Saturday, July 21, 2007

Run for Your LIFE!!!!!

Mary at Owlhaven is hosting a carnival today called My Childhood Home. I grew up 6 miles outside of a small town in Kansas. My father is a farmer, so, yes, I grew up on a farm. My childhood home was a single wide trailer. I never thought anything of living in a trailer until I hit junior high. Thankfully we moved to town right around then and into a nicer house. Anyway, living in KS meant that we were subject to many tornadoes. Obviously our trailer did not have a basement. We lived on several acres of ground. There was 1/4 mile of wild grass between our trailer and a major highway. There was a ditch that ran between the highway and the grass. So to paint the picture better, it was our trailer, 1/4 mile of wild grass, ditch, and then the highway. Let me just say that the patch of wild grass was so large that we used a tractor to mow it and that still took forever. We were always told that if a tornado came we were to run through the grass to the ditch and get in the "tornado/atomic bomb is comin" position. Did I mention I lived there during my elementary years? Also, remember, there weren't any sirens 6 miles in the country, so the only forewarning one would get for a tornado coming might only be "RUN, THE TWISTER IS IN THE FRONT YARD!!!" To make a short story long, I never had to run for my life, but the trauma still set in. To this day, I still have nightmares of trying to get across that HUGE yard of wild grass to the ditch only to be protected by a small dent in the earth. HOW WAS THAT GOING TO PROTECT US??? I guess the tornado wouldn't see us crouching there, and would move on to to kill other saps who chose to park their trailer too far from a major ditch. This is probably not what Mary had in mind, but it is what immediately came to mind when I thought of my childhood home. I will add the fuzzy memories another time.

4 comments:

Rebekah said...

I experienced my first tornado when I was 3, 1974 KY outbreak. I have taken several weather spotter classes and would one day love to go tornado chasing.
Your post was a very interesting point of view. Enjoyed it

Momma Roar said...

I live on the east coast, so we don't experience too many tornados - occasionally a few come up the coast.
It's nice to 'meet' you! You have a sweet blog and I really appreciate your heart felt comments on my 'hold your baby' post. Just looking at their new pictures makes me get teary...It is so nice to have moms in the same stage to share it with - thanks!

Leigh Ann

Kalyn said...

you paint a really good picture with your style of writting. I enjoy your blog :)

Owlhaven said...

I lived in Missouri, so I have some tornado memories of my own....my mom was in one that tore the roof of the house....
thanks for sharing your memories!
Mary