Lets Get Ready to RUMBLE!

 

     Growing up at the Redmond House, we quite often had these "wild" wind storms. Very rarely did the power go out from them yet they would still excite me each time I heard a howl. Side note: My Grandmother hated when the wind would dance. She always feared it for some reason. I think it has something to do with the huge Maple tree that was housed in our back yard. For some odd reason she thought it was going to fall wiping out the very rooms we were in. Ironically it wasn't that said tree that did fall on the house one stormy morning rather it was a Pine from the front yard that decided it was time for me to get up so making it made a grand entrance through the garage and my bedroom, I awoke but only by My Grandmothers chilling screams.

     One faithful night it seemed the Universe was bored so the air started to swirl. It went faster while picking up speed. Mary and Jerry (those were Krissy's Mom and Dad who were also Chet and Nana's best friends) were over at our place having coffee. In one very loud swish the power was out. Everything was darker then it was a second before. Krissy (who was one of my best friends - also Mary and Jerry's only child/daughter) and I let out a delightful squeal to let forces know we agree upon the decision they made. Now of course it didn't take long before the two of us were bored. Really bored. Not much we could do. No power meant no television or radio. Yup. Bored. What we thought a mere 5 minutes before now meant nothing. What were we even thinking? Oh yea, I guess we weren't.
     After brain storming (storming -ha) we came up with the brilliant idea to forge out of my house and not walk but run to her house which was kitty corner across the street from mine, to get some bored games. Fitting since we were so bored. Krissy's house looked a lot like mine and just about everyone else's who lived on 171st. The whole back of the houses were nothing but windows and Krissy's front door had one that you had to walk in front of before you could lock or unlock the big slab of wood. 
     Now let me explain something that you need to first understand before going any further, Kris was about 5 foot tall (insert no extra inches) and at most weighted 96 pounds. That might have been soaking wet but I never had a desire to see her after a shower ... anyways, alright so we are inside her house. We made it. Remember though the power is out there too. It is pitch black. The only way we can see is from one small flashlight we are sharing. It is little but bright. It worked just fine for what we needed it for and that was to find some things to do before power was restored bringing the excitement to an end. The wind is still slamming into the trees with a vengeance. It takes less then a second until both Kris and I are frozen in our tracks. OMGosh, it sounds like someone is jiggling the front door handle. Someone is trying to get in. Our hearts stop at the same time. The knob raddles again. Someone is trying to break in! With that being said, there were NO cell phones back in the day and the only way to call my house with an SOS was to walk by the window in front or the window in the back. Neither Kris nor I had any plans on doing that but somehow Kris said she had a great idea. She proceeded to get onto the floor, army crawling to the bathroom so she could grab a can of hair spray. Let me tell you when I say that I couldn't figure out why she wanted to style this persons hair who was maybe about to kill us, I couldn't tell you. I did know though that I was more then convinced a half used can of Aqua Net was not going to save us. We were doomed. We were young. We were cute and we were doomed. Kris then dropped back to the floor ninjaing down the hallway through the dining area stopping at the kitchen. She popped up like that of a clown at the end of the wind up song and screamed just above a whisper "No Andre! No! Andre the Giant, my 7 foot professional wrestling boyfriend PLEASE put that knife down!" Kris was pretty proud of herself that she came up with that all on her own. Being sure that, that scenario scarred anyone away who was trying to get in, we headed back to my house to tell our heroic story. Of course during the almost scuffle we were just about involved in, we forgot the games we went to get ... none of our parents believed the story. We knew it was true. We knew we would long talk about it. Like Cat Woman and Wonder Girl we rocked. 

     The next morning at breakfast ... okay, at sit down eating pastry time, I was questioned again about what happened. I told the story once more but this time a little more played down. My Grandfather shot a look towards My Grandmother so I knew I needed to know what was going on. He said not to be scared but two other houses were attempted to be broken into and robbed on the same street just three houses down from Kris's only 30 minutes after we had called on a WWE superstar to save our lives for us. So a double big shout out to Andre the Giant for rescuing us and being the real MVP! Pump It Bud!

                                                                                    Kazz 💋