Editor's Notebook

After reading my column from last week, Victor Lohn made a return trip to the newspaper office with his own story about April 19, 1995.

Victor Lohn had received word there were to be layoffs at the Borden Dairy Plant where he was working, so he knew he had 60 days to find a job.

He had heard that on the second floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building they had computers where you could go in and sign up to apply for a government position.

He left home that day 8 a.m., planning to be at the Murrah Building by 9 a.m.

But on the way up the road he heard on the radio that Norman was having a job fair.

So he took a detour to stop by the job fair and then headed up to downtown Oklahoma City.

On the way from Norman he heard a couple of reports about a gas explosion in downtown Oklahoma City but didn’t really give it a second thought.

As he got closer to his destination at 200 N.W. Fifth Street he, of course, ran into roadblocks.

“So I weaved my way around and got to the Borden plant,” he recalled. “When I walked, in the receptionist said, ‘You had better call your wife.”

So he did and Jeannie was very upset, but glad to hear his voice.

She said, “You had better call your mother.”

So he did.

“My Mom was crying,” Lohn told me as tears welled up in his eyes April 17, 2025.

He said he thinks about it every year and can’t help from crying, wiping his eyes as he spoke.

“It was by the grace of God,” Lohn said.

It just wasn’t his time and for that he is very grateful.

It reminded me of the time my cousin-in-law was in Atlanta on business and couldn’t get to the airport in time to catch a Delta Airlines flight to DFW August 2, 1985. That plane crashed and killed 137 people.

The cousin got stuck in traffic.