waited for them to get us up and going. I remember there were many people who did not wait. There were so many cable companies out there trying to lure everyone to switch, but I waited. I think I was a lot more loyal than the cable company was. Cable is so high and I don’t use a lot of the services they charge me for. Every once in a while I get mad and threaten to go to another provider, but I haven’t done it so far.
Jefferson Davis Community College held its first induction ceremony to induct 23 people into the honor society.
The last thing I noticed in the Atmore Advance newspaper was a story about “Red” Vickery, who had just returned from Athens, Ga. where he attended a reunion of the 1942 football team from the University of Georgia. That year they just happened to be invited to play in the Rose Bowl where they defeated UCLA 9 to 0. He told of the trip to California where the team was treated like royalty. It was in war time so they traveled to California on Pullman cars of the train. He said they would hook onto one train and go so far and then wait for the next engine to pull them on another part of the trip.
Mr. Vickery told that his whole class had signed up to go to the war as soon as they could. He wanted to get over there and get back as soon as he could and play football. He almost made it home without injury, but he was shot in the ankle and never was able to play again. In fact he eventually had to have the leg removed. I bet he could tell some really good stories.