By Sue Frissell – Wainwright, Alta.
Good advice came from my grandpa back in the early 1940s, while we were living in the country near Windsor, Ontario.
One summer afternoon had been very sultry, the kind where the hours seem to hang heavy in anticipation of something about to happen. There was no breeze, just silence, except for the buzz of an odd bee or pesky fly. This was the ‘calm before the storm’.
Our grandparents owned a small fruit farm in their senior years and provided fruit and vegetables for sale at roadside stands. They looked after me and my younger brother while our parents worked. I was seven years old.
Suddenly, our grandparents summoned us and grandpa asked us to look into the distance toward Windsor. He asked if we could see anything different. Sure enough, we could! We spotted what we thought was smoke rising in the distance. Grandpa spoke slow and softly so as not to alarm us, saying: “No, it’s not smoke – that’s a tornado.”
Told to look carefully
We had never heard of a tornado. He explained that it was a funnel-like storm and we must look at it very carefully with to see whether we could see it move. He said that if we could see it moving, we’d probably be alright. However, if we couldn’t see it move, we’d have to seek safety in a hurry, because that meant it was coming straight toward us.
We studied it closely for a few moments and told grandpa, “yes, we can see it moving slowly.” The funnel cloud was moving slowly. It seemed to be pulling up dust, twigs, and shingles as it travelled. Actually moving upward were trees and buildings!
A short time later, the sky grew very dark. A terrible thunderstorm followed that added to the disaster and disrupted power for three days. Because of downed communication lines, my parents were unable to travel home or learn of the fate of their family. They had to wait until the next day to hear that we were all safe.
Ran for their lives
The owner of a fruit stand on Huron Line had just left our place with a truckload of produce, but he was never given the opportunity to sell it. Barely reaching his home, he grabbed his wife and they ran for their lives to the deep highway ditch. They lay flat as the winds almost pulled them into the funnel.
Their home, truck, fruit stand, and many other buildings were gone – destroyed by the powerful tornado. Other homes and buildings in the area were also lost.
I’ve never forgotten grandpa’s advice that day: If you cannot see a funnel cloud moving to the right or left, you’d better scramble to safety because it may be coming straight toward you.
