We had a tornado tear apart the elementary school 1/2 mile from where I live yesterday . Ever seen a tornado live?

  Nope, never. 

  I do not currently live in a tornado-prone area, but I was born and raised in one. My earliest memory of tornados is from when I was about 3 or 4 years old and a tornado warning was announced. As thick, heavy, drenching rainstorms battered the house and angry winds howled at the doors and windows begging for entrance, my mother gathered her brood, consisting of my two older siblings, me, and my younger sibling, and the 5 of us headed for the basement.
  If memory serves me correctly, I was kind of scared of the basement because to a young child, it was a) dark, b) its stairway was extremely wide, extremely long, c) it smelled funny, d) it had cobwebs, and that meant spiders, e) we never went down there, and most of all, f) that's where the monsters lived. However, none of that fear took place on this occasion, because my mother was leading the expedition, and she didn't exhibit any of my irrationally childish apprehension, so I gladly bounded down the stairs as part of the familial patrol.
  Truth be known, it was actually kind of exciting for the 3 lads, being my 2 brothers and myself. The collection of supplies we took with us added to the sense of adventure, and even though I can't remember all of them beyond a portable battery-operated radio, flashlights and candles, the main one that sticks in my mind is the serving-sized packets of chocolate pudding. I even remember either their actual product name or their jingle from television commercials: Shake-A-Puddin'.  (I think they had fruits or nuts or dual flavors in each cup that you were to shake up before opening to mix them together, hence the label name.)
  Anyway, during tornado-watch, instead of having to wait until after dinner to eat dessert, we got to eat pudding at some unheard-of afternoon hour such as 4 pm. It was the highlight of my young life, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, a memory etched in my brain lo these multiple decades later.
  A few hours after descending to Pudding Nirvana, the tornado warning was lifted without the funnel cloud having passed through our neighborhood. The troop assembled, gathered all gear, and ascended Long Creaky back to the Land of the Living.