Thanksgiving Wind Storm 1979

One of the first major repairs my parents made to the Island house was replacing its roof. Dad bought the Celotex insulation on the mainland. Like all proper roofing projects, this one was planned for late November. The insulation sat in the back of dad’s one and a quarter ton truck, in four by eight sheets, waiting for deployment. The Island has epic wind storms. We woke up Thanksgiving morning to the upper five acres littered with shiny, silver sheets of Celotex, maybe 40 of them. I was tasked with keeping the house warm, and working on dad’s famous Thanksgiving dressing. From the kitchen window I watched my parents drive that truck all over the upper, creek riddled, five acres rounding up the sheets of Celotex. I was warm, but envious.

This morning in the shed, while taking some laundry to the dryer, I found what must be the last scraps of Celotex on a shelf, more than 37 years after that windy Thanksgiving day.