First Wednesday of the Month

Tornado Season

Here is a thing Midwesterners know.   Sometime in the middle of the day, often the middle of a sunny day, maybe right after lunch, the sirens will sound.  Tornado sirens.  It’s right after lunch, the sun is shining – it can’t be anything to worry about, on thinks.  Then, remembers.  Oh of course, it’s one o’clock, it’s Wednesday, it’s the first Wednesday of the month. 

On a college campus, where students may be arriving in the fall from all sides of the country, or of the world, there might be a small panic.  Until a Midwesterner explains to these new foreigners that the sirens are always tested, in every small town in the Midwest, on the first Wednesday of the month at one o’clock.   Then they know, too, and forever after, once a month, will feel that same startle, then will check the sunny sky, check their watch, and relax, maybe smiling at themselves and at their new knowledge.  Simple.  One o’clock first Wednesday of the month.