Winds

I must say this, I thought that we had been battered by strong to gale force winds recently. My American friend tried to tell me the damage done by thes tornado's in the Mid West States. It was not until this morning when an update to the severe damage to Joplin Missouri. It stated that winds approaching 200mph were recorded. Over here we had winds in the north of Scotland of around 70mph with winds here gusting to 60mph. It made me realise that with those sort of winds, nothing would be able to withstand the power of nature. It is sad also to learn that the population of Joplin is around 50,000 and aroumd 150 deaths were confirmed and the possibility of more.
Now my American friend wrote of a friend, well so called friend taking him for a ride of terror. This bought to mind a similar thing that happened to me many many years ago.
I used to go out drinking in my younger days and found this Public House. The man in charge of the Lounge Bar was the owners son, he was married but was a nice and friendly guy.
I used to go to see him about once a week. Anyway this night, he told me that he had been invited to a local Nightclub. Remember this was in the early 60s. He asked me if I would like to go with him and his wife, it would not cost us anything to gain entry as it was a Private Club. Well like a fool I told him I would go. When the Public House was closed that was after 10.30pm. we went to this Nightclub in the country, about 10 miles away. On entering his wife went wild, she immediately started to gamble, I looked at him and suggested that he try to stop her. He agreed but it took about an hour before he could get her away from the roulette table. He then suggested that we go ouside for a breath of air. She saw the lake nearby and a rowing boat was tied up. Thats right, in we got and off we went out in the lake. She then started to get silly, standing up and as she was a large, not tall but heavy, she started to make the boat rock. Eventually her husband tried to stop her and in the ensueing struggle, both fell into the lake. The boat almost capsized. I was fairly dry, my shoes and socks were wet through as the trouser bottoms. There was about 6" of water in the bottom of the boat. Well eventually they managed to climb aboard and she immediately tried to get me into the water. I threatened her with an oar and eventually managed to get to the bank and safety. I then told Alan, her husband that I thought it prudent if we all immediately went home as he and his wife, Janet were soaked. He agreed and back home we went.
The next time I went in the Public House, he apologised for the incident. I asked him how he managed to get entangled with her as he was not like her at all. He told me that she had pestered him for years and eventually gave in to her and married her. I knew he had regretted it. He just told me one thing and that was that when he emptied his pockets of money when retiring to bed, he always counted it as Janet would try to steal from him.
I guess it was about a month later, he suggested that he would like to take me as a thank you for the way the last outing had gone, to take me to his home town near Doncaster where he would take me to the local Miners Welfare Club.
Well the day arrived, I was surprised to learn that Janet was going with us and more to the point, she was going to drive the car although she only had a Provisional Licence. Well the journey was about 40 miles and as soon as we got on the by pass she went like a lunatic, speeds of 90+ was attained. There were no speed restrictions like there are today. Like my American friend, I was petrified, I was never so pleased in my life when we arrived at the Miners Welfare Club. I immediately told her she had driven like a maniac and informed Alan that if he didn't drive back I would not be travelling with the. He told me that he would drive back. All Janet said was that she was a better driver at high speeds that going slow. The Miners Welfare Club was a beautiful place and we were treated like royalty but to be honest I did not feel like enjoying myself. However with Alan driving home all went well.
Upon my arrival at his place, I informed him that I would not be visiting him again as his wife was a dangerous woman. He told me he was sad about that but he did realise why I would not be visiting them again.
Now I guess it would be about 2 to 3 years later, I saw in my local weekly paper. Headlines."Woman found Guilty of Manslaughter". I read on and it was this Janet. Apparently she had been out with this single man and she had managed to crash the car and kill the male passenger. She was sentenced to 2 years in jail. I think by that time Alan had gone back to the Doncaster area, but did not know if he had divorced her. To be honest, I was not really interested. All I thought was how lucky I was to make that decision when I did. More soon.