Storm cellars & Bad Clouds

If there is ever a bad storm cloud brewing on the horizon, It has my undivided attention. I hold a very heavy respect for storms and what damage they can do. In the old days most everyone had a storm cellar and it was always near the house, believe me when a bad storm hit you didn't want to go walking half of a mile to the cellar. People didn't call them storms as much as they were referred to as "bad clouds". The cellars were just dug by hand and most would be 6 feet deep or so, cross ties or some sort of timber would be the ceiling then of course the dirt piled on top of that. I remember our cellar door had a rope hanging down on the inside and while we where inside of the cellar during a bad cloud Daddy would sit on the bottom step and hold on to the rope to keep the door from blowing open. Many times I remember the winds being so strong he would brace his feet across the steps and hold on with both hands. Pretty scary, huh?? Mom would store her canned vegetables down in the cellar, there was a lantern down there & maybe a chair or 2. As we would be heading out the door for the cellar Mom would grab a couple of quilts for us to use as pallets.I remember one time we had gone to the cellar and she threw the quilts down on the floor before Daddy got the lantern lit--we were laying there- think it was Mickey,Mike ,Bev and myself on the quilt and Mike (he was very young)told Mom that something was wiggling under his back...I assure you a bolt of lighting couldn't have struck any of us we were moving sooo fast clearing away from the quilt. Unfortunately in a small cellar you just can't go very far--Daddy let go of the door & jerked the quilt up with one hand and used the old shovel he kept down there to club the BIG RATTLESNAKE to death. It was quite exciting, Mom hollering for Daddy to be careful,yelling for us to stay out of the way (HA, no problem there) the kids crying, the ole snake doing his rattling number VERY loud--a tornado could been on top of us and we wouldn't have heard it!! We spent many a night in our old storm cellar "riding out" bad clouds, and not one good memory do I have of those good ole days. First of all its just plain spooky being under the ground, BUT there was a time that many of us would have kissed the dirt floor of a cellar if we could have only been in one. You want to hear about a tornado??Well I have a tale for you!!Tomorrow--