STORM TRACK: November 30, 1982 (Volume 6 Issue 1)

I received a nice letter from Dave Gallaher, too late for inclusion in last month's newsletter, but will pass on excerpts of it here. Last May, I left some prints with Dave, while visiting him in St. Louis. He wrote back: "...thank you for the...storm photos... Everyone to whom I showed them exclaimed over them, and you added a notable degree of credibility and respectability to my life. This was especially true among those who have witnessed my disturbing habit of grabbing my battered old binoculars and heading out ... at the first scent of a gust front, to return hours later, soaked and murmuring. The guys in the band have gotten used to this, but some of my more 'legitimate' acquaintances find it disturbing. At some point, I will initiate an article on the fine points of storm chasing (and vice versa!) via a ten-speed bicycle!"

"A frustrating footnote occurred on Sunday, July 18, 1982: I was in Rockford, Illinois with the band. JoAnne called to inform me that a storm had gone over our house, containing FOUR funnels, ranging from a mile south to 1 1/2 miles north of the house! She said that three were needles, but the one to the south was 'huge and black, straight out of the 'Wizard of Oz.' She ran indoors for her camera, found it unloaded, and after loading it, caught a couple of shots of the needles. However, the big one had dissipated by the time she returned. We found out that a tornado had been on the ground in the Everglades that afternoon and figured that this must have been the one, with its blackened color (the rest were gray). What is amazing and amusing to me, is that:

1. My daughter, Kim also discovered these storms [as she did the first and only one that Dave has seen].

2. My wife has not ceased to lament that she missed the 'big one!' She was never particularly interested in tornadoes before, and now she shares the common woes of all the veteran chasers, about whom I have read in Storm Track.

I have decided to give up on-the-road chasing and just stay at home, closely monitoring my daughter's activities."

Dave writes that the Cameron band is scheduled to play New Year's Eve in St. Louis at a private party for the Busch family (who own Anheiser-Busch). A little biographical note on his role in the Cameron band: Dave plays "lead guitar, slide guitar, trumpet, flute, cornet, fluegalhorn, bass, drums, fiddle, harmonica and vocals. He has played with the Magestics; backed and appeared with such as Carla Thomas, the Tams and Aretha Franklin; and shared the stage with Brenda Lee, Della Reese, the Kingston Trio, Louis Prima, Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, the Golddiggers, etc.