Scary Sikeston -- or should I say Yikeston?

Today is the first day of my trip to Texas. I plan to spend the night in Sikeston, MO. It is close to the halfway point between St. Louis and Memphis and lies along the New Madrid Fault line. Here’s hoping there is no earthquake while I am there. 

I was in Reno for a Carmelite conference more than a decade ago and was wakened in the night by my bed shaking and the light fixtures swinging. It turned out to be an earthquake, although there was no significant damage except to the slumber of many of us at the conference center. The next day when we mentioned it to Fr. Jude, however, he had no idea what we were talking about. He had slept through the whole thing. I guess that’s what they mean about the sleep of the just.

Rather than worry about an earthquake, perhaps I should worry about being a crime victim. Sikeston is considered “the most dangerous city in Missouri,” with a crime rate of 82 crimes per thousand residents. The odds of being a victim are said to be one in twelve. I guess I will check into the motel and lock myself in my room for the night. Maybe I can order a pizza and have the delivery person slide it under the door.

Sikeston's other claim to fame may be that on May 17, 1946, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., father of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, died outside Sikeston on U.S. Route 60 after being thrown from his car and drowning in a drainage ditch. This occurred three months before Bill Clinton's birth.