| |
In
the midst of a recent tornado outbreak, an oldtimer called and asked if I remembered
storm cellars.
“Yep,” I said, “I not only remember them, my grandfather
had one and put it to good use when he felt a tornado was coming his way.”
However
my granddad, Gus Milligan, who owned a farm south of Slocum
in Anderson County, didn’t call them tornadoes, but “cyclones.”
Storm
cellars were cave-like resting places which were usually built on the side of
a hill or in an embankment near a road. They were usually found in rural areas,
mostly around farms. People who lived in communities or cities escaped to sturdy
buildings when a cyclone approached.
Some storm cellars are still being
used. If you drive across northern
Texas, particularly in the counties south of Oklahoma, you’ll likely find
storm cellars in dozens of small communities. Some are big enough to house several
families. |
 |
While
driving around East Texas a few months
ago, we passed a storm cellar that had been reenforced with concrete and had a
heavy door with a lock. I suppose the cellar was kept locked to keep children
from playing inside.
During the seasons when cyclones were less likely,
farm mothers often stored their jams and jellies in the storm cellars, presumably
because they were cool inside and offered more protection than a kitchen cabinet.
Remember, this was before refrigerators became available in home kitchens.
There
was one disadvantage to storm cellars. They were often occupied by spiders, snakes
and an occasional raccoon. If Gus Milligan saw black clouds approaching the Slocum
area, he went down into the cellar, armed with a big wooden stick and sometimes
a gun, and chased out the unwanted occupants. On
sunny days, if he approached his storm cellar and saw kids playing inside, he
would slam the doors closed and wait for the kids to start hollering. A
cousin and I were playing inside his cellar one afternoon when he slammed the
doors, trapping us with the spiders and a rabbit who had taken up residence in
the dirt hole. After that, we had deep reservations about entering the storm cellar,
even when the storm clouds rolled our way.
©
Bob Bowman
November 6, 2011 Column
More
Bob Bowman's East Texas >
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
More
People
| Texas Buildings |
About Texas Architecture
| Columns | | |
