Vermont, of all places, appears to have sustained the greatest damage from Irene. The Green Mountain State now features great skiing, Ben & Jerry's, and isolated towns without passable roads, electricity or potable water.
The potable water thing brought back memories. In 1955, Hurricanes Connie and Diane followed much the same path as Irene did this year. As a seven year old in Scranton, I witnessed a helicopter rescuing some poor souls from the roof of a house on a flooded street and rowboats skittering over lakes that used to be baseball fields.
My fondest memory is breakfast during the Great Flood. There was no milk to be had. The municipal water and gas systems had been breached so Mom couldn't cook breakfast. It was cold cereal or nothing. But what to put over the cereal? The sole bottled fluid in our house was Pepsi Cola. My Breakfast of Champions was Pepsi over Frosted Flakes.
This was high octane, fully-sugared Pepsi. Tab, Fresca, and Diet Colas had not made the scene in 1955. A few bowls of Tony the Tiger's favorite cereal soaked in soda and I was on a sugar high that lasted until the Nixon Administration.
This was also before the days of fluoridated toothpaste. My filling-strewn molars are a memorial to those sugary, but so memorable breakfasts during the Great Flood of '55.
Enjoy it while you can, Vermonters!
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