The 1937 Flood, the Number 40, the Number 3

As the rains fall, I was reminded today that in my home town on the Ohio River, New Boston, Ohio, stories were told when I was growing up (and still told today) of the 1937 Flood. Here is an excerpt from my book, "On Harrisonville Avenue." Thirteen year old Ron, is the narrator:

"Every kid in my town had heard stories of the “The ’37 Flood” – and they had heard so many of them that it was never a topic of conversation among kids. My Mother would say that we had “foundered” on the ’37 Flood stories from grown-ups telling over and over the same stuff to us. Pubescent boys know everything anyway and don’t like to be preached at and can only tolerate so much. You know when they’ve reached their limit and are full up because a “sneer” develops and their head droops down and they mumble.

Mr. Emerson from Church on the 1937 Flood:
It was too warm that winter and instead of snowing, it rained 20 days in a row. Snow would have just piled up, but rain soaked into the fields and hillsides. It kept on raining, though, and then the ground couldn’t take anymore and it just ran into the street. There were jokes about Ducks and Noah, but old-timers started telling stories about 1913 and how the Ohio River came way up and flooded everything. We never paid any attention to the old men – but they knew what they were talking about. That’s why you young’uns should listen to us now. Did you hear me, Ronnie? (Yeah, I thought to myself – ducks, Noah, 20 days.)

Mr. Keitel, our German next door neighbor:
The Bible says you should always build your house on higher ground, so if you build your house next to a river bank, you’ll suffer the consequences, like those people in 1937. Why it wiped out those people in the bottomlands. I tried to drive into town to see the damage but the roads were blocked all the way back to Gallia and Rt. 139. The flooded people were looking for loans after the flood and couldn’t get them. Lots of the hitch hikers on the road after that were people flooded out because they built in the low lands. You should take note of that, Zichlein. (Uhh, I grunted. Got it. What’s a Zeesh-line?)

Elliot at Shorty’s Barbershop
My sister lived just up the street in the Mill Housing and the floodwaters rose so fast they evacuated everybody quickly. Maggie only had time to get her picture album and her sewing machine in Frank’s old Pickup Truck. Frank had to drag her out of the house that afternoon because they couldn’t find her little cat before they had to leave. She fretted all night about her cat that they left behind.
After the river had crested, she borrowed my fishing boat and made poor old Frank take her back into town. Why the water was up to the second floor. Frank pulled up to her apartment and Maggie looked in the window and there was the cat perched on the mantle, water up past the fireplace just a foot or two below the cat. Frank broke the window with his oar and Maggie yelled at the cat and waved a piece of liver at it -- wouldn’t you know, the danged cat swam to the window. Nobody knew of that cat ever swimming before but there it was. Ronnie, you can swim, can’t you Ronnie? (Only if somebody waves liver at me.)

In fairness to the people who lived through the Flood, I did understand the impact of the flood. In the Presbyterian Church on 2nd Street, two blocks from the river, there was a plaque on the wall of the two-plus story Sanctuary. The plaque was 12 feet 8 inches from the floor which was not at ground level. So the water must have been 25 feet deep at street level. Members there told me that the Pipe Organ which was in the front of the Church in the Choir Loft behind the Pulpit, was taken apart piece-by-piece by the parishioners and moved to the church Balcony where it survived the flood and is still used today. Pictures of the flood were in Fellowship Hall there and in practically every downtown business showing their store and how high the water was. They were all a part of history and they proudly had survived it. "

So, it rained 20 days and 20 nights for the 1937 Flood in my town. I remembered the story of Noah and his Flood, where it rained 40 days and 40 nights. I started to wonder about the number 40. It turns out that there are numerous mentions of the number 40 in the Bible. Here is only a partial listing:

• In the story of Noah and the flood, it rains 40 days and 40 nights (Gn 7:4).


• After the sealing of the covenant at Mt. Sinai, Moses is with God on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights (Ex 24:18).


• When the prophet Elijah is being pursued by Queen Jezebel, he flees for his life and travels 40 days and nights until he comes to the mountain of God at Horeb (Sinai) (1 Kgs 19:8).


• Israel wanders in the Wilderness for Forty years.


• In the New Testament. Jesus is tempted in the desert for 40 days and nights.


• Jesus fasted 40 days and nights (Matthew 4:2).


• Jesus remained on earth 40 days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3).

And then, I thought about another number that gets a lot of use -- the number three. This sequence is taken from my lecture, to be delivered at Ohio University, January 29:

• The Three Jewels of Buddhism (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha).


• The Christian Holy Trinity, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).


• Karl Marx’s three ways of organizing a society – Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism.


• Mark Twain's Three Lies, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.”


• The oath of a witness – the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the… Truth.


• Lincoln’s Three for All – “of the people, by the people and … for the people.”


• The Three Monkey Philosophy – Hear no evil, See no Evil, and … Speak no Evil.


• And of course Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Stooges and the Three Little … Pigs .

I hope that you understand a little better now, Dear Reader, why I cannot seem to get back to writing on the second chapter of my third book. One thing leads to another; I am so easily distracted.