Thunder in the Valley

A couple of years ago, on a Saturday of Thunder in the Valley, I went outside to get the paper.

I saw our neighbor, Gladys Davis, standing at her fence, looking up in the sky.

I asked if she were OK, and she said she remembered the sound of the planes.

Duh! Of course, she did. She grew up in England and as a young woman heard the planes fly over London.

I had left the front door open and when I walked up to the door, my mother was standing there.

She too, was remembering the sound of the planes. She was half-way around the world from England, but she was remembering the bombing of Tokyo.

It's funny how we remember sounds.

Sometimes when I hear helicopters, I think of the summer when I was 16 and working at the Kue Hospital on Okinawa.

I made the mistake one day of being near the entrance of the emergency room. All of sudden, the doors flew open and I could hear the helicopter and wounded soldiers being wheeled in. These were seriously wounded young men. I never spent my break near there again.

So Thunder in the Valley is a fun event for young and old in Columbus and the area.

But for two ladies from a different generation, it's a reminder of World War II. And the hardships they suffered.