May 15, 1968

Memories of that EF4 tornado that hit Nettleton, Arkansas area is a memory that floods back into my mind, whenever it's even mentioned of a thunderstorm probability happening. I'm sure i am not the only one to survive a tornado that thinks like that. It hit around 10 p.m. My sister's and I had already gone to bed. I remember lying there listening to the thunder and watching the constant lightening. I heard my dad tell my Mom they should run some extra water as the storm might knock out the electricity. We had well water that was drawn up by an electrical pump. His next sentence was " Donna Jean (in our house anytime your first and middle name were used together you had better pay attention) grab the girls, that's a tornado. My dad grabbed my older sister Marsha and my mom grabbed my younger sister Debbie and I from our beds and took us to their bedroom. Dad had pulled the mattress off their bed, he held one end over us while mom held the other. One of them said "Where's Marsha"? We had been taught if any storm gets bad get under the bed. we'll that's where she was, nevermind she was under the springs. Their bottom mattress had no covering over it. it was just the bare springs. I'm not sure if my dad pulled her under the mattress or if she did herself, but we were all huddled there together during it. I remember the wind, thinking it sounded like it was shrieking and taking so long. Then pressure built up in my ears and I could hardly hear anything until a huge crash came from the frontroom and my ears popped and then dead silence.I think that's one of my regrets, not ever asking my dad how he had known that was a tornado. I don't ever recall his mentioning he had been in one before. There was still flashes of lightening and my dad was going through the house making sure we still had walls. He was looking through the windows and he said. The duplex they were building beside us was roofless now and the house behind us was gone. No electricity and a hole in the frontroom window. We found out the next morning that a post from the front porch was what put that hole in the window. When it broke it, the pressure in the house being relieved knocked our Parakeet and his cage across the room. The living room floor was covered in glass. Pieces of glass were even bigger than the hole in the window. It wasnt long before we started seeing the effects from the storm as the neighbors behind us brought their 2 daughter's, over to us as their son (my age, as we were in the same class at school) was being taken to the hospital, as the tornado had picked him up and flung him through a 6 ft. high chain link fence and threw him into the Nettleton High School football field that was right behind their house.. He had gashes all over his body. My cousin, David was dropped off as my uncle Fred had used his body to shield his family when it hit their house and he had bits of glass imbedded in him. They lived on the block behind us. I remember my mom praying outloud, thanking the Lord for sparing our family and friends. At first light we were srarting to see just how close it came to our house. We weren't allowed off the porch until they were sure all electrical lines were dead. I remember my dad saying " Watch where " as I am hellbent to get out on that porch and see the damage and one of my legs fell through a hole in the porch. He finished " as theres a hole in the porch from the post.". LOL What a look on his face, like he knew I would be the one to fall into it. It was just one leg in it but it sure scraped up my leg. Then I realized the porch roof was gone. It was just a flat slanted roof but once I got to the edge of the porch, there it was, laying up on top of the roof of the house. All the junk that was under the carport had been swept by the strong winds to the back fence. The roof of the duplex was laying in the school yard. The scool that was just across the side street next to us was completely destroyed. Just a lot of bricks and all of the library books strewn all over the school yard. We went over and I found me a cookbook for beginner cooking lessons. The only classroom left standing was my olders sister's classroom. Later we found out the high scool had been destroyed as well. Our front tree was a huge Pin Oak. The tornado had driven a straw through one of the branches with out tearing the plastic at all and another branch had a rubber coated electrical wire through it. After picking up the books I wanted I don't remember much else from that day other than my Uncle came home from the hospital and they took him to my Uncle J.D.'s house as Uncle Fred's house had been lifted and put back down on its foundation crooked. They would have to have that house torn down and rebuilt. Some teenagers that afternoon came running down the street hollering we have another Tornado on the way. Which naturally scared us kids. By then my dad was up on the roof, taking the porch roof apart, so he could get it off the house. He told my Mom to take us to Uncle J.D's house. He didn't see anything around us and he didn't want to come off the roof. So we walked down the block to his house. Thats the last thing I remember. Am sure my sisters remember more, but I dont think we have ever gotten together and discussed that day. A story done by the K8 news April 26.2012. https://www.kait8.com/story/17795369/what-would-happen-if-the-1968-jonesboro-tornado-happened-today/ Included an interview from my cousin and the Superintendent of Nettleton schools. ((( David Dudley, an 8-year-old boy at the time, remembers that night well. "He got us into the living room and piled on top of us. And I can remember looking up, he was on top of us. I saw the T.V. go across the room. The house was vibrating so bad the phone was ringing, if you can believe that." ))) Nettleton Schools take a direct hit. ((( Nettleton Superintendent, James Dunivan describes the district's devastation. "It did a lot of damage in Jonesboro and also to the Nettleton School District. We lost several buildings, had to do a lot of rebuilding…had a lot of school for some period of time after that even in portable buildings."))) As a side note.... I did use that cookbook. I made biscuits from one of it's recipes for our dinner one night and teasing me, my dad picked up one of those biscuits and threw it against the wall. He said, no hole in the wall guess they are ok to eat. LOL

BOOM !!!

