The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

From near the Lake Charles airport. The power went off here at 12:35 a.m.

Saturday, not long before Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston.

My wife and I were ready with the candles, bottled water and canned food.

It would be a long night.

The next was even worse, and there were the usual snafus, of course.

When I called to report the power outage, Entergy didn't recognize my account number.

Thank God I won't have to deal with FEMA, a red-tape nightmare that would make the devil himself wince.

In many ways, Ike WAS the devil, and Southeast Texas got it worse than I did.

Many are left with nothing.

I had to throw away some food, but got two bags to a friend's refrigerator.

I filled up buckets of rainwater so we could flush, or have what in the Middle Ages was considered a very good shower.

I'm not a young man anymore, and my body is sore as hell.

I crouched, I climbed and reached.

I did things I don't normally do.

Not one to love long check-out lines, I actually enjoyed a moment's rest as I waited at Albertson's today.

The old New Orleans song should now sound, "Iko-Iko Away." Recovery begins, and healing wherever possible.

This will seem corny and cliche, but please give what you can.

There's no such thing as a well-off reporter.

A quick glance at my credit card debt proves that.

But if you can, give to the Red Cross, Orange Christian Services or similar organizations.

It won't be a match of the Stark or Malloy foundations, but it will be something.

When I was 11 or 12, I viewed the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon one day, and Jerry had cards in his hand reading off the names of donors.

After going through several names with contributions of $500 or more, he came to this kid named William from Arizona who gave $1.

Some folks in the audience chuckled.

Jerry said, "I want to thank you William.

You're not McDonald's, you're not Hertz and you're not Boeing, but this is $1 we didn't have before.

And every little bit counts.

Thank you so much." In 1968, my parents thought it would be nice to have a family outing.

We went to Galveston and stayed in some hotel there.

I don't remember a lot about it; just I was in some beach robe and have a pic in the family scrapbook.

It was windy, and I knew it.

But that's Southeast Texas, right? Glen Campbell's song "Galveston" was a big hit at the time.

He still saw their sea waves crashing.

She was 21.

He cleaned his gun, and dreamed of Galveston.

Many people still do.

[Readers may e-mail Robert Hankins at [email protected]]