Full Transcript for Tornado

amassed quite a little menagerie of little bone china animals. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:51.360 And my conveying item was a pillowcase. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:03:03.120 So anything that could fit in my pillowcase, I was happy about because that I was pretty sure I would be able to go into a fallout shelter with just a pillowcase full of my treasures. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:17.199 I also was very enamored with the little kittle dolls that were popular during my uh tornado drill seasons, and they fit literally quite nicely into my pillowcase escape bag. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:19.120 And so, yes, I did. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:30.719 I had many afternoons, especially during the summer, where I would pretend I'd heard a tornado was coming and scooped all my earthly, worldly possessions into my pillowcase. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:37.520 At that time, then we did have a basement, so I could run down to the basement in the case that there was a tornado. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.879 I didn't ever have to go to the fallout shelter to see if I would be able to go into it. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:53.199 I do remember when I was about eight years old, that would have been about 1965 or so, there was going out to my grandma and grandpa Motzenbachers who lived in Parker. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:03.199 We would drive on Parker Road and go by um the Emerald Isle, well, it was a Bates shop, convenience store right there by Cherry Creek. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:09.439 And in that area across on the other side of the road, we drove by and watched a house being built. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:13.680 And it was, in my memory, kind of like a little ranch style house. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:17.439 When we drove by, we could see the house as it was being built. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:24.240 Then for a short amount of time, when we drove by, we saw it after it was completely built and the people were living in it. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:31.040 And then the tornado came, and I remember first time we drove by, that house was basically no longer there. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:40.240 Now, you know, when you're a kid and you're hearing bits and pieces of adult conversations and you can't ask for clarification because you really aren't supposed to be listening at all. 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:42.560 I might not totally have this correct. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:53.040 But in my child memory, I think I heard that the family went into the bathroom and stayed while the tornado was active. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:05:01.519 And when they came out, they were still alive, and the only thing that was basically still standing was the bathroom area. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:13.680 And I do remember not knowing that it was the bathroom area, but I do remember you could see into the inside of the house because the fronts and a good chunk of the sides were completely gone. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:30.959 So that always stuck with me, and it still is a memory because when they're talking about tornadoes to this very day and telling people where they should go, bathrooms are frequently cited as a safe place to go if you don't have uh, for instance, a basement. 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:34.000 So that was what I remember in Colorado. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:42.079 Moving to Wisconsin, there were frequent tornado warnings and advisements, watches and warnings, and I never get them right. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:43.279 I think I got it right now. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:54.399 I think a watch is that the climate is possible for a tornado, and a warning is a tornado has been sighted, and you must find immediate shelter. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:59.680 And in 1984, the Barnabelle tornado hit Wisconsin. 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:03.759 And I remember that night, uh, I believe it was in June. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:05.839 I was a few months pregnant. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:09.279 My husband came home, he had been out with his friend. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:15.199 He came home and woke me up and said, We gotta go down to the basement because the tornado is coming. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:19.519 And I was not totally awake, and I just I wasn't having it. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:21.600 I didn't want to go down into that basement. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:23.759 And I said, Well, okay. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:25.439 But I didn't. 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:30.480 I did not go down into that basement because there were things in the basement I did not like to see. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:35.360 So there might be a tornado, but I knew there were things in the basement, so we'll leave it there. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:42.000 But the next morning I woke up and went out, and I couldn't believe what had happened. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:07:02.720 That terrible tornado in Barnabelle that caused terrible damage and loss of life had enough power to come up diagonally through just side of where we lived and on up to Marcusan, which is a town to the north of us, by I'll say 15-20 miles, where it dissipated. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:19.360 And it was awful the damage that was incurred, and yet most of the damage, the way the tornado tracked, was done in woodsy areas and not so much in the farm buildings and houses that were out there in that trail. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:22.560 And thankfully, we were one of them that were spared. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:37.680 But we could clearly see from our back porch that the farmhouse that we could see every day pretty clearly from our vantage point, the roof, if I remember correctly, of the barn was gone and they had incurred quite a bit of damage. 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:48.800 And different places going up towards Markazan had like trees that had toppled onto their houses and stuff that was in the way, machinery and different things. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:08:09.360 And I remember a few weeks after the tornado had gone by that one of the newspapers had acknowledged that there was a the newspaper acknowledged that there had been a wallet that was found out in a lawn

or field and it belonged to somebody in Barneveld. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.279 And I always remembered how amazing that was to me. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:29.519 Through the years of tragic tornado damaging moments all over the United States and reading the articles, it was always amazing to me how violent that tornado could be and how it could miss one house and take ten. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:36.159 It could put a straw, a piece of straw, drive it into the back of a cow. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:47.759 It is just amazing to me the strength of nature, and that I guess if we're going, we're going because it is very powerful to deal with the natural occurrences. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:52.320 I am at this point spared from uh any tornadoes. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.200 I did experience straight line winds. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:09:04.960 Again, when I was pregnant with Olivia, I was a few months pregnant, and we had the straight line winds came through, and I had a pine tree in my front yard. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:11.519 And for whatever reason, the pine tree was not spared, but it did not hit the building. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:15.519 It did not hit the building next door, and it did not land on my vehicle. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:18.559 It was inches from it, but it didn't hit on my vehicle. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:36.399 I remember the terrible toll it took on our trees in our village and how quickly the landscape changed and our visuals that we took for granted until they were gone, how quickly they disappeared. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:49.039 But then the other thing that was stark to me was how quickly our minds adjusted to the new views, and you had to work really hard to remember what might have been there before the straight line winds came. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:51.120 Okay, I think I'll leave it there. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:55.759 I do want to put a little disclaimer on the end of this episode. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:01.279 I am enjoying the podcast composition and presenting them immensely. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.879 I'm enjoying that quite a bit. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:10.240 The one thing I did not expect to encounter was how frequently I am brought to tears. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:13.840 I lived through the experiences that I convey to you. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:17.039 I have mentioned them numerous times through the years. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:23.919 But for some reason, when I'm doing this podcast and reflecting, it's hard to not be affected. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:29.440 And I have to start and stop quite a few times to collect myself to continue. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:34.879 I am so thankful to all of you watching, or not watching, but listening. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:36.960 I appreciate that you're listening. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:44.559 And the only other disclaimer in here is that for some reason I have gotten, as I've gotten older, terrible hay fever. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:46.879 So I have to start and stop because of that. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:55.919 So between my emotional moments and my hay fever, it's an aspect to my podcast I did not see coming. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:05.440 I hope that you've enjoyed listening to them, and I look forward to sharing more of my memories, and I hope you return to share them with me. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.960 So this is Rockin' Robin from my nest to your nest.