Hamburgers, flashlights and Tornado sirens…
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As we all know Friday 03-02-2012, that’s the day the storms and Tornadoes’ rolled through the Midwest causing much destruction and loss of life. Thankfully we have weather forecasters’’ and they were able to alert as many people as they could through TV, internet, radio and the City sirens. I am reminded that not too long ago, (Okay, the 70’s) when I was a kid we didn’t have the advancements that we are blessed with today. No Doppler radar, or wind velocity maps. Just Marsha Yockey and her magic pin. So when storms blew “up” as she would say, my mom would gather us (my little brother and me) and have us sit on the bed, with our shoes on, dressed and ready to “go” if the storm got too bad. She would sit there also on the bed smoking a cigarette in one hand and holding her purse and car keys in the other.
On more than one occasion we would have to bolt for the car during a storm’s furry and she would drive like mad to my cousin’s house out in the country to get to their basement. Not a lot of sense involved in that though the intentions were good. Get out of the house and into a secure basement. The trouble was that our “basement” was at least ten to fifteen minutes away or better depending on if my mom could see through the blinding sheets of rain and wind. But we did this quite often really not knowing how bad the storm was or wasn’t. It was all up to her. She used to say after a storm had blown over that it was “coming back ‘round”. Ever hear that old saying? I used to think that the storm moved passed us, did a u turn and was “coming back ‘round again” to run over us again. Funny the innocence of my youth…
