TORNADO WEEKEND
Well, we had a little excitement this weekend. This was my daughters long weekend off of work. Every other weekend my daughter gets Friday, Saturday and Sunday off of work. Nice hey? Well not really it's the reward for having to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the alternate weekends, so when her long weekends come around it's nice to plan a little something to do. Some of our plans fell through because the time got away from us , so we just decided to go to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. It was great as usual but we got full to fast and didn't finish the food , still since we all suffer from 'sweet tooth syndrome' we ordered dessert to go and took everything with us in doggie bags, ruff,ruff, lol.
It was raining and crappy out but we stopped at 'Wally World' on the way home for a few minutes, bad move on our part the dessert had ice cream on it. No one stops at Wally World for a few minutes.
We make it back home with our melted ice cream dessert. Brain storm, stick it in the freezer for a little while.
We have only been home for a short while, BB, is on the computer, FWL, is in his bedroom playing a game or something and I am walking across the living room when I see the news commentator pointing at red zones on the map and a signal at the bottom of the TV screen flashing tornado warning. No biggie, it happens all of the time this time of the year, but as usual I said, hey you guys we're under a tornado warning.
Then all of a sudden, my scanner starts going nuts with, there is a tornado coming this way and at the same time from the TV I hear this loud frantic voice repeating over and over, " if you are able to hear this message take cover immediately. If you are within hearing distance of this message go to a shelter and take cover immediately. There is a tornado within such and such minutes of you."
O.K. time to panic!
I' m yelling, BB, do you hear this take cover immediately, tornado is headed straight for us. FWL front and center now we have to leave a tonado has been spotted. What, he yells back as he is running towards me. BB is grabbing her purse and her kid and they are running out to the car and I stop to turn off the computer, (like it's going to matter if a tornado hits) .
Then it hits me, where is my son. BB and FWL are in the car and I run next door and bang on the door no answer. No vehicles out there either. OMG, I don't know if he is in town in his pickup truck or in the big truck hauling a big load. I run back and yell at BB to try to call her brother and I run back in the house to gab my purse. We find out he is O.K. and we head for shelter. When I am home alone, I never go to a shelter I just stay put and hope that I get lucky, but now that my daughter and grandson are living with me they are so stubborn they won't go without me, so off we go.
We're not even sure where to go. The courthouse? Post Office? Jail? Da, close your eyes and pick one. Bingo it's the jail and there are people everywhere lined up trying to get in.
I'm thinking , shit, I want to be at home by myself,Que Sera, Sera and all that stuff.
We fall in place with the others and every room is full, the rest of us are having to line the hallways.
So hear we are, ( how ironic), lined up against the walls of the hallways soak and wet , while prisoners are handing out blankets to people standing against the walls shoulder to shoulder huddled together, everyone respectful, everyone caring, and everyone being polite. The white southerners, the blacks, this little yankee, and the legal and illegal Mexicans and let me tell you, right now we are all loving each other. I didn't even mind the guy with the booze breathe next to me.
Soon it was over and we were all released from jail, haha.
I'm not sure what happened to the tornado. I don't know if it changed direction or if it dissipated before it got to us, but in any case we were now only under a storm warning and it was safe to leave.
Then I notice something -- something that made me feel kind of sad, everyone is disassembling and leaving as they came, forming their own little ethnic groups as they go.
For one brief moment we were all one, pulling together, once again we are now separated.
Segregated --- by choice.
Perhaps not by choice, perhaps it's like that saying --- 'old habits die hard.'
It was raining and crappy out but we stopped at 'Wally World' on the way home for a few minutes, bad move on our part the dessert had ice cream on it. No one stops at Wally World for a few minutes.
We make it back home with our melted ice cream dessert. Brain storm, stick it in the freezer for a little while.
We have only been home for a short while, BB, is on the computer, FWL, is in his bedroom playing a game or something and I am walking across the living room when I see the news commentator pointing at red zones on the map and a signal at the bottom of the TV screen flashing tornado warning. No biggie, it happens all of the time this time of the year, but as usual I said, hey you guys we're under a tornado warning.
Then all of a sudden, my scanner starts going nuts with, there is a tornado coming this way and at the same time from the TV I hear this loud frantic voice repeating over and over, " if you are able to hear this message take cover immediately. If you are within hearing distance of this message go to a shelter and take cover immediately. There is a tornado within such and such minutes of you."
