Off in the distance there was rumbling throughout the day, but it waited until Daddy got home from work for the rain to pour down. It was quite a deluge, and the weather radio was going off all day long to warn us of inclement weather. No tornado warnings though, so that was good.
Madison was quite concerned when the storms finally reached us - she was inside the garage and really wanting us to get inside as soon as possible. The thunder rumbled loudly, and the wind blew through the trees in a menacing sort of way. We did get inside quickly, mainly because we didn't want to get absolutely soaked!
We've been rather blessed this spring with a calmer storm season. The past years have been rougher: Daddy remembers one particular spring where a tornado came barreling through the woods straight towards the house he was inside. Trees flew everywhere, landing on his truck, and the front door blew wide open. Daddy was inside not daring to go close to that door for fear of getting sucked out!
One memorable time, our house was struck by lightning. Hundreds of bolts of electricity shot across the hallway - it is permanently etched in my mind, watching the electricity zap and arc all around us in the air. Our feet tingled because they were still wet, having just gotten inside!
Of course, in White County there seemed to be more activity - the ferris wheel Daddy used to work in Helen was completely leveled. The woods on the way to Dahlonega were flattened one other time. I remember seeing at Tallulah Gorge a guard rail inserted into the top of a wooden telephone pole, having been ripped out of the ground and thrown at an amazing speed through the air. It's amazing no one was hurt there.
That was the morning that Ye-Ye came in to wake us all up. He came face to face with a nasty twister as he was riding to work early that day. He had to drive like a stuntman, turning his truck around and dodging falling trees left and right. He raced into the house and woke us all up asking if everyone was okay. Of course we were - there was nothing going on outside! Yet less than ten miles away, a terrible storm was making an awful path of destruction through several counties.
Like all the other debris, there's something fascinating about a tornado: it sucks you in with a strange fasciation of it's raw power and carnage. In another time, Daddy thought it might be fun to be a storm chaser - one of those crazy teams of drivers that hunt down tornadoes in the midwest like in the movie "Twister." Now, Daddy has Madison and Mommy to think about, so he is less inclined to do dumb things like that!
Today was a much safer sort of day, fortunately tornado free. Oddly enough, Mommy announced it is Frank Baum's birthday. Here's your tie-in: he's the author of "The Wizard of Oz," the movie with the tornado at the beginning that starts it all. It's a wonderful, glorious movie, but we decided not to watch that movie today, as we thought the witch might be a little much for Madison. But we'll certainly keep it in mind for next year, because that's a movie both Mommy and Daddy really enjoy. They really don't make 'em like that anymore. I'm glad there hasn't been any attempt at remaking this movie, as anything tried would really fall short. Even after all these years, with all the special effects and advances in movie making, you still can't beat the heart and soul of this amazing movie!
"It's a twister! It's a twister!" - Zeke
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