Situations I have found myself in. Vol 1. Ed. 2

April 19, 2000

As a youth (that being someone aged junior of 20) living in Coffeyville, I often found myself leaving town to find entertainment. One spring evening, quad 15, a few others, and myself decided to take a jaunt to Pittsburg to a club for a night of dancing and drinking.
We left as storms were building on the horizon but, being young and invencible, we chose to ignore them.
By the time we got to Parsons, hail was falling and the rain had obliterated road visibility so we decided to pull into Pizza Hut to wait it out. No sooner had we walked in, and the sirens sounded. We were all quickly ushered with the few other patrons and staff into the walk-in freezer. After about 15 minutes a few of us free Kansas spirits tired of the wait and left the freezer to go outside and stare at the sky. I walked out into the rain while Brian stood under the canopy to light a cigarette. I was preoccupied with the downpour when Brian said, "I can't believe a train is coming through here in this weather."
No sooner had the words escaped his mouth than he recognized the sound for what it was, and drug me back inside, away from the approaching tornado.
Some time later, we decided to abandon our trip and head back to the 'ville and the safety of quad 15. All amusement of the evening was not lost. We danced in the rain at the dorms for a while and, after stealing dry clothes from Matt we played a rousing game of cards late into the night in the quad.
The next morning, the front page of every paper detailed the story of the tornado that wiped out downtown Parsons. I will always have the story of how I hid in the freezer at Pizza Hut from it.