Incredible Tornado Footage (Pawnee Co. Oklahoma)
May 2, 2008 | Items of Interest
Hey, Mom, remember how afraid I was of tornadoes when I was a kid? I read a book about them when I was in the second grade, and right about that time we had a tornado warning in Warner Robbins GA where we were living. It scared the bejeebers out of me and it took a few years for me to get over it.
Kids have it rough.
8 Responses to “Incredible Tornado Footage (Pawnee Co. Oklahoma)”
Bill, I didn’t know you even knew what a tornadoe was! I didn’t remember that you were so afraid! I was TERRIFIED from the time I was fourteen years old in Macon, Georgia, when we had a huge rash of tornadoes all over Georgia that year. I had never even HEARD of a tornadoe before that time. I mean, I knew what one was, but we had never had one even close. And then they were running around, and killing hundreds of people, because of course, there was do weather warnings in those days. Then, one night, I was out driving with Mary Jo and Fay and Zoe and Betty (who lived directly across the street from me), and I was driving, and suddenly the wind started blowing like mad, and the lightening was unreal. They others were ducking down and screaming. Somehow, I managed to get everybody home, and I drove up in front of Betty’s house. Her dad was screaming for us to get inside. We could hardly stand up and run. We all stood in the bathtub. The tornadoe hit three blocks over and killed seven people. My parents were in the bathtub across the street. I think mother was under the kitchen sink. It destroyed our metal fence. That’s all. From then on I had the most awful nightmares years and years into adulthood. When we lived on 27th street, we used to get under the stairway. Then I loved escaping to the basement on Sunset. Somehow, I am no longer afraid.
By mother on May 2, 2008
You poor little guy. I wonder how much comfort I was to you, if I was shaking in my boots?! Kids do have it rough.
By mother on May 2, 2008
Well, the only thing you contributed to my fear was your very lurid retelling of story of the Macon tornado. I had a vivid enough imagination that I could take it from there.
Funny to think you don’t remember this. There was a time, from when I was 5 years old (your and Dad’s divorce) until I was maybe ten or so, when I was scared of EVERYTHING. It just looked like “doom” was upon me around every corner. Buddy can tell you how I would NOT go into a “haunted house” at the fair, for instance. I just couldn’t handle anything overtly frightening.
Strangely, I still have “tornado” dreams from time to time. And it still makes me squirm just a little bit to see the video images of the tornadoes here.
Your mind is a very complex system.
By bill on May 3, 2008
Actually, from time to time, I still entertain tornadoes in my dreams too, but I’m not so frightened.
I do know what a frightened little boy you were,though. You were afraid to be in a room alone in broad daylight. You were very clingy to me the first year after the divorce, when I was so shaken and so unglued myself. All four of my children really felt it.
By mother on May 3, 2008
Yeah, kids do sense when their “security” is threatened. People I have known who have provided foster care to children who’ve been abused or neglected tell sad stories about this: hoarding food, making up stories about imaginary siblings, etc.
I wonder sometimes how Heavenly Father stands it, but I suppose He knows the end from the beginning.
By bill on May 4, 2008
Thats weird when I see Tornadoes I want to follow them and I go out in the weather purposely to feel them and watch the wind. I remember in Eufaula there was a hurricaine on the coast and it went upriver to Lake Eufaula and there were tornados and I went down to the dock at the worst of it and held onto the poles.
By lainie on May 4, 2008
You’d probably make a great storm-chaser.
Go to the Tornado Videos website at http://www.tornadovideos.net and check out some of the bios of the chasers there (”About Us”).
They sound just like you.
Me, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I guess it’s just lingering fear from childhood – funny how that works. I’m not PETRIFIED like I used to be, but I try to avoid the really bad stuff if I can.
I have seen two funnel clouds from a very safe distance, one in Tulsa in 1990 and one here in Houston about ten years ago. That’s enough for me.
By bill on May 4, 2008
Oh, and Lainie, I noticed on the “About Us” bios at that website, the guy who does their software development in in Birmingham. Maybe you could contact him to ask how you, too, can go chasing around after killer storms.
By bill on May 4, 2008