The second week of March 1979 my wife and I had just moved from an apartment to our first home in the East End of Steelton overlooking the river near the PA Turnpike. In addition to the excitement of our first home, my wife was expecting our first child. She was soon to stop working and becoming a full time mom. I believe her actual due date was around April 1, but as luck would have it the baby waited until things settled down and was born April 27.
Since we were within the danger zone of 5 miles, my wife’s doctor was very emphatic that we leave the area and have a plan B in case the baby was born. Needless to say this made both of us pretty nervous.
At that time my sister was responsible for the residential program for Keystone Residence, a social service organization providing care for the mentally retarded. She was instructed to move her residents to a hotel in State College and asked my wife, parents and myself to please join her and assist with the residents. We packed our car with important documents and some belongings and headed north.
I’ll never forget that day we left our house not knowing if we would return. Once we got settled our relatives from out of state thought we were crazy and risking our lives as the stories of TMI were dominating the news. We did have a plan to relocate to Detroit with relatives if needed.
Obviously it was a happy ending for our family and very scary for us, a young couple excited about starting a family and establishing our home. In addition, I was working at Hoffman Ford which at that time was located in Highspire, also in the 5 mile radius. I remember returning from lunch with a couple of friends when we received the news of what was happening and being told to leave work. It was a very creepy feeling!
John (and Cindy)