Authentic voices #1

Twenty-five years ago I was doing a corporate video at a chemical plant on the Escambia River in the Florida Panhandle. We were waiting for the magic hour, when the sun would be low enough to light the plant at right angles. To pass the time, the videographer asks our host a throw-away question: "I'm not really worried about it or anything, but, say, just for example, if there were an explosion, what would we do?" To our host, it's clearly not a hypothetical question.

"If it comes from over there," he says, pointing to our left, "there'll be a gas that'll eat your lungs out. It's heavier'n air, and we're in kind of a bowl, you see, so run up that hill over there just as fast as you can go. Now if it comes from this other direction, there'll be a gas that's highly inflammable, and first time it hits a spark it'll be a rolling ball of fire. The river is that way. Make a run for it. If you manage to get there, jump in. Don't think about it. Jump in and keep your head low. Don't worry about the gators--they'll be gone."

The authenticity of his life-and-death counsel made an impression on me that hasn't dimmed over two-and-a-half eventful decades. I can still see the videographer's gaze, aimed at the middle distance in the direction of the river, his appetite for small talk satiated as we waited in silence for the light to be right to make beautiful images on videotape.