A Dream Remembered: Christmas Eve - 1966

           As Rhett and Scarlett maneuvered through back alleys and collapsing buildings, the inferno that was Atlanta radiated in orange and red to cover the cinema screen. The horse and buggy made it to the edge of town.

          Prior to that moment, Rhett waxed prophetic.

“Get a good look, My Dear. You can tell your grandchildren one day how you watched the Old South disappear one night.” Rhett was talking about the end of the ideals the Old South stood for, the way of life, a South that became “no more than a dream remembered.” 

           Christmas Eve, 1966. Camden, Arkansas, my hometown. Ferdinand, the alert system for the fire department, sounded the downtown code. We counted the blasts but continued to unwrap our “one present” on Christmas Eve. Seated in our robes around the aluminum tree decorated with single color red glass balls, we were distracted, but not deterred until another blast from Ferdinand, indicating a 2 or 3 alarm fire.

           Downtown. 

           Daddy pulled back the sheers at the front window and peered toward town.  The glow was unmistakable.“Downtown is burning,” he said, “Get dressed.”  

         

           We had primary interest in downtown Camden. The drugstore was not far from that intersection. The Post Office, the Court House, the Library, the Methodist Church, and all downtown businesses were in jeopardy. The drive to the scene of the fire escalated my fear. I shook, trembled.

          We parked blocks away. I did not want to get out, but Daddy was not leaving me alone in the car. Our family joined throngs of huddled citizens witnessing fire departments from Camden and surrounding towns as they battled a fire that consumed at least 4 buildings in a downtown city block. Their task became keeping the rest of Camden from burning to the ground.

         Tears streamed down my face, because I knew that from this point on, we were not safe from unnamed villains who could attack anyone, anywhere, when we least expected it.  Life as we knew it changed. 

        Christmas Eve, 1966: The night I watched as the Camden I had known and loved disappeared.