During the years that I lived in the Little House, there were no weather satellites. There was no weather radar. We may have heard “weather forecasts” on the radio. There may have also been forecasts in the newspapers. But given the state of technology the forecasts didn’t improve a lot on whatever the Farmer’s Almanac said! So, there was concern, and actual diligence about weather. The old folks—well they seemed old to us—watched the sky, and they made the forecasts. They could read the signs—the cloud formations and make predictions a few hours, or even a day in advance. And they definitely knew when, as they said, it was “coming up a cloud.”
The country folks well knew that the wooden frame houses could not withstand a tornado. The word “cyclone” was used about as often as “tornado” back then. But whatever you called it, it was not good; it was a fearsome thing. So, many residences had a “storm pit” close by. Uncle Earl built a nice storm pit that you could get into from his back porch. It was partly underground, and had concrete block walls. We affectionately called it “the hole.” The weather usually came from the west, but the east side extended maybe two feet above the surface of the yard. He left a couple of openings on that side, so that if you were tall enough, you could look out. He left a sledge hammer in the storm pit, so that if the need arose, you could knock the concrete blocks from between the openings, and crawl out of there. We never had to do that.
We never had a storm pit of our own. We didn’t need one. Uncle Earl had one, and it was always close by. If Daddy decided it was “coming up a cloud,” we would “head for the hole.” From the Little House, we would head out across the branch, by the cow pen, and often Uncle Earls would meet us half way and carry us when we were small.
Aunt Willie and Uncle Raymond had a storm pit, as did Uncle R.V. and Uncle Buddy. Uncle Buddy’s wife, Aunt Runie, was terrified by bad weather. Their storm pit, during my Little House years, was out in fron of their house, in the edge of the big road. It was on the top of a hill, and at that point the banks on the side of the road were high. The storm pit was dug into the road bank. Timbers were place along the sides, and tin sheets nailed on to form a roof.
We never had a tornado directly in our community that I remember. In 1975, many years after the Little House years, hurricane Eloise came through. Uncle Bud and Aunt Runie, by then, were living in a little house on Uncle Earl’s place, between his house and the house where Aunt Ida and Uncle Willie had lived during our Little House years. Aunt Runie was trying to make it from that house to “the hole” at Uncle Earl’s house, had a heart attack and died. I suppose her fear of weather was fulfilled.
Before Uncle Earl built his storm pit, Uncle Willie had improvised one in what we called the “big ditch” just east of Uncle Earl’s house. The big ditch was a favorite play ground. It was deep enough we could slide down the sides to the bottom. But Uncle Willi covered the top end of the ditch with tin, and called in a storm pit. If it the storm included a flash flood, any occupant of his “storm pit” might have drowned!
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