We lived in Norman, Oklahoma from August 1998 until June 2005. I was on the faculty in the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. Norman Oklahoma is located in the heart of the infamous "Tornado Alley" area of the United States.
For our anniversary in 2001, Annette and I planned a candlelight dinner with a movie at home. We splurged and bought some fresh T-Bone steaks for dinner. We planned to put the kids to bed early and then have an enjoyable evening together.
We fed the kids and put them to bed around 7:30 p.m.
After all the kids were sleeping soundly, I cooked the steaks and Annette set the table. When everything was ready to eat, we turned out the lights, closed the blinds, and lit the candles.
Suddenly, the friendly neighborhood tornado siren started blaring! Of course, all of the kids woke up!
SIDE NOTE: The tornado siren was located about 500 ft from our house!
Tornado sirens blaring was a frequent and regular occurrence while we lived in Oklahoma. We had a well-established drill for tornado safety in our home. We gathered the kids into our interior bathroom and turned on the radio. While the kids huddled in the bathtub, Annette and I would listen to the emergency broadcast on the radio to determine where the tornado was located.
But the radio was playing the regular program of music and commentary instead of providing the tornado emergency coverage. We decided it must be a false alarm. After about 15 or 20 minutes, the tornado siren stopped blaring.
We put the kids back to bed, encouraged them to go back to sleep, and returned to our dinner (starting to get cold). As we finished eating dinner, the tornado siren blared again!
We repeated the tornado drill. But the radio had no tornado coverage. The siren turned off. The kids went back to bed. Annette and I started a movie.
SIDE NOTE: When we were first married, we were too poor to buy a TV and subscribe to cable. By the time of this story, we had purchased an all-in-one TV/VCR combo. However, we did not keep the TV as the entertainment center of our house. In fact, we stored the TV in its original box in a storage closet. We got it out each time we wanted to watch a movie and put it back after the movie was over.
About 60 - 75 minutes later...
Tornado siren.
Tornado drill.
No tornado.
Kids back to bed.
Return to the movie.
About 60 - 75 minutes later...
Tornado siren.
Tornado drill.
No tornado.
Kids back to bed.
This pattern repeated every 60 - 75 minutes or so for the rest of the night until about 7 or 8 the next morning. The only variation is we stopped enacting the tornado drill and invited the kids to get in our bed with us so we did not have to get up and go to their bedrooms when the siren blared.
The next day, we saw a work crew servicing and repairing the malfunctioning tornado siren.
This anniversary celebration is still one of our most memorable.
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