This section is from Chapter 14: Pokies, Meet the Okies. The whole chapter is about ten or so pages, and is focused on some adjustments to moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma from the Poconos in Pennsylvania. This is just a small snippet of the chapter, a scene specifically about my first encounter with wicked weather.
One of the first things I learned in my new school is that we may have made a tiny mistake in moving to Tulsa. I am not sure if my mom knew she was endangering our lives by bringing us to Oklahoma. I knew what tornadoes were. I’d seen the Wizard of Oz many times. But, I’d never thought I’d have to prepare for one. Since it was about Spring, which everyone in Tulsa called Tornado Season, in school we had tornado drills so we could practice how to survive if high, spiral-shaped winds had hit Nimitz Middle School.
Back in Pennsylvania, we only had fire drills, so this was quite scary. When the tornado drill bell sounded, we proceeded to the interior hallways and sat Indian-style facing the lockers. Being by the interior walls was safer, we were told. There were no windows, so we’d be protected from glass shards. We put our arms behind our necks and placed our heads down in our laps. This would shield us from the debris. After the first tornado drill, when we were back in the classroom, we were issued an informational packet with all sorts of safety and preparation techniques from an educational program Channel 8 news put together called Travis Meyer’s Wicked Weather. Travis was a local meteorologist so I trusted his judgement and studied his guide.
But I wasn’t at school the first time a tornado threatened my new city. One Thursday in mid-May, Mom, Joe, Theresa, Michelle, Dan and I were planning on going to the movies, New Jack City I think. It was raining and I was getting petrified. I knew that rain in the heat could cause a thunderstorm and that thunder and lightening could bring a tornado. Our television was on, and on the little ticker beneath the show, was a tornado watch for Tulsa County. A watch, according to Travis Meyer’s Wicked Weather guide, meant there was a possibility of a tornado forming. But, later in the day, that watch transformed into a Warning, which meant there were tornadoes on the ground. There was no way I was going outside.
“I am not going!” I yelled to my Mom and Joe, even though going to the movies was one of my favorite things to do.
They just laughed at me and continued watching TV. My aunts and Dan had gathered at our apartment for the family outing. They saw I was freaking out.
“What’s the matter with you?” asked Dan.
“There’s a tornado coming,” I cried from the hallway, the interior hallway.
“Well, a huge movie theater is safer than this place,” he said.
I didn’t care. I did what Travis Meyers said. I pulled my twin foam mattress into my bathroom and told my family I was climbing in what was dubbed the safest place in the house, the bathtub.
“Oh, Jesus Christ Donna, stop it. Let’s go,” my mom said.
“We’re gonna die. Don’t you care?” I said back getting into the tub. “Oh, I forgot my radio.”
I got out of the tub and went across the hall to my bedroom to grab my AM/FM alarm clock, which had batteries inside as a back-up. This way, I would be aware of all the destruction and when it was safe to come out of the tub.
“I can’t believe you’re gonna miss the movie,” yelled Theresa. I was leaving her alone with all adults. She liked being with the adults anyway. “You’re such a baby.”
Baby, I thought. I had the guide, in black and white, right here. They don’t call it a tornado warning for no reason. There was a serious threat. Theresa had left the bathroom to join Joe, Michelle and Dan by the door. My mom was stuffing candy into her purse as she asked me one last time if I was really going to sit in the bathtub while they went to enjoy a movie.
“Yes. I am staying here. You guys are crazy.”
She left the bathroom and I heard the front door slam. I could hear thunder and lightening. I read and reread Travis Meyer’s Wicked Weather guide in the bathtub until I became bored. The weather had calmed down. I put the mattress back on my bed. I plugged back in my alarm clock. I survived my first tornado. I waited for my family to come back from the movies, secretly wishing Joe got caught up in the winds like the cows in Wizard of Oz. But, the tornado had passed our part of Tulsa this time. In fact, the Tulsa World the next day called it an F0 tornado, only causing some tree branches to fall.
