StoryCorps in Oklahoma: "A Stormy Relationship" (ENCORE) (Sep 23, 2011)

Michael Cantwell: "Tell us a little about the tornado hair. I find it fascinating myself since I live in Norman, Oklahoma.”

Dana Cantwell: "My tornado hair? Growing up in Albuquerque, I just thought everybody’s hair was good, until I moved to Omaha with my first husband. There you have that humidity, which I’d never encountered until then. The day of May 7, 1975, my hair was so flat. I couldn't make it do anything, and we had that huge tornado go through Omaha, Nebraska. So I claim that was my tornado hair.”

MC: "It was the worst tornado, in terms of ‘cost, in United States history at the time.”

DC: "My Ford Pinto was completely destroyed." 

MC: “When you went to the basement not having any experience with tornados in the past…”

DC: “Oh yeah, that's true! I’d never been in a tornado, so they said, 'Go to the basement!' I left my purse and Diet Mountain Dew on my desk, and we went downstairs, and they said, 'We got hit.' 'How do you know we got hit?' 'All these leaves came down.' So we went upstairs and there was my Mountain Dew, my purse, and a big stick sticking in my seat.”

MC: "A big two-by-four sticking through your seat where you were sitting just before.” 

DC: "All of the Master Card slips were all over the place. I had my first tornado experience, and my first experience with a tornado hair, as we well know."

MC: "We went and took a tour during ‘National Weather Week,’ and you mentioned the 1975 tornado to the meteorologist there. He broke it down in great detail for you.”

DC: "I guess if you're a meteorologist it was a fascinating storm. The next time it happened was May 3, 1999, when I was married to you. And I said, ‘My God, look! I have my tornado hair just like when I lived in Omaha.’ And, by golly, we had the worst tornado ever didn't we?"

MC: "Yes we did." 

DC: "And then last spring, we had that one when I was getting my haircut, and I remember calling you saying, 'Come get the car, I don't want it to get it ruined.'"

MC: "It is all about the hair. You were at the beauty salon.”

DC: “Yeah. I remember looking out the window after you left saying 'Wow! Look at that! Those are rotating wall clouds, I swear.' And they had all those windows. And I said, ‘Where are we going to go if a tornado hits here?’ Of course, everybody said, ‘No! A tornado never hits Norman!’ I said, ‘OK. It's going to be really glassy if it hits.’ And it did hit, but it was south of us about a half a mile?"

MC: "There were two EF4 tornados."

DC: "Yeah. I think we have this 'weather love' or something?”

Produced for KGOU by Jim Johnson (with assistance from Patrick Roberts), with interviews recorded by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording and collecting stories of everyday people. The Senior Producer for StoryCorps is Michael Garofalo.