Milford chronicle., 1958-06-20
28O6 McAlister
Topeka, Kansas
June 13, 1858

June 13, 1858
Dear Friends:
If yesterday had been Friday.
the 18th, l wouldn't have been a bit
surprised at everything that TOOK
place. What day!
Hayes was scheduled TO fly with
a student, take off time 1900 (6 p.
m. civilian time). He left the house
about one o'clock, wished Lynne
Happy Camping" and was gone.
Then it was time to get Lynne
ready for her four days and three
nights at Camp Daisy Hindman, is
miles west of town, outside of Do
yer. Kansas. Hayes had borrowed
a sleeping bag from Uncle Sam
for Lynne to use and it also served
as her suit case since she rolled
most of her clothers up in the bag.
BY two we were in front of Lynne's
scout leaders home ready to load
the rest of the bedrolls. suit cases,
sleeping bags and excited little
scouts. BY 2:30 we were parked
in front of the scout lodge. There
we were told that only one car
could traverse the steep ride down
to the girls isolated camping site.
1t was decided that one station
wagon would be loaded with the
supplies and the rest of us could
walk
| didn't realize how far away
Lynne's camp was, nor how far
down this steep ravine it would
be. Half way I yelled to Lynne up
ahead that / would see her on Sun
day and good bye for now" This
of course would not do and Lynne
insisted that Dawn and continue
on to the camp. AS soon as we ar
rived at the camp site it began to
rain. This didn't dismay any of
the II little girls one tiny bit. They
began assembling in their assigned
tents, spraying their coat for bugs,
making their beds and getting their
possessions put where they wanted
them. Another car from another
camp site passed the girls camp
and / thought this was our (Dawn's S
and mine) opportunity to leave be-
fore the storm and also a good
chance to skip that trek up the
hill. Lynne hardly knew we had
left she was so busy enjoying her
first overnight camping trip.
Earlier in the afternoon the tele-
vision and radio had reported poss
ible tornadoes III our area and to
be on the alert for such a happen
ing. When / left camp | turned on
the radio in the car and we rushed
home, Is miles. In case of tor
nado the scouts were going to lay
in a ravine for protection. There
were about SO girls that night at
the scout camp.
Dawn and l had planned to see
a movie at 500 and we headed for
downtown Topeka. / parked the
car in a large. building which was
for parking cars. 1t has five tiers
of concrete and steel over head.
We rushed to our favorite shop
ping store in town and | went
straight to a telephone and called
base operations at Forbes. Since
Hayes was scheduled to take off In
an hour | wanted to know some
thing about him and / wanted to
be sure he knew / was back in
town. He seemed real glad to hear
from me and asked if Lynne, was
safe in camp. Then he said we
were iE the middle of Black Area
and that he thought it would be
wise if Dawn and | hurried home
and took refuge in a neighbor's
cellar. We only have crawl
space under our home. l told him
| would hurry home (take me about
30 minutes) and / would call him
when I had arrived there.
Dawn and l quickly got into our
car and left the parking lot and
headed southwest of town. Seems
bad direction to head for, but
that is the area in which our home
is located. Almost all tornadoes
come from the eastwest.
We had planned to eat at Drive
In for dinner and | had nothing in
the house to eat and wondered If
I should risk taking few min
Utes in the grocery store to stock
up. All | could think of was the
people killed in grocery store at
Ruskin Heights, Missouri, May the
10Th last year. (This was the tor
nado that took all of Tom and
Doris Benefits possession--every-.
thing they had. | continually
thought of warnings they had told
us about.)
did rush into the grocery store
for some food and when we ran to
the car we were drenched with
rain. l looked at my gas meter
and it registered empty. So many
.ncidentals play such a vital. part
when you're racing for what might
mean your life. apologized to the
gas station attendant and asked
aim to give me enough gas to get
home. | thought then / was really
IN my way and remembered two
stop lights / would have to clear
before there would be smooth sail
ng. | kept the radio going and 1T
warned that the weather cars sta
Toned southwest of town were in
errific thuhder storm and they
we're watching the cloud for the
tunnels that had been witnessed
arther southwest. One stop light
ct me through on green light,