Caldwell County author explores site of tragic explosion
Joni Foster
Caldwell County’s Joni Foster was recently named a winner in the FOREWORD Indies Book of the Year Awards for “When Normal Blew Up,” a true account of a bombing that happened in the town of Circleville, Ohio, when Foster was living there as a 9-year-old girl. Foster recently revisited the town and its residents and shared their insights in her book, which is available online and in downtown Lockhart at Logos and Lockhart Shoppes on Main. Miles Smith/LPR
By Miles Smith
LPR Editor
Imagine being 9 years old living in a town the size of Lockhart.
Now imagine being around when a local business explodes after a bomber enters the store, detonates a bomb and kills five people, including your father, who was working at the shop.
That’s what Joni Foster experienced one day in 1967 in Circleville, Ohio, a town that’s just about the same size of the Caldwell County seat. Foster, who now makes her home just outside Lockhart, said she hadn’t given the incident much thought in years until recently, when she started doing the interviews for “When Normal Blew Up,” which explores what happened on that day and afterward in the lives of the people affected by the bombing of Bingman’s Friendly Family Drug store.
The book has recently earned acclaim, receiving a FOREWORD Indies Book of the Year Award.
“When Normal Blew Up” is available online and in downtown Lockhart at Logos and at Lockhart Shoppes on Main.
Read more in this week’s Post-Register.
