He is not crazy. I was there. I lived at 514 North Lakewood Ave at the time of the storm. We would get floods a lot during the bigger thunder storms. All the kids in the neighbor would wait for the manhole covers to pop and the flood to begin. We did this in order to collect all of the white sponge rubber balls coming up from the storm drains. We used them for our baseball games we played in the alley ways in the neighborhood.

On the night of the big storm I was in our basement and my father was upstairs still eating dinner. By chance I happen to open the little door we had in the basement leading to the street. To my surprise I saw my father’s car begin its’ journey to Patterson Park, which is located four blocks away. I ran upstairs to inform him that his car was washing away only to have him not believe me. Up until this time it flooded a lot but not bad enough to wash the cars down the street. My father’s car was totaled that night. My sister’s car remained where it was parked only to have another car come to rest on it’s hood. A picture of her car was printed in the paper some time during that week. I believe it was the News American. There was also a man trapped between his Volkswagen Beetle and a tree while the flood was occurring. He had run out into the flood hoping to stop his Volkswagen Beetle from washing down the street. We also had a number of the trees on our block toppled over.

John’s bakery was located on the corner of Fairmount and Kenwood Ave. John would give the kids in the neighborhood some of his raw bread dough which we would eat, throw at each other and use for bait while fishing in the boat lake located inside Patterson Park. After the storm that night my friends and I roamed the neighbor to see all of the destruction that had occurred. John’s bakery was on the corner so the left hand side of John’s bakery faced Fairmount Ave. That wall having no other house beside it sustained a huge crack going down it side. If I am remember correctly I believe the storm occurred in August that year.

It was because of this storm that the street on Kenwood Ave was removed by the city digging a huge hole going down Kenwood Ave. to Patterson Park. It continue through the park all the way to the harbor. A storm pipe was placed into the hole to capture all of the water coming down from the hills on both sides leading up from Lakewood Ave., Glover St. and Kenwood Ave. My friends and I used to climb over the fence to get down into the hole to dig up old milk bottles, beer bottles, Bromo-Seltzer bottles and ink wells. We also found parts of broken clay pipes.

I don’t recall anything about Dundalk receiving hail during that storm but that is not to say it did not happen. I know for sure what is mentioned about did happen. I was there.