Living in Oklahoma in the Spring

As I am sure everyone has heard, Oklahoma is considered in the Tornado Alley meaning spring time brings one right after another.

 

And this year has been horrible!

 

We do not have a cellar nor a safe room.  But, I grew up with one.

 

My Mother, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles were all in a tornado that literally destroyed the little town of Pryor, Oklahoma on April 27, 1942 at 4:45 p.m.  My Mom was working downtown and was suppose to have her first date with a handsome soldier that night.  But, she didn't make the date and he could not find her that evening.

 

She was in a second story building working as a secretary and noticed the wind coming up.  She looked out the window and saw a sign from a local café just floating around in the air.  That was the last thing she remembered that day.  She wasn't hurt too badly, but it certainly made an impression on her.

The tornado followed Highway 20 right down the Main Street of Pryor.
 

 

My Grandparents lived less than a block off of Main Street and were not injured but had a lot of damage to their home.  I remember Nana telling us of the strange things that happened that day.  Things like it raining little perfectly shaped mud balls with a leaf thru the center of every one. It was like someone had spent weeks making those perfect  little mudballs.

 

And how the tree had a car bumper completely thru the trunk of it. 
 

 

Tornadoes do strange things and are so destructive.  The death toll was 52 and 454 were injured.
 

 

Later, the handsome soldier found my Mom and they were married.  When he got out of the service and they bought a house, it had no cellar.  The house they bought was at 20 North Ora.
 

Behind our home an elderly little lady named Miss Sansing lived.  She had a cellar.  So Dad worked out an arrangement with her that he'd maintain the cellar if we could use it. 

 

She was thrilled.  Needless to say, everyone in Pryor was a little afraid of black clouds in the sky.

 

So, Dad cleaned out the cellar and kept it dry.  We had pallets of wood on the floor because when we had a lot of rain, water would seep into the cellar.  They had old coal oil lamps (yes, I am that old) and because of the horror that my Mom and Nana had been thru, we spent many hours in that cellar.

 

We had cots to sleep on, lamps to do our homework with and lots of good food down there.  I didn't think so at the time, but, it must have been a pretty good sized cellar.

 

Dad would sit on the steps and watch the clouds.  Occasionally, he would let one of us at a time come up the steps and watch with him.

 

When John & I moved, I thought my world had come to an end because we could not find a house to buy that had a cellar.  I didn't want a Safe Room, I wanted a cellar in the ground.

 

But, with all of the storms this year especially, it has brought back so many of those memories of that old cellar.

 

I've seen tornadoes, but have never been in one.  But, when I think back of all the time we spent in that cellar, it was certainly good but scary, quality family time.

The tornado photos are fromwww3.GenDisasters.com

Till next time, Judy