Remembering a Tornado
The tornado that hit Washington, Illinois was truly devastating. You see pictures and you're amazed that anyone can survive something like that. Obviously our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of that community.
Whenever there's a big tornado, whether it's yesterday or ones in Kansas, Missouri or Oklahoma, they always remind me of the day one touched down on my school almost 50 years ago.
It was late May 1965. I was in 7th grade at Old Orchard Junior High School, in Skokie, Illinois.
Back then they combined Language Arts and Social Studies into one class. They called it LA/SS and that was the class I was in when this occurred.
Everything was normal. My class was preparing to take a test. It was a very dark day but no one was expecting anything. Then out of nowhere, came a boom. As you looked outside, you could see a couple of books flying out the window. Next you could see the dark tar from the roof flying over the side of the building. OOJH had been hit by a tornado.
This is what the front of the building looked like. You can see pieces of the roof on the ground. A couple of cars had been damaged. You can see how the flagpole is bent. The flag flying proudly from the top.
After the tornado had ended, and years later some people are calling it a microburst, we were sent to sit down in the hallways. It was a little late but back then no one knew any better. In 1965, there obviously wasn't the technology there is today. If this were to happen today, they would have had us out of there before any of this took place.
Luckily, no one was hurt. After a while, everyone was sent home. I recall school being closed for one day. Others say it was longer. Either way school was closed so they could clean up.
People who were there will never forget and it's still regularly talked about to this day.
For me it was every kids dream come true. A test being cancelled due to weather.