BLOGAHOMA

Photo of the Big Rock Fire as taken by the Lawton Constitution Newspaper.

How often have heard that question? The most common answers are:  they would grab photos of the family and important papers if forced to run from a burning house and medications. When I had asked myself that question in the past I was sure I wouldn’t grab family pictures even though I love my family. On June 23, 2011 that very situation arose. We were told to evacuate NOW! as ashes fell from the sky on our burning mountain road. This is what I grabbed:

• dogs & dog food
• Cooler with water and soft drinks
• purse with credit cards,
• my ipod with my music
• digital camera
• Flip video camera
• macbook pro (which actually does hold a lot of family photos)
• Cellphone
• change of underwear, shorts and blouse
• pajamas
• tooth brush, tooth paste
• my inhaler and vitamins
• a second pair of flip flops

And I put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher and ran it and the disposal, as if we were going on a weekend get away.

The rest, well I left it all behind: a life time of art, photo albums, antiques, family mementos… left behind. After being away for a day and watching from the distance the with flames shooting up all around the mountain road that we lived on I had a moment to reflect on whether or not  had chosen the “right stuff”.  Well here’s the rub… had I selected the photo of my dad as a bus driver, the Weller vase with sycamore leaves, Michael’s painting of the rocks, the oldest stapler I own, my children’s baby teeth, my baptismal record or that pair of fused glass earrings it would have put me in funk about having to leave the others behind. Had we lost it all (the fire chief said it was touch and go) and I had taken one of those major, meaningful pieces of my life and history I would forever have the other pieces, my mother’s picture at sixteen, the Caddo artist, Silver Moon’s, bison painting, the Neva Clog deco stapler or my first grade report card, my portfolio of character art, popping in and out of my dreams allowing the sadness to creep in every time I looked at the saved piece. So what I took was living things, tech things and mundane useful things. I didn’t even take nice clothing.

Whether our house would burnt to the ground went from not believable to almost certain in a days time as the flames engulfed the mountain. At night I lay awake picturing every nook and cranny of our house and all the treasures and how they were the last time I saw them. So many treasures. And I thought what if it all goes. Would I really want to return to the Park? I needed my neighbors just where they were. How could I stand it losing it all and yet be in the same place. That is how my brain works. I came up with several scenarios of starting over, rebuilding on Big Rock Rd, in Medicine Park but only if my favorite neighbors were still there,  moving to El Reno near where my daughter was relocating, moving back to Norman, OK where we have other special friends.

None of that is necessary now. We are singed and charred but still standing and solid. Thanks to our guardian angels.. the volunteer fire departments of SW Oklahoma. So it’s clean up time.

Next time you are asked the question, maybe the answer, like mine,  will be “to let it all go”.