Put on the Brakes!

     On a Sunday afternoon in April 8, 1979, a big, bad tornado, scaled as F3, approached Camden. Mother with her running-around buddy and next-door neighbor Lou Rushing were driving home from the El Dorado area. The afternoon had begun well enough.
     They had been stomping around in cemeteries around the Mt. Holly area in search of long-dead relatives such as James Jefferson Tooke, father of Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon.
      Clouds gathered; Mother hated storms.
     

She and her brother Gordon had survived the big Methodist Church-Court House Tornado of 1931 which caused catastrophic damage to those two structures. The family home was located right across the street and sustained limited damage.
       Nonetheless, she believed at least one future funnel had her name on it. She and Lou decided to drive home right away.
     They decided, in fact, to speed home.
      As they drove, winds increased, darkness encroached, rain poured and Mother sped on, white-knuckled.
     When the wind picked up and the sky turned green, when the hail began, she made an important decision. Coming into the Fairview area, south of Camden, she saw a metal, unoccupied, detached carport. What the heck, she was not going to be blown away or have her car ruined by hail. She pulled under that carport.
     The wind roared, torrents of rain beat upon the metal roof, lightning, and all other components of a horrible storm raged, The F3 tornado  was in the process of skipping, dipping, destroying 13.5 million dollars in property. The tornado was also deciding if it wanted to take on Margaret Dansby and Lou Rushing.
     When the biggest gusts of wind came, Mother pressed on the brakes as hard as she could and as the car shook, the car's tires gripped the gravel and dirt with the same fierceness that Mother held the wheel.
     And that, dear friends,is why she and Lou were not blown away.

"Cow!" - said Helen Hunt in the movie TWISTER.