Nothing to like about Ike

My family, like most I suppose, has its own folklore: things are said, repeated as fact, remembered later, conclusions are drawn, and you have these little anecdotes of family mythology that may or may not be true.

At any rate, the one that's on my mind today is my family's supposed entrance to this country, and how the first job they had was to haul the dead bodies off the beaches and streets of Galveston after the 1900 hurricane, the deadliest weather disaster in the nation's history. Between 6,000 and 12,000 people are estimated to have died.

I spent quite a few childhood summers in Galveston, jumping waves, trying to avoid tar in the sand, and looking at eight feet high water marks on the parlor room walls of historic mansions.

Here's a story from the LATimes about the 1900 hurricane.