[Muncle]

Growing up in Kansas City, I witnessed the destruction from an awful lot of twisters in my youth. It was amazing to see the capricious nature of the storm --- drop down and take one house (literally take it) from a group of homes and do no damage at all to the others, whip the entire back wall off a house and leave knick knacks on an opposite wall untouched, pick up a car and leave it undamaged a block away, except it's in a tree. And of course the storms that would obliterate major sections of cities and towns, destroying and killing all in its path. One reaction could have been fear or even terror, hiding at the mere mention of the word tornado. However, the reaction I had to these experiences was to develop a certain fatalism. I always thought hurricane or fires or earthquakes or floods or blizzards were potentially horrendous because they could cause massive injury and great damage. But I didn't have the same fear of tornadoes because I always felt if they hit you, you died. If they missed, nothing happened.

Sounds simplistic, even childish, in retrospect. But remember, we were the children of the 'duck and cover" generation. We grew up with Howdy Doody, but we also assumed there would be an atomic war fairly soon so we probably wouldn't live that long anyway.

Maybe that's what's wrong with me :dontknow: