Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Twisted


With all my griping and grousing yesterday, it's sometimes hard for me to remember it is not all about me!

But it really isn't, as much as I'd like to think otherwise. No worries, tomorrow I'll go back to self-delusion and ego-centric writings. Hey, you can't fight a tidal wave.

When I travel, I even amaze myself at out of touch I become. I pick up the paper that sits outside the hotel room door and toss it on the bed on my way out. When I come back, the TV rarely, if ever, goes on. Last January it was almost two days before I knew there was an earthquake in Haiti. What do you mean Sandra Bullock is single again??

So with my 'bad weather', I certainly didn't have it as bad as some folks west of Cleveland, or closer to Toledo. An F3 tornado that killed at least seven and wiped out a small town including a high school auditorium. The sad thing was, my client had to tell me about it, as I had not seen or heard a story on it. Had the twister struck hours later, that same high school would have been holding their graduation ceremonies there.

Tornadoes are weird - so destructive, yet so captivating.

Back when I was like 5 (and yes, it's right back to me! - as you knew it would), I remember living not far from where that tornado just hit, and being dragged into the basement by my mother during what she determined was a bad storm, or maybe there was some warning of which I was unaware. While I don't remember the storm/warning, what I won't forget is when we were freed from the basement.

I had never since seen air so heavy and still. I have never seen a sky so green. I thought it was just me until a neighbor-lady commented on it as well. I was a very perceptive five year old.

And I still, when I drive past Xenia, I look over thinking I'll see the town that was completely wiped from the map back in '73 or '74 by that mother of all F5 tornadoes. The reality is, you could never see Xenia from the highway in the first place - it was always rows of corn as the visual. In almost 40 years, I wonder if something has grown back there and if they've recovered. I'm sure they have and haven't.

Millbury will recover too, though I'm sure it is hard for them to see it right now.

Tornadoes are a bad thing, but you know, only Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton can make them worse.


Song by: Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham

2 comments:

AJohnP said...

I've always been fascinated by tornadoes. They scare the hell out of me, even though I've never been through one or even remotely close to experiencing one.
And I kind of love the movie 'Twister'.
Sorry. :-)

Cubby said...

Close call for my family. The tornado came within 2 miles of my sister and 7 miles of my parents and 7 miles of my other sister. It went between them. Scary to think about.