By Barbara Morris
Sometimes I plan to write a particular column and then, at the last minute, something happens to make me change my mind.
As this is being written, a heavy rainfall has taken over the watering job I had planned for tomorrow morning. There is also very loud thunder and frequent flashes of lightning. When storms like this occur (as they often do in this season), many people seem to forget basic rules of safety. Please refresh your memory, and be sure that youngsters are taught rules that may save their lives.
Water, metal and tall objects, such as trees, attract lightning. One hot afternoon some time ago, I was hurrying to try to get in out of the rain, when I saw one of our teenage neighbors, shoes in hand, walking toward her house a block or so away, in the gutter ankle deep in rushing water. She accepted my warning graciously.
Another day a father was sitting on his front porch, which had a metal awning, and he called two of his children out of the house to sit with him so they could watch the lightning and see how hard it was raining. Another time, one of our elderly neighbors was walking on the avenue near our home, when a bolt of lightning hit a tall locust tree, near the area where she was walking. A large portion of the tree split, crashed alongside of her and struck a cat, killing the poor little animal. Our neighbor was scratched by falling branches, very scared, and tremendously fortunate to have escaped the same fate as that cat.
All of these people were lucky, even the father who told me to mind my own business when I called out a warning to him. A friend
