Linda Baldwin stood on the porch of her Oak Street home in Windsor, its banister bedecked in red, white and blue bunting, and marveled at what a mile-wide twister could do to a town.
For the good.
“The tornado destroyed every fence in our neighborhood,” Baldwin said of the massive May 22 storm that laid waste to much of this Weld County town. “But you know what? It brought us together. We were walking back and forth between yards to help each other out.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and it’s amazing how the disaster has united us.”
Fireworks, flags and firing up the grill are what most Americans associate with the Fourth of July. But at its heart, the holiday offers a chance to think about what it means to be a community.
In this respect, folks in Windsor have a six-week head start on the rest of us.
“The storm really only had us down for a few days, and we’re getting back on our feet,” said Mayor John Vazquez, who lost his roof, windows and two vehicles. “We’re excited about July Fourth. We did what we could on Memorial Day, but this is going to be the first town get-together since the tornado.”
To be sure, much of Windsor, particularly the hard-hit east end, remains in ruins. Walk through the neighborhoods and whole houses remain boarded with plywood, blue tarps pulled tight over blasted roofs.
Houses of worship witnessed no divine intervention, either. At the Church of the Ascension, the steeple’s metal sheathing was peeled back like an oyster tin. The steeple topping the white clapboard Windsor Church of Christ simply vanished.
At Frank Torsleff’s house, the stars and stripes were flying. Today he’ll bring out his POW-MIA flag.
We stood in his driveway and he pointed at the corner of his neighbor’s yard. Not even the stump of the 60-foot ash tree that once stood there remained — merely shards poking from the ground.
“We just took a day and cleared it all up,” Torsleff said. “That’s how it should be in a community.”
Jason Shaeffer, chef-owner at the Chimney Park restaurant on Main Street, is still dealing with a 30-by-6-foot gash in his roof. Wednesday evening found him spackling fresh tar on it in his chef’s jacket, trying to outrace the rain.
“It’s really been something, how this town has bonded in the wake of the tornado,” he told me Thursday morning.
Shaeffer is pitching in. He and two other local restaurateurs are planning a barbecue to raise money for kids’ school supplies.
Baldwin, whose home is built on the spot where her great-grandfather’s house stood, still can’t get over the outpouring of support.
“I walked out one day and there was a woman, a complete stranger, dragging limbs out of my yard to the curb,” she said. “I asked her if she knew me and she said no, that she’d simply come by to help.”
There is much that needs fixing in America today, and I don’t mean the roofs in a small town on the high plains.
But this town of 15,000 represents our country at its best: selfless, strong and standing together. After all, what is this day but a celebration of the greatest community venture in history?
So strike up the band for the people of Windsor.
They’ll settle for skyrockets at Boardwalk Park this year, but they deserve three cheers and a parade.
William Porter’s column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
