Baby-snatching tornadoes and altered art–no really

Today the Robin’s Nest is featuring Part Two of the tutorial of Behind the Curtain–a Steampunk Homage to Oz.

I’m proud of this shadowbox and encourage you to check it out. You can also read how it led to my memory of baby-snatching tornadoes.

I feel a little traumatized

You see, I felt I needed to explain over at the Robin’s Nest why I don’t really like the Wizard of Oz. That led me to explain my family’s long-running joke about how they forgot me during a tornado.

When tornado sirens sounded, my family retreated to the safety of the basement. Only then did they ask one another, “Do you have Betsy?”

It turns out no one had Betsy. There I was, a small infant lying helplessly in my crib as a tornado destroyed homes and lives.Thankfully, my family remembered me moments after they reached the basement and went back upstairs to retrieve me from the crib.

Ok, I admit it. While writing this post, I thought I was hamming up the severity of the storm up for the sake of entertainment. That is until I decided to do a little research.

It turns out there was a “swarm” of SIX, YES SIX!!!,  tornadoes, four of which were F4s (including the one that almost destroyed Baby Betsy) that fateful day.

Did I mention I feel a little traumatized?

Here is a picture of the actual F4 tornado when is was about a half mile from where sweet, innocent and helpless me lay abandoned in my crib.

I hereby decree that my dislike for the Wizard of Oz is entirely legitimate.