Strolling down memory lane tonight. . . My 2nd marriage was a disaster...No more marriages for me. We lived down in the Southwest corner of Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains. No mosquitoes but those huge black flies. Ugh. They were too much to deal with. After a few years I was ready to move back to the Northeast corner of Arkansas. We moved into a camper at his parent's house until we could find an apartment. After being out with friends one night, we came home to find the heater's pilot light has gone out. It was hooked to a big propane tank outside. I reached down to shut the valve off so we could air the place out. It smelled like spoilt eggs. Before I could get the valve off, my ex had pulled out his lighter to give me light to see it and before I could say NO---BOOM--- I literally saw everything light up in a Bright color of Orange and watched the walls of that camper bowing out. The door got blown off its hinges. That is more than likey what saved us and that camper. When my ex husband turned around I couldn't help myself I busted out laughing. Both his eyebrows were gone and part of his mustache looked melted. I just couldn't help it everytime I thought of how he looked when he turned around I would bust out laughing. When daylight arrived my ex and his brother and dad inspected the camper. ALL the pop rivets had been blown out. His dad just shook his head and said he was shocked we made it through that blast. You would think I would have been upset. That BOOM was so loud everyone on the whole street came running out of their houses. Afterwards, I walked around laughing for 2 days. Why I thought that was funny, I have no idea. Probably just my way of dealing with that situation. Everyone looked at me like I had gone nuts. Everytime I think back on it now, all I can think of is what would have happened if that door hadn't blown off. I was very thankful I was standing behind him when it blew up. Later I found out, they add that smell to the gas so it warns people that there is gas present. Terror and absurdity all tangled together. That's not the first time I coould have died. I'll have to stroll down memory lane again soon. I seriously wonder was I a cat in a past life. If so I've used up 4 or 5 of those 9 lives they say cats have 🙃

Summer Heat

I remember the first year the heat index in Jonesboro Arkansas hit 113°. My Dad took a picture of it on the T.V. My Greatgrandma Sharpe would tell me of the times the heat would be so oppresive that they would sleep outside in the breezeway of the house. My allergies got so bad one summer, that all I could do was constantly sneeze. I think it kept my parents awake as they took me to the family Dr. He suggested a window air conditioner unit, to filter out the pollen that was causing all the sneezing. I felt like I was in heaven, no sneezing and I was comfortably cool. Much better than the breeze from the window created by the attic fan we had.

Splish, Splash

Summer rain, nothing else quite feels like it. The smell of the fresh rain. Memories of rushing outdoors, splashing in the puddles in our barefeet. We had a ditch that was about 3 foot deep that ran along the front of our yard. When it rained a lot it would fill up. If it didn't fill up but half way we would jump into it, with our tenny shoes on as people would throw their soda bottles out of their cars and sometimes they would bust. Very rare you see a ditch along a house now as they all have pipes underground for the water to move through. Our family home had no Air Conditioning, we had an attic fan and window fans. Mom would shoosh us outside after breakfast so she could get her housework done. The house was hot during the day so it was better to just play outside. We used the waterhose to cool off with. There was always plenty of kids to play with. I remember before we moved to Arkansas we lived in Rockford, Illinois. There was 2 boys next door I did not like playing with or rather I did not like them playing on our swingset. One time they got on the teeter totter part of it and I rammed my head into the underpart of one of the seats to stop it. We wound up in the Doctors office. I don't remember if i got stitches but I do remember that huge lollipop he gave me. Now I think back on it. When I repeated that action again and the 2nd time I did get stitches. Was it all because I wanted another of those big lollipops? Our Dad removed the teeter totter. When we moved from Illinois to Arkansas, I remember the swingset got put up without the teeter totter on it. Years later Dad built a shed with a leanto carport on it. He paved the driveway, even under the carport. Everytime I stepped up into that shed, I could look down and a corner of that yellow teeter totter seat stuck out from where it had been buried underneath that asphalt.

Traveling

Stacey and Samantha

Just got back from a weekend trip to Arkansas. Tony and I got down there in time to get right in the middle of the Winter Storm that hit the South.

We had a slow drive coming back out of Arkansas in all that mess, but once we reached the Missouri line the roads improved.

Am glad to be back home where there is no snow...