This story features another tale about my friend, the late Terry Gordy.  One of the things that I liked best about Terry was his great sense of humor and how nothing seemed to "get the best" of him or bother him.

We were on another one of our trips to Tokyo, Japan.  We were in the auditorium building some three floors down in the basement when an earthquake hit.  The quake was a rather big one as it was rated a high five-point or a low six-point on the Richter Scale.  All at once, the building started to shake and shiver and everything was falling down and we both had a hard time remaining standing.  We were in the process of dressing for our matches and had taken off all our clothes and were putting on our shorts, etc.  We both looked at each other and knew immediately that we were in the middle of an earthquake and that we better get outside onto the street before we became buried and trapped where we were.

We grabbed towels and headed up the two flights of stairs that took us to the first floor and outside.  I  can still see Terry Gordy with a towel that didn't even cover his behind running up the stairs ahead of me.  Not a pretty sight, I guarantee you!

It was really difficult climbing the stairs as they were swaying from side to side.  We finally got upstairs to the main floor and ran out on the street - to find hundreds of people looking at us with shocked expressions  - we were clad only in towels, and one that didn't completely cover Gordy.  If you knew Terry at all, you had to know that he wasn't bothered in the least with his predicament.  He thought the whole episode was absolutely hilarious!

What was going through our minds was a prior earthquake that hit Mexico where numerous buildings collapsed and scores of people were killed, trapped under rubble and badly injured.  Little did we know that our immediate reaction was not the most correct or safest one.  Our Japanese friends later told us that we should have taken cover under something solid, like a table, and just waited it out.  But we did what we thought we had to do and left our clothes and belongings down in the basement and attempted to get out as quickly as possible.

Needless to say, it was a fine mess!

Until next month, have a great Father's Day, and stay safe.

Best regards,

Art Crews
a/k/a  The Kansas Cowboy
a/k/a  The Blonde Bomber