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I can remember the Tornado like it was just yesterday. I remember it even though I was only four years old that year. It seems like a very long time ago today though. Dad was a Weather Watcher then. When I walked out on the front Porch to be with him, and to ask him what was bothering him. He showed me the intense Storm Clouds that he was busy watching that night. They were high up in the big blue and darkening sky. The Lightening strikes were frequent, and there was a loud booms of Thunder sounding in the night Sky. There was also a loud, blowing, gusty Wind building up around us. The Wind was picking up and scattering all the stuff that was oon the Ground as the Storm drew nearer to us. Even the Leaves on the Trees were bent forward in the Wind, waiting as we were for the Storm to come on in.
He was very busy and I knew when I saw him walking the front Porch that we were possibly in trouble again. There could be no doubt of that when I saw the way he was pacing the Porch, forward and back, forward and back as he watched the approaching Storm clouds which were dark, large, and looming closer on the Horizon. They were heavy with the threat of terrifying Storms in them. Dad was counting the lightening strikes. They were very frequent in the booming thunder Clouds that were attacking our little part of the World. We were thinking the lightening flashes were 3-4 miles apart. There was about six seconds between the heavy lightening flashes that came, and along with the impending loud thunder booms we were terrified. The flashes of Lightening though lit up the entire night Sky. Satrting in the West, you could see a large black block of impending Storming clouds, which were coming toward us in the dark of the night Sky.
Dad paced the Porch back and forth, back and forth he went, as he walked across the Porch constantly watching the Sky. He was peering at the Clouds closely, when he suddenly saw what he was looking for. He saw what looked like a set of Clouds forming their way into a Funnel. That Funnel was now coming toward us. Dad quickly said to me " go and get inside the Car just as fast as you can." And then Dad called to Mother, who had all of the rest of the C\children by her side, and told her "Berthie, it's time to get the kids into the Car." " We don't have much time." "We have to get out of here right now." He followed her half-running to the car, and they sat quietly inside the Car, all excited and scared too.
Dad was anxiously getting the Car's Motor going and he was getting ready to pull out of the yard. But then he suddenly turned to Mom and said to Mom, " it's too late to out run it now. I am going to stay here right here in the Yard and wait." So we sat there inside the Car, and we waited for the advancing Storm. The Storm came hard and heavy, as we sat there and watched the Tornado tear up the House that we had lived in for more than three months.
We had to sit double seated in the back seat of the Car. There were so many of us, that the Car couldn't hold all of us comfortably within the back seat of the old Fords mobile. Double-seated meant that we were on someone else's lap, and that we overlapped each other's lap. We really did have a large and growing Family. Even though the Car's inside was large and comfortable, there wasn't a lot of elbow room inside the Car. But the old Fords mobile held all of us inside the Car sitting on everyone's lap. I couldn't see anything outside of the Car, but the overwhelming dust cloud of the Storm. The dust was thicker outside than a heavy jar of Molasses. The Lightening was flashing quite frequently, and as it shone through the dust, it gave us some small hints of what we were looking at on that great and stormy Summer evening.
I looked out of the Car's windows, just in time to see the old outdoor Toilet going by us in the dust. It was being pushed top over bottom by the heavy Wind that had hit. You could hear the sound of the Walls hitting against each side of the Ground, as it hit the Ground going up, and falling back over and over again. Strong winds had pulled the old Toilet off of its foundation. Even now the storm winds were blowing hard against the car. The Lightening flashed again, and then we saw what looked like Shingles from the top of the House, heavily slapping against the Car in the hard Windstorm that was blowing. We felt the Car try to shift off to the side as we sat there inside of it watching what was going on. I was glad that all of us were inside the Car with our weight trying to hold it down. I was also glad that the old Toilet had not hit the Car as it had came by us that night.
The air outside was thick with dust, while big and heavy Hail was hitting the Car. Ice from the Storm fell around outside hitting everything in sight. The Ice was making a loud pounding sound as it tore the metal on the Car. Inside the car, it sounded like someone was throwing heavy metal balls at us. But when we saw the roofing Shingles, flying around in the night sky, we knew that the situation was desperate for us. Then we watched in horror, as during a Lightening strike, we saw the Wind lift off the Roof that was left on the House. The Wind with a great sudden show of Force took the Roof a small distance in the Air, and then withdrew its Force, and threw it carelessly down beside us in the Car. Some of the Roofing boards of the House were left standing straight up, while others were lying strewn everywhere at once.
Everything in the House was crumpled, broken, and wet in the heavy Rain that followed the storm. The heavy Rain settled the Dust that had been blowing so hard around us. The House though was like nothing had stood before it. There was only a partial top on the old building still on, but all of its woodedn shingles were on the Ground. There were only the four walls standing up that seemed to hold it up straight. The old Walls seemed to be still standing, some straight up in the air, while others were leaning and crooked. We seemed to be watching just as a participant in a sideshow that day. But it did not seem to be very funny to us. But all of us were in the Car, and we were every one of us safe. That was something to be shouting about because we knew that other people had died in the same storm that very day. We were just happy to still be alive.
The date was about 1954 and we were living in Arkansas that year. That was the last year that we lived there. This broken house would be the last place that we lived in Arkansas. After the storm was over, you could stand in what used to be the Kitchen, and look out over blue skies and the glowing Arkansas sun. That was kind of funny. But we knew, we did not want it to happen again to us.
Right now, we would need to gather up again, what little we had left to us by the Storm. We were going to need a new home to live in this year. We had lived way out in the country; there had been no warning for us of the Storms that were coming in that late Night. The Storms that would change our lives altered us forever that Night. I would be more careful, and mindful of Storms approaching. My Dad would be more watchful than he ever had been before. This house would be torn down by its owners and another one built to replace it. But we would move to another house in another town or country.
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