Twister

Last week I wrote about the horrible tornado that destroyed several parts of Moore, Shawnee and New Castle here in Oklahoma and talked about how I was proud to be an Oklahoman. Today, I figured I would write about when I first moved to Oklahoma and my first tornado experience and why at times I effing hate living here.

My dad is a retired Army Master Sergeant (trust me guys, he’s not as scary as that sounds) and we did not move to Oklahoma by choice. Uncle Sam sent us here after spending 10 wonderful years in Germany and the only thing that I knew about Oklahoma was that Hanson was from Tulsa (I totes fan girled about that and then sad faced when I found out how far away that is from Lawton) and the movie Twister was about a team of storm chasers tracking down tornados in Oklahoma. Needless to say, I was slightly scared of the move considering the scene with the flying cows.

                                                                  

This scene

Not this scene. Although, I still want to know where my damn Hogwarts letter is.

The road trip journey from Virginia to Oklahoma was pretty boring and that was probably because I slept the entire time. Well, there was that incident when we stopped at a hotel for the day and while my mom and brother were out getting food my dad was playing with the walkie talkie. The parental units used walkie talkies as a way to communicate during the drive since we took two cars. Some poor woman was on a cell phone near by and dad some how got on her frequency (this was back in the day when cell phones were just becoming popular and you could accidently hear someone else’s phone call, ugh I’m old). She was talking to, I’m guessing, her family about what to order for dinner when dad jumped into the conversation.

Dad- “Um, hello? Can you please get me some chocolate chip cookies?”

Confused woman- “What? Did you want cookies?”

Dad- “Yes, please. I would like some chocolate chip cookies.”

Confused woman- “Who is this?”

Fast forward to a few days later and my dad and I were heading to Wal-Mart (my first time ever) when we were sitting at a red light. Across the street was one of those digital billboards that tells you the time and temperature. Here’s what I saw:

11 P.M. and 113 F

WELCOME TO THE PITS OF SATAN!

Ok, it didn’t say “welcome to the pits of Satan,” but it was might as well have. I turned to my dad and calmly asked, “where did you bring me?!” About a year later was our first tornado experience. We had just moved into our new house and my dad (aka Bob Villa) had just finished building and putting up a tall, wood fence around the backyard. I helped and by helped I mean I walked outside, said it looked good and went back to watching T.V.

The clouds started turning that grey/green color and my mom had the local news on. After the weather man said everyone should probably take shelter in a closet or bathroom (and if your in the bathroom drag a mattress in there with you to cover yourself from debris) mom and I were watching the storm from the big bay window in the living room while dad was keeping watch through the blinds that faced the backyard. At first I couldn’t figure out why he was watching the storm from the back of the house, all the action was happening out front. Then I heard him muttering and swearing under his breath. He was kind of like the dad from A Christmas Story that was swearing up a storm in the basement while he was trying to fix the furnace.

                                                                       

I KNOW! It's not the dad but this was the closet I could find...meh. Suck it.

                                                                        

I stumbled upon this one in my great search for the dad from A Christmas Story. I miss Christmas time.

Fortunately, we didn’t get hit with an actual tornado. According to the weather man we were hit with the back draft of the tornado that demolished a lot of Oklahoma City. The urban legend around town is that Lawton sits in the middle of a valley and that’s why it seems like tornados just kind of skip over this town. That’s totally fine with me. Once the storm had cleared up I found out why dad had been keeping guard at the back side of the house and muttering like a mad man. He forgot to cement the fence to the ground so when the storm hit the winds pushed the fence over. Luckily for my dad it all knocked over in one piece.

                                                                       

Don't ask. Just enjoy.