Flood of '82

Some of the local news programs have been doing a look back at the flood of 1982 and I thought I would do the same. It's hard to believe that it was 25 years ago, but heck that's just more proof how old I am getting. Now it was not unnatural for the rivers to flood around here in the spring, but there was alot of snow melting and rain that year. My school was closed and high school students and other kids were encouraged to try and help since the flood was so catastrophic. I was a high school freshman and my brother was a junior. Our mother dropped us off at the coliseum where the sandbagging station was set up in the basement area. I remember seeing piles and piles of sand with people all over them filling up the sandbags and tying them with this cool little tool that wrapped the metal wire around the top of the bags. I remember seeing a kid asleap in a corner clearly exhausted and covered head to to in sand. Looking back on that I can't believe that my brother and I were just dropped off to do this, but hey they were different times. I can't remember how, but pretty soon Dan and I were on a bus heading for the river like being shipped out to army camp or summer school (same thing). I vaguely remember my mom telling us to stay at the coliseum, but leave it to Dan to want a little adventure. I remember forming a human chain of kids my age throwing a sandbag back and forth and up the line until it got to the top of the dike. It was a real gloomy day and the work was dirty and thankless but we did this for a little while (I can't remember how long) The great part about this is that is was mostly kids my age and it didn't matter what school they were from or if it was a girl or guy they all help the same. At one point I seem to remember Dan meeting up with someone else he knew and he ditched me. Nothing like being a 15 year old kid on his own like that. I think they ended up going to the mall or something like that. I got back on a bus and made it back to the coliseum where I met up with Dan again. I remember that while we were waiting for our mom to pick us up that a red pick-up truck pulled up with a "Coke" logo on the side. The guy inside asks if we had been sandbagging and we told him that we had just finished. He told us to help ourselves and pointed to the back of the pick-up. There was an entire pickup bed filled with ice and coke. That was a great thing for Coke to do for all of the volunteers. We grabbed a couple a piece and got hopped up on caffine waiting for mom.

Thinking back on this a couple of things come to mind. I doubt that the city would ever allow kids to sandbag like that since in these lawsuit crazy days I am sure they would rather the city be under 6 feet of water than open themselves up to possible liability lawsuits.

Would current day kids show up like that? I would like to think so.

Would the parents let their kids do that again? I doubt it since everyone seems overprotective of their children these days.

The funny ending to this story is that the city had to go on all of the TV and radio stations telling people not to steal the sandbags from the dikes to keep as souveniers because it could weaken the dikes and the flooding wasn't quite done yet. Who in their right mind would want a dirty sandbag as a souvenier? I am sure most of these ended up in the corner of a garage or outside next to the shed, but hey, if that sandbag could talk....