The Tornado

Whenever I watch one of those extreme weather shows on TV I always wish I could see a tornado up close...from a safe place, of course. However, I have vague memories of being in a tornado when I was a kid in Illinois around 1959. My brother sent me an old letter yesterday my mother wrote that confirmed we went through a tornado.

It was a Christmas oriented letter (pdf format) that she wrote to relatives. Typewritten- no computers back then- it told a bit about us kids and then mentioned a "small" tornado damaging the house while her and dad were out of town.

She mentioned in her letter that all the windows on the front of the house were blown out. I don't recall that, but hers is historical record. As far as it being a small tornado, I guess she'd know better than I, although she wasn't there.

What I remember is being home with a babysitter in Deerfield, Illinois. I was around 3 years old. I recall the babysitter being real agitated and her saying she wished our parents were home. I wasn't sure why she was so frightened. 

Then I remember standing at one of the windows and looking out in front of the house. There were trees across the street maybe 20 to 30 feet tall. The wind was blowing so hard the tops of the trees were nearly touching the ground. That's about all I remember. Don't remember any windows breaking.

So that was the vague memory I had of the tornado along with a picture someone took- I may still have it- of our next door neighbor's old '50s woody station wagon laying on its roof the next day. I had the vague memories but no confirmation until I read that letter yesterday. Kinda neat to get a look back in the past and find my memory had some basis in fact.