May 8th, 1974 - I think I will tell you about the tornado. It all began when we had a playmate over called Jennifer Earley. She went in our house to play with us for a while when her Daddy called and said he was going to pick her up, but then he called again and told Jennifer to stay there because a tornado was coming.
Mom told us to get into the garage because that was the only safest place, because there was no glass. Well, we all got into teh garage and started singing hymns and praising God while Jennifer started crying because her bike was outside - and then all of a sudden the lights went out and you heard this terrible roaring noise, then you heard it chipping away the house and it came and you found yourself screaming under the rubble.
Almost everybody was buried and Mom and Dad couldn't find me until Mike stepped on my foot and when I screamed they knew I was in that spot, so they dug me out - that is, him (Dad) and Joe Earley, Jennifers Dad dug me out. Our car was a mess and we were glad it wasn't blown in on us. As I looked around I saw mom and dad crying, and I had never seen them cry, and so I thought it was a dream and I just couldn't believe it.
Well, Mom started to worry about live wires, so we went into the football field and we saw everybody crying and some were thanking God for sparing them and their family. Well, somebody wanted to take us to the hospital, and they took us to the car and you ought to see how that woman drove. She drove like a maniac to Miami Valley Hospital and they checked us and found that we were OK, only for bumps and bruises. Mom was worried about Dad and Mike.