Cute tales of tornadoes

A couple of days ago, tornadoes caused major damage to Kansas University and other parts of Lawrence, Kansas. So my mom and I reminisced about this story:

When I was in fourth grade, my family moved to Lawrence, Kansas. My dad had a one year position as the "professional-in-residence" at the KU School of Journalism.
One spring evening, my parents were at some kind of university function, and my brother had some event at our elementary school, which was only a couple of blocks away. So I was home alone, but my brother was supposed to be home soon.

I was watching t.v., and a tornado warning came on. I looked outside, and the sky was the green that it turns before a tornado. I got pretty scared, being 9 years old. I had grown up in Washington, so I had no experience with tornadoes. Then the tornado sirens went off. I no longer wanted to be alone at home, but as it turns out, my brother could not come home because everyone at the school was moved to the center of the building. And my parents, at their university dinner, were moved to the basement of that building and not allowed to use the phone.


I decided that I did not want to be alone and that I would go down the street to a neighbor's house. I called them, and they told me to hurry up.

Now this story is getting scary, I realize, but now it will take a turn for the precious. This might be the cutest thing you've ever heard . . .

My most prized possession was my stuffed animal collection. My cousin and I both collected them. They all had names, family trees, jobs, etc. Anyway, I knew that if you are home during a tornado, you are supposed to go the southwest corner of your basement. They say that is the safest place to be if you don't have a shelter. So before I left with my dog Chewy to go to the neighbors, I gathered up all of my stuffed animals in a couple laundry baskets and put them in the southwest corner of our basement.

It turned out that the tornadoes hit Topeka instead of Lawrence, but my animals would have been safe.