O.K. time to panic!
I' m yelling, BB, do you hear this take cover immediately, tornado is headed straight for us. FWL front and center now we have to leave a tonado has been spotted. What, he yells back as he is running towards me. BB is grabbing her purse and her kid and they are running out to the car and I stop to turn off the computer, (like it's going to matter if a tornado hits) .
Then it hits me, where is my son. BB and FWL are in the car and I run next door and bang on the door no answer. No vehicles out there either. OMG, I don't know if he is in town in his pickup truck or in the big truck hauling a big load. I run back and yell at BB to try to call her brother and I run back in the house to gab my purse. We find out he is O.K. and we head for shelter. When I am home alone, I never go to a shelter I just stay put and hope that I get lucky, but now that my daughter and grandson are living with me they are so stubborn they won't go without me, so off we go.
We're not even sure where to go. The courthouse? Post Office? Jail? Da, close your eyes and pick one. Bingo it's the jail and there are people everywhere lined up trying to get in.
I'm thinking , shit, I want to be at home by myself,Que Sera, Sera and all that stuff.
We fall in place with the others and every room is full, the rest of us are having to line the hallways.
So hear we are, ( how ironic), lined up against the walls of the hallways soak and wet , while prisoners are handing out blankets to people standing against the walls shoulder to shoulder huddled together, everyone respectful, everyone caring, and everyone being polite. The white southerners, the blacks, this little yankee, and the legal and illegal Mexicans and let me tell you, right now we are all loving each other. I didn't even mind the guy with the booze breathe next to me.
Soon it was over and we were all released from jail, haha.
I'm not sure what happened to the tornado. I don't know if it changed direction or if it dissipated before it got to us, but in any case we were now only under a storm warning and it was safe to leave.
Then I notice something -- something that made me feel kind of sad, everyone is disassembling and leaving as they came, forming their own little ethnic groups as they go.
For one brief moment we were all one, pulling together, once again we are now separated.
Segregated --- by choice.
Perhaps not by choice, perhaps it's like that saying --- 'old habits die hard.'
posted by EXSENO at 7:10 AM
8 Comments:
That is an amazing observation, Exseno... quite astute! I love the fact that when there is real trouble, we humans disregard creed and color for the greater good. I really like that!
Old habits do die hard....
Growing up in SC we had lots of tornadoes and I don't remember ever going to a shelter, we'd just go under a table if it was really hitting... You'd hear a train coming, as I always tell these northerners that have no clue what I'm talking about, but it always sounds like a loud train whistle and a lot of power, the blinds will flap up and down. First time I was in one, I thought aliens had come, lol, due to all the blue emergency lights that went off in the neighborhood.
Becky,
When my daughter was little I was in a tornado in the 70's that demolished the house next door to me completly and several around me, by the grace of god, it lifted up enough to only take off my roof while my daughter and I lay on the floor between a wall and her bed and a huge oak tree uprooted and fell right outside that room. Long story I'll have to tell it somethime. It was so bad around us everyone thought we had to be dead but we were just fine waited for someone to rescue us. God loved us a lot that night
What a post! I'm so glsd that you and yours are all safe.
Your post brought back memories of my first year in a new country. A friend called hurriedly to inform me of a tornado warning and I didn't have a clue as to what was to be done so I did nothing only to find out that I had had a close call.
As for what happened in that shelter...that is so typically human. A crisis brings out the best in all of us and yet when the goings good those barriers rise up sky high! How can I be the same as the next person! The more civilized we get the more refined that distinction! Isn't that ironic.
Id it is,
I know exactly what you mean, coming from California, I knew nothing of a tornado. I used to think it was silly of my neighbors to panic until I was in the middle of one in the sventies. It left me shell shocked for a long time.
hehehe I remember that night in the 70's when the tornado came...all was still you could of heard a pin drop and then all hell broke loose....lol the lights went out and you grabbed me by the arm and then you smacked the wall in a mad dash with me behind you...that was funny I know I know you still deny doing it to this day....but hey when your a kid you pay close attention to even the smallest of details.....lol
Easter weekend for most of us here in the south will be hot and sunny!
Mojo,
Us too, it's been beautiful here the whole rest of this week.
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