If I had to list my two biggest fears in life, they would be tornadoes and bees. No contest. When I was growing up, we had tornado warnings in the summer all the time. They used to scare the CRAP out of me, because I was one of those kids who read science books just for fun and knew what damage they were capable of even when I was just 7. I would have a full on anxiety attack, and not be able to sleep the night through anytime there was lightning, thunder or even a hint of green clouds.
That said, tornadoes were extremely rare where I grew up. The biggest one that I know of happened in 1953 and tore a bit ole swath through Worcester County. I remember poring over the photos my grandfather had taken when he worked for the light department. One of his photos showed the main street in Shrewsbury, MA, and one house standing. The houses that were lost were rebuilt in time, and that house is still sitting there in the midst of them all.
JFK touring Worcester,MA after the tornado in 1953 (credit unknown)
We even had a small tornado touch down about a mile away from our house once. I remember sitting in the little crawl space under our stairs, which just barely fit the four of us, and our dog, Charlie, couldn’t fit in with us. We had the radio on, and I could just hear him crying just outside the door and I was so very worried that the tornado would come, rip off our roof, and my precious pup would go flying into oblivion. Luckly, that storm only caused damage to one house, and it wasn’t ours.
The storm in Oklahoma was obviously so much more strong than anything we ever experienced in Massachusetts, and I”m sending my thoughts out to those affected by the tragedy. Its scary to think how everything you know can just be whipped away in seconds. I can’t even imagine it.
Anyway, here’s an uplifting video that is floating around of a woman named Barbara Garcia who was being interviewed on live television who thought she had lost her dog to the storm. The newscaster sees the dog, Sassy, lying under some wreckage and points it out to the woman and we get to see their reunion captured on camera. It’s heart melting.
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