Mama, We're Not in Texas Anymore

With news of the horrifying tornado in Missouri today, I thought of a special mother/son bonding moment that Betty and I had.

It was May of my senior year in high school.   As you can imagine, I was very busy. Choir concerts, the spring musical, prom, banquets, and oh yeah, school.  It was time for our annual spring band trip to Corpus Christi. It was also time for my senior term paper to be due.  As any perfect student (as I was) would, I planned ahead and put off writing my senior term paper until the night before it was to be turned in. I pulled an all-nighter and barely, BARELY got it finished and turned in.  That next day (after the all-nighter) we were leaving on our band trip. 

Now Betty had decided that since it was my senior year in high school she would take off work and chaperone EVERY trip I went on that year. Wasn't that sweet? NO. Looking back now that she is gone, it was sweet and pretty special. Not all parents would do that. But as an 18 year old boy who liked to have a little fun every once in a while, it was not cool. Especially since everyone loved her and thought she was so funny and interesting.  I remember one of my friends saying to me: "I wish I had your mother".  I said something snarky like, "TAKE HER!".

On that day in May the weather turned bad. They decided that we should try to leave early to avoid the weather. So, we loaded the greyhound bus we had chartered.  I was so tired that I barely got in my seat and promptly fell asleep before the rest of the bus was loaded. I was out...in an all-nighter coma.  About an hour or so later I groggily woke up. There was no one on the bus. I thought...wow, I  must have slept the whole trip!  I looked outside the window to the left and much to my surprise I saw our high school parking lot. To the right was the band rehearsal hall. I ran off the bus into the band hall and there were my bandmates in the big room... some were playing cards, some were sleeping on the floor, some were doing homework. I was totally confused. I asked one of my friends what they were doing in there.  He said, "There was a tornado. They put us in here to keep us safe."  I asked if he had seen my Mom.  He said that she was probably in the director's office.  So I went in there. There she was telling some story to the band director and another parent.
"What is going on?", I said. "What do you mean?", she said.  I said, "DID NO ONE THINK TO WAKE ME UP AND GET ME OFF THE BUS DURING THE TORNADO?" "Oh", she said, "I thought you were you in there with your friends".  "No", I said. "I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!".  "Oh Kevin Lynn, stop being so dramatic", she said with her eyes rolled.

We eventually went on the trip and I did not speak to her.  She did not care. She had plenty others to tell her stories to.

What was Betty's advice for weathering a tornado?  Get in the hall closet with your telephone and a hammer. "Just in case some hoodlums try to loot - hit 'em over the head and call the police."