We moved into our new house in Charlotte on Labor Day weekend 1987. Vicky and I still talk about how exciting it was to finally own our own home. Our intentions had been to rent for a while, but we couldn't pass up the deal we got on our place.
2119 Heather Glen lane would be our home for the next 5 years and little did we know the kind of
adventures we would have in the neighborhood.
The Heather Glen development was about 50 percent complete so there were lots of places in various stages of completion. In fact we bought our place when it was just in the dry wall phase. Vicky flew down one weekend in June and we got to pick out colors carpet fixtures and counter tops.
After moving in our stuff that had been in storage all summer we settled into life in our little cul de sac. Most of the homes around us were empty but by mid fall they were starting to fill up. We met our neighbor across the street. His name was Rickey and he was a teacher and really nice guy.
Then one fall afternoon Vicky was watching things out the window as she often does, and she whispered, Ran, come here, look. Out the window I saw a couple walking around the house next door. Vicky said, I think they might be hippies. I looked again and noticed that the guy had shoulder length hair and a beard and the woman was petite with long dark hair.
Not long after that Danny, Sherry, Ginny and Wally moved in. Danny and Sherry Graves, and their two dogs Ginny and Wally. Ginny was the small yappy type and Big Wall was a large yellow dog we came to love over the next few years.
In fact we came to love them all. They became our best friends and the best neighbors we've ever had. They spent holidays with us and they adopted our kids and often took Jennifer out to dinner with them on Friday nights.
When Sherry had a baby boy Kevin, Vicky watched him during the day when she went back to work. Danny became my radio historian. He had been around Charlotte radio and paid attention to what was happening with the Q. So we had long talks over our fence in the backyard about radio.
We always included Danny and Sherry in our kids birthday celebrations and they did the same with Kevin.
It was great to have friends next door. Especially when Hurricane Hugo came knocking. It was a huge storm as you remember and slammed into Charleston a full Category 4 hurricane. All the week the talk had been that once it came ashore it would weaken as most storms do. That it would bring us rain and some wind, but that Charleston was going to take the brunt of the storm. With Charlotte being a couple hundred miles inland we did what anybody would do. The Q threw a hurricane party at a club called The Cellar.
We were enjoying Hurricane drinks at the club while Hugo slammed into the coast. Little did we know that the storm would hit Charlotte with 100 mph winds and the full fury of a hurricane.
At three AM my Rusty, my overnight jock called the house. I woke with a start and immediately heard what sounded like a freight train bearing down on us. Rusty was shouting, the power is off.....the wind is blowing like crazy and every time I throw the breaker switch to start the generator sparks fly off it.
Don't do that anymore I told him. I'll be right there.
I got up and got dressed, by this time the kids were awake and in bed with Vicky. I was still not really making the connection that this was Hugo. I left for the station and the wind and rain and Vicky and the kids ended up going next door to stay with Danny and Sherry.
As I drove up I 85 toward the station I was the lone idiot on the road. What I did not know is that the center of the storm was approaching and it was still a full blown hurricane. At one point the wind blew my Firebird from one lane of the interstate to another. As I turned onto radio road to head out the station I could see the tower field for Big Ways. It was a 5 tower array but I was only counting four towers.
I got to the station and the engineers were on-stite and they had the generator up and running. We got the station back on the air. Dwayne showed up but no Ray (Ray Mariner). Not too long after we got back on Ray called. He had been standing in his kitchen drinking coffee while his car warmed up. He stood watching as a huge tree came down. It landed on both his car and his wife's care. I guess I need someone to pick me up he said.
Charlotte was destroyed. Trees down everywhere, not power anywhere. No water, no ice. I'm proud to say our neighborhood really pulled together. We pooled our resources, like gas grills and ice and cooked community meals at night and shared our hurricane stories.
One night we were at Danny and Sherry's playing Trivial pursuit by candlelight in their dinning room. ?The kids were all in the living room playing games as well. Erin was 8 at that time and she came into the room and said, I hear noises next door. The house on the other side of Danny's was the home of a pilot and he was gone a lot.
Danny went out the back door, pistol in hand and I went of the front door. I was wearing a T shirt shorts and no shoes. We both saw a car backed up the front door of the pilot'sfhouse and a couple guys wrestling a TV out the door. Danny shouted at them as he came around to the front of the house and they dropped the TV and jumped into their car. I began running back toward my house and Danny followed. My Firebird I shouted and he nodded. As we approached the car I stepped into a hole on the lawn and broke my big toe on the left foot. Grimacing in pain I jumped into the car and fired it up.Danny got in wielding his pistol. We tore off after the car. It's probably just as well that we couldn't find them. I'm not sure what we would have done if we had caught them.
Here's a tip. If you go thruough a hurricane, lose power and want to get the power back on, here is what you do. Buy some type of expensive item that helps you cope with being out of power and the power comes back on.
After ten days of now power, no TV, cooking on Gas grills and no A/C I was ready for some Football. I was determined to see Monday night football, so I bough a battery operated TV. It was like 300 dollars and used 8 D batteries. I set it up in the living room on a TV tray and watched Monday night football. The Power came on the next day.
Hugo is just one of many example of the great times we had living in the cul de sac on Heather Glen lane. And while they didn't turn out to be hippies, Danny and Sherry and eventually their son Kevin became a very big part of our lives. Something Vicky and I talk about often.
We still really miss the Hippies next door.
