Hi everybody and welcome. It’s really hard to believe that another year has come and gone. Where does the time go? I remember when I was a kid I could not wait to grow up and go to work. What on earth was I thinking! I used to think that I had it so hard having to attend school. When I think back now {a zillion years ago} life really was fairly simple. The only bill I had was the purchase price for a new car for my slot car racetrack or maybe a new locomotive for the HO train set. Some weeks I needed a few more allowance dollars to buy a new model car or plane. Now that I am living my life long dream of working, time just seems to pass you by so fast. Whatever happened to those lazy afternoons that seemed to never end or the hours spent sitting on the front porch steps listening to the latest Beetle song? In this fast paced world we live, I find the easiest way to slow down time just a little is to pursue a hobby that you had when you were young. You are never too old to assemble a model or set up a new HO train layout. I guess deep down inside, a part of our childhood always remains with us.
Last week I gave you a little insight on how I derived the name of Joe’s Disco. Now I want to tell you about how Joe’s Disco was reborn.
After we all started going our own ways around 1987. The Joe’s Disco parties became smaller and much less frequent and finally faded away in early 1988. For almost 10 years I stayed in touch with some of my disco friends and for the whole 10 years we always talked about the good times we had in the 80’s. Finally, in 1997, I decided to rebuild a new Joe’s Disco at my home in Port St. Lucie. The disco is built on my back porch and deck. The dance floor area is smaller then the original but even that could not kill the Joe’s Disco spirit. So, I got to work decorating and buying all new lights and speakers. The new disco is much more advanced in technology and has 4 strobes, 2 colored disco balls, red rotating lights, a color bar, a smoke machine and many more too numerous to mention. The whole disco works on a wireless handheld remote control. Once the construction was done, I had my first Joe’s Disco party on my birthday, which is April 23. I set out to contact as many of the originals as I could find and invited many more. The party was a smashing success! The air was full of excitement as we all reminisced days gone by and relived again the 1980’s. The reunion party was about as exciting as a party could possibly be and it renewed a lot of old friendships and started many new ones. My backyard disco is still used often even though a lot of the music has changed but the spirit will remain the same.
Now you know where the Joe’s Disco name actually came from. I have a couple of pictures of the deck and weather station posted on my Website. Click on the Photo Gallery link on the bottom of the page.
Now on to the Time Capsule….
· January 3, l994 -- Polk Co., Frostproof -- A tornado touched down four times, damaging cars, buildings, signs, and citrus trees. Windows were blown out of vehicles and stores. A l2 year old boy was injured by flying debris. Brief tornado touchdowns were also reported in Alachua, Bradford, Baker, and Duval Counties.
· January 4, l934 -- Escambia Co., Pensacola -- A tornado damaged about 20 small homes. A young boy was killed and seven people were injured.
· January 5, 1962 -- Okaloosa Co., Crestview -- Twin tornadoes, l00 yards apart, destroyed l0 homes and l0 house trailers and damaged 300 homes. A six-month old girl was killed and 65 people injured.
· January 6, l892 -- Orange Co., Winter Garden -- A tornado destroyed five homes. A woman was killed when her home turned completely upside down and fell on her. Five injuries.
· January 6, 1970 -- West central Florida -- Tornado outbreak - Five trailers overturned, power/telephone lines down at Apollo Beach in Hillsborough County. Other tornadoes touched down in Ruskin, Lakeland, Bartow, Mulberry, and Avon Park. Total of six tornadoes caused five injuries.
· January 7, l976 -- Escambia Co., Pensacola -- A small tornado was observed by radar northeast of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.
· January 7, 1995 -- Marion Co., Summerfield -- An F2 tornado destroyed or heavily damaged 66 mobile homes with less extensive damage to another 85 dwellings, mostly mobile homes. A man received fatal head injuries while sitting in his car outside a mobile home when the car was rolled four times. Another 20 persons, mostly those in mobile homes, were injured.
· January 8, 1978 -- Hillsborough Co., Dover -- A tornado destroyed four block homes, five mobile homes, six other homes and several cars. Windermere, Orange Co. -- Tornado severely damaged large lakefront home and damaged five other homes. Lockhart, Orange Co. to Sanford, Seminole Co. -- Large tornado moved through mobile home Park near Lockhart destroying 17 trailers, damaging 60 and injuring 23 people, eight seriously. Tornado continued into Seminole Co., passing southeast of Sanford and causing damage to homes and boats along St. Johns River.
· January 9, l953 -- Hillsborough Co. --A tornado destroyed five homes and damaged 53 from Lithia to Hopewell in southwest part of county injuring l2 people. Other tornadoes were reported in Clermont, Minneola, and Brooksville. Severe thunderstorm winds were reported in Ft. Myers and Sarasota. There were many reports of trees and power lines down and roof damage. Storm waves washed over the beach road on south Captiva Island.
·
January 9, 1996 -- west central peninsula -- Damaging
freeze -- Sub-freezing temperatures severely damaged vegetable crops with
losses
estimated over $2 million dollars in Hillsborough and Lee counties; with minor
damage to the dormant citrus crop in Pasco
County. Several tropical fish farms lost over 50 percent of their harvest with
the estimated loss at $5.5 million dollars.
· January l0, l977 -- Osceola Co., Kissimmee -- A Tornado struck a large apartment, ripping the roofs off 20 apartments and damaging several automobiles.
· January 10, 1986 -- Orange Co., Christmas -- Thunderstorm winds destroyed two mobile homes and damaged a house. Three people in one mobile home suffered cuts and bruises.
Here are some National past weather events…
· January 3, 1877 -- An overnight freeze enabled George Washington and his troops to flank the British at Trenton, cross their lines at Princeton, and seek security in the hills of northern New Jersey.
· January 3, 1961 -- A three day long icestorm was in progress over northern Idaho which produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, a U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and phone lines causing widespread power outages.
· January 4, 1888 -- Sacramento Calif. received 3.5 inches of snow, an all-time record for that location. The heaviest snow in recent history was two inches on February 5th in 1976. (4th-5th)
· January 4, 1988 -- Frigid arctic air invading the central and eastern U.S. left Florida about the only safe refuge from the cold and snow. A storm in the western U.S. soaked Bodega Bay in central California with 3.12 inches of rain.
· January 5, 1982 -- A three day rainstorm in the San Francisco area finally came to an end. Marin County and Cruz County were drenched with up to 25 inches of rain, and the Sierra Nevada Range was buried under four to eight feet of snow. The storm claimed at least 36 lives, and caused more than 300 million dollars damage.
· January 6, 1880 -- Seattle Wash. was in the midst of their worst snowstorm of record. Hundreds of barns were destroyed, and transportation was brought to a standstill, as the storm left the city buried under four feet of snow.
· January 6, 1988 -- It was a bad day for chickens. Heavy snow in Arkansas, with totals ranging up to 16 inches at Heber Springs, claimed the lives of 3.5 million chickens, and snow and ice up to three inches thick claimed the lives of another 1.75 million chickens in north central Texas. Up to 18 inches of snow blanketed Oklahoma, with Oklahoma City reporting a record 12 inches of snow in 24 hours.
That’s all for this weeks Time Capsule. I hope you enjoyed it. I love to hear from you! Please e-mail me your ideas and suggestions to JOESDISCOWEATHER@AOL.COM. As always, for the latest in severe weather updates and now winter weather updates from your hometown go to JOESDISCOWEATHERCENTRAL.COM! You can also join me for a free cup of coffee and a free copy of The Hometown News at the Stuart K Mart garden center every Saturday morning!