Community Corner

'Oh Sandy' Anthology Uses Humor to Examine Seriousness of Historic Storm

A Matawan man with close ties to Union Beach was one of several Sandy survivors to be published in the collection titled "Oh Sandy: An Anthology of Humorous Stories for a Serious Cause."

Hurricane Sandy was no laughing matter for those people displaced from their flooded homes, for those throwing out hundreds of dollars worth of food after losing power or for those who lost their homes entirely.  

However, they say laughter is the best medicine.

"When you are gutting people's houses, you either start laughing or start crying and don't stop," said James Butler, a former Union Beach resident who continues to coach youth soccer there. "When you are dealing with tragedy there is at first shock and then you kind of move on to the gallows of humor."

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Each day after the storm, Butler, now a Matawan resident, visited Union Beach to help his parents, his childhood friends and his soccer players' families clean up and rebuild. 

He carried a notebook around in his pocket, jotting down his observations - anything from where to find a hot meal to the excitement on a young boy's face when he has permission to take a hammer to a living room. 

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"Some of it was funny and some of it was sad and some of it was touching, and the others are the amazing things people did to take care of their family," he said of his notes.

At the end of each long day of volunteering, he would park his car in a gym by his Matawan home - the only place he could find reception - and share his information on his personal Facebook account. 

"The end of the day posting on Facebook was therapeutic," he said. "It was kind of the end of the day purging of everything I saw there."

Months after the storm, a friend noticed a call-out for humorous reflections, stories and poems about Hurricane Sandy. Butler, a self-proclaimed bookworm, couldn't resist submitting his story.

He decided the best way to share it was to edit down his Facebook feed to the posts that made him smile even in the most challenging times and titled it, "What I Learned in Union Beach Today."

They range from comical reflections like, "If you can avoid working in the space between a married couple arguing about the wallpaper that she picked out and he always hated please do" and "What could be more "green" than walls made of oxygen?" to almost sarcastic realizations of the truth such as, "When you drive past a boat embedded in a house and don't raise an eyebrow you know you've seen too much chaos for a bit."

"When it came to editing it, by keeping it in that format it enabled me to tell a lot of quick little stories," he said, adding that he felt a mix of shock and excitement when he found out he was going to be published in the anthology.

Although he enjoyed seeing his name in print, Butler noted that his favorite part of the book, titled "Oh Sandy: An Anthology of Humorous Stories for a Serious Cause," is that the proceeds benefit organizations that are continuing to assist in recovery efforts. 

This isn't the first time Butler's status updates and charitable nature have spiraled into a recovery effort, however. After mentioning on his Facebook page that he saw an artificial Christmas tree sticking out of the rubble in Union Beach, he became the man behind the Union Beach Hope Tree.

"Some of the posts there have taken on lives of their own afterword," he said with a laugh about his mobile updates.

Find out more about the anthology by visiting the book's website.